Degree vs. Major — What's the Difference?
By Fiza Rafique & Urooj Arif — Updated on May 16, 2024
A degree is a credential awarded by educational institutions upon completion of a course of study, whereas a major is a specific field of study chosen by a student within a degree program.
Difference Between Degree and Major
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A degree is a formal qualification awarded by colleges or universities after completing a prescribed set of courses over a certain period of time. Whereas, a major is the concentrated area of study a student focuses on within their degree program.
Degrees are categorized by levels such as associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate, each with distinct requirements and durations. On the other hand, a major is typically pursued during undergraduate studies, defining the core curriculum that a student must complete.
Earning a degree involves completing general education requirements and electives, in addition to major-specific courses. Whereas choosing a major allows students to specialize in a subject area that interests them, such as psychology, engineering, or literature.
The degree a student earns can affect their career trajectory and earning potential. Whereas the major they choose can provide specialized knowledge and skills pertinent to a specific career field.
Students often select their major based on personal interest and career goals, while the type of degree they pursue might be influenced by broader educational or professional objectives.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Credential awarded upon completing a course of study.
Specific field of study within a degree program.
Purpose
To certify educational attainment and qualify for jobs.
To provide depth of knowledge in a specific area.
Levels
Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctorate.
N/A, applicable within undergraduate and sometimes graduate levels.
Duration
Varies by level (e.g., 2 years for associate, 4 for bachelor’s).
Duration ties with degree completion.
Role in Education
Fundamental for academic and professional qualification.
Crucial for specialization and focus in studies.
Compare with Definitions
Degree
A qualification awarded by an educational institution.
She received her Bachelor's degree in Biology last year.
Major
Determines focus of undergraduate education.
She chose her major based on her career interests in healthcare.
Degree
A measure of academic achievement.
He is pursuing a degree in law at the university.
Major
Major is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world.
Degree
A level of education completed.
Her master's degree focused on environmental sciences.
Major
Important, serious, or significant
The use of drugs is a major problem
Degree
A rank given to graduates.
They conferred degrees on over two hundred students.
Major
(of a scale) having intervals of a semitone between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees.
Degree
The amount, level, or extent to which something happens or is present
A question of degree
A degree of caution is probably wise
Major
(appended to a surname in public schools) indicating the elder of two brothers.
Degree
A unit of measurement of angles, one ninetieth of a right angle or the angle subtended by one three-hundred-and-sixtieth of the circumference of a circle
Set at an angle of 45 degrees
Major
(of a term) occurring as the predicate in the conclusion of a categorical syllogism.
Degree
A unit in any of various scales of temperature, intensity, or hardness
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius
Major
A rank of officer in the army and the US air force, above captain and below lieutenant colonel.
Degree
An academic rank conferred by a college or university after examination or after completion of a course, or conferred as an honour on a distinguished person
A degree in zoology
Major
A major key, interval, or scale.
Degree
Social or official rank
Persons of unequal degree
Major
A major organization or competition
The majors have swept up the smaller independent companies in licensing deals
It's not unreasonable to believe someone can win all four majors
The oil majors had a profit bonanza
Degree
One of a series of steps in a process, course, or progression; a stage
Proceeded to the next degree of difficulty.
Major
A student's principal subject or course
Many students would ignore courses outside their major
Degree
A step in a direct hereditary line of descent or ascent
First cousins are two degrees from their common ancestor.
Major
A major term or premise.
Degree
Relative social or official rank, dignity, or position.
Major
Short for major suit
South was anxious to mention his four-card major and bid one spade
Degree
Relative intensity or amount, as of a quality or attribute
A high degree of accuracy.
Major
A goal.
Degree
The extent or measure of a state of being, an action, or a relation
Modernized their facilities to a large degree.
Major
Specialize in (a particular subject) at college or university
I was trying to decide if I should major in drama or English
Degree
A unit division of a temperature scale.
Major
Greater than others in importance or rank
A major artist.
Degree
(Mathematics) A planar unit of angular measure equal in magnitude to 1/360 of a complete revolution.
Major
Great in scope or effect
A major improvement.
Degree
A unit of latitude or longitude, equal to 1/360 of a great circle.
Major
Great in number, size, or extent
The major portion of the population.
Degree
The greatest sum of the exponents of the variables in a term of a polynomial or polynomial equation.
Major
Requiring great attention or concern; very serious
A major illness.
Degree
The exponent of the derivative of highest order in a differential equation in standard form.
Major
(Law) Legally recognized as having reached the age of adulthood.
Degree
An academic title given by a college or university to a student who has completed a course of study
Received the Bachelor of Arts degree at commencement.
Major
Of or relating to the field of academic study in which a student specializes.
Degree
A similar title conferred as an honorary distinction.
Major
Designating a scale or mode having half steps between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth degrees.
Degree
(Law) A division or classification of a specific crime according to its seriousness
Murder in the second degree.
Major
Equivalent to the distance between the tonic note and the second or third or sixth or seventh degrees of a major scale or mode
A major interval.
Degree
A classification of the severity of an injury, especially a burn
A third-degree burn.
Major
Based on a major scale
A major key.
