[Air-l] something totally different
jeremy hunsinger
jhuns at vt.edu
Tue Mar 5 06:12:31 PST 2002
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
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