Help, please?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, so I wasn’t sure where to put this but I just need help understanding a few things.

I am close to completing my associates degree at a CC and I will be transferring to a university. I was looking at the website and I was a little confused.

An associates degree is 2 years and a bachelors is 4 years, correct? For a bachelors degree is that an additional 4 years added to the 2 years it takes to get an associates degree? So, 6 years to complete an associates and bachelors degree? Or does the associates degree carry over to the bachelors degree so it takes 4 years to complete both?

Then, if you were to change your major after you get your associates degree, would you be starting a new associates degree or would it still go to a bachelors degree. Right now I’m majoring in Life Sciences. I am going to wait to change my major once I get my associates degree in Life Sciences. Then, I’m going to change my major to Web Design. Would I be able to get a bachelors degree in Web Design by doing that or would it change to me getting my associates degree for Web Design.

Last thing, if I were to change my major when I go to get my bachelors, would I have to complete all the courses required for that major? Like, would I have to start from the beginning as if I were trying to complete my associates degree?

I apologize if I don’t make much sense, I’m not sure how to explain or word the questions. Any help is appreciated, I am really stressed about college right now. I want to make sure I’m on the right track. I’m the first in my family to go to college so my parents can’t offer much help and my counselors didn’t offer much help either.

2

I went through this process with my nephew a few years ago. He went from a county college to a state university.

If you remain in the same area of study, it can be done in two years. My nephew took one extra semester because some required courses were hard to schedule. If you change areas of study, it may take you three or more years as you take all the required courses. It seems like if you go from a community college to an in-state state university, the switch is easier since community colleges are supposed to be feeders to the state university system.

I’m not sure you’ll find a web design major. It would probably be in the computer science department. Similarly, life sciences would probably be within biology.

I hope this helps.

3

All classes that are similar at your CC and at the 4-year university “transfer” with you, which means you don’t have to retake them. In most cases, you’ll transfer about 3 semesters’ worth of credit, but sometimes if your CC had a good articulation agreement with the university, you’ll transfer everything! So, it’d take you 8 to 9 semesters, total, to get your Bachelor’s, not 4 at CC + 8 at 4-year.

You would have an associete in Life Sciences and a bachelor’s in web design. :slight_smile:

Now, if you change your major, all the premajor courses stop “counting” for your new major - biology wouldn’t count for web design. So, you would have most of your gen eds covered, but you would need to take the web design pre-reqs.
Depending on your state, you may not be admitted to web design as a major (ie., CA).