Degree
(Grammar) One of the forms used in the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. For example, tall is the positive degree, taller the comparative degree, and tallest the superlative degree of the adjective tall.
Major
A commissioned rank in the US Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above captain and below lieutenant colonel.
Degree
One of the seven notes of a diatonic scale.
Major
One who holds this rank or a similar rank in another military organization.
Degree
A space or line of the staff.
Major
One that is superior in rank, importance, or ability
An oil-producing country considered as one of the majors.
Degree
A stage of proficiency or qualification in a course of study, now especially an award bestowed by a university or, in some countries, a college, as a certification of academic achievement. (In the United States, can include secondary schools.)
She has two bachelor's degrees and is studying towards a master's degree.
Major
(Law) One recognized by the law as having reached the age of adulthood.
Degree
(geometry) A unit of measurement of angle equal to 360 of a circle's circumference.
A right angle is a ninety-degree angle.
Most humans have a field of vision of almost 180 degrees.
Major
A field of study chosen as an academic specialty.
Degree
(physics) A unit of measurement of temperature on any of several scales, such as Celsius or Fahrenheit.
180 degrees Fahrenheit is equivalent to 100 degrees Celsius.
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
Major
A student specializing in such studies
A linguistics major.
Degree
(algebra) The sum of the exponents of a term; the order of a polynomial.
A quadratic polynomial is a polynomial of degree 2.
Major
A major premise.
Degree
The dimensionality of a field extension.
The set of complex numbers constitutes a field extension of degree 2 over the real numbers.
The Galois field has degree 3 over its subfield
Major
A major term.
Degree
(graph theory) The number of edges that a vertex takes part in; a valency.
Major
A major scale, key, interval, or mode.
Degree
(logic) The number of logical connectives in a formula.
Major
A chord containing a major third between the first and second notes and a minor third between the second and third notes.
Degree
(surveying) The curvature of a circular arc, expressed as the angle subtended by a fixed length of arc or chord.
Major
Majors Sports The major leagues.
Degree
(geography) A unit of measurement of latitude and longitude which together identify a location on the Earth's surface.
Major
To pursue academic studies in a major
Majoring in mathematics.
Degree
(grammar) Any of the three stages (positive, comparative, superlative) in the comparison of an adjective or an adverb.
Major
(attributive):
Degree
A step on a set of stairs; the rung of a ladder.
Major
Greater in dignity, rank, importance, significance, or interest.
Degree
An individual step, or stage, in any process or scale of values.
Major
Greater in number, quantity, or extent.
The major part of the assembly
Degree
A stage of rank or privilege; social standing.
Major
Notable or conspicuous in effect or scope.
Degree
(genealogy) A ‘step’ in genealogical descent.
Major
Prominent or significant in size, amount, or degree.
To earn some major cash
Degree
One's relative state or experience; way, manner.
Major
(medicine) Involving great risk, serious, life-threatening.
To suffer from a major illness
Degree
The amount that an entity possesses a certain property; relative intensity, extent.
To what degree do the two accounts of the accident concur?
Major
Of full legal age, having attained majority.
Major children
Degree
A step, stair, or staircase.
By ladders, or else by degree.
Major
(education) Of or relating to a subject of academic study chosen as a field of specialization.
Degree
One of a series of progressive steps upward or downward, in quality, rank, acquirement, and the like; a stage in progression; grade; gradation; as, degrees of vice and virtue; to advance by slow degrees; degree of comparison.
Major
(music):
Degree
The point or step of progression to which a person has arrived; rank or station in life; position.
Major
Having intervals of a semitone between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees.
Major scale
Degree
Measure of advancement; quality; extent; as, tastes differ in kind as well as in degree.
The degree of excellence which proclaims genius, is different in different times and different places.
Major
Equivalent to that between the tonic and another note of a major scale, and greater by a semitone than the corresponding minor interval.
Major third
Degree
Grade or rank to which scholars are admitted by a college or university, in recognition of their attainments; also, (informal) the diploma provided by an educational institution attesting to the achievement of that rank; as, the degree of bachelor of arts, master, doctor, etc.; to hang one's degrees on the office wall.
The youth attained his bachelor's degree, and left the university.
Major
(postpositive) of a key Based on a major scale, tending to produce a bright or joyful effect.
Degree
A certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; one remove in the chain of relationship; as, a relation in the third or fourth degree.
In the 11th century an opinion began to gain ground in Italy, that third cousins might marry, being in the seventh degree according to the civil law.
Major
(campanology) Bell changes rung on eight bells.
Degree
Three figures taken together in numeration; thus, 140 is one degree, 222,140 two degrees.
Major
Indicating the elder of two brothers, appended to a surname in public schools.
Degree
State as indicated by sum of exponents; more particularly, the degree of a term is indicated by the sum of the exponents of its literal factors; thus, a2b3c is a term of the sixth degree. The degree of a power, or radical, is denoted by its index, that of an equation by the greatest sum of the exponents of the unknown quantities in any term; thus, ax4 + bx2 = c, and mx2y2 + nyx = p, are both equations of the fourth degree.
