Graduate Degree
A graduate degree program is taken up by many professionals because of several reasons: first, they want to increase their marketability; second, their current jobs require them to; and third, they want to head to a new career path. But whatever reasons these professionals have, graduate degree programs will sure rocket them up to "ace employee" status.
Graduate degrees are advanced academic levels, which are very much distinct from bachelor's degrees entirely because graduate programs typically involve intense analysis, thorough researches, and extensive study of in-depth disciplines. Graduate degree programs also devote much of the time to doing researches, writing, and examinations. Because graduate students are all degree holders and some of them may even have long years of working experience, they are expected to be adept in their respective fields. (1) Therefore, not like undergraduate students, graduate degree students relatively have a more mature perspective on the subjects and are more aggressive during class discussions and presentations.
Types of Graduate Programs
There are two types of graduate degrees: masters and doctoral. Commonly accomplished within one to two years, a graduate masters degree is systematically designed for the people who want to achieve profound and advanced knowledge about their chosen fields. Most of the classes in master's degree programs are held as seminars, which may provide extensive discussions. (2) Moreover, master's degree have thesis and non-thesis programs. Thesis programs require the students to take a comprehensive oral exam that will cover his coursework and, of course, write a thesis, while the non-thesis programs include comprehensive written exams and additional coursework. Master's degree programs are further subdivided into professional and academic. Professional masters program doesn't lead to doctoral level but to a particular profession. Academic masters, on the other hand, is a prerequisite for doctoral programs.
Doctoral degree, the highest form of academic level, is designed to produce future academic scholars, researchers, and university instructors. (3) As in the case of master's degree, comprehensive exams are also given to doctoral degree students to test their knowledge that are accumulated in the duration of the program and coursework. After which, the student will proceed to writing a dissertation and he will have to defend it to a panel of faculty members.
Literary Citations & Article References:
1) http://educationusa.state.gov/graduate/about/degrees.htm
2) http://gradschool.about.com/od/choosingaprogram/a/masters.htm