A few basic questions about associates degrees, bachelor degrees, and community college?

Applying to College
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<p>I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section. I'm looking lightly into cheap education, but I have a few broad questions. These may seem like simple questions, but I'm very college-illiterate! I haven't really started to look into these things until recently (I'm an incoming senior) </p>

<p>1) how do associate and bachelor degrees work? Is a bachelors degree a continuation of the subject studied in an associates degree, or is it an entirely new course - for example, can you have an associate degree in art and a bachelors degree in science? </p>

<p>2) how long does it take to complete an associate degree and bachelor degree? I heard you can go to a 2 year community college to get an associates, and then transfer to an actual university to finish the last two years. Does this mean you can get an associate degree and bachelor degree in 4 years?</p>

<p>3) can you double major with your associates degree (at a community college)? Or are double majors only applicable to four year programs? </p>

<p>4) BIGGEST QUESTION - this whole business of going to a two year community college first to save money, and then transferring to a university afterwards. Is it possible to take a break during this process? Can you finish the two years at community, take a gap year or two, and then pick up where you left off with the transfer? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>1) Technically one could do an associate degree in art and then go to a four year college and major in science. This is not very practical though because if the two areas of study don’t overlap much then the four year degree can take 5 years to complete.</p>

<p>2) If you complete the prerequisites at CC and make sure they are transferrable then finishing in 4 years is doable.</p>

<p>3) I don’t think anything prevents double majoring on any level i.e. besides the consideration of time and money to complete the credits.</p>

<p>4) Gap years are doable but the four year degree requirements may change in the interim. </p>

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<p>@JAMCAFE - can you elaborate on #1? Are you saying you can’t complete both an associates degree and a bachelors degree in four years if the two separate areas of study in the associates degree and bachelors degree don’t overlap (even if they aren’t the same, but only similar)</p>

<p>Are you also saying that any number of gap years between community college and a transfer agreement to a university is possible, BUT the only thing standing in the way is the possibility that the requirements may change during that gap period (aka, other than this risk, it’s perfectly allowed)?</p>

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<p>Most associate’s degrees are designed to be completed in two years, and most bachelor’s degrees are designed to be completed in four years. If your associate’s degree program is coordinated well with the bachelor’s degree program that you transfer into, usually the whole package is designed to take four years.</p>

<p>However, if the coursework from your associate’s program doesn’t include all of the right courses for the bachelor’s degree program you transfer into, then you will need more than just two years at the 4-year institution. You have to carefully look at the degree requirements at both places. Sometimes the major for the first two years doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes it matters a lot.</p>

<p>You can take as many years off in the middle of your education as you’d like to. People do that all the time for any number of reasons. Just know that when you return to your studies, the place you are studying at and the time in which you enroll will determine which classes you need to take. If the program you had planned to enroll in (or had started out in) has changed drastically (or been cancelled) in your absence, you may find yourself taking longer than expected to complete your degree. And yes, a transfer agreement that was in place when you completed your associate’s degree may no longer be in place several years later. So you need to pay attention to the situation if you are counting on a transfer agreement for admission to a particular college or university.</p>

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<p>One way to view this is to work backwards. Start with the long-term career you’re seeking to enter after college. Then figure out which bachelor’s (or master’s) degree is needed to enter that field. Once you know that, then figure out how an associate’s works into the plan. Some community colleges (aka “junior colleges” - freshman & sophomore years) have an “articulation agreement” that helps smooth your transfer into an in-state 4-year college or, less common, “senior colleges” (only junior & senior students). </p>

<p>The credits you earn in a community college do not expire. You use them to transfer into a college that issues bachelors. Usually, you’d take up to 60ish credits (2 years) at community college, then bring them into the new school, and take about 60 more credits, bringing you up to about 120. The assumption is a full-time student takes roughly 15 credits a semester, 30 credits a year x 4 years = 120. But, this is just the default. You can attack it many different ways. </p>

<p>You can always work with the new school for exceptions to the policies if graduation requirements or transfer agreements change over time. </p>

<p>You can plan now for the long-term goal. </p>

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<p>The typical transfer path starting at CC is to take two years’ worth of courses at CC, then transfer to a four year school to take another two years’ worth of (mostly more advanced) courses to finish the bachelor’s degree.</p>

<p>The two years’ worth of courses at CC needed to prepare for transfer may or may not coincide with the courses needed to earn an associates degree. In some cases, an associates degree may be designed to have the check list of courses needed to prepare for a specific major at typical transfer target four year schools.</p>

