Talk:Undergraduate degree

Do we need this article as well as academic degree? Loganberry (Talk) 09:51, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Possibly, possibly not. Academic degree is about degrees in general, whereas this is just about undergraduate. The term is certainly common enough (even if all undergraduate degrees are often mistakingly referred to as bachelor's degrees). There seems to be an article for every other type of degree, so why not? - Green Tentacle 10:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Undergraduate degree is a contradiction

Where and when did this splendidly idiotic phrase originate?

Until you graduate you do not have a degree, once you have one you are no longer an undergraduate.

First degree makes much more sense although bachelor's degree is less likely to be misinterpreted. --Kjwhitefoot 12:26, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Amen! 207.238.52.162 (talk) 15:10, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I always understood "undergraduate degree" to be a mis-nomer: students in a bachelors degree program are undergraduates until they graduate, at which point they are no longer undergraduates; they're now graduates, with a bachelors degree.

I know "undergraduate degree" is used frequently, presumably in contrast to "graduate degree" (which, in turn, should really be "post-graduate degree). Frequent usage aside, both both seem to be vague, especially compared to "bachelors degree" and "masters" or "doctorate" degree. (Of course, it does make sense to talk about "undergraduate students" and "graduate students.")

Could we re-write this article to explain that "undergraduate degree" is a misnomer?

Alternatively, what is the basis for the argument that "undergraduate degrees are often mistakingly referred to as bachelor's degrees"? Could it be that I have it backwards?

Thanks...

David Moloney 14:26, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Kjwhitefoot and David Moloney are right. Korky Day (talk) 21:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not really that confusing; clearly it means "degree that undegraduate is aiming to graduate with". It's something of an etymological fallacy to pedantically insist that it's an oxymoron in the face of common usage... --86.135.176.173 (talk) 21:27, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The use is new, illogical, and not yet commonly accepted. Academics, in particular, are embarrassed by it. Are you telling them that they have no right to complain as long as people want to use such tortured language? That's not how language evolves. It evolves in a process which includes protests against irrationality. Sometimes logic wins. Anyway, we encyclopedia editors are merely documenting what's true and what's happening, not taking sides. Similarly, if the phrase "pre-marital conjugal sex" comes into use by illiterates, I'm going to describe its meaning honestly. Korky Day (talk) 19:39, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Linguistically, it makes perfect sense. 'Undergraduate degree' = 'a degree taken by an undergraduate'. Yes, this is different to a 'bachelor's degree' and 'master's degree', which describe the award gained at the end (so could be consider illogical by those standards), but it is linguistically correct.

Whether it is a new phrase or 'an embarrassment', I don't know. Personally, I've heard it used more than 'first degree' (which I've only ever heard used in American contexts). The most common phrase used in my experience is, in fact, just 'degree', which, of course, really refers to all sorts of different academic degrees. The next most common phrase is 'bachelor's degree'; however, not all undergraduate/first degrees are bachelor's degrees (as explained in the article).

I created this page way back in 2005 because there was no page to cover all degrees taken by undergraduates and 'undergraduate degree' was the title I chose. I have no objection to the page being at first degree just so long as 'undergraduate degree' and 'degree' are mentioned as alternatives, along with the fact that bachelor's degrees are the most common kinds. - Green Tentacle (talk) 22:47, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Spelling

I fixed the spelling of a few words in the United Kingdom section, although I am not 100% sure that they aren't just the British dialect of English way to spell them. I changed "programme", "programmes" and "enrol", to "program", "programs", and "enroll", respectively. Fireheat624 (talk) 23:49, 5 May 2010 (UTC)