Should Fire Academy and paramedic school be included as institutions?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

My husband completed his AA and then went on to attend the Fire Academy, and then paramedic school at a different community college. Should we put 3 institutions, or just the one for his AA. I’m confused because it mentions trade school and community college but has no way to enter “certificate” as one of the degree options.

Should I just leave off those two last programs? Should I put " 1 degree", and then “other” as the type? Is a professional certificate for fire or paramedic even a degree? Not sure how they view this and if they would use his social or something to find out he attended the two last programs. I don’t want to be accused of lying.

2

Generally, a professional certificate/state-licensing is not a degree. However, in some states, a Paramedic is bestowed an Associates degree, otherwise I believe it might be considered having attended “Trade School”, as the intended outcome is to qualify him for a job.

Even if classes were “held” at your local county’s Community College, they may not be counted has having been enrolled at that institution.

But if in doubt, you could always post your question to the Common App support team:
https://appsupport.commonapp.org/applicantsupport/s/contact-us-faqs

You could also check whether the schools he attended are on the US Dept of Education’s College Search site:

3

Thank you so much for your reply. I’ll use the link to ask them too, just in case. Thanks again!

4

My brother is a firefighter so I’ll answer this from that perspective. Fire Academy, Paramedic and EMT schools qualify as “certs” not degrees. Other certs include HasMat, Rescue, Dive, etc., in contrast to Fire Degrees like the Bachelor of Fiire Science at the University of Cincinnati.

So, list degrees, not quals or certs.

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