Major
(logic)
Degree
A 360th part of the circumference of a circle, which part is taken as the principal unit of measure for arcs and angles. The degree is divided into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.
Major
Occurring as the predicate in the conclusion of a categorical syllogism.
Degree
A division, space, or interval, marked on a mathematical or other instrument, as on a thermometer.
It has been said that Scotsmen . . . are . . . grave to a degree on occasions when races more favored by nature are gladsome to excess.
Major
Containing the major term in a categorical syllogism.
Degree
A position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality;
A moderate degree of intelligence
A high level of care is required
It is all a matter of degree
Major
(military ranks) A rank of officer in the army and the US air force, between captain and lieutenant colonel.
He used to be a major in the army.
Degree
A specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process;
A remarkable degree of frankness
At what stage are the social sciences?
Major
An officer in charge of a section of band instruments, used with a modifier.
Degree
An award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study;
He earned his degree at Princeton summa cum laude
Major
A person of legal age.
Degree
A unit of temperature on a specified scale;
The game was played in spite of the 40-degree temperature
Major
(music):
Degree
A measure for arcs and angles;
There are 360 degrees in a circle
Major
Ellipsis of major key.
Degree
The highest power of a term or variable
Major
Ellipsis of major interval.
Degree
The seriousness of something (e.g., a burn or crime);
Murder in the second degree
A second degree burn
Major
Ellipsis of major scale.
Degree
A standard of proficiency.
He achieved his degree with high honors.
Major
(campanology) A system of change-ringing using eight bells.
Major
A large, commercially successful company, especially a record label that is bigger than an indie.
Major
The principal subject or course of a student working toward a degree at a college or university.
Midway through his second year of college, he still hadn't chosen a major.
Major
A student at a college or university specializing on a given area of study.
She is a math major.
Major
(logic):
Major
Ellipsis of major term.
Major
Ellipsis of major premise.
Major
(bridge) major suit.
Major
(Canadian football) A touchdown, or major score.
Major
(Australian rules football) A goal.
Major
An elder brother (especially at a public school).
Major
(entomology) A large leaf-cutter ant that acts as a soldier, defending the nest.
Major
(obsolete) mayor and {{en}}.
Major
(intransitive) major in
Major
Greater in number, quantity, or extent; as, the major part of the assembly; the major part of the revenue; the major part of the territory.
Major
Of greater dignity; more important.
Major
Of full legal age; adult.
Major
Greater by a semitone, either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone.
Major
An officer next in rank above a captain and next below a lieutenant colonel; the lowest field officer.
Major
A person of full age.
Major
That premise which contains the major term. It its the first proposition of a regular syllogism; as: No unholy person is qualified for happiness in heaven [the major]. Every man in his natural state is unholy [minor]. Therefore, no man in his natural state is qualified for happiness in heaven [conclusion or inference].
Major
A mayor.
Major
A commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines; below lieutenant colonel and above captain
Major
British statesman who was prime minister from 1990 until 1997 (born in 1943)
Major
A university student who is studying a particular field as the principal subject;
She is a linguistics major
Major
The principal field of study of a student at a university;
Her major is linguistics
Major
Have as one's principal field of study;
She is majoring in linguistics
Major
Of greater importance or stature or rank;
A major artist
A major role
Major highways
Major
Greater in scope or effect;
A major contribution
A major improvement
A major break with tradition
A major misunderstanding
Major
Greater in number or size or amount;
A major portion (a majority) of the population
Ursa Major
A major portion of the winnings
Major
Of the field of academic study in which one concentrates or specializes;
His major field was mathematics
Major
Of a scale or mode;
Major scales
The key of D major
Major
Of greater seriousness or danger;
A major earthquake
A major hurricane
A major illness
Major
Of full legal age;
Major children
Major
Of the elder of two boys with the same family name;
Jones major
Major
Primary field of study in a college or university.
Her major in graphic design is very demanding.
Major
A student’s chosen area of concentration.
He declared his major in economics in his sophomore year.
Major
A significant part of a student’s coursework.
Her major requires 40 credits of specialized classes.
Major
Area of specialization within an academic degree.
He completed his major with a thesis on behavioral finance.
Common Curiosities
What is a degree?
A degree is a qualification awarded after completing a specific level of education at an institution.
How do I choose a major?
Students often choose majors based on interests, career goals, and the advice of academic counselors.
Can I have multiple majors?
Yes, some students choose to double major, fulfilling the requirements for two majors simultaneously.
Can a major determine my career?
Yes, a major can influence career options by providing specialized knowledge in a particular field.
Is a major different from a minor?
Yes, a major is the primary focus of study, while a minor is a secondary concentration.
What happens if I don't declare a major?
At most universities, you need to declare a major to graduate, though you typically have until your junior year to decide.
What is a major?
A major is a student's chosen area of specialization within their degree program.
Do all degrees require choosing a major?
Most bachelor’s degrees require a major, but some associate degrees and professional degrees do not.
Can I change my major?
Yes, many students change their majors, although it might extend the time required to complete the degree.
Are there degrees without majors?
Some degrees, like certain associate's degrees or professional certifications, do not require majors.
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Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
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Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
