Associates Degree

[KAMLEM]

I can give you the perspective of an employer. I have been in the financial services industry for 20 years. I was in management for the majority of that time and I have done a lot of hiring. When a resume came across our desks, if someone didn't have a Bachelor's degree it didn't go any further so having an associate's degree was of no benefit. In fact, most of the time HR would just weed out anyone without a 4 year degree before sending it to us.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Unfortunately, what Kamlem said is true. However, as far as transferring credits, I guess it all depends on the school. In my sister's case, a CC in Northern VA transferred her credits from a secretarial school from about 20 years prior! I'd say she lucked out.

 

[debloco]

Yes, I think it's worth it. Especially since your employer is paying!

The Associate's Degree itself isn't "worth" that much in dollars over a HS degree in the marketplace, but it is worth it to have that Associate's degree if you ever decide to move on and complete a Bachelor's degree.

When you start a Bachelor's program, you'll be better off in terms of what they will require than if you have a bunch of coursework without the 2 year degree. Think of the Associate's as an "umbrella" that is recognized (almost always) as 2 years of coursework towards a Bachelor's. In other words, there might be courses you took towards your Associate's degree that they wouldn't have accepted towards their Bachelor's degree requirements if they hadn't been included within the "umbrella".

With assorted coursework and no "umbrella", a school looks at your courses in an "a la carte" fashion in light of their 4 year degree requirements and starts fitting your coursework into that framework. So you'll have the last two years of coursework to do, plus you'll need to make up any "gaps" (read: extra courses you'll need to take) from their course requirements leftover from their first two years of requirements.

Of course, all of this really only applies to traditional Associates of Science (AS) and Associates of Arts (AA) degrees. Those degrees are structured to satisfy the general education (gen ed) requirements for a broad based liberal arts education leading to a student transfering to a 4 year school to get a BA or BS.

Echoing what Ronda93 said, if your Associates is an occupational or specialized degree instead, then the situation will be different because these degrees are not looked at in the same way credit-wise towards a traditional Bachelor's degree. You would probably have more than two years of coursework to finish.