What Is a Professional Degree? Your Guide

Key takeaways

A professional degree is an advanced academic program designed to prepare you to work in a specific field, such as medicine or law.

• Some professional degrees are terminal degrees, or the highest degree you can earn in a specific area.

• Professional degrees often lead to high-salary careers with strong job growth in fields like physical therapy, veterinary medicine, and dentistry.

• You can typically begin pursuing a professional degree after graduating with your bachelor’s degree.

Learn more about jobs that require professional degrees, the difference between professional degrees and academic degrees, and alternative educational paths you can take. Then, explore online degree programs from esteemed universities.

What is a professional degree?

A professional degree is an advanced degree you can earn to prepare for work in specialized fields, such as medicine, law, and architecture. Similar to advanced academic degrees, like doctorates and certain master’s, some professional degrees are considered terminal degrees, or the highest degree you can achieve in an area. The education you gain tends to emphasize practicality so that you’re prepared to begin working in that profession after graduation. However, with both medicine and law, you will need to take additional steps to earn your license in order to practice in either of those fields.

Jobs that require professional degrees

Here are the most common types of jobs that require a professional degree:

• Architect: Master of Architecture (MArch) 

• Lawyer: Doctor of Jurisprudence or Juris Doctor (JD)

• Medical doctor: Doctor of Medicine (MD)

• Dentist: Doctor of Dental Science (DDS) or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD)

• Optometrist: Doctor of Optometry (OD)

• Pharmacist: Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)

• Physical therapist: Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) or Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPhysio) 

• Veterinarian: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM)

How many years of college is a professional degree?

The amount of additional schooling you’ll need depends on what you’re interested in studying. Law school takes, on average, three years to complete, though if you attend part-time, it can take closer to four years.

Dental and veterinary school, on the other hand, take four years. To become a physician, you’ll need to complete four years of medical school and then an additional three to seven years in a residency program.

What does a professional degree cost?

The cost of a professional degree will also vary by program. The average total cost of law school is $217,480 [1]. The average total cost of med school is $228,959 [2].

What are the benefits of a professional degree?

Completing your professional degree is a major accomplishment that can lead to work in what are often considered to be prestigious fields. 

While salaries and job growth will depend on the type of profession you’d like to pursue, professional degrees tend to lead to careers with higher salaries and at least average job growth. Certain sectors, such as physical therapy and veterinary medicine, are estimated to experience faster-than-average job growth, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Applying to a professional degree program

Many professional degree programs require that you have completed your bachelor’s degree before applying. In many cases, you’ll also need to pass an entrance exam, though some programs do not require or waive entrance exams.

The most common entrance exams are:

• Law school: LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) 

• Medical school: MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test)

• Veterinary school and physical therapy: GRE (Graduate Records Exam)

You will also likely need to submit the following materials: 

1. An official application

2. Your college transcripts

3. Letters of recommendation

4. A personal statement

5. A resume or CV

Read more: 10 Test-Taking Tips to Set You Up for Success

What is considered a professional degree vs. an academic degree?

A professional degree tends to emphasize practicality and professional knowledge, while a terminal academic degree, such as a PhD, tends to emphasize research. In certain medical fields, such as biomedical physics, epidemiology, or health policy, you can earn a PhD if you’re interested in conducting and contributing advanced research to those particular fields. 

Earning a PhD takes, on average, between five and seven years, and requires multiple steps: completing coursework, passing a comprehensive exam, and writing and defending an original body of research, such as a dissertation. It may also be more cost-effective than a professional degree. The average debt a PhD holder owes is $84,540 [8].

Is an MBA considered a professional degree?

An MBA is not a professional degree in the same way as a doctorate is for an MD or a lawyer. An MBA is a graduate-level master’s degree for business professionals. This difference comes from the fact that governing bodies license and regulate professionals such as doctors and lawyers.

Career alternatives without a professional degree

If you’re interested in working in medicine or law, there are several career paths you can explore that don’t require a professional degree.

Alternatives to a professional degree

If you’re interested in advancing your education but aren’t sure about committing to a lengthy professional degree program or taking on the cost associated with it, there are two areas you can explore.

Advanced academic degrees

Earning a master’s degree can help you qualify for more advanced roles. A master’s generally takes between one and a half to two years to complete and costs an average total of $62,820 [14].

There are a number of advanced academic degrees that focus on subjects in medicine and law, such as:

• Master’s of Public Health (MPH)

• Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) 

• Master of Legal Studies (MLS)

• Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology

Certifications

With a certification, you'll typically gain concentrated subject knowledge at a much faster pace. Earning a certification through a company or professional organization shows that you have acquired the skills and knowledge necessary to do a particular job. 

Benefits of earning a certification:

• You can complete many of them online.

• They tend to be much less expensive than college.

• Many take a year or less to complete.

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• Read this story: 'A Bucket List To-Do': One Student's Path to a Master's Degree in Engineering Management

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