Postgraduate Studies in North America

Postgraduate studies in North America

North America, the third largest continent by area, hosts United States, Canada, Mexico and Greenland. Some of the best universities and colleges in the world are present in North America providing flagship programs in management, executive education, medicine, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing, architecture, humanities and social sciences. The most prolific economic sectors in the continent are diversified such as marketing, services, public administration, tourism, hospitality, finance, banking, real estate, investment and securities banking. The master’s degrees and doctorate degrees are usually two years and 6 years (might vary from institution to institution) long respectively.

Postgraduate degrees and important features

Postgraduate degrees are known to enhance professional skills, broaden skills in analysis, statistics, theories and problem solving. In North America, many different forms of postgraduate degrees are offered ranging from masters of science in engineering to masters of social science in humanities and masters of arts in music.

There are different formats of master’s degrees offered in North America such as postgraduate master’s degrees (MA, MS, MPA, MPC, MPP, MBA, MCom), executive master’s degrees (EMBA), Integrated master’s degrees (these are usually offered in combination with undergraduate degrees) and postgraduate research master’s degrees (MRes, MARes, MScRes, MPhil).

Doctorate degrees are the highest academic diplomas offered and they are offered in different formats such as research doctorate, licentiates, post-doctoral (post- PhD degrees), professional doctorate, honorary and professorship degrees.

Acclaimed education in North America

Canada and the United States of America boast some of the best universities in the world which are mostly included in the top 50 in the world university rankings.

Some acclaimed universities in USA include Harvard University, Princeton, MIT, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Northwestern, Brown, John Hopkins and New York University among many other successful ones.

Canada too has a list of acclaimed universities and colleges which are all known for their top-notch flagship programs in engineering, executive education and healthcare programs. Some of these are namely University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, York University, University of Waterloo, McGill University and McMaster University.

Career prospects of professionals with postgraduate degrees

Pursuing postgraduate education requires a lot of commitment and monetary investment, but the outcomes are very promising in terms of employment and promotional opportunities such as executive being promoted to managerial positions. Some common fields which make postgraduate degrees mandatory are teaching, law and medicine. Postgraduate degrees such as business management and executive education programs come in handy for diverging into different careers such shifting from pharmaceuticals to engineering or information systems analyses.  Postgraduate studies contribute to professionals’ transferrable skills such as project management, networking and team building skills.

North America has several multinational giants in different sectors located with their headquarters here such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, P&G, Big 4 Accounting firms, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, PWC, BCG corporations. Professionals pursuing postgraduate studies in North America will find abundant opportunities for advancement and employment in these companies and regionally renowned corporations.