Will your associate degree give you the boost needed for higher degrees?

Associate degree programs are a great short-term training option for people who want to move quickly from the classroom to the job market. They're available at many community and local colleges and often have course schedules that accommodate working adults. Depending on your field, you can qualify to pursue many entry-level jobs with an associate degree to your name.

But sometimes, an associate degree is not enough. If you're an associate degree holder who's been working for a while, and you've decided it's time for more training, you might be wondering if you can count your associate toward a bachelor's degree. There are now bachelor's degree completion programs that can help you build on your associate degree. These degree completion courses may be available online as well as on-campus.

Here is some general information about what you need to know before you enroll in a bachelor's degree completion program.

All schools accept credit differently

First, you need to make sure that the college or online school you're planning to apply to will accept your associate degree. Individual colleges and universities have the right to accept or reject your previous credits for any reason, so it's important to discuss your situation with a representative at the institution you want to attend.

If you earned your associate degree at a community college, try calling a counselor there to find if they have articulation agreements with any colleges or universities. Articulation agreements are a defined set of terms that create a partnership between community colleges and four-year schools. These agreements explicitly lay out terms for transferring credits from the two-year school to the four-year school to complete a traditional or online bachelor's degree, often by telling you exactly which courses the four-year school will accept credits from.

Depending on the courses you took, you may need to make up credits before you can start earning your bachelor's degree. This is especially true if your associate degree was a career degree rather than a transfer degree.

Transfer degrees versus career degrees

Typically, an associate degree program requires about 20 courses, or 60 credits to graduate, and involves a mix of general education and career-specific classes. "Transfer degrees" are associate degree programs designed to prepare a student for a bachelor's degree down the road. To that end, transfer degrees have more general education requirements built into the curriculum. In general, if you earned an Associate of Arts, Associate of Fine Arts, Associate of Arts in Teaching or Associate of Science, you've earned a transfer degree.

A "career degree" drops most of these general education courses to focus entirely on training graduates to compete for a specific job. This degree may be called an Associate of Applied Science, Associate in Occupational Studies or Associate in Industrial Technology. You won't usually undertake enough general education courses to count many of the credits earned with one of these degrees toward a bachelor's degree program.

The Associate of Business Administration degree straddles both worlds: It is generally intended as a career degree, but could be used to transfer to a business degree program at the bachelor level at some four-year schools.

Claiming non-traditional credit

If you find you need to make up general education courses before you can start your bachelor's degree completion program, don't be discouraged. It's possible to earn college credit based on material you've learned in your working life or during military deployment. You'll have to prove you understand the material at a college-degree level by taking a standardized test. Tests include:

College-Level Examination Program (CLEP): These exams are accepted by 2,900 colleges and universities in the United States. Depending on the transfer institution (and on your score) CLEP exams can earn you up to three credits per exam. Fees apply, unless you are an eligible enlisted military servicemember, military veteran, or military family member. CLEP is owned by the College Board, the company that also administers the SAT to high school students.

DSST Exams (formerly Dantes Subject Standardized Tests): Prometric designed the DSSTs to offer credit for experiential learning. About 2,000 colleges accept this alternative credit option. Fees apply, unless you are an eligible enlisted military servicemember, military veteran or military family member.

Before you decide to take any test, make sure the school you want to attend will accept the credits if you pass. And find out what the school's limit is for accepting non-traditional credits - most schools will only let you pass out of a few classes in certain subjects this way.

Online bachelor degree completion programs

It's possible to pursue certain bachelor degree completion programs online. This adds an extra element of convenience and flexibility to your study. You can access your online classes from anywhere at any time, enabling you to attend school while you work full-time or care for family members. Online education offers additional benefits, such as the ability to play back lectures more than once, and the opportunity to meet students from all over the world, as online programs often have a broad geographical reach.

Whether you decide to study online or on-campus, most bachelor degree completion programs should last about two years, provided you've met all the requirements before hand. Choose a program hosted by a regionally accredited institution - accreditation is a voluntary process that ensures schools maintain a certain level of quality in their degree programs.

Information in this article was provided by Colorado Technical University. Contact CTU today if you're interested in developing marketable knowledge and career-relevant skills with an industry-current degree program. (CTU does not guarantee employment or salary.)

Courtesy of ARAcontent