Does anybody know anyone who graduated with an associates degree when they graduated high school? And what school they attended and got accepted into.
I would put an associates degree in the same category as the AP scholar awards. They don’t add anything additional to your application.
My niece completed her AA while in high school and was accepted to several colleges and universities in the midwest, as well as Juniata in PA.
But where she was admitted isn’t necessarily pertinent to you. What do you want to study? Where have other students from your high school who have also completed their AA or AS degrees been accepted? Do you prefer to be admitted somewhere that will accept all of your credits and give you junior standing?
@Eeyore123, it’s definitely not the same thing as an AP Scholar award. At a lot of schools, it can make you a transfer student, so you’d go in as a junior. Unless you’re shooting for an elite college, I would look at your state’s flagships or those of neighboring states, as they’re probably more used to dealing with transfers from the CC that issued your AA degree. I have a friend in this situation and I don’t know where she’s applying, unfortunately – her problem is that she wants to be a freshman socially, but she’ll be taking all junior-level classes and graduating college in two years, and she’s not willing to repeat freshman/sophomore year at a school that doesn’t transfer her credits (obviously).
Are you already in the program or just considering it?
Someone I know did get into UC Berkeley and graduated two years after HS
@SuperSenior19 I’ve been in the program since freshman year and taking the STEM AAS pathway for my high school. In the fall, I’ll be taking Communications 108 and History 200 at my local community college. My plan is to shoot for an elite school (Not Ivy) like Emory which is my top choice. And I’m currently a junior taking all honors and AP classes.
@happymomof1 The program I want to study is either nursing or premed (biochemistry) pathway. From presentations in the program given by the coordinator they have been accepted into schools like MIT, UC’s and some elite universities across the country but every graduate went to University of Maryland. My dream shot is to go to Emory University but, I don’t know if I should apply for a freshman or a transfer. Can I do both?
Generally, you would apply as a frosh if your college courses were all before high school graduation, but check each college to be sure.
Of course, if you matriculate as a frosh, you could start in more advanced courses in some subjects depending on your previous college course work and transfer credit. This could give the option of taking additional electives and/or graduating early.
College courses and grades while in high school do count for pre-med GPA when applying to medical schools.
@SuperSenior19 you missed my point entirely. The difference between someone that has 60 credits and another that has 60 credits + an AA degree has no difference in college acceptance. Also, you would have to finish the degree by first semester senior year to even be on the application for non gap year applications.
@ucbalumnus thanks so much that really helped especially since you brought up the Pre-med. My overall GPA in high school is not bad but also not that great. I have a 3.6 GPA but hopefully I bring it up by the beginning of senior year next year. My overall gpa at my community college is a 4.0. Will that affect anything?
If you have all A and A+ grades in your college courses, that is good for preloading your pre-med GPA. Be aware that medical schools do want to see substantial science courses at four year schools, but if you are a biochemistry major, you will be doing that anyway with your upper level biochemistry major courses even if you took the lower level science courses at community college. Note: avoid repeating courses, since that will look like grade grubbing (bad).
When you apply to college, you will need to send official copies of both your high school and your community college transcripts. What each place you apply to makes of your grades is entirely up to them, so there isn’t any easy way to predict how they will interpret things. In general, dual-enrollment, AP, and IB classes are considered to be more rigorous than regular high school classes.
It is telling that even though students from your program have been admitted to a lot of different places, in the end they are choosing UM-CP. Ask them about their decision-making process. I expect that UM-CP is much more generous with awarding transfer credit for their classes and accepting their associates degrees for junior standing. It also might have proven to be so much less expensive that it ended up being the obvious place to go.
Sit down with your parents and run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of the places currently on your list. You will be applying as a freshman, so they should be reasonably accurate unless your parents are divorced or own a business or a lot of property. It is important to know whether or not a place is likely to be affordable for your family.
@Eeyore123 I don’t see what the difference is; someone with 60 credit hours is bound to have an AA degree anyway, and colleges will know they’re in their HS’s pathway program to get an AAS degree by the end of high school. Either way, it wouldn’t make a difference.
@Mandyvi123 I’m a little confused by that; are you planning on completing the program? With how many hours? You might get some hours from AP as well. I glanced at Emory’s website and it seems like they’re pretty friendly to transfer students – they accept ~100 each year (25% acceptance rate, similar to their freshman rate) and you can apply as a transfer with only 28 credit hours completed (I think you need the full 60 to transfer into the BSN program, however). Plus with the Oxford College / Emory setup, it might not be as isolating or unusual to be a transfer student compared to other colleges.
Would you be open to applying as a transfer, or would you like to apply as a freshman? Based on my friend’s experience, I disagree with other posters in that most non-elite colleges will see you as a transfer student, but you could find schools that will accept you as a freshman if you’d prefer that. Maybe graduating in three years would be a good compromise?
There are plenty of ways for someone to earn 60 credits without earning an associates degree:
- The credits were earned at a college that does not grant associates degrees.
- The courses were not those that fulfilled the subject requirements for an associates degree at one of the colleges attended.
For the UCs, even if you have an AA, the rule is that if you are graduating from HS, you apply as a freshman. I doubt if the AA buys you much wrt admissions, but it can help you career wise if you were say a nursing major - you could be an RN right away. It will definitely help you to graduate faster if you want, assuming that the university that you go to accepts all the credits.
@SuperSenior19 I am not sure why you keep referring to transfer application at Emory for the OP. Since the OP has not graduated HS yet, they will be a freshman applicant.
From the Emory website:
Because of this, the OP will also likely be limited in the number of credits from the AA that will transfer to Emory.
Also from the Emory website:
@SuperSenior19 In my program overview, it shows that I need to take 20 community college credits to earn my AAS and I need 18 more which I am during this year, the summer of 2020 and my senior year. I would be open to apply for transfer and that’s mainly what I am pointing towards to. Is it possible to apply as a freshman and if I get denied can I apply as a transfer?
It is usually better to apply as frosh than transfer if you want more merit scholarship opportunities. In addition, a frosh with lots of transfer credit may have the option but not the requirement to graduate in fewer than eight semesters, while a transfer with 60 credits may be expected or required to graduate in four semesters.
However, as noted above, some colleges may limit transfer credit for frosh more than they do for transfers.
@Mandyvi123 It is very unlikely at any school that you get to choose if you apply as a 1st year or as a transfer. Also, be aware that it looks like the program that you are in counts 1 class = 1 credit ( that is why you need 20 credits instead of the “normal” 60). In the Emory example above, that would imply that you could get a max of 6 classes of credit from your AA program. Finally, if you have any AP credits that is included in the 6 class (18 credit) maximum.
If I had an AA as a HSer, I would apply to my State U so I could save 2 years on tuition.