{"id":102,"date":"2019-06-04T14:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T18:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2025-02-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T14:00:00","slug":"academic-degrees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/guidelines\/editorial-style\/academic-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Capitalize an academic degree when it is given in full:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>Bachelor of Arts<\/li>\n<li>Bachelor of Science<\/li>\n<li>Master of Social Work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Capitalize the major field within a school only if it is a word ordinarily capitalized:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>Bachelor of Arts in history<\/li>\n<li>Master of Arts in English<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Omit periods in abbreviations of degrees:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>BA<\/li>\n<li>MS<\/li>\n<li>PhD<\/li>\n<li>MBA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Lowercase informal references to degrees:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>associate\u2019s degree<\/li>\n<li>bachelor\u2019s degree<\/li>\n<li>master\u2019s degree<\/li>\n<li>doctoral degree<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Note: The following are examples of common mistakes and are <em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">incorrect<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>Bachelor\u2019s of Science\u2014It should not be possessive.<\/li>\n<li>Bachelor of Arts degree\u2014The BA is a degree, so it is redundant to include the word \u201cdegree.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Properly speaking, degrees are granted by the trustees or by the University, not by the schools or departments. If you want to use the school or department name in your sentence, it is <em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">correct<\/em> to write:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>Chris Brown earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism at the College of Communication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>\u201cDual degrees\u201d and \u201cdouble degrees\u201d (these are not to be used interchangeably. Please refer to the academic Bulletin for more specific information about each) means two undergraduate degrees earned simultaneously from two <em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">different<\/em> schools or colleges: Finance (Questrom)\/Economics (CAS).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In academic credentials, do not italicize common phrases such as \u201cmagna cum laude\u201d or \u201cwith distinction.\u201d Also, modified titles such as \u201cad interim\u201d and \u201cemeritus\u201d are not italicized.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>\u201cDouble major\u201d means one degree in two subject areas within the same school or college: BA in English and biology (CAS)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Honorary degrees are abbreviated in roman, not caps (Hon.\u2019XX):<\/p>\n<ul class=\"editorial-sample\">\n<li>Edward M. Kennedy (Hon.\u201970)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Capitalize an academic degree when it is given in full: Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Science Master of Social Work Capitalize the major field within a school only if it is a word ordinarily capitalized: Bachelor of Arts in history Master of Arts in English Omit periods in abbreviations of degrees: BA MS PhD MBA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14430,"featured_media":0,"parent":97,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions\/2876"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/brand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}