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September 27, 2019

6 Reasons to Study Online for your Associate of Arts



Making big decisions over your education is a daunting task. Deciding where you want to go and what to study in college are decisions that can alter the path of your life. As college tuition prices increase and competition for jobs continues to be fierce, making the right decision can seem ever more difficult. However, there could be one great option that you’ve overlooked – studying for an associate of arts at an online college.



If you feel like taking the next step with your education is pushing you into a financial corner with little to no flexibility, then an associate of arts could be precisely what you are looking for.

There are lots of reasons to look into doing an associate of arts, and in many cases, you can do them flexibly, online.

  • A broad education that prepares you for all eventualities
  • Credits that can transfer to a 4-year bachelor program
  • Gives you extra time to choose your career path
  • A wide variety of elective tracks
  • Financially more accessible
  • Convenience and flexibility

When you add up all of these benefits, an associate of arts degree starts to look very attractive. By taking your studies to the next level with an associate of arts, you don’t close off any doors, but if you study hard, you might just find you open up all kinds of doors that you didn’t realize could be open to you.

1. The Liberal Arts Education

Liberal arts graduates are highly sought after by businesses because of the well-rounded professionals the programs produce. An associate of arts degree is part of that liberal arts education, and therefore, the professional benefits of earning an associate of arts can be huge.

Besides teaching students to learn about a wide variety of subjects, an associate of arts emphasizes the skills of critical thinking and problem solving that are paramount to success in the modern business world.

As an associate of arts student, you learn not just to take what you’re told at face value, but to delve deeper into the issues that affect us. When you start to master critical thinking and apply it to the wide variety of subjects you learn about in the liberal arts curriculum, you have developed skills that are highly sought after in the professional world.

Whether you’ve just finished high school, you’re partway through your professional career, or even if you’re retired, these are skills we can all greatly benefit from.

Learning to analyze the world in a more effective way is just one benefit of an associate of arts.

2. Prepare for a Bachelor's Degree

Another great thing about an associate of arts degree is that you don’t close the door to gaining a bachelor’s degree. Many of the credits you earn during an associate of arts degree are transferable, so, after completing your associate degree, you can enter a 4-year college as a junior.

Given the fact that the majority of associate of arts programs are far cheaper than their four-year college equivalents, this can represent a huge financial saving while ensuring you’re fully prepared to succeed in a bachelor's degree.

Many students can find there is a big step up between high school and a 4-year college, but an associate of arts degree can help bridge that gap. If you do your degree online, then you have the flexibility to shape your schedule around your needs and give yourself the best chance of succeeding.

When you’re investing so much money in your education, you want to know that you’re giving yourself the best chance of success, and for many people, an associate of arts can do just that.

You learn the skills that are critical to success in a 4-year college while earning credits that can count towards your bachelor’s degree. You get the best of both worlds, allowing yourself time to discover your interests, but also taking steps to improve your life prospects.

When planning your further education path, it’s worth talking to a guidance counselor about transferring credits. Not all associate of arts credits will necessarily transfer to the 4-year school you want to attend, so it’s important to plan ahead to make sure you meet all requirements.

Working with a guidance counselor, you can make sure you’re on the ideal path towards completing your associate of arts and moving on to a bachelor’s degree.

3.Take Time to Figure Out What You Want to Do

Not all of us know what we want to do with our lives when we enter college. Some people have had their lives planned out since they were little kids and that’s great for them, but that’s not the case with the majority of people. When we’re entering college, it’s easy for us to feel like we need to pick a path, a direction our life needs to take by choosing a major.

The nice thing about an associate of arts is that it gives you a broad education where you have to take a number of core subjects. You can pick an elective track you would like to take throughout your degree, where you focus on certain subjects, but as a whole, you’re learning about a wide variety of things.

This is a great way to ensure you keep lots of doors open to you. Particularly when you’re young and entering college, it’s easy to get carried away thinking you want to pursue a specific major, only to find out a few years down the line that’s it’s not the path you want to take with your life.

With an associate of arts degree, you can take the time you need to figure these things out, knowing that you’re getting a varied education whatever path you choose.

You can always start to be more focussed on your career path further down the line and enter a 4-year college understanding where you want to go with your life, ready and equipped to achieve your goals.

