Will my Associate's Degree help my chances?Answered
Hello! I am a high school junior entering my senior year. I have a bit of a unique situation regarding college credit and would like some advice on it.
I am a part of a program that allows me to earn an Associate's Degree in the Technical Sciences from a local college at the same time as my high school diploma (I intend to graduate with a high school honors diploma). The coursework for this program consists of a career technical program at a local trade school and college classes for both my junior and senior years. The career program and college classes count as both high school and college credit. After I graduate from high school and receive my degrees, I plan to apply to a different college to eventually earn a master's degree there. How would this affect my college experience and admissions chances?
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1 answer
I do not understand your question. First of all you can not apply directly to Graduate School to earn a Masters degree just with a AA or Associates degree. To apply to a Masters program, you have to have a B.A., B.S or equivalent 4 year undergraduate degree.
You might be able to apply to a joint B.S./M.S program or joint B.A./M.A. program but you would need to fulfill all the graduation requirements for your Bachelors degree prior to embarking on your Masters degree.
In general, these State run AA degree (DE dual enrollment programs with community colleges) are designed to keep students in-state and give them a leg up with getting them through a State college system faster so they become more productive in that particular state, whether that is Washington, Texas, or Connecticut etc.
The greatest benefit arises only if you apply to State schools in your state that recognizes these AA dual enrollment degrees and applies your earned credits toward your Bachelors education. They are not interstate transferable. So if you earned your AA DE degree in Florida, you can't expect a Washington State college to acknowledge them or accept them as transfer credit. The best you can expect if you apply out of state is that you may place out of some classes, and if you took AP coursework and scored like 4s and 5s on the AP exams, perhaps they will be counted as college credit (but you have to look at that schools AP Credit schedule to determine that.)
If you apply to T25 or very competitive college, I do not think your involvement in this program give you any sort of edge versus someone who has completed the IB diploma program or say taking 10-12 AP courses and got As in them and 4s and 5s on the AP exam. I wouldn't expect any kind of "bump" for your admissions.
I don't know what your transcript looks like or what coursework you took. I would recommend however that you pick colleges that align with your intended major and academic narrative.
Good luck.
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I am aware that you have to have a Bachelors to get into a Masters program. I should have clarified that I wanted to eventually earn a Masters degree and not directly apply to a program. Thanks for your advice!