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<p>Hi, I’m new to this forum and this is my first actually participating in a discussion, so I may be wrong here, but I just wanted to ask you all… where are you getting your information when you say it’s totally OK to just take as many years as you want between getting your associate’s degree and matriculating at a 4-year university?</p>

<p>While it’s true that most school won’t care if you took ONE gap year, I must question the assertion that the credits you take at a community college never expire. It all depends on the school you want to go to and the profession that you choose.</p>

<p>Now, to answer the original poster’s questions:</p>

<p>1) A guy that I know is getting his Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts, but once he transfers, he’s going after a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. My stepbrother on the other hand, got a Associate’s in IT and a Bachelor’s in IT. So you can do it either way.</p>

<p>2) Ideally, 4 years is the goal. However, you can visit any community college and ask for statistics and see for yourself that most people spend a long time in community college because they either didn’t take the right classes, or didn’t take their classes seriously and failed. On the other hand, I heard about a girl that took an academic overload two semesters as well as the summer after high school and the summer after her second semester and so SHE COMPLETED HER ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE IN ONE YEAR (plus two summers) AND THEN TRANSFERRED! It all depends on you.</p>

<p>3) You can double major in community colleges as well. I’m doing multiple programs at my community college and it sometimes seems like I’m doing a quadruple major. The thing is, you’ll end up taking way too many classes. In the 4-year universities that I know about, the tuition each semester is the same whether you’re taking 12 credits or 18, but in community colleges, you get charged per credit. So if cheap education is your goal, you might want to stay away from double majors at least at the associate degree level.</p>

<p>4) This is where you should really check with your community college and the 4-year university that you want to transfer to. At my community college, you’d be fine as long as you know exactly how long you want your break to be. Here, practically everyone wants to do the Guaranteed Admission Agreements, which guarantee you a spot at the participating university you want to go to as long as you meet a set of very strict requirements. Most kids want to transfer to GMU (meh) which requires you to submit a “Letter of Intent” (a form stating that you want to transfer and WHEN you plan to do it) after taking at least 15 credits and before taking 45 (I think). The college that I want to go to requires a Letter of Intent at least one year prior to your intended matriculation date at their college, and you can’t change the date after you’ve picked it. You can apply for deferred admission for one semester, but then you have no guarantees that they will still accept you. So this is the kind of thing you might want to ask a counselor or advisor at the community college you plan to attend.</p>

<p>A few thoughts:</p>

<p>If you wanted to transfer to top tier schools, they might be douchebags about it. To be eligible to transfer to Harvard, for instance, “you must have completed at least one continuous academic year in a full-time degree program at one college and not have completed more than two years total in college.” If you take longer than that, you are automatically disqualified. Of course you could complete the degree in that time frame and then take a gap year and then apply, but you would have to do something amazing during that break, like start your own business or win a freaking Olympic medal, because if you just traveled the world, they will look down upon that.</p>

<p>EDIT: Also, Princeton for example does not accept transfers at all. Period.</p>

<p>If you don’t necessarily want to transfer to such a selective school and are happy going to a lesser known school, then you should be fine… however, if you are interested in the Articulation Agreements that were brought up (or the Guaranteed Admission Agreements that I mentioned), you should look carefully at the fine print. The agreements for certain schools stipulate that students need to have taken certain classes within the past x number of years, otherwise the student needs to either retake the class or apply as a regular transfer without the agreement.</p>

<p>Last but not least, think about the profession that you want to go into. If you want to eventually go to grad school, the decisions you make as an undergrad will have a huge impact on whether you get accepted to programs or not. For instance, if you wanted to go to med school, there’s a number of pre-requisite classes that you’d need to take, and some schools, like Hopkins, specifically state that they do not accept credits taken at community colleges.</p>

<p>That’s all. Sorry this was so long.</p>

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<p>Wow - thanks for all the great responses everyone. What @quadruplemajor said was particularly surprising to me: how double course loads at community colleges aren’t as money-saving as double course loads at regular universities. I was unaware that community colleges paid by the credit rather than the enrollment. </p>

<p>I have one more (seemingly random) question. Taking on a double major or even a minor can sometimes be a bit too much time and money for someone looking to expand an area of interest. That being said, it is possible to take one or two specific classes at a UC without enrolling at said UC? For example, let’s say you went to a state school, but there was one class at the UC down the road you really want to take (either the class isn’t offered at your school, or the quality is bad in comparison). Could you technically pay to take that one class at the UC, even if you didn’t receive formal credit for it? I know some students audit or ghost classes, but that seems a little immoral to me. </p>