Did I "get" (or "take") my degree "from" (or "in") the University of Somewhere?

Question

I would like to know what is the preferred way to indicate that I took a degree in some subject while also naming the place where I obtained the degree from: - I got my master's degree *from* the University of Somewhere; - I got my master's degree *in* the University of Somewhere; - I took my master's degree *in* the University of Somewhere.I would say that "in" is more suitable to mention the particular subject (a degree in maths, for instance) than to indicate the place, but I still have doubts.By the way, is it a "master's degree" or a "Master's degree"?

Answer 1

Hi there!

If someone were to ask if you have any schooling, you'd respond with "I got my master's degree in mathematics from the University of Florida."

"Got" or "get" refers to an act of retrieval on your part. You had to go to the school and study. Using "take" or "took" is used to for an act of retrieval that wasn't earned.

"I took the cookies" versus "I got the cookies". The first one tells you the cookies were not for you to have.

"From" is a preposition referring to placement in space. In other words, prepositional phrases starting with "from" will answer the question of "where".

Using "in" turns the prepositional phrase into a category. Which major? In Mathematics. You major IN subjects. It wouldn't be appropriate for mentioning where you received the degree.

Master's degree wasn't capitalized in this case because it is a general term. If you are mentioning the full title of the degree, then capitalization is require. "I have a Master's of Science in mathematics." The clue here is seeing if the word "degree" is present or not.

I hope that helped a little!

Answer 2

You took classes, but you did not take your degree; the college gave it to you after you took enough classes and possibly did other things. Since you were given your degree, you received it from University of Somewhere and it could be a master's degree, denoting generally that you have mastered some subject, or you could be declared a Master of Buzzword Acumen as a specific proper noun. For your resume, I would tend to capitalize both the university and the degree and omit the apostrophe in favor of the title that is actually on the degree; for instance, you might have been declared a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems by California State University, Bakersfield, and therefore, your degree is from that college. Again for your resume, it is generally acceptable to omit the preposition when declaring a line item, like so:

Bachelor of Computer Information Systems - California State University, Bakersfield (May 2017).