Is there a reliable list of RA colleges that accept DETC credits or degrees?

Frankly, it seems like a no brainer to me. When I look back on the choices I've made in my life, and consider how many I would have made differently had I known how things were going to unfold (and they are still unfolding), not just based on my tiny slice of the worldview at the time, I cannot justify doing anything less than RA. Others have different motivations and dreams than I do, but I don't see the value in having to continue to accomodate for choosing that which was not widely accepted in the long run. RA community college credits, even those earned online, are just about as cheap as you can get. I'm pleased that when I talk to the graduate school folks I don't have to shuck and jive about my undergraduate degree at all. And, all in all, it was dirt cheap, and every bit of it (except the exams) could have been funded by financial aid if I had so desired.

 

Not to be disrespectful, but would you be one of the ones looking down your nose at me because I started off with an associate's degree through a nationally accredited institution? Ashworth for me is a means to an end. Once my goals are completed, I will end up with an RA degree. Because my education was partially NA, does that make it inferior to the RA "golden standard." Would you consider it the same for those folks who CLEPed out of everything, and acquired their degrees through those means.

 

<<Frankly, it seems like a no brainer to me. When I look back on the choices I've made in my life, and consider how many I would have made differently had I known how things were going to unfold (and they are still unfolding), not just based on my tiny slice of the worldview at the time, I cannot justify doing anything less than RA. Others have different motivations and dreams than I do, but I don't see the value in having to continue to accomodate for choosing that which was not widely accepted in the long run. RA community college credits, even those earned online, are just about as cheap as you can get. I'm pleased that when I talk to the graduate school folks I don't have to shuck and jive about my undergraduate degree at all. And, all in all, it was dirt cheap, and every bit of it (except the exams) could have been funded by financial aid if I had so desired.>>


I believe DETC is very accepted depending on what you plan to use it for. For example, DETC degrees are acceptable for any federal government position. NA credits in general are becoming more accepted all of the time everywhere. A surprising number of graduate schools will accept DETC credit. Would I suggest that someone earn a DETC degree and stop there? No. But I see nothing wrong in using a very affordable DETC associates degree as a stepping stone, especially when there are so many good RA schools that will accept the credit. As a side note, if pending legislation is passed, as I suspect it will be, the transferability of NA credits to RA schools will increase 100 fold. Don't get me wrong...I'm not one of these guys that champions the DETC and knocks RA schools. I feel there is a place for the DETC today, and the scenario described in this thread fits it perfectly.

I do believe, as one having taken classes at both NA and RA schools, that there is NO difference between the rigor and quality of the education based soley on the school's accreditation...NONE. There are strong schools and weak schools within each.

Pug

 

I've done some more checking on this issue, just out of curiosity. I did find another RA college which will accept DETC credits. City University in Bellevue, Washington is RA and offers DL bachelors degree programs such as mass communications, business and education. According to their catalog, they will even consider course work completed at non-accredited vocational schools. You can find them at www.cityu.edu

 

Thanks for the information. City University actually had the baccalaureate program I am interested in. I sent them an email for more information regarding their programs and transfer of credits.

 

I'm frankly couldn't care less what anyone's accreditation is. I really mean that. That said, I've run into the NA vs RA thing with my own plans, and am aware of the pitfalls of NA. It's not "my" gold standard, it's the gold standard of a lot of folks who can decide yea or nay on jobs, college applications and things like that. If my chance for (fill in the blank) with no college is 25%, and my chance with RA is 75%, why settle for an NA 50% or less when it wouldn't have cost me any more to get RA?

My wife teaches at a community college. She gets people in her office all the time who got certificates or associates degrees from DETC or otherwise NA schools. She has to tell them that there isn't much that she can do with those credits. Since the community college is public, and most people really don't understand accreditation anyway, they leave feeling really mad and used. They cannot use the NA associates they earned to get into any four year schools around here. Perhaps City University, but they are very expensive and have a less than stellar reputation in their own backyard.

As for CLEP and other means, I took CLEP and DSST exams, challenged course outcomes and did self-paced online courses to get my associates. I only sat in one class, and that's because I wanted to. As far as associates degrees go, there are those that are considered transferable (Associates in Arts and Sciences in my state) and those that are not (everything else). However, I found out that Bellevue University would take my Associates in Technology - General degree in full. This saved me about six months over getting the "right associates", and so that's what I did.

