Tips to Plan for Your Final Degree

The highest degree Jefferson offers is an associate’s degree. An associate’s degree is sometimes called a “two-year” degree, but completion of your associate’s degree does not actually depend on how long you are in school but whether you have taken the classes you need to meet the requirements of the degree. For an associate’s degree, you usually need to complete sixty credits, or about twenty classes, within specific categories.

Associate in Arts (AA) and Associate in Science (AS) degrees require more general education classes (English, math, science, history, humanities, classes, etc.) than an Associate in Applied Science (AAS). In an AAS degree you will spend more time taking classes in a specific area of your choice and less time completing general education classes.

This is why an AAS may be better if you plan to stop going to school after you complete your associate’s degree. If you intend to keep going to school after your associate’s degree, an AA or AS is often, but not always, the better choice beause bachelor's degrees often require more general education requirements. Check with the school you hope to transfer to in order to determine which degree you should get at the associate’s level.

A credit is a unit measuring an amount of learning completed. Associate's degrees typically require about sixty credits within certain categories. The average class is usually three credits. That means that an associate's degree will usually requires about twenty classes (60÷3=20).

Associate’s degrees often require you to take a class in a certain category. For example, the Associate of Arts will require you to take a natural sciences class. This means you can take any Jefferson science class to meet the requirement.

Let’s say you know you want to major in chemistry at the bachelor's level. If you plan ahead and check with the school you intend to transfer to, when you choose your natural sciences class, you can choose to take a Jefferson chemistry class that counts toward your Bachelor’s in Chemistry.

Residency refers to which school offers a class. If you want to earn a Jefferson degree, you must take 25% of the classes required for that degree at Jefferson. If you bring transfer credits into Jefferson from another school (like UK or BCTC), those credits do not give you Jefferson residency credit. Be careful to meet residency requirements in order to graduate.

When I started college, I didn’t know what I wanted to study. I talked to people I know who work different jobs to see what they like or don’t like about their work. I also went to work with some friends who have jobs I thought I might like. I decided I either wanted to become a teacher or a counselor. I met with a career counselor and discovered the option to become a social worker. I checked O*NET OnLine to see if I can afford to live off a social worker’s salary and if there are job openings for this role in my area. I decided that this is the career I want to pursue.

I want to be a barber. I wanted to take classes at Jefferson but didn't know if I needed an associate’s degree to be a barber. I did some research on O*NET OnLine and started taking classes at a vocational school instead.

I want to get my bachelor's in business-. When I went to advising at Jefferson, the advisor told me that to prepare for transfer it is really important to talk to the school I want to get my bachelor’s degree from about which degree to get at Jefferson and which classes to take. When I talked to the bachelor's school, I found out that I needed to change my Jefferson major to an AA and take some specific classes like college algebra, accounting, and economics while at Jefferson. This will make me eligbile for acceptance into the business school I want to go to.

When I was in high school, I checked to see which classes I would need to complete my associate’s degree and took those specific dual credit classes. Now, I am starting college with nine credits of my degree already completed, and I am going to see which classes I can complete at Jefferson that will count toward my bachelor’s degree.