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There's actually very little reason to pursue an associate's degree unless it coincides/deviates very little from your transfer plans. I mean, unless you REALLY wanted some sort of 2-year checkpoint, it's better to just sign a transfer agreement after your first year and achieve it so you can transfer ASAP to a 4-year. From my time, that was the quickest way to transfer. Good luck!

On June 26 2014 10:19 esReveR wrote:


From his previous blogs, the reason is cost. There is nothing wrong with earning an associates degree in a community college and transferring to a four year university to work on a bachelor's after.

On June 28 2014 15:01 eNtitY~ wrote:


True but it's not like you need an associates to transfer to a university. I think what Lovedrops is saying is that there is a lot of cases where earning that associates degree will cost you more because you take classes not necessary for the bachelors you're aiming for.

On June 28 2014 18:36 Lovedrop wrote:


^ I'm not advocating that he skips CC, and I understand that cost is already a factor. That being said, you do not NEED an associate's degree to transfer. The best way to transfer is do very well your first year, and go to your transfer career center and apply for a TAG application (example) It's the quickest and most efficient way to guarantee your transfer from a California CC to a 4-year.



There's a difference between IGETC and getting an "associate's degree". The difference is that the associate's degree path contains classes that are not required if all you wanted to do is transfer. It's better to do something like IGETC (in his case, not IGETC but the UC one).

You do not need to finish every Area in your breadth pattern to transfer. That is a common misconception among transfer students. The only requirements to transfer is ENGL1A-1B, 1 MATH (which you're doing as STEM anyways), 4 courses in various GEs, and 60 semester units/90 quarter units. That is the minimum to transfer and what your TAG application will require you to do. The only difference for a STEM major is that your 60/90 units will not be filled with GEs, but mostly lower division STEM classes. This is because STEM majors are often required to go through a preparatory path to guarantee their TAG. The best way to see what to take these two years is going by ASSIST and seeing which classes are transferable that are vital to your major and get as many done as possible. It is impossible to finish them in the span of three years, since there's about 4-5 sequences that you have to go through.

Again, I'm just making it clear that I'm not telling him to skip CC. CC is a great money-saver, (although still costly to international students), and a good place to get started.