Nothing I post here is meant to be snobbery or judgement. But I know that it's easy to make choices based on "today" or means to and end, and then get tripped up down the road. If this board is about advise, then that is how anything I write here should be interpreted.

I do wish you the best with your search.

 

Thanks for the info, spmoran. I have already decided to go the CLEP/DANTES, online course, TESC route. It's not that I have anything against NA or DETC. I really would not mind taking courses from an institution like Ashworth and paying a reasonable $35 per month...IF if meant that I was going to wind up with a degree which I can take almost anywhere and get into the exact program that I want. I don't want to "settle" for any particular degree or school or handicap myself because I decided to save a few bucks by going the DETC route.

I do have a few questions, spmoran. Where did you get your associates degree? You mention City University's reputation. At one time, I had seriously considered pursuing a BS there. What are some of the problems with City University's reputation?

 

Pierce College in Lakewood, Washington. One can get an entire AAS online if they wish. It costs more for out of state folks, though. If you want to pursue this, look at Central Texas Community College. They have "campuses" on many military sites and may have one where you live.

Ok, this might get me seared around here, but I hope not. It is solely my opinion based on my experiences, nothing more, nothing less. I live in the area where City U was started. They have a reputation among many (not all) people in this area as a place to get a substandard education (easy degree) paid for by employers. I first started hearing these grumblings when I worked for The Boeing Company in the late 1990's, and I still hear it today. However, and this is important, I've never heard this same things said outside of Western Washington. I think they are much lower profile outside of this area, and not nearly as well known.

Now, that said, since UOP has started an advertising campaign unlike anything I've ever heard before, not too many people are paying attention to City U. At least I'm not hearing much about it one way of the other. Citu U is very UOP'ish in how they do business. They are regionally accredited, so they are a legitimate school. I've known people who were City U grads, but I've known may more who started and dropped out.

I didn't choose them because I live in Western Washington and didn't want any stigma on my resume (real or imagined), and because they only accept 60 semester hours of lower level credits. It would have taken me almost a year longer to pretty much the same City U degree that I am earning at Bellevue U.

Sean

 

Oops! I meant late 1980's! Sorry.

 

new here

I am new here and a soon-to-be graduate of Ashworth College's AS in CIM. I have 25+ years of experience with computers, networking, and everything else "techie as I spent my teen years and up as a geek. It proved worthwhile as I have worked my way up to being the Systems Admin in a K-12 institution.

I approached the Administration and asked them if they would be willing to pay for my AS from Ashworth. They said yes right away. I know that I'm very lucky. I didn't like being one of very few staffers without a degree; that was my primary motivation for taking this on.

I had hoped to complete this degree and then move on to a Bachelor's degree but after researching it online for quite a while, it's just not financially prudent for me. I have no interest in taking on thousands of dollars in loans, and worst of all, paying for and taking numerous classes that have absolutely nothing to do with my degree. I have no worries vis-a-vis job security, but a full four year degree would really be nice.

I'm hoping that in the future, Ashworth will offer a Bachelor's degree. It was odd to me that they began offering Masters' degrees because that required an influx of students new to the Ashworth program while introducing a BA would tap into the existing student base and probably be very worthwhile for them. Ah well. Maybe some day.

I just wanted to comment on this remark from this thread:

I wondered about this too when I enrolled. I worried that I'd be embarrassed to tell people about my degree and how it was obtained, however, I have learned that the amount of discipline required to study at home is incredible.

On top of that-- at least in technology-- one person simply cannot know everything. There is a lot of research involved. I don't think that memorizing material for an exam is a good way for me to retain information. I attempt to take my exams without using the book and do answer all of the questions, however, afterwards, I go back through the book and read back everything to make sure I understood it correctly and answered correctly. I think this type of reinforcement helps me to retain better. Others may not see it this way and that is okay; I'm just speaking for myself and what's effective.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. I do have a question though, can someone tell me the difference between an AS and and AAS and why one might be seen as inferior. I saw it mentioned somewhere on this board and quickly checked Ashworth to be sure that I'm getting an AS as opposed to an AAS.

Thanks.

 

Re: new here

In an RA school the difference between an AS and an AAS would be much the same as the difference between a technology degree and an engineering degree.

