Thanks to all of your for responding, it really helps digging and finding the way through this jungle of meanings, traditions and idiosyncrasies. I posted this question in another forum, the inhabitants of this community came up with the following �------- original quotation �--- Thomas Burg: �--------------- � To sum up the discussion for me briefly. The distinction of MA vs. MSc is based on several aspects. - If the program has a research focus than it's likely to be a MSc if it's not in the classical Arts fields like Language, Art and other Humanities - If the program is located at a Professional School such as Law, Medicine, Nursing ... than it contrasts to Liberal Arts Colleges and Sciences. - The amount of courses that account for either Arts or hard sciences (Maths, Physics, Chemistry ...) determine if the whole program is either or. - If you can't make it to a PhD you better apply for an MSc - The tradition/culture and whatever of an institution determine about the naming - There is no precise algorithm that is able to decide on the issue. I tried to get the 2 Computer Science Bachelors from Rutger (referring to a specific post) in one picture (see atachment) to see the differnces - there are some but few. Thomas N. Burg, ______________________________________ Center for New Media http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/newmedia Donau Universitaet Krems Dr. Karl Dorrek Strasse 30 A-3500 Krems, Austria Fon +43-2732-893-2520, Fax -4500 Mobil: +43-699-11656971
