Why would someone have several bachelor's degrees?

November 9, 2014 6:43 PM

A certain (older) contact of mine on a certain business networking website is listed as having three bachelor's degrees. Out of curiosity, what possibly led them down this path rather than getting master's degrees in those subjects? (I hope I don't sound creepy, but said colleague rarely discusses their education in depth.)
posted by Seeking Direction to Education (39 answers total)

Depending on their age, combo double degrees started getting popular in the nineties, one career change could well make up the third bachelor. Conversely if they are older, that's not a lot of education over decades of working, or if they work in higher education and have access to cheaper education for example.
posted by smoke at 6:48 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I got two degrees at the same time.
They were close in subjects and lots of overlap. (Psychology and Sociology) If I wanted a third in a closely related field like Anthopolgy with all my electives already done it would have been just 30 credit hours. As I took 21 credits at a time and summer courses I could have finished 6 months after my other two degrees that I finished in 3.5 years anyway. Provided I took the time to plan for consecutive courses and had that intent from the get go. It is possible without too much extra effort.
Changing disciplines completely would take more effort and time.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:50 PM on November 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't think it's all that unusual. Over time he probably wanted to prepare for several different careers, or gain different credentials. Another bachelor's degree is 8 relatively easy classes. A masters is 12 relatively hard ones. Maybe he thought grad school wasn't for him, or wasn't necessary. So he collected several bachelor's degrees.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:50 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I triple-majored as an undergrad (I was double-majoring with a minor, and my minor became a major my senior year and I had enough credits to qualify). I got three diplomas and everything!
posted by leesh at 6:53 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

you might not be able to get into a master's program if your bachelor's was in something very different and you don't have the preparation you would need. it's also just more competitive in general to get into a master's program.
posted by katieanne at 7:00 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I also double majored, in two rather unrelated fields (bio and art). It only took five years because I studied abroad. I haven't considered a master's in art because I pretty much know I don't want a career in art nor do I think it necessary, but the undergrad major allowed me to indulge my interest. My sister went back and got a second bachelor's because she switched career tracks and her English degree didn't give her the background in sciences she needed.
posted by florencetnoa at 7:01 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Unless he lists different institutions or graduation years, I would expect that this just means a triple major, not three separate matriculations and graduations. For example, I double-majored in biochemistry and computer science, but my biochemistry program requires me to complete a chemistry degree first, so I can claim degrees in chemistry (B.A.), biological chemistry (B.S.), and computer science (B.S.).

If he does list different institutions and graduation years, I would be surprised. Many undergraduate programs do not accept students who have previously completed a bachelor's degree elsewhere, and I too would be curious why he chose to go through general education requirements three times instead of a post-baccalaureate program, a transitional master's program, or just a bunch of night classes.
posted by d. z. wang at 7:02 PM on November 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

mr. wintersweet also triple-majored and got 3 bachelor's degrees in 5 years.

If it's three separate programs? Well, who knows.
posted by wintersweet at 7:15 PM on November 9, 2014

Did he ever work for a university? Sometimes universities offer class credit for free or cheap, and he may have just done it for fun (and maybe profit, in the sense of a new job.)

Also...if you never drop below full time student status, in some cases you never have to start paying back your student loans. (Most schools have stopped accepting students taking 2nd bachelor's for this reason, though.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:16 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've known people who worked for universities and ended up with several undergrad degrees just from taking advantage of the free tuition benefit for all the years they worked there.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:26 PM on November 9, 2014

Yeah, there's a big difference between a double (or triple) major and multiple degrees. I have one BA, but a double majors. I'd never present this as two BAs.
posted by bluedaisy at 7:33 PM on November 9, 2014 [8 favorites]

I want to know everything. I have a Bachelor in Multimedia Studies, a grad cert in Research Studies (focusing on Education) and I'm undertaking a Cert in Project Management. I'm considering a qualification in proofreading next. Also a training qualification so I can teach people about everything. Maybe an MPhil in Educational Studies focusing on Teacher Professional Identity with a narrative research focus on self-portrait doodles.

