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Are there benefits to having an AA or AS ...


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When advising students taking courses at the cc, I'd suggest that having an AA or AS meant that if they didn't complete their BA/BS for whatever reason, they'd at least have a 2-year degree.

 

I'm not aware of disadvantages to having the degree.

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Thanks Dana. Yes that is definitely a plus if the BA or BS isn't completed. I guess I'm asking because while an AA can be done with a fairly well rounded selection of courses, the AS Engineering and others require the student to really concentrate their studies in those areas. If this is being done after high school has been completed, then it's no problem as they already diversified in high school. But if it's dual enrollment, then it's harder to fit in the other things - languages, history, etc.. So maybe I'm asking from an admissions to colleges point of view. Would they rather have the well rounded student, or would they be happy to get one who has good English, and other, skills but concentrated their studies in the engineering field? I'm also wondering if that would just burn someone out on that field and they'd lose interest after getting the AS, or if it would help them to further narrow down their field of study and give purpose to their studies. I need a crystal ball. :tongue_smilie:

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I'd think then it would depend on where your child would be getting a four year degree. Very few of the engineering courses at our cc would transfer while the straight AA/AS would in effect be getting more of the general education courses out of the way.

 

And I know nothing about the four year admission issues :001_smile:

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Some states have articulation agreements where if the entire AA is done, the student is guaranteed not to need any more gen eds (unless, of course, they're studying education and missed psych 101 or something like that) if they completed the full AA. That is, they might say 'well, you needed this gen ed course for further studies and you chose that one', but they can't just say 'sorry, that's not a gen ed for us'.

 

Look into it.

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One benefit to an AA/AS can happen when the student changes schools and goes to another state or to a private school. I have one dd who has an AA and when transferring to an out of state university, that school accepted her AA and considered all her general ed complete. I have a ds who didn't care if he got his AS, and he transferred to the same out of state university. Because he didn't have the AS degree, they transferred his classes on a one-to-one basis, so that one English class he took here would apply to one English class at their school. Because of that, he had to complete all their general ed requirements, so while he had completed all the general ed reqs for our state schools, the out of state school made him take courses that are required for their general ed, and it ended up being a semester more of courses. My dd didn't have to take any of those courses because they considered her AA as completing general ed. So there is a definite benefit to getting an AA or AS if the student may transfer to another school. (Had I realized this I would have had my ds take the one course he was missing so he would have had the AS.)

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