it seems somewhat arbitrary here at vt where we have certain social science/hum programs that have msc. unrelated to language requirement. I think the difference should be based on the discipline or interdiscipline as it may be. a master of arts is from the liberal arts background, a master of science is from a scientific and applied science/engineering background. one can have a master of arts and a master of science in the same discipline, i frequently find this in economics, math, statistics, but occasionally also in sociology and psychology. the difference seems to focus on the difference between those who are researching in a scientized, experimentalist, modeling,... context and those who are perhaps doing a more scholarly liberal arts enquiry. The methods one learns and uses in each type of degree may differ also, one might learn advanced historical/comparative/analytic/etc. methods in a sociology m.a. versus advanced statistical methods and modelling in a sociology m.s. of course none of this really holds much at all across programs and systems, but it seems to hold alright in generality. Sally J. McMillan wrote:
As I understand it, the tradition in the US is that it's a master of arts if it requires a foreign language competence, otherwise it's a master of science. That seems somewhat arbitrary, and I may be wrong. But that's the way the distinction has been described to me.
-- jeremy hunsinger http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy cddc/political science http://www.cddc.vt.edu 526 major williams hall 0130 http://www.dromocracy.com virginia tech -under construction blacksburg, va 24061 540-231-7614 this email was sent from my office