Associate's Degree

[Maroney555]

Soooo

 

I just found out/realized that with the nursing pre-req courses I am taking, I will be able to apply for an Associate's Degree.

 

I was just wondering if I should even bother? Are there any advantages to having this degree?

[LoveSoDeep]

Personally I think of Associates degrees as stepping stones, but sometimes they are a good thing to have. In some states you can sit for the RN boards with only an associates degree. What if you need to take a break from school before you complete your bachelors? Or really want to start working before you are done? Then at least you still have the AS and you can get your RN and start working. Plus a lot of schools now have RN to BSN programs just for people who go that route.

[Anonymous122]

One of my close friends finished her Associates degree in Nursing in May, and she is now making $29.00/hr. My brother's wife has an Associates degree in nursing, and she is a cardiac nursing supervisor at the local hospital. She makes more than $50.00/hr. Yah, its definitely useful, especially in a field like nursing.

[Maroney555]

I feel it's a stepping stone too....Kinda unneccessary...

 

See I wouldn't be getting the AA in nursing...it'd be in Health Science and Community Health, so the benefits wouldn't be as great....

[LoveSoDeep]

True. But you never know a year from now if it won't come in handy. Ask your advisor what they reccommend. If it's just some extra paperwork I'd go ahead and do it just so you have it. If you had to take an extra class or something like that...then maybe not.

[Maroney555]

Ya good point...thanks love

[BriarRose]

Never mind....sorry ~~~~~~~~~

[abitbroken]

If you have enough credits to get an associates degree and apply that to a bacholor's degree, I would. Firstly, if something were to happen with you or in your family and you couldn't finish the bachelor's in the time you intended, you will still have a degree, and some employers want you to have some form of a degree just to sort of show that you have the ability to see something to completion. It also might help if you are looking for a job supportive to you field before graduation - as the others said, you could be at a higher pay scale than a student who is in the middle of a degree.

[catfeeder]

If you snip and take a stamp at the AAS, it doesn't prevent you from rolling that into a BA or BS later, so what's the down side?

 

I ended up with two AAS degrees on my way to my bachelor's. (I had old credits when I returned to school after many years, so I split them into two majors where none would be lost and many credits counted twice.)

 

I've found it useful when applying for jobs later to be able to pick which major I wanted to highlight. The roles I've landed since have been more closely related to one of my lesser degrees, and it helped to discuss these roles competitively in terms of my 'major' in that field of study.

[thejigsup]

I've got two of them. Can't say they ever did me any good. My BA, yeah, some good. Out here, it has to be a Masters. So, I'm finishing that one up.