Sure, I like going in-depth on some topics, and I'm glad I get to work in research, and sometimes get to design it (big project on Food Literacy at the moment) but I get bored (oh look! shiny lizadhd) once I 'master' something, and I like to play around with concepts outside of my field(s). Then, I mix them up.

An academic friend (PhD & lead researcher across two nations) of mine once said that when you have a hammer (any particular theory or model), everything looks like a nail, which was his way of telling me that I couldn't apply my theoretical models to his research, but it might have been a little miffedness when I suggested he change one of his frameworks around, when I know nothing about his field (farmer behaviour management). On the other hand, he did say he thought I was smarter than him, so maybe he should have listened to my critique of his model. Where was I? I like to have lots of different shaped theoretical hammers. They take up less space than my book collection.

[I'm avoiding data entry on a project that requires data for a meeting with the minister (not me, god no!) on 26 November. Oh crap, that's right, I came in here to find a "make it do what I'm supposed to" post.]
posted by b33j at 7:35 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

College had an 'all you can eat' type of plan; I overenrolled in 20+ hours a semester for five semesters; called a BS / double major ( areas of study one and two ) at one school, did 15 hours of additional in one area in another school for second BS in third area of study.
Wasn't really planned; but more of a matter of 'gee, I'm going to have a two or three free hours before next class I have to take; so gee... may as well take another class in ____'; and after a few semesters I was less than 10 hours from a major in several different subjects.
posted by buzzman at 8:07 PM on November 9, 2014

I have a double major because I had very divergent interests and, frankly, stayed too long in college. A lot of people I know got double degrees in mathematics and computer science because there was so much overlap.

Personally I got one degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology and another one in History. So almost no overlap. However, due to the number of classes I ended up taking I could have taken another year and gotten something like four degrees.

I wasn't doing it to impress anyone, it just ended up that way due to my not quite being able to make up my mind and being unfocused.
posted by bswinburn at 8:25 PM on November 9, 2014

Where I was an undergrad, certain double majors (most commonly engineering plus not engineering) resulted in being awarded two separate degrees because the majors resided in different colleges of the university--you had to meet both sets of breath requirements and so on, but you were allowed to count one class for both sets of requirements.

My dad actually has two distinct undergraduate degrees, but since one was in the UK a few decades back, it's an MA. (Likewise my mom has an MA but no BA.)

Anyway, those are two scenarios where you can end up with two degrees. If you colleague's first degree wasn't in the US (or whatever country you're in) and their profession requires some kind of license, doing another undergrad degree may have been the expedient option and some administrative quirk with a double major or whatever gets you to three.
posted by hoyland at 8:38 PM on November 9, 2014

I have heard of many people getting a single BA with multiple majors, but not getting multiple BAs through double/tripe majoring. I am genuinely curious!

I'd ask them. "Hey Joe/Jean! I noticed you had multiple Bachelors degrees. I'd love to hear more about it."
posted by troytroy at 8:50 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

If I had stayed an extra semester at school, one more class in Math and one in CS would have gotten me those two degrees as well as my engineering degree. It crossed my mind to finish that out, but I had a good job offer and well, choices.

Anyway, this is because so many classes are cross listed between those majors it is possible, with some planning, to fulfill the undergraduate requirements for several majors simultaneously.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:53 PM on November 9, 2014

Double majors aren't hard to do (and depending on what the majors are, may involved a lot the same classes).

