My junior daughter wants to be in CA like her sister, who is at Santa Clara. She has a wide variety of interests but would likely be interested in business/entrepreneurship/real estate. Real estate (commercial and investing) has been a lifelong interest so this would likely be her goal. She will likely graduate high school with her associates. Santa Clara was very generous with DE and AP credits for my older daughter, but she says that they don’t really recognize an associates degree (they just look at the classes individually to decide whether or not to approve credit). Can anyone speak to the generosity of Univ of San Diego in this situation? Or private schools in general - do they, for the most part look at individual course transfers vs. accepting an Associates in its entirety?
Our financial picture changed drastically over the last couple of years so while we likely will not qualify for need-based aid we also will have total a budget of about $150-175,000. If she was able to graduate in 2 years, of course that would open up a lot more options.
She has good but not great stats. Cummulative GPA for grades 9/10 is about 3.71 but she has a 4.0 in all DE classes right now and REALLY likes the classes a lot better. Homeschooled (thru online programs). No test scores yet. She does have excellent leadership and ECs. All this to say that I wouldn’t expect much merit, at least at schools like USD or SCU.
We will be looking at UNC-Wilmington as it’s in-state, has real estate and entrepreneurship and guaranteed credit transfer. But, she doesn’t love the size and wants her adult life to be in SoCal so wants to get started making connections there.
Seems like most colleges look at individual course transfers, since an associates degree does not mean the same thing in terms of which courses were completed everywhere.
Interested to hear if anyone else knows differently, but thank you - your response is helpful.
So to graduate in two from a private school is probably totally unrealistic. Three, a possibility but would depend on the school’s generosity towards awarding credits. My SCU girl can easily graduate in three, but the core classes required would make it impossible to do in two. I think she went in with 58 or 59 credits. We didn’t expect that many to be transferrable, but we also didn’t know until at least the summer before freshman year (or maybe even during the first quarter) so that wasn’t factored into her decision. For child 2, it will have to though if she wants to go private.
Yeah. Most private schools cap credits from AP/IB/DE. Even when credit is awarded, it’s often only as elective credit, meaning one still needs to complete many of the gen ed requirements.
Public universities tend to be more generous, but even then, graduating in 2 years is rarely realistic
Given her interests Menlo College might be an option. It is very small (about 750 students) and business focused. It is also located in the heart of the silicon valley just like Santa Clara University.
Sorry, but why would you care if the school recognizes a AA degree? As long as they recognize the classes and grants units/credit and award your daughter a Bachelors Degree when she finishes, it’s irrelevent if the school recognizes the AA or not.
In the future, when she applies for job/school, she can always list the AA on her resume. She earned it.
But as far as granting DE/CC credit, unless the school specifically says so, I would call them and ask. Get that in writing. USC/Stanford have specifically said on their websites CC credits earned by HS kids during HS are not recognized for class credit. Not sure about USD, but ask and let us know.
As far as graduating in 2 years. That will depend on her major and what classes she took while in HS. As far as I know, if she did all the classes required for “transfer” during her 4 years of HS then I don’t see why two yeas can’t be done. Engineering is one exception where there is no way to take required classes from CC, so no matter how many units you go in, anything less than three years is just not possible.
I think the OP was hoping that a school would say that a two year degree was completed and therefore only an additional two years is required. I agreed with the others that there is nothing magical about completing the AA vs having 60+ credits.
Such a thing may only apply when a specific four year school has a specific agreement with a specific two year school that an associates degree in a specific major will allow the transfer student to complete a bachelor’s degree in one of specified related majors in two years of normal course loads.
For the OP, the most likely places to look would be to see if in-state public universities have agreements with the community college that the associates degree will be earned, and if the associates degree major matches with the intended bachelor’s degree major if such agreements exist.
Yes, our in state schools and CCs do have an articulation agreement. The way I understand it is that if you have the associates they take it as one big package that replaces required gen eds. But, if you don’t complete it they look at the classes individually and can accept/deny or give elective credit, which is why it’s advantageous to finish the associates.
I think main roadblock here may be the privates themselves, many of which have institution specific core courses, not quite the same as general ed requirements. For example, as you know at SCU students must take religion courses, ethics courses, arts courses, etc. to fulfil the core requirements of the school. Most if not all of your daughters HS courses would not replace those and necessitate her taking additional courses that may prevent her from completing her degree in 2 years. Same with USD.
Her best bet may be to find the CA LAC’s which are more generous with merit aid/scholarships or do not have core programs if she has to do it in 3 years, or CSU’s which may or may not (??) take more of her courses. Best of luck to her!!