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Associate's degree
An associate's degree is a degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges and some bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities in Canada and the United States upon completion of a course of study equivalent to the first two years in a four-year college or university. It is the lowest in the hierarchy of academic degrees offered in these countries. Common abbreviations are AA (Associate of Arts), AS (Associate of Science) and AAS (Associate of Applied Science).
Generalized categories or types of Associate's Degrees
It is possible to break the Associate's Degree into three general categories.
An Associate of Arts degree is often awarded for programs that are terminal or intended for transfer to a four year college, usually with a major in the social sciences or humanities. It is also awarded to General Studies students, those who decline to select an area of concentration.
The Associate of Science degree is similarly awarded to terminal students or to potential transferees to a four years college, but the areas of concentration are usually in mathematics, natural sciences, or technology.
The Associate of Applied Science degree is awarded to students who are permitted to relax some of the general education requirements in order to study more course work in their program area. Typically, this kind of degree is for students who intend to enter the work force upon graduation.
The associate degree is most often awarded to students completing educationally broad based post secondary programs requiring at least one but generally no more than two years of full-time study. A lesser diploma, called a Certificate, is awarded for specific studies that complete in a one year program or less, for example certification in a particular subfield of information technology may only run for four to six months.
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However, for an associate's degree it is not unusual for students to study more than two years (at a reduced pace while concurrently holding a job) to complete the requirements as many of them are offered as part of evening classes, in what is known as adult continuing education. Many persons in the workforce earn bachelor's and the practice of evening studies is so prevalent in the United States that the numbers of Master's degrees as well as post graduate degrees like Law degrees earned in evening classes frequently out numbers those awarded for full day-time study
Names of Associate's Degrees
Wittstruck (1975) notes that the associate degree goes by several different names formally:
Associate of/in (name of speciality)
Associate of Applied (name of speciality)
Associate of/in Arts
Associate of Arts and Sciences
Associate of/in Applied Arts
Associate of/in Applied Science
Associate in General Education
Associate of/in General Studies
Associate of Individualized Study
Associate in Nursing
Associate of/in Occupational Studies
Associate of/in Science
Associate of Science in Nursing
Associate in Specialized Business
Associate in Specialized Technology
Associate in Technical Arts
Associate of/in Technical Studies
Associate of/in Technology
Data on assocaite degrees are frequently disaggregated by curriculum: vocational or nonvocational. The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) counts nonvocational degrees under the category "Arts and Sciences or General Programs"; vocational degrees are counted under six headings:
• business and commerce technologies
• data processing technologies
• health services/paramedical technologies
• mechanical/engineering technologies
• natural science technologies
• public service-related technologies
All of the increase is accounted for by growth in the number of vocational degrees awarded. Between 1973–1974 and 1981–1982, percent changes in the number of asociate degrees awarded were as follows:
• data processing technologies (225%)
• mechanical and engineering technologies (86%)
• business and commerce technologies (39%)
• health services and paramedical technologies (31%)
• natural sciences technologies (30%)
• arts and sciences or general programs (-4.5%)
• public service-related technologies (-7%)
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