Students who earned an associate’s degree at a local community college took one of two paths:

– Transfer track to a 4-year university. At Community College, students took general education courses and some lower division core classes and would transfer to the local state college as a Junior.

– Professional trajectory towards a job position. These associate degrees would help you get a job after graduation. Some of these careers that led to employment were: electronics, computer repair, auto mechanic, administrative assistant. College advisors emphasized that these associate degrees were not easily transferable.

Two changes have occurred to allow students with a Career Associate degree (Associate of Applied Science, Associate of Applied Technology, or non-transferable AA or AS degrees) to advance to a bachelor’s degree without losing all of their credits.

1) Private colleges (especially for-profit schools) allow students to transfer more AAS degrees and other non-transferable degrees without losing most of their credits. Even though these private schools are more expensive, students find that it will take them much less time to earn a bachelor’s degree.

2) Some state legislatures began to investigate the need for community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees. This was rejected by the State Colleges who feared a great loss of students.

So the local state universities began to make concessions. One compromise was to add the Bachelor of Applied Science or the Bachelor of Applied Technology. Students with the AAS or other non-transferable associate degree now had a way to transfer the associate degree “in full” and enter the state university as a Junior. The term “reverse degree” was used to show that the major was at the community college or lower division level and the general education would be provided at the state college or upper division level.

Recently, more compromises have been proposed. Some states are offering the 90-30 Program. The first 90 credits (usually the first 3 years) are taught at the community college, with only one year at the more expensive state university. All of these changes have lowered the costs of attending state universities.