<p>Having looked at a few universities in the US, it seems that very few award honours degrees. Is this just a matter of different education systems, or would a standard degree from a well known US university mean less than a good honours degree in the UK (especially in terms of admission to master’s programmes, etc.)? I realise the fact many don’t seem to offer honours probably means it won’t matter, but it would be good to know what the difference really is.</p>
<p>I’ve wondered about this myself.</p>
<p>The way it works in the U.S. is that most degree granting institutions will award the degree “with honors” or “cum laude” if the student meets certain criteria. Sometimes it is competitive (i.e., the top X% of graduates get “with honors”). Sometimes it’s a rule like “Anyone who graduates with a GPA at least X gets “with honors””.</p>
<p>I think that the schools you are looking at in the U.S. probably DO have something like this in place, and that they award SOME, but not all, of their degrees “with honors”.</p>
<p>I have been looking at UK Grad programs, and so far I have had no issues applying with my American degree to a program that requires an “honours degree.” But my American BA was awarded “with honors”.</p>
<p>(You do know that we spell the word “honors” differently, right?)</p>
<p>(Yeah, I thought about the spelling.)</p>
<p>I knew that some of them did have “with honours”, but a few (notably, MIT) don’t appear to. It seems honours is more like “first class honours” in the UK, or something similar.</p>
<p>Wow. I didn’t know that about MIT. I looked into it myself and this is what I found</p>
<p>“MIT has a collaborative and supportive educational environment. Competition among students is discouraged. There is no such thing as class rank or graduating with honors at MIT, and emphasis is placed on the process of learning instead of the grade.”</p>
<p>from [About</a> MIT - FAQs](<a href=“http://digm.drexel.edu/z-archive/digm242/003A/about/faqs.html]About”>http://digm.drexel.edu/z-archive/digm242/003A/about/faqs.html)</p>
<p>This is very unusual for an American university or college.</p>
<p>But I then have a hard time believing that people who earn degrees from MIT cannot be admitted into British grad schools.</p>
<p>It’s still a mystery to me.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>Actually, Oxford and Cambridge don’t technically award honours degrees either. The ‘honours’ classification at Oxford and Cambridge refers to the class of examination pass rather than the whole degree. </p>
<p>For example I put on my CV that I have a BA (Hons) from Oxford, but what I actually have is a BA degree where I got an honours classification in my final examinations. It’s not a very important distinction, but it is a distinction nonetheless.</p>
<p>So I guess what I’m saying is that ‘honours’ doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere, nor does it even necessarily matter much. There is absolutely no doubt that an MIT grad could attend grad school in the UK, regardless of the fact that s/he doesn’t have an honours degree.</p>
<p>@Laylah - Thanks for clearing that up! I realised that honours was just a classification, but the fact a degree without that classification in Scotland takes a year less work was what was worrying me.</p>
<p>Ah I see… that’s different again actually. 
</p>
<p>Some universities in England and Wales (e.g. Oxford and Cambridge) simply do not offer honours degrees. Other universities offer honours degrees, but not for all degree subjects (e.g. medicine is a non-honours degree).</p>
<p>In England and Wales there can be a perceived difference between a graduate who doesn’t have an honours degree, and one who does. </p>
<p>If the graduate is from a university which doesn’t offer honours degrees, or has done a course where an honours degree isn’t available like medicine, there’s no problem - the graduate doesn’t have an honours degree because it wasn’t possible for him to get one. </p>
<p>BUT - if a graduate could have done an honours degree and didn’t, it suggests that they didn’t do well enough to get honours.</p>
<p>In Scotland it’s different - from my understanding of the education system there, Ordinary degrees from universities that also offer honours degrees are fairly common and respected by employers, and there isn’t the stigma attached to having a non-honours degree. </p>
<p>Does that make sense at all??</p>
<p>I still don’t get it Laylah.</p>
<p>Lets use you as an example. You have a BA (hons) from Oxford. This is because of your examination pass. Not everyone in your program got as good an examination pass, some can NOT put “(hons)” after their degree. Is that correct?</p>
<p>So when you look at a UK grad school, and it says it requires an “honours degree”, you can apply for that school. Right? But what about the other students in your program, who have BAs, but didn’t pass with “hons”. Can they apply to a grad program that says it requires an “honours degree”?</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>Hi KEV - yes, basically. </p>
<p>It’s a quirk of the Oxford system that there’s no difference in content between an “Honours BA” and an ‘Ordinary BA’. There’s just a BA, which may be awarded “with honours” if someone does well on the final exams.</p>
<p>In other universities, there is actually a difference in degree content between a BA and a BA (Hons). Often the difference is whether the student successfully completes a thesis or not: no thesis = BA, thesis = BA (Hons).</p>
<p>That’s not the case at Oxford; only the final examination mark determines whether the degree is awarded with honours or not. The content is standardised.</p>
<p>But because almost all universities in the UK do it differently, for convention I put that I have a BA (Hons) on my CV. I actually have a BA “awarded with honours” but for simplicity I write BA (Hons).</p>
<p>Does that make sense at all? </p>
<p>OK. Now say Mr X did badly on his exams and wasn’t awarded a degree “with honours.” He still has a BA, just no honours classification. To attend grad school in the UK you (generally) have to have a BA (Hons) - since Oxford doesn’t award these, the equivalent would be BA “with honours”. Mr X doesn’t have that, so he doesn’t qualify to attend. </p>
<p>The difference at MIT, from what I understand, is that there is no equivalent AT ALL to BA (Hons), so an applicant can’t possibly be expected to have it. Now at Oxford, there’s no BA (Hons), but there IS a BA “awarded with honours”.</p>
<p>An honours degree in the Uk takes longer than an ordinary degree and has classification upon graduation. An honours degree is classed as a first class, second class first division, second class second division or a third. A third is a very poor pass. To do a masters or post grad you need a first or 2.1. An ordinary degree is worth less than a third class. Any degree from Oxbridge is highly recognised.</p>
<p>Actually many US colleges do award degrees with honors. As already mentioned, some are awarded based on GPA, but some are also awarded based on an “honors program.” Some departments at the college my D will be attending offer a degree “with distinction” for those who complete a Senior Thesis, presents it orally, and maintains a given high GPA. As noted above, they also offer general honors:</p>
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<p>In the case of MIT, perhaps because it is such a rigorous program, one could consider all of their degrees to be honors degrees. As with Oxbridge, any degree from MIT is also highly recognized.</p>