Masters degree vs Certificate in USA.

Hello i am new member of this forum.

I would like to ask any of you that you may know.

i just finished my studies in london Accounting and finance and i would like to apply for a masters degree or certificate in taxation in USA.

does anyone knows the difference of those two titles? master and certificate.

and can you provide me any universities (Specially in california) who provide taxation studies.

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

madamemerle

In my experience, a certificate is not often a stand alone or full time qualification in the US and usually is done as a focused set of courses within a Master's or PhD degree. I've seen stand alone certificates in GIS offered by some unis but they don't count as full time degrees and so you can't get a student visa to study them. I would check the specifics of any certificate carefully, in case that is also the case for those you are interested in.

Reply 2

apple32

As far as pursuing a Masters degree, the universities in California to look into include USC (It's a private university and ranked). My friend studied accounting there. I don't know if they offer taxation courses though. You can also look into the universities that make up the University of California system. It's a public university. You'll get a good education at a UC. The universities that make up the UC system include UC Berkeley (comparable to an Ivy League - well-known across the country), UC Los Angeles (very popular and competitive to get into, as well), UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Merced, UC San Diego. These unis are spread throughout the state. There's also the California State University System. Less competitive and not as expensive as the UCs but still good unis for an education. You can find a list of all the campuses here. Plus there are many more independent universities. I would maybe narrow it down to what region you want to study in, how much you want to spend on tuition.

Hope this helps.

(edited 10 years ago)