I years ago obtained an AAS degree in electronics, from an RA school, though I completed five math courses. So it goes and so I think you should consider your degree as being AAS for purposes of planning further schooling.

Just my opinion.

 

Part 1 of 2

No apologies necessary. You're doin' just fine.

Your're definitely getting an AS at Ashworth -- or so says the DETC, which is a USDoE/CHEA-approved accreditor. But it's true -- or at least would appear to be true to some -- that an Ashworth AS has a sort of AAS feel to it. First, let's make sure we all understand the fundamental differences...


About Associate of Arts (AA) and
Associate of Science (AS) Degrees

Most in the regionally-accredited (RA) world will agree that an "Associate of Arts" (AA) and/or an "Associate of Science" (AS) degree is, either of them, a program of study primarily intended to encourage exploration of academic options, to provide a strong general education component, and to prepare students to initiate upper-division work in baccalaureate programs, or to prepare for employment -- probably with more emphasis on the former (i.e., initiating upper-division work) than the latter (preparing for employment). That difference (between the former and the latter), it's worthy of note, helps to explain, at least in part, how AA and AS degrees differ AAS degrees... as you'll see momentarily.

Typically, a minimum of 60 credit hours (in the semester system) are required to complete an AA or AS degree. At most RA institutions, roughly half of those hours -- some 30 to sometimes as many as 39 hours -- must be in "general education" coursework.

"General Education" courses are designed to help students:

• Develop broader perspectives and deeper understandings of their communities and the world; and/or,
  
• Explore a variety of topics with an eye toward discovering new interests and uncovering new talents; and/or,
  
• Challenge previously held assumptions about the world and its inhabitants; and/or,
  
• Develop vital workplace skills; and/or,
  
• Find ways to make positive contributions to our community, nation and world; and/or,
  
• Learn how to learn... for a lifetime.

Most "general education" coursework covers the following kinds of subject areas to varying degrees, depending on the institution:

• Mathematics, statistics and/or quantitative reasoning
  
• English writing, literature and literacy
  
• Biological Sciences
  
• Fine Arts
  
• Humanities
  
• Physical Sciences
  
• Social Sciences
  
• Economics, civilization and/or government
  
• Any of a variety of other course types intended to enhance communication, creativity, critical thinking, esthetics, social skills, reasonaing skills, and overall general substance.

Again, a typical, regionally-accredited AA or AS degree will consist of roughly 30 to maybe as many as 39 hours of the immediately above-listed kinds of coursework -- roughly half its hours, in total.

The remaining 19 to 30 hours of the typical regionally-accredited AA or AS degree may be taken either in a variety of subject areas so that the student will get a good, well-rounded, generalized, preliminary understanding of several potential baccalaureate majors; or may be taken in a specific subject area in preparation for a very specific or particular baccalaureate major, or for employment.

Regionally-accredited AA and AS degrees are often called “transfer” or "transferable" degrees because they typically (not always, mind you... but usually) satisfy the lower division general education requirements for a baccalaureate program at most regionally-accredited schools that offer four-year bachelors degrees. In other words, someone with a good RA AA or AS degree (which typically takes two years to earn) will usually find themselves with only two more years (an additional 60 or so) hours to go in order to obtain their bachelors degree.

That said, it's very important to keep in mind that the completion of any AS or AA degree does not necessarily guarantee automatic acceptance into any specific major at any specific college or university. Each school has the right to either accept or not accept whichever courses it wishes. But therein lies the value of regional accreditation, since most regionally-accredited schools typically try their hardest to accept as many credits from other regionally-accredited schools as they possibly can. Some schools are very strict and some are not. Some will accept virtually any regionally-accredited AA or AS as requisite to their BA or BS programs without looking very closely at the AA's or AS's specific coursework; while others will go over the AA or AS with a fine-toothed comb... some of them looking for every opportunity to make you take an additional lower-division course or two just to earn an extra buck; and others looking for deficiencies simply so that they can tell you to take an extra course or two just so you'll be on a level playing field with other juniors. Gratefully, most regionally-accredited universities do it for the latter reason and not the former.

Continued in next post...

 

Part 2 of 2

...continued from previous post.

About Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degrees

Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees are programs of study that are intended more (than AA and/or AS programs) to prepare students for entry-level careers than they are to prepare them for continuing on to upper-division study at the baccalaureate level. That's not to say that an AAS degree holder can't or wouldn't continue on to get his/her BA or BS using his/her AAS as requisite; but if s/he does, s/he will, no doubt, find the s/he must take additional lower-division general education coursework since a far higher (and an AA's or AS's) number of an AAS's hours are often highly career-specific.

Like an AA or AS, a minimum of 60 semester hours is required to obtain the AAS degree at most RA institutions. Though 60 (or maybe 63) hours is typical, some (but not many) AASs require as many as 69 or 72 hours.

But, unlike the AA or AS degrees, nowhere near half of an AAS's 60-or-so hours go toward general education coursework. In fact, at many RA schools which offer AA, AS and AAS degrees, the general education coursework hours for the AAS degree may be as few as 12 to 15 hours -- or approximately half of the hours of general education coursework that a typical AA or AS degree requires.

Said another way: Where roughly 30 (out of a degree-earning total of 60) hours of a typical AA or AS degree must be in general education coursework, often only 15 or so (out of a degree-earning total of 60) hours of general education coursework is required for most AAS degrees.

Said yet a third (and final) way: Regionally-accredited AAS degrees often require only about half as much general education coursework (for a total of only about one-quarter of the AAS degree's hours) as AA or AS degrees (which require about half their hours to be general education coursework) do.

Given that both degree types (AAs and ASs being one type, and AASs being the other) are roughly 60 semester hours in total, it is obvious that AA and AS degrees devote fewer of their total hours (only about half of them, in fact) to career-specific coursework; whereas AAS degrees tend to devote about three-quarters of their total hours to career-specific courses.

AAS degree titles, therefore, tend to be more narrow and career-specific than typical AA or AS degree titles. For example, AAS degree titles like "Associate of Applied Science in Welding" or "Associate of Applied Science in Architectural Technology/CAD and Computer Graphics," etc., are not uncommon.

Most BA/BS programs view AAS degrees, therefore, as being in the area of roughly 12 to 15 hours (sometimes more) deficient in general education coursework. For that reason, among others, many in the RA world don't really consider AAS degrees to be "transfer" or "transferable" degrees -- mostly because so little of their total hours (only about a quarter of them, typically) are devoted to the all-important general education requirements.

Cogent examples of this, no doubt, can be cited by many in these fora; but one, in particular, that comes to mind for me is the California Bar's refusal to accept AAS degrees as requisite to get a non-ABA-accredited (but nevertheless bar-exam-qualifying) Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.

The California Bar's web site states, clearly, that either 60-hours of transferable lower-division coursework (which, when you think about it, would probably pretty much be equivalent to a typical AA or AS degree), or an accredited AA or AS degree (itself), is required as requisite to enter one of California's non-ABA-accredited (yet Bar-qualifying) law schools. Most worthy of note for our purposes here is that the California Bar specifically excludes AAS degrees, in lieu of AA or AS degrees, as requisite.

The reason becomes painfully evident when one digs deeper and notices that in lieu of any of the foregoing (i.e., in lieu of either 60 hours of transferable credit or an accredited AA or AS degree), the California Bar will accept passing scores on each of three (3) specified CLEP exams:

1. The CLEP "English Composition" or "English Composition with Essay" exam; and,
   
2. any two (2) of the CLEP Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Science, Social Science or History exams.[/list=1]Note that all the three CLEP exams that the California Bar will accept (in lieu of either 60 hours of transferable credit or an accredited AA or AS degree) are of the "general education" variety. Further, if you add-up the semester hours of credit that passing said CLEP exams typically provides, it's nowhere near 60 hours. Therefore, quite clearly, the California Bar is saying, in effect, that of the hours of coursework found in a typical AA or AS degree, the general education coursework is by far the most important... else why would the California Bar accept only about one-third to one-half of a typical associate-degree's-worth of credit via CLEP examination in lieu of other AA/AS-equivalent requirements which add-up to 60 hours or more!
   
   Since AAS degrees are notoriously deficient in general education coursework when compared with AA or AS degrees, one can immediately begin to understand why the California Bar specifically excludes AAS degrees as requisite to entering any of its non-ABA-accredited, but nevertheless Bar-qualifying, JD programs. This, to me, says pretty much all that needs to be said about how AAS degrees stack-up, generally, against AA or AS degrees.
   
