What is the correct way to ask: what's your major or what's your degree?

Your major is your focus of study during college, and you hope to leave with a degree. You can say that when you’re pursuing a degree, you are majoring in that subject.

I have a Bachelor of Arts degree. It represents my level of achievement and type of study: I completed a four-year college program in liberal arts, fulfilling all requirements to qualify for the degree.

My major was English.

Other B.A. recipients who graduated with me might have majored in history, modern languages, sociology, and many other fields, but we all received B.A. degrees.

Other fellow students graduating at the same time after four years received B.S. (bachelor of science) degrees in scientific majors, with different requirements from those for a B.A.

A Master’s degree and a Ph.D. signify more advanced levels of study and requirements. Again, they can be in any of a large number of disciplines.

Two-year colleges (“junior colleges”) may award an A.A. (associate’s) degree, but to say you’re a college graduate you must have a Bachelor’s degree. Another word for that is baccalaureate.

I have a Bachelor’s degree. I majored in Economics.

And what @Jeruba said.

I second @Vortico‘s answer. Another thing is that sometimes you will have a major offered in two different degrees. For instance the major I want to get into is Television & Film which is offered in degrees of Bachelors of Fine Arts as well as Bachelors of Science. Where one is more geared towards science classes along with your major and the other has more art related classes in the curriculum with your major.

Those are two different questions. Your major is your field of study. Your degree is what you get for completing your field of study. The different degrees represent the different levels of study into your field, from Associates Degree to Bachelor’s Degree to Master’s Degree to Doctorate. And within those categories are subdivisions that broadly lay out the category of the field of study – Bachelor’s of Science vs Bachelor’s of Arts, or Master’s of Science vs Master’s of Engineering or Master’s of Business Administration.

I have a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures, but my major was Italian. The above responses are correct – your major is your area of concentration, but your degree is not necessarily the same.

My major was nursing, but my actual degree is a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). So, depending on which one you really wanted to know, would depend on which question to ask.

I have a BA in Business and a major in Marketing. You can major in something but if you don’t have a degree it means nothing (you didn’t graduate if you don’t have a degree)!

Is it correct to say, for e.g. ” I hold a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in electronics?

More correct and common would be “I hold a Bachelor of Science in Electronics”