'Bachelor's Degree' or 'Bachelors Degree'?

Dawn wants to know how to write that someone was awarded a degree. Is it "bachelor's degree," "bachelors degree," or "bachelor degree"?

If you’re getting a college degree, here’s one final bit of information that won’t be on your finals but will still be good to know: how to write about your achievement. It is singular and possessive.

Bachelor's degree: singular and possessive

Write it “bachelor’s degree,” “bachelor” with an apostrophe and an S on the end.

Think of it this way:

A bachelor isn’t just a single guy who maybe eats out a lot but is also any person who has earned a specific type of degree from a university or college. 

Chaucer was the first to use 'bachelor' to refer to an education level

The word “bachelor” appeared around the year 1300 to refer to a young knight, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Chaucer first used it in “Franklin’s Tale” in 1386 to refer to a person who has “taken the lowest degree at a university.” The line reads:

His fellow was that time a bachelor of law.

Now think of the degree as the property of the bachelor, with the apostrophe-s indicating possession: It is a bachelor's degree, the degree of one person with the initial level of achievement at the university.

Capitalize degrees when using the formal name

You don't capitalize degree names, unless you're writing the formal name of a particular degree: 

• Aardvark earned a bachelor's degree, mainly studying ant behavior. (“Bachelor’s degree” is lowercase because it’s descriptive.)
   
• Aardvark has a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Dynamics of Edible Ants. (“Bachelor of Science" is the formal name of the degree, so it’s capitalized; and let’s say that “Behavioral Dynamics of Edible Ants” is the formal name of a program of much interest to aardvarks, so it’s capitalized too.)

How to abbreviate degrees is a style choice

To figure out how to abbreviate these degrees, you need to check your style guide. The Chicago Manual of Style does not recommend periods in “BS” and “MS,” (1) for example, but the AP Stylebook does. (2)

'Associate's degree' is a little different

As for an “associate degree,” the Associated Press recommends just that: "associate degree," (2) but the Chicago Manual of Style simply points out that both “associate degree” and “associate’s degree” are in wide use. (3) For...

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