Also known as a Ph.D., a doctorate is considered to be a terminal or final degree. There is no higher degree in a particular field of study than that of a Ph.D. In order to obtain a Ph.D., the student has to first attain a bachelor's degree and master's degree. When someone earns his/her doctorate, he/she will have accumulated many college or university credit hours, written both a thesis and dissertation, and finished a very long and busy academic journey.

As with the master's degree, a doctorate is considered to be a highly specialized achievement. When you receive a Ph.D., you have gone through an incredible amount of study and training in a niche of your chosen field and done an immense amount of intense work and research. A doctorate usually requires very advanced studies and original research in your field.

A doctorate often culminates in what is called a dissertation. Where a master's degree student completes a thesis, a Ph.D. student must research and write a dissertation. In some cases, a dissertation can take years to write and number in the hundreds of pages.