   All that said, an AAS degree holder may most certainly go on (transfer) to a BA/BS program and ask that his/her AAS degree be considered as requisite thereto; but the BA/BS-granting institution will almost certainly require said transferring AAS degree holder to take an additional 12 to 15 hours of general education coursework (maybe less, maybe more) at said BA/BS-granting institution (or by CLEP exams, or by transfer D/L courses from an RA school like, for example LSU, etc., etc.).
   
   It's important to understand that the foregoing is just a general sort of guideline of how things tend to work. Some BA/BS-granting RA institutions will accept more of a given AAS's coursework as lower-level general education credit than others. Univeristy of Phoenix, for example, has been known to come much closer than some others to accepting nearly all of an AAS's 60 hours as requisite to at least some of its BA or BS programs. Still other BA/BS-granting RA institutions -- often the ones that are older and perhaps more conservative -- may only accept around 24 to 30 hours of the AAS, and will then require the transferring AAS degree holder to take an additional 30 to 36 hours of lower-division general education coursework in addition to the 60 or so hours of upper-division, BA/BS-specific coursework. It just depends on the institution, the AAS, the student's GPA (of course), maybe even the mood of the admissions officer or the program head on any given day, etc., etc., etc.
   
   The bottom line is that a typical AAS degree holder who transfers said AAS into an regionally-accredited BA or BS program, typically, will end-up having to take around 12 to 15 hours of general education coursework more than a typical AA or AS degree holder would have to in order to get the very same bachelors degree. This should always be kept in mind by someone considering the pursuit of an AAS degree; and, because some (decimon, for example) would argue that the Ashworth AA or AS degree suffers from much the same sort of deficiency as a typical AAS degree, Ashworth AA and AS degree holders should also expect to have to take those additional 12 to 15 hours of general education lower-division coursework.
   
   
   Hmmm. Them's fightin' words, I suspect, to at least some Ashworth AA or AS degree seekers/holders! However, as a practical matter -- especially once one fully understands the differences betwee AA/AS degrees and their lighter-in-general-education-coursework AAS degree counterparts -- because of the inherent roughly 15-hour general education deficit that most AAS degrees have; and because a typical Ashworth AA or AS degree would appear to come close to having that very same kind of general education deficit, there's probably some truth and wisdom to decimon's recommendation.
   
   That said, I think any Ashworth AA or AS degree holder would be foolish to refer to his/her AA or AS degree as merely an AAS (or an AAS-equivalent) degree. A reputable national accreditor approved by the USDoE/CHEA (DETC, in this case) says that Ashworth gets to call them AA and AS (and not AAS) degrees. That imprimatur is most certainly adequate for the typical Ashworth AA or AS degree holder to refer, confidently, to his/her degree as a full-blown AA or AS degree, and not a mere AAS degree, regardless of the more practical issues to which decimon refers.
   
   Or so it is my opinion... and I'm sure there's no shortage of people around here who will tell you what they think that's worth!
   
   
   
   Hope that helps!

 

Some good news for Ashworth associates degree holders!

Ummm... maybe not.

After my big, two-part posting, herein, and the other postings I made in this now-month-old thread, I heard, privately, from a couple of Ashworth associates degree students who had become alarmed about the true and actual utility of their degree as a vehicle to a regionally-accredited BA or BS degree somewhere.

They seemed particularly interested in the regionally-accredited program that I would not name earlier, and whether it really would accept their Ashworth AS degrees; and they were also quite concerned about my assertion that Ashworth associates degrees, generally, seemed to me a little short on certain hard-core general education requirements usually found in most associates degrees from regionally-accredited colleges and universities... and my concomitant suspicion that they might have to take 6, 9, or 12 additional hours of transferable, lower-division, general education coursework in order to get any regionally-accredited BA or BS program to take their Ashworth associates degree seriously.

I promised them that I'd do a little research and that I'd post the results here (and I suggested that they subscribe to this thread so they'd get an email whenever that happened). So I'm hoping that the good news I now have will somehow get to the right people. I know there's a Yahoo group of Ashworth students... maybe I'll go sign-up over there and post a link to this thread or something. At any rate...