4. Challenging Subjects

If you want to jump straight into the professional world once you’ve finished your degree, then an associate of arts will prepare you for that too.

Many students find that they’re eager to get out into the world after completing their two-year course and find their time is better spent climbing the career ladder than earning a bachelor's degree.

To help students gain work in a variety of fields, an online associate of arts degree offers a wide range of elective tracks such as psychology, healthcare management, business management, business, leadership, and accounting. Not only do these tracks provide students with engaging content and challenging material, but they also offer great financial possibilities upon completion.

In these pathways, you will learn the skills that allow you to make a real difference in the professional world and hit the ground running. If your credits transfer to a four-year school, then you will always have the option of doing a bachelor’s, but sometimes the perfect job will present itself, and you will be ready for the challenge.

An online associate of arts degree can offer a good balance of challenging subjects with the right environment for learning new skills. Being able to take all your classes online, and study at times that suit you can be invaluable in helping you achieve your potential.

5. Financial Savings

The average bachelor’s degree for 2017-18, including room and board, cost $20,770 for in-state students and $36,420 for out-of-state students per year. By anyone’s standards, this is a huge amount of money.

By studying for an online associate of arts degree, you can make huge financial savings. The average tuition for an associate of arts degree from a public institution is $3,670 and $14,882 from a private institution. When you add these savings up over two years, they can make a big difference.

The other big benefit of studying online is the flexibility means you can make your schedule fit around your work. While it can be very difficult to study a 4-year program and keep up meaningful working hours, many associate of arts degrees have been built with this in mind.

The financial implications of pursuing further education are a huge factor in the decisions we make. In the past, many students have been put off from furthering their education because it’s not been financially viable.

An associate of arts degree can alleviate some of those financial concerns though by giving students a cost-effective education while allowing them the flexibility to earn a good income to pay for the costs.

There are great benefits to be had from investing in your education, but whatever step you take has to make financial sense for you. Studying online for an associate of art degree offers financial flexibility that few other education paths can.

6. Convenience

Being able to take all your classes online means you’re in control of your schedule. You can fit in as much or as little as you want to, but you’re the one in charge.

If you want to work 40 hours a week and study in your spare time, then you can do that. If you need to look after family during weekdays, then you can do that. Peoples’ lives don’t stop just because they’re studying for a degree, they continue as normal, and associate of arts degrees allow for this.

The benefit of being in control of your schedule is that you can set yourself up to give 100% to your course. When you don’t have that flexibility, you’re at the mercy of circumstances, but when you do online courses, you have a little bit more control over things.

This can be a huge boost to your family life, your finances, and your general wellbeing.

One of the most valuable aspects of this convenience is the ability to gain professional experience as you learn. What you learn in the classroom is important, but real-world experience in your industry is equally important.

With the flexibility that an online associate of arts degree affords you, you can use the time to gain real-world experience in your chosen profession and pay for your college at the same time.

An associate of art degree gives you the ability to further your career both in the classroom and outside of it in the professional world.

The Flexible Option

An associate of arts degree offers students a different option that has flexibility at its heart. By taking the option to study for an associate of arts, you don’t close any doors, but you have the potential to open many avenues for your future career.

For those students that don’t know exactly what it is they want to do and don’t want to make huge financial commitments to a 4-year school, studying online for an AA can be a brilliant option.

Throughout this degree, you receive a well-rounded education, that develops the skills that are highly sought after in the business world. You have the opportunity to focus on specific subjects and build professional skills that can take you straight into work or take you on to a bachelor’s degree.

Many credits from a 2-year associate degree will transfer to a 4-year bachelor course, which means any time you spend studying towards your associate degree will bring you a step closer to a bachelor’s.

All of these benefits are supplemented by the added flexibility of studying online and the financial savings that are associated with an associate of arts degree.

Attending a four-year college is a financial commitment that can add up to $100,000+ and many of us make that commitment at a time when we don’t know what we want to do with our lives. An associate of art degree offers people an option that can lead them to the same place without making huge financial commitments.

Whether your ultimate goal is to complete your degree and head straight into the working world, or you want to go on to complete a bachelor’s degree, an associate of art degree can provide you with all the tools you need.



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