A major (also known as a major concentration or concentration) is a term for the specific group of courses that give you a basic knowledge of a field of study, which is in addition to your core curriculum. A major is a term most commonly applied to a program of study leading to a bachelor's degree. Associate's degrees are shorter but also have majors, such as the Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Cosmetology.
Diploma and certificate programs, on the other hand, do not have majors as such. Rather, they carry a designation (for instance a Facial Specialist Diploma) which is much more specific than a degree title. Often, students in a career college beauty school program take a common set of core foundational courses in the first part of the program which then enables them to focus on a more specialized area of study. But generally, study at the career college level is job-oriented to the point where students do not take "elective" courses as they do for bachelor's degrees. Hence the designation of the diploma or certificate effectively stands in for the "major."
Northern Michigan University Northern Michigan University (Northern), located in Michigan's spectacular Upper Peninsula, was founded in 1899 as a teacher college. Northern is now a dynamic four-year, public, coeducational university offering 180 degree ...