I recently spoke, at some length, with both the CLEP/DANTES coordinator (who's also an admissions officer), and the registrar, at the regionally-accredited Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. Southwestern's nine distance learning BA/BS programs have always been a particular favorite of mine -- and something to which I refer people often -- ever since I first discovered them a couple years ago while researching online educational possibilities for the daughter of a friend (who, as it happens, ended-up not taking any of my advice and went, instead, another route altogether... but I digress).

Southwestern College's admission and transfer requirements are about as liberal as anyone's... even more so, it turns out, than I had originally thought. And that, as it turns out, could be terrific news for Ashworth College AA/AS degree holders who have been fretting about finding regionally-accredited BA and/or BS programs that will give them full credit for their Ashworth credential.

Here's the good news: Generally speaking, the regionally-accredited Southwestern College will accept, as lower-division transfer into any of its bachelors programs, all 60 hours of any DETC-accredited Ashworth College associates degree.

And it turns out that I may or may not have been right about Ashworth associates degrees being a bit shy of at least a few of the typical general education credits that Southwestern would prefer to see in the associates degrees that it accepts in transfer.

Of the myriad of general education credits that a typical, transferable associates degree might contain, the three (3) that are most important to Southwestern are:

• English Composition I
  
• English Composition II
  
• College-level Mathematics (including, but not necessarily, college Algebra... though any well-rounded college-level mathematics course that a typical fine arts major, for example, might be forced to take at most universities would probably do it).

Though no one at Southwestern worded it exactly as I'm about to, the bottom line with Southwestern is that as long as a transferee into one of its bachelors programs somehow has those three general education subjects somewhere on his/her transcript -- be it part of his/her Ashworth associates degree, or be it earned by additional transferable (i.e., regionally- or nationally-accredited) courses taken for credit elsewhere, or be it via having taken and passed the appropriate CLEP or DANTES exams -- then the Ashworth-DETC-accredited-associates-degree-holding transferee will have all s/he needs to continue on into any of Southwestern's nine regionally-accredited bachelors programs.

So that means that, at most, an Ashworth associates degree holder might (and the operative word, here, is "might") need to take nine (9) additional hours of transferable (meaning either nationally- or regionally-accredited, by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency) credit, on top of his/her Ashworth associates degree; and that that -- plus Southwestern's 60 hours of BA- or BS-specific coursework -- would earn him/her a regionally-accredited bachelors degree from Southwestern College!


For example, let's look at the coursework for the Ashworth Associate of Science Degree in Psychology.

• NOTE: With regard to Southwestern's English Composition requirement, it's important to understand that if the actual words "English Composition" are not part of the formal name of the course (on the transcript) which the transferee wishes to have count against the Southwestern requirement, then Southwestern will request a syllabus so it can assess whether the course meets said requirement.

As far as I can tell from its web site, the only course in the Ashworth psychology associates degree that might possibly be akin to an "English Composition I" course might be its "C02 - Business Communications I" course; and the only one that might be equivalent to an "English Composition II" course might be its "C05 - Business Communications II" course; and it's unknown if Ashworth's "C03- Business Mathematics" course would meet Southwestern's college-level mathematics general education requirement.

The good folks at Southwestern would, no doubt, want to assess those three courses for equivalency; and, actually, I suspect those three Ashworth courses would pass muster with Southwestern... and, if so, then no additional coursework, over and above Ashworth's associates degree, would be required in order for one to transfer into one of Southwestern's bachelors programs, and then to subsequently obtain a BA or BS therefrom. The only potential monkey wrench might be that Southwestern's bachelors degrees are 124 hours instead of the more common 120 hours that we see at other universities. If Ashworth's associates degree is 60 hours, and if Southwestern's bachelor-specific courses all add-up to 60 more hours, then one would end-up four hours short. But that's easily remedied... after all, one could just take another distance-learning elective or two right from Southwestern itself; or one could, for somewhat less money, take a distance-learning course or two from someplace like the regionally-accredited Louisiana State University.

• WARNING: One would need to make absolutely certain that, when all is said and done, a minimum of 60 of the total 124 hours needed to graduate are obtained from Southwestern itself.

Now if it turned out that one or more of those three aforementioned, potentially-questionable Ashworth courses did not, in the end, meet Southwestern's English composition and/or mathematics requirements, then all it would mean is that one would need to acquire those credits separately, on top of one's Ashworth associates degree (in which case, one would definitely have at least 124 hours in the end, after Southwestern's additional 60 hours of BA/BS-specific courses are added).

