degrees

Found in: Degrees, GRU/UGA Medical Partnership

The preferred form is to avoid abbreviation. However, if it is necessary or appropriate to list the degrees an individual has earned, abbreviations are acceptable—often, for the reader’s sake, advisable.

Use “Dr.” before a name only when the person in question has an M.D. or D.V.M. degree; it is assumed that UGA faculty possess the terminal degree in their field.

Use apostrophes when writing bachelor’s and master’s degrees; do not use the genitive when naming the full degree (a bachelor of arts degree is a bachelor’s degree). Doctorate is a noun; doctoral is the adjective: you may have a doctorate, or a doctoral degree, but not a doctorate degree.

In alumni publications, to save space, it is acceptable to omit the periods in abbreviated degrees in a class notes section n ( MBA ’87 ); do use them elsewhere in feature stories, news stories, etc.: He received an M.B.A. in 1987. In some settings, such as marketing publications, the periods may be omitted as long as it is done consistently for all degrees; “MBA,” in particular, is often written without periods.

Note that when the “19” or “20” is omitted from a written year, an apostrophe is used to indicate the contraction: ’87. Many word-processing programs will incorrectly insert a single open-quotation mark, which the writer must manually replace.

Currently UGA offers the following undergraduate degrees:

  • A.B. - bachelor of arts
  • A.B.J. - bachelor of arts in journalism
  • B.B.A. - bachelor of business administration
  • B.F.A. - bachelor of fine arts
  • B.L.A. - bachelor of landscape architecture
  • B.Mus. - bachelor of music
  • B.S. - bachelor of science
  • B.S.A. - bachelor of science in agriculture
  • B.S.A.B. - bachelor of science in applied biotechnology
  • B.S.A.E. - bachelor of science in agricultural engineering
  • B.S.B.E. - bachelor of science in biological engineering
  • B.S.Chem. - bachelor of science in chemistry
  • B.S.E.H. - bachelor of science in environmental health
  • B.S.Ed. - bachelor of science in education
  • B.S.E.S. - bachelor of science in environmental sciences
  • B.S.F.C.S. - bachelor of science in family and consumer sciences
  • B.S.F.R. - bachelor of science in forest resources
  • B.S.W. - bachelor of social work

Graduate degrees offered are:

  • D.M.A. - doctor of musical arts
  • DrPH - doctor of public health
  • D.V.M. - doctor of veterinary medicine
  • Ed.D. - doctor of education
  • Ed.S. - specialist in education
  • J.D. - juris doctor
  • LL.M. - master of laws
  • M.A. - master of arts
  • M.A.D.S. - master of animal and dairy science
  • M.A.E. - master of agricultural economics
  • M.A.Ed. - master of art education
  • M.A.Ext. - master of agricultural extension
  • M.A.L. - master of agricultural leadership
  • M.A.M. - master of avian medicine
  • M.A.M.S. - master of applied mathematical science
  • M.A.T. - master of arts for teachers
  • M.Acc. - master of accounting
  • M.B.A. - master of business administration
  • M.C.S.S. - master of crop and soil sciences
  • M.D. - doctor of medicine (from the Medical College of Georgia)
  • M.Ed. - master of education
  • M.F.A. - master of fine arts
  • M.F.A.M. - master of food animal medicine
  • M.F.C.S. - master of family and consumer sciences
  • M.F.T. - master of food technology
  • M.F.R. - master of forest resources
  • M.H.P. - master of historic preservation
  • M.I.T. - master of Internet technology
  • M.L.A. - master of landscape architecture
  • M.M. - master of music
  • M.M.C. - master of mass communication
  • M.M.Ed. - master of music education
  • M.M.R. - master of marketing research
  • M.P.A. - master of public administration
  • M.P.H. - master of public health
  • M.P.P.P.M. - master of plant protection and pest management
  • M.S. - master of science
  • M.S.W. - master of social work
  • Ph.D. - doctor of philosophy
  • Pharm.D. - doctor of pharmacy

There are many other degrees, offered by other institutions or by UGA in the past (home economics, commerce).