professional degrees in the United States, one particular form was the graduate-entry first-professional degree, often denominated as a doctorate. The US Department of Education defined these as: "A first-professional degree was an award that required completion of a program that met all of the following criteria: (1) completion of the academic requirements to begin practice in the profession; (2) at least two years of college work prior to entering the program; and (3) a total of at least six academic years of college work to complete the degree program, including prior required college work plus the length of the professional program itself." The use of the term "first-professional" was discontinued by the Department of Education as of 2010–11, when new post-baccalaureate award categories were introduced. Prior to this, first-professional degrees (so defined) were awarded in the following ten fields: Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.) Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.) Law (LL.B. or J.D.) Medicine (M.D.) Optometry (O.D.) Osteopathic medicine (D.O.) Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Podiatry (Pod.D. or D.P.) or Podiatric medicine (D.P.M.) Theology (M. Div., M.H.L., B.D., or Ord. and M.H.L./Rav.) Veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) Since 2011, the classification "doctor's degree - professional practice" has been used for "[a] doctor's degree that is conferred upon completion of a program providing the knowledge and skills for the recognition, credential, or license required for professional practice." As with the "first professional degree", this classification also requires that the total time in higher education is at least six years, although the requirement for at least two years of college-level study prior to entering the program was removed. The Department of Education does not define which fields professional doctorates may be awarded in, unlike with the "first professional degree". Besides professional doctorates, other professional degrees can exist that use the title of bachelor or master, e.g., B.Arch. and M.Arch. in architecture. In particular, first professional degrees in theology, which did not use the title of doctor, were reclassified as master's degrees in 2011 - including the B.D. A distinction is drawn in the US between professional doctorates and "doctor's degree - research/scholarship", with the latter being "[a] Ph.D. or other doctor's degree that requires advanced work beyond the master's level, including the preparation and defense of a dissertation based on original research, or the planning and execution of an original project demonstrating substantial artistic or scholarly achievement." Internationally, US professional doctorates (which, unlike research doctorates, are not defined as