Would masters, undergraduate and graduate fall into this category as well or are they a different thing?
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A professional certification is issued by a professional organization that states that someone is qualified to do a job. As an example, I have a certification from the United States archery association that days I’m a qualified basic archery coach.
A degree is a formal education plan offered by a college that is tailored for a certain subject. In order to get a degree, a person must pass a series of classes and other criteria determined by the college. Examples include business degrees, engineering degrees, and medical degrees.
A diploma is issued by an academic institution to state that a person has passed all their classes and has graduated. Examples would be high school and college degrees.
An undergraduate degree is a bachelor’s degree. Graduate degrees (such as Masters degrees and PhDs) are graduate degrees
Sort of a cheap explanation, but broadly speaking you could say the difference is time needed to acquire each.
Least time –> Certificates, diplomas, degree-undergrad, degree-masters, degree-doctorate –> Most time
If you take a forklift operators course for 8 hours, you’d likely get a certificate at the end. If you spend 8 years studying the portrayal of forklifts in Western media, you’d likely get a doctorate at the end.
Certificates are typically awarded for a short term study in a specific field. Diplomas are awarded for completing (typically) a multiyear study at a non university level. Degrees are awarded by universities for the completion of a multiyear course of study. The first level of degree is a Bachelor’s. Graduate degrees are Masters or Doctorate level.
In addition to the excellent answers, certificates are sometimes add-on items to a degree. My field is music. You can earn a Masters Degree, and at some schools also ear a performer’s certificate. It just is basically a pat on the back for doing extra work in a certain area.
A certificate is a piece of paper that says you accomplished something. It may be a three hour CPR course or two weeks of swimming lessons. It may or may not be issued by an accredited institution.
A degree is a “title” that you’ve earned for attending a course of study. The degree says that u/itsmygam12 has taken a series of courses, typically at an accredited University, and that you’ve passed those courses that lead to a “Bachelor of Science in Mathematics” for example.
The diploma is the piece of paper that says you’ve earned a degree. When you graduate from Medical School and earn the title of “Doctor of Medicine” you get a diploma to hang on the wall to show everyone that you earned that title.
Certificates and diplomas are both pieces of paper that certify that you have undertaken some form of training or education. Typically certificates are awarded for skills based training or education, while diplomas are awarded for knowledge based training or education.
A degree is actually a title. The idea derives from the hierarchical social order that is still somewhat prevalent in Europe to this day. For example, a blacksmith’s son who earned the title “doctor of laws” would be treated as a better person (and given better opportunities) than a blacksmith’s son who simply became a blacksmith.
In the modern world, universities and schools award just a diploma to graduates of their lowest level knowledge based programs. For the higher level programs they award both a diploma (piece of paper) and a degree (a title with a bump to your social rank). It’s actually kind of a weird tradition when you think about it, but it hangs around because universities and colleges are nothing if not conservative.
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