One could acquire these additional general education courses (on top of the Ashworth associates degree) by taking whichever (or all) of them, as needed, right from Southwestern itself; or one could take them somewhat less expensively from someplace like the aforementioned Louisiana State University, to wit:

• ENGL 1001 - English Composition I; and/or,
  
• ENGL 1002 - English Composition II; and/or,
  
• Quite possibly any of these LSU math courses (though one would be foolish not to first ask Southwestern which one(s) would work ).

Or, if one wanted to CLEP his/her way out of those three Southwestern general education requirements, s/he could sit for the following CLEP exams:

• English Composition (with or without essay) (good for 6 hours of credit against both English Composition I and II); and/or,
  
• College Mathematics

One may see which CLEP exams will satisfy Southwestern courses by clicking here.

So, bottom line, at least as far as the regionally-accredited Southestern College of Winfield, Kansas is concerned, a DETC-accredited Ashworth College associates degree transcript really is worth the paper on which it's printed; and, quite possibly, said Ashworth associates degree would be wholly sufficient (depending on whether Southwestern will accept Ashworth's C02, C05 and C03 courses as equivalent to its required English composition and mathematics courses) as requisite to any of Southwest's nine bachelors programs.

Good news, no?

 

CORRECTION

In my previous post about the regionally-accredited Southwestern College's willingness to accept DETC-accredited Ashworth associates degrees into its BA/BS programs, I wrote:

• WARNING: One would need to make absolutely certain that, when all is said and done, a minimum of 60 of the total 124 hours needed to graduate are obtained from Southwestern itself.

That's not exactly what I should have written... and I apologize for the error.

What I should have written was that however one brings hours to a Southwestern College BA or BS degree, at least 60 of them need to be from an accredited four-year-degree-granting institution.

Of course, the 60 hours of BA- or BS-specific, upper-division coursework that Southwestern offiers in any of its nine bachelors degree programs would qualify as 60 hours from an accredited, four-year-degree-granting institution because, after all, Southwestern is an accredited, four-year-degree-granting institution.

But, in fact, many (not all, by any means, but certainly many) of the 64 additional hours that are required (on top of an Ashworth associates degree) by Southwestern to satisfy its BA and/or BS requirements could be obtained from any accredited (by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency) four-year-degree-granting institution. Southwestern's graduation requirements may be viewed by clicking here.

I should add that the Ashworth associate degree's 60 hours would not count. After all, Ashworth is accredited by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency; but is is not a four-year-degree-granting institution. So while all of one's 60 hours worth of Ashworth associates degree credit will transfer to a Southwestern BA or BS degree, at least 60 of the 64 remaining hours that one would need to get one's BA or BS must come from an accredited four-year-degree-granting institution...

...which could be Southwestern itself, or which could be any other regionally- or nationally-accredited four-year-degree grantor... like the aforementioned (and much less expensive) LSU, for example (just to name one). Of course, if so, one would need to ensure that the course taken at LSU truly matched the BA/BS-specific Southwestern course... and there, of course, would be the rub. For the most part, the upper-division, BA/BS-specific courses at Southwestern are likely to be unique and, therefore, will (or at least are unlikely to) have sufficiently precise equivalents at other institutions. So, as a practical matter, one should probably just take all 60 hours worth (on top of one's Ashworth associates degree) of BA/BS-specific coursework at Southwestern and just be done with it. Where you pick-up that dangling 4 hours of credit to round-out to the Southwestern-required 124 would be up to you, I suppose.

The other thing I really didn't address, but which I'll now cover just for the sake of completeness, is that one only needs 30 hours of transferable (from any institution accredited by a USDE- or CHEA-approved agency) credit to enter one of Southwestern's BA or BS programs. Stop and think about that: Theoretically, one could get started at Southwestern after having completed only half of one's Ashworth associates degree. Now I haven't verified with Southwester that that would be precisely true, mind you... so please take this with a grain of salt. But if you stop and think about it, and if I'm right, one could theoretically finish-up his/her associates degree and begin his/her bachelors degree all in the same year. I don't think I recommend it, but it might be possible.

To see Southwestern's admission requirements, click here.