What’s the Difference Between Bachelor of Arts Vs Bachelor of Science (BA and BS Degree)

What is the difference between Bachelor of Arts vs Bachelor of Science? Are you stuck on deciding which degree is best for you? You know the subject you want to study, but don’t know which degree will fit your career goals? If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place.

To make it easier to comprehend, a bachelor of arts on psychology is much different than a bachelor of science on psychology. What’s the difference? I’ll explain it to you.

Bachelor Of Arts (BA)

Bachelor of arts entails a larger range of subjects to enrich the students’ knowledge. If you opt for this degree, you’ll be studying subjects like social sciences, literature, communications, history, and at least one foreign language.

You’d be given the options to choose from a wide variety of courses, for example economics, political science, literature, anthropology and even music. But these are just a few as there are way more subjects, which give you the flexibility to pursue your dream topic. You can pave your own path of education.

A BA degree will provide learners with a broader range of knowledge, therefore it requires less credits compared to BS. To further explain, the University of Washington will be able to offer you both a BA and BS in psychology, but you won’t need to take as many courses or credit hours if you choose to do BA.

Typically, you’ll need four years to attain your BA, but it can differ based on open and closed credits. In case you’re not aware, some universities don’t have a limit on courses or credit hours, so if you intend to graduate sooner, you are free to take on more credit hours; this is open credits. However, for some universities, there’s a limit to the credit hours and you can’t exceed them.

Another thing to remember is that you can actually choose to do double major as well, or do one major and one minor. The choice is yours!

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Bachelor Of Science (BS)

Contrary to a BA, BS is more specialized in a chosen major; and it requires more credits generally as I said before. It mostly focuses on a single specific major, instead of covering too many fields.

But the good thing about this is that, you’d be studying your chosen major with a more in depth understanding; you won’t be taking too many other classes outside of your major. This is best for people looking to study only one thing properly.

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BS is usually taken by technical students and science students for topics like engineering, mathematics, technology, nursing, computer science, and biochemistry, to name the fields of careers.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s only limited to the aforementioned options; some universities actually have BS for music and other subjects as well.

This also takes around 4 years to complete, during those 4 years, you’ll be studying the core subjects, along with an optional minor. Some of the BS majors are: Business, health professions, engineering, psychology, biological and biomedical sciences, history and social sciences.

BA vs BS

If you’ve read thus far, you already know the differences but I’ll still list the comparison. Although this is not always the case, BA is generally more based on humanities subjects while BS is more focused on sciences.

However, the key difference is that BA tends to be more diverse as it includes a good amount of courses, and BS is way more specialized on a specific major.

Also, bear in mind that you’ll need more credits to complete BS than BA.

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Best US Universities For International Students (Bachelor’s)

You may feel lost when searching for a University that best fits your needs, so I’ve listed a few:

• Caltech: This an ideal option for students seeking a BS degree; they offer double majors and minors too. With its wide library of subjects to choose from, you’ll have options like aerospace, applied physics, biology, chemistry, astrophysics and more! Their tuition fee is around $60, 816 for international students.
• Princeton University: One of the best choices for a BA degree. They carry both humanities and sciences; the subjects include American studies, comparative literature, creative writing, dance, classics, electrical and evolutionary engineering, English, Finance and the list goes on. The tuition fees are about $57, 500 per year.
• University Of Chicago: They provide both majors and minors in subjects like architectural studies, astrophysics, language and literature, business economics, entrepreneurship, etc. The tuition fee that you’ll have to pay ranges from around $64000.
• University Of Pennsylvania: A good pick for BA and BS; subjects include ancient history, cinema studies, cognitive science, criminology, earth science, engineering major, south Asia studies, music, bioengineering, digital media science, as well as many more. Expect a tuition fee of about $61,710.

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FAQs BA and a BS Degree?

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Conclusion

When it comes to picking whether you want to pursue a BA or a BS, one isn’t better than the other. It completely depends on your profession, preference and job prospects.

Take some time to do extensive research on which one you should be going after, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy both. And I hope this article gave you some insights on the differences as we may often get confused. That being said, best of luck with your studies!

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