Last Sunday afternoon, my old-time buddy and I were having coffee down at the local café. As we sipped our coffee, we reflected on just how fast the year 2019 has flown. I mean, we are already almost done with October, and in a couple of months, it will be 2020. How time flies, huh?
I couldn’t help but notice how my friend wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of a new year coming. So, I ‘pestered’ him a bit for the details, and as it turns out. He wasn’t quite satisfied with his current line of work. He dreaded the idea of ‘wasting’ another year working at his current job. A job that he feels doesn’t quite allow him to live up to his full potential.
I then suggested he should switch to a new line of career. He wasn’t entirely pleased with the idea, saying ‘ain’t no one got time for four more years of schooling, with all dem exams and tuition fees.’ Well, you can tell he wasn’t remotely interested in starting afresh with a new line of training, which would see him go back to school for a new bachelor’s degree.
An Associate’s Degree to the Rescue
To calm down my friend’s nerves, I suggested the idea of taking part-time classes doing an associate’s degree while he is still working. He could take evening and weekend classes after work, and unlike a bachelor’s degree, the entire course runs for about two years. At this point, my friend became less agitated and started paying keen interest in the idea I was proposing.
At that point, I took out my laptop and, thanks to the free Wi-Fi at the café, went online for some little ‘fact-checking’ about associate’s degree. With my old-time buddy beside me, we began searching on the ‘pros and cons’ of an associate degree, and came up with the following:
Merits of an Associate’s Degree
We found out that there are some merits and demerits to an associate’s degree. That is to say; it is not good all the time for everyone across the spectrum. Thus, we looked at in what scenarios might an associate’s degree be good, and where can it be bad. Let us start with the scenarios when it is good:
Can be completed in less than 2 Years
The majority of the associate’s degrees can be done within two years or less. That means less time and money spent on schooling, which is ideal for someone turned off by the idea of spending another four years of learning. For someone with a lot of responsibility – like a homestead breadwinner like my friend – this route is friendly as it will put a less financial strain on his household.
He can continue doing his current job, and in the evenings and weekends, attend classes. After about two years (or even less), he would be through with the course and can use the certification to apply for new jobs. This would be a shorter and inexpensive route to changing careers compared to earning a new four-year bachelor’s degree.
Can compensate for poor High School grades
There are those of us who, for one reason or the other, did not have an excellent academic run in high school. That meant they could not proceed with higher levels of educations, which would have enabled them to go for competitive jobs in the market. While repeating high school may not be an option, it doesn’t mean you have to bind yourself to a lifetime of high school diploma jobs for the rest of your life.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), with an associate’s degree, you have more job options compared to someone with just a high school diploma. BLS data shows there are over 6.3 million jobs available to Americans with associate’s degrees, and only 4.7 million jobs available to those with just high school diplomas.
A Stepping Stone to Higher Education
For someone with poor high school grades, pursuing a bachelor’s degree – especially at the top university – is very difficult. Getting an associate’s degree after high school will improve your chances of getting admitted to the top universities since it will have upgraded your poor high school grades.
Interestingly, once admitted to a bachelor’s degree using your associate’s degree. You take less time to graduate from the bachelor’s degree course; it can be cut down by as much as two years. With an associate’s degree, you will get the opportunity to pursue higher learning, without spending more years in school than those who immediately embarked with a bachelor’s program.
Can lead to Satisfying Careers
This point was perhaps the most relevant to my friend, who got me searching into the associate’s degrees in the first place. There are a number of both satisfying and high-paying careers one can get into with just an associate’s degree. Examples are as follows:
| Nursing | Business Management | Health Information Tech |
| * Registered Nurse * Travel Nurse * Intensive Care Unit (ICU) | * Administrative assistant * Store manager * Office manager | * Quality improvement analyst * EHR implementation specialist * Health data analyst |
| Web Design | Early Childhood education | Information Technology |
| * Web developer * Graphic designer * Animator | * Preschool teacher * Childcare worker * Assistant teacher | * Technical support specialists * Network admin * Help desk technician |
The shortlist above is just an example of satisfactory and well-paying jobs one can get with an associate’s degree. There are many others we have not included in our list.
Ideal for Someone uncertain of their choice Career
If you are fresh out of high school, the world expects you to have your whole life all thought out. Well, a good number of us fake the confidence that we know what we want, while in reality, just a handful of us are certain. An associate’s degree presents the perfect opportunity to test the waters with just one leg in and the other out.
If you are not sure what career path you would like to pursue after high school. Going for an associate’s degree instead of a bachelor’s degree will provide you the time and opportunity to test out a given career path, experience it, and then decide if that something you want to do for the long haul. If it’s not, then pulling out will have fewer regrets in terms of both time and finances invested pursuing the wrong course.
Demerits of an Associate’s Degree
There are always two sides to a coin, and an associate’s degree also has a good side and a bad side. The following are some of the demerits my friends and I established:
Those with a Bachelor’s Degree will have an upper hand
Holders of associate’s degrees are often in the same race for jobs with bachelor’s degrees holders for the same white-collar jobs. When the employer receives hundreds of resumes for the same position with an equal number of candidates with an associate’s degree as those with bachelor’s degrees. The odds will be highly against those with the associate’s degrees.
Is it worth it where a 4-Year Bachelor’s Degree is the desire?
If you are going to take a particular bachelor’s degree, and you are sure that is what you want. Then taking an associate’s degree running for two years, then getting credits to earn the bachelor’s degree for the reduced two years term, is not worth it. You are better off going through the full four years course it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree than the intermittent learning sessions of an associate’s degree followed by a bachelor’s degree.
AS Credit Transfer can be tricky
As mentioned earlier, you can take an associate degree at a fraction of the cost of a bachelor’s degree. The course also runs for a shorter time of two years or even less. However, when you finally decide to pursue a bachelor’s degree. You may find hurdles in transferring all your credits from AS to a bachelor’s degree. If they get transferred successfully, will they all count towards the attainment of the BA?
Wrapping up…
An associate degree without a doubt is a quick and affordable route towards getting certified for many jobs. It is particularly ideal for people looking to change careers but does not want to risk cutting off their daily cash flow from their current employment or sacrificing too much time to get another degree. At the same time, it offers a second opportunity for people whose dreams to advance to a higher level of learning was diminished by poor grades in high school.
This degree is best when used as a supplementary qualification in a specific field. Take, for instance, where one has a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Economics and takes an associate degree in statistics. That would give the holder an authoritative position in matters of economics and statistics.