I also have known people who've gone back to school for another B.A. to pursue a different field. Since that doesn't require the usual general education credits, it's not that hard to do part-time. B.A. programs are often easier to get into (and much less time-consuming) than a master's program. I can understand why someone would decide to do that instead.
posted by darksong at 8:55 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Double major in Econ and History. Two degrees. I didn't really put much thought into it. Had enough credits in both. In fact, in my fourth year, I got a call from a secretary in the Econ department asking if I was taking a degree. She explained I had enough credits. I asked if it cost extra. She laughed and said it was already paid for if I paid my tuition. I said, yes. Natch. Took the standard 4 years and an estimated 1500 beers.
posted by 724A at 8:57 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have two bachelor's from different institutions because I studied biology then decided a career working in a lab wasn't for me, so I went to nursing school. I have seriously considered getting a third bachelor's degree in statistics to support my current career but I think I could actually get a master's more easily and I'm not sure I really need the credential since I know I don't want a second PhD.
posted by gingerest at 9:03 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Some older USian men who were young adults during the Vietnam war earned superfluous degrees to prolong the time they were listed as a full-time student and thus exempt from the draft. If this person's gender and age fits, that's another explanation.
posted by horizons at 9:47 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm related to a person who got 4 degrees including one masters in 4 years from a really excellent university. It flummoxed the departments he was in (math, comp sci, physics) to the point where after he graduated they changed the rules so it wouldn't happen again, but he definitely qualified and has all that knowledge. He just took a crazy course load and many of his classes overlapped. He didn't intentionally game the system until his senior year when he realized he was one class off from a BA in math.
posted by Mizu at 10:54 PM on November 9, 2014

I earned two bachelor degrees at the same time -- one in the humanities and one in technology. I did it because I'm passionate about both fields. A master's degree would have taken more time, and only allowed me to deeply study one of the subjects I was interested in.
posted by neushoorn at 12:39 AM on November 10, 2014

I don't know about three, but my friend got two bachelor's degrees because he changed his mind about what field he wanted to go into, and he wanted to go into a field that definitely required the sort of training he'd get in college. So he just got a second bachelor's degree after he finished his first one.

I never asked him, but I'm also pretty sure he couldn't get a master's in his second degree because he wouldn't have had the course pre-requistes to qualify, I am sure. His first degree was one of those broad ones lots of people take for vague reasons and go into an array of career paths. His second one was sciencey and mathy and very narrow and he was basically trained for exactly the sort of job he ended up getting.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:37 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I had a boss in this position. He said the first degree (statistics) was a mistake in that it was the wrong kind of statistics, but rather than stop he finished it and then did another one in a different kind of statistics. The third one? "I suppose I was sort of on a roll by then."
posted by Segundus at 5:01 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yeah, there's a big difference between a double (or triple) major and multiple degrees.

Sometimes there isn’t. At my undergrad institution, the difference between a double major and a dual degree was a credit hour threshold. As I had two majors sharing nothing but the core/general education requirements, I earned a BS and a BA concurrently simply by double-majoring. One school-wide commencement, two departmental graduation ceremonies, two pieces of paper.
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:36 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

I hankered for some humanities exposure after I studied engineering and stepped away from my career, early on, to get a philosophy degree. But this kind of thing is rare. I might not have gone down this path had (1) I not found a place where I could do the second degree in only two academic years and (2) the cost of tuition as a UK home student was laughably small in the late 90s - something like £400 per annum if I recall correctly. UK tuition fees are now considerably more expensive.
posted by Dan Brilliant at 6:30 AM on November 10, 2014

What everyone else said about multiple bachelor's degrees going on at one time--hell, I've done it myself. Do you know this guy's years of graduation? Are they all the same for the bachelor's degrees? And yeah, if one of them happened later, he probably just wanted a career change and some other school let him in. Is it that big of a whoop?
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:45 AM on November 10, 2014

One possibility that hasn't been raised: there's an interesting subculture of distance school learners who complete many degrees, including multiple bachelor's degrees.

