Best variant (common, more common, the most common)

Question

Can you please help me to choose the most appropriate variant for the following sentence:

In the USA (common, more common, the most common) college degree among the others is a bachelor of arts.

I suppose "more common" as well as "the most common" make sence. But my teacher insist on just "common".

Native speakers, what variant sounds better in English? Thank you!

Answer 1

Firstly, among the others is not good grammar here, so that needs fixing. Common on its own only works with a.

So either:

In the USA, a common college degree is the bachelor of arts.

Or:

In the USA, the most common college degree is the bachelor of arts.

If you need to keep some form of among others, perhaps try something like this:

In the USA, a common degree, among others, is the bachelor of arts.

(I must say, though, it's hard to fit among others in here in any kind of useful way.)