UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CULTURE & SOCIETY (ECS)
CHOOSING AN ADVANCED DEGREE

The following information has been designed to be helpful in choosing the Master's program most appropriate for you. The Department of Education, Culture & Society offers three Master's programs: the M.Ed., M.A. and M.S. All Master's students are initially admitted to the M.Ed. program. Those who wish to pursue an M.A or and M.S. may apply to the graduate committee after completing nine hours of course work in the department.

The Master's of Education (M.Ed.) program is designed primarily for teachers who want to develop an interdisciplinary framework for understanding contemporary questions of educational policy and practice in primary, secondary, and postsecondary settings. The M.Ed. is a fairly structured program, including a required core course and 18 hours of additional coursework from each of 2 specialty areas:

1. History, Philosophy, & Sociology Studies
2. Language, Culture & Curriculum

The M.Ed. culminates in a comprehensive final examination covering the course work in the student's specialty area.

The Master's of Arts (M.A.) and Master's of Science (M.S.) programs are thesis degrees aimed more toward the acquisition of research skills. "Research" covers a broad range of activities in various kinds of study, from those with an experimental methodology, those with a more qualitative or ethnographic methodology, to those of a more conceptual or theoretical nature. The M.A. and M.S. programs are more unstructured to allow students to tailor their studies to a particular thesis topic; they differ only in that the M.A. requires a foreign language and the M.S. does not. These degrees are a better preparation for those students planning to complete a dissertation and Ph.D. eventually, although the M.Ed. does not preclude this possibility.

Handouts describing the specific course requirements for all three of these degrees can be obtained from the Academic Program Specialist MBH307 (801)587-7814.

The following may be helpful in reaching a decision about the best graduate program for you:

1. Meet with a member of the faculty. Any member of the faculty can be helpful, but you should seek out persons with interests in your area. (See attached list)
   
2. Begin thinking now about your personal and professional aims, and work at planning your degree program to meet them. Careful advanced planning will improve the quality of your overall program.
   
3. Because our graduate degree programs are designed to promote intellectual development and autonomy, they require substantial independent study and self-direction. Before undertaking a graduate program, be sure that your other time commitments will allow you to give your studies the effort and attention they need.