Check around on here
posted by helloimjohnnycash at 7:46 AM on November 10, 2014

My uncle worked for a state university for 20 years and has at least 4 degrees since it was free and he liked going to classes (I think they're English, Drama, Computer Science, and an MBA).
posted by empath at 7:59 AM on November 10, 2014

I went to school in the late 90s/early 00s. There was 90%+ overlap between Political Science and Sociology, and if I'd done a couple more classes I could have gotten a bachelors in History as well.
posted by Oktober at 8:26 AM on November 10, 2014

I went to school in the early-mid 90's and got a BS and BA in a science and social science. With another quarter, I would have received another BA in another interest area. I took a lot of classes each quarter and had to get a Dean's waiver to go over the maximum allowed credits/ quarter. For many quarters, I took double the amount of what was considered full-time. I was very lucky and didn't have to work, so I loaded up. If your colleague got each one separately, I'd be interested in that. But, three during one stint in college isn't that strange to me.
posted by quince at 9:26 AM on November 10, 2014

I can think of several possible reasons.

If they or their spouse worked for a college or university, then that undergrad tuition (or a chunk of it) was probably waived. I understand that waived graduate tuition may be taxable as income, but waived undergrad tuition isn't, so an extra undergrad degree would be practically free.

Once you have one undergrad degree, you can go back for seconds and thirds without repeating the gen. eds. (most of the time). With online classes, and many semesters being split into A- and B-sessions, you could complete an additional degree in less time than it would take to get a master's.

Maybe they didn't need a master's in their field. Maybe they were thinking of changing fields, and wanted to lay the groundwork. Maybe they needed to boost their undergraduate GPA so that they could get into a master's program.
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 12:07 PM on November 10, 2014

I was a double major: only a single degree/diploma/listing on my cv.

I do know at least two folks who do undergrad degrees for entertainment/self-improvement, rather than just for work. One of them has four or five the last time I checked, including at least one master's and a phd. He's in his 60s. He just likes taking courses and figures that at least he should get the degree too.
posted by bonehead at 1:01 PM on November 10, 2014

A BA and a BS here. The BS because that was supposed to be the job-getter, and the BA because I love English. Four credits away from a minor in Linguistics to go with that, but decided I didn't really want to spend the money and extra semester. This was in an "all you can eat" type college, and my counselor didn't really know I was adding the extra eight or nine credits to the original twelve recommended. If I could be paid, or even go for free, I'd have degrees in anthropology, art history, biology, chemistry... zoology.

As an older student, I'd sit in classes (esp. writing and lit.) and listen to the brats bitch about how 'useless' it all was and how it was totally irrelevant to their interest or "don't need it to get a job." I love to read, love to learn, love to take tests, preferably essay tests.

I've always been overeducated and underemployed. Neither degree ever panned out to much of a job, but I've never regretted the English classes.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:34 PM on November 10, 2014

I'm assuming from context that these aren't art majors, but I ended up with two majors, and couple of different minors-nearing-majors because, frankly, I regarded college as an opportunity for an education rather than an investment to make my way through.
posted by cmoj at 10:31 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I graduated from college 13 years ago and later found an interest in psychology. I took a few undergrad classes for fun at a distance from my old university, some undergrad some masters level. I applied and got accepted to a program only to be rejected a few days later because somebody insisted that my lack of a bachelors in psychology meant I was not eligible. With all my core classes done and a few psyc courses under my belt I decided to complete my degree and reapply to that program, but them talking with a professor in another program he told me a second degree is a waste of my time, just apply for a different masters program and start the real education I was looking for.
posted by Che boludo! at 6:23 AM on November 12, 2014

A university I previously worked for pushed the 2nd bachelors degree idea pretty hard. Folks who already had an undergraduate degree could get another BA by just completing the major requirements (30 - 36 credits). For folks trying to change careers, many saw this as an easier and less expensive way to get a degree in the field they were trying to move towards.
posted by hworth at 4:43 AM on November 13, 2014

In Canada some professional degrees commonly done as graduate degrees are technically bachelor degrees, like law and medicine (the latter at least in Quebec, not sure about the ROC).
posted by Salamandrous at 5:49 AM on November 14, 2014