Associate Degree Program?

Q: what I have read and heard that graduates of the Regent College Bachelor Degree program are widely accepted into graduate programs. Can the same thing be said for graduates of Regents associate degree programs who are applying to study on campus and earn a bachelors degree from a 4 year university?

A:My experience as an educational counselor has shown that the associate degree isn't relevant in too many cases. Universities tend to accept your previous studies in an associate degree on a credit-by-credit basis as you apply to the universities' degree programs. In other words, completing an associate degree does not ensure two years' credit towards a bachelor's degree. That said, during my years working with the Community College of the Air Force, I found that CCAF had articulated several matriculation agreements with universities, ensuring that graduates of some of CCAF's associate degrees (an accredited community college who's degrees were based on Air Force Technical Training and civilian general education) would receive the proper advanced standing in their bachelor's programs. Sans those matriculation agreements, students faced a credit-by-credit process. And those who've completed a Regents progam--or one like it--face the typical limits placed by traditional universities on nontraditional credit. I myself found it better to press on with a Regents bachelor's after earning the

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A: from them. With a traditional university, I was almost back to square one. My somewhat limited experience in this area suggests that most four year colleges look at the credit rather than the associate's as a whole; for this reason, it might be worth your while to discuss the possibility with your prospective four-year colleges before going through with the idea if your associate's would involve non-standard sources of credit. Otherwise, I don't think there would be any problems. I haven't heard about any articulation agreements at Regents, although that doesn't mean they don't have some. At the community college where I work, our articulation agreements tend to be with our state universities only and tend to be made with individual departments (majors) at each school. Students who intend to transfer credits someplace else or to a program in a department with which we have no articulation agreement are encouraged to work with an advisor from the four-year school to make sure all their credits will transfer.

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