Associates in Engineering: Is It Worth It?

[helofrind]

I was thinking about getting an associates in engineering ( AE) degree from a community college. The idea i have is to go 2 years for AE degree to knock the pre-req. classes out, And transfer to a four year college where maybe that would be cheaper in the long run. My questions are; has anyone Here done this? Would it be cheaper? Would another college accept all my credits? And would that shorten the whole 4 years to obtain a BS from the other college?
I want to get a BSEE or BSEET, i know the difference don't need to explain. The questions i have if i go the BSEET route; Is it possible to get a job that requires a BSEE if i have the AE degree? And could i continue to obtain a MSEE or MSEET if there is one?
I know BSEET, "why not just go for BSEE?" Don't want to get into why or why i shouldn't but, i do believe that anyone searching for there desicions between the two, that these are the questions that should be asked.
Thank you in advance for any helpful answers.

 

[Vagabond7]

I have taken a similar path. I did my gen ed stuff at a community college, as well as some math. Though, after my first year, I dual enrolled at both the local community college and university due to the advice of my advisor.

Some things to note. Getting an AE degree is probably not the route to go if your are trying to get a B.S. in Electrical engineering. For a bachelors degree, you generally are going to have to do around 60 credits of gen ed stuff (history, english, ect), and then the credits required by your major. Getting an AE degree will take care of a few gen eds, but will be focused on classes in circuits, power, and technician classes. Most of that engineering stuff will not transfer towards your B.S. in engineering. The circuits classes at my community college are mostly algebra based, and centered around building and testing circuits. The Circuits classes for my B.S. degree are calculus based and require a good working knowledge of differential equations (DiffEQ is covered usually in the fourth semester of calculus). These classes are focused more on theory, and analysis. They are not the same classes.

This means if you do an AE degree, you will get only a few gen ed credits that might transfer, and some knowledge of being an EE tech. But most of the technical classes you take won't be applicable towards your B.S. So you will still have to take all of your EE classes, and most of your gen ed when you are done with your AE.

What I have done is just get an AS (Associate of Science) which covers all of my gen-ed, and I got a chunk of my math prerequisites out of the way. All of my actual EE I have done at the university. I dual enrolled because as my advisor told me, Electrical Engineering is very vertically stacked. To get into my first circuits class, I had to have physics 2 as a co-requisite, and calc 2 already done. Which means I had to have physics 1 already done, which had calc 1 as a pre-requisite. To get into circuits 2 I have to have circuits 1 finished with Differential Equations as a co-requisite. And these are all introductory classes before you even get into the meat and potatos of EE. My advisor told me that if I didn't dual enroll, I would be in school for 6 years to get my BS in EE.

So I would advise you talk to the local community college to see if an AS degree will transfer to any local Universities (Going out of the state of the CC greatly reduces the odds the university will accept your credits from a local CC.) Then talk to an advisor at your CC about your goals, and e-mail some engineering faculty from the university you want to go to. They will inform you of the best route you can take to get your BSEE.

 

[helofrind]

I appreciate the helpful answer. That answers the questions about getting gen ed out of the way. I would never thought of dual enrollment. I was checking my community college AS and AE degrees. Thet both have a lot of the same classes and the AE seemed more promising but ill take your word for it.

 

[bdub_24]

I have an AS in engineering, and just by satisfying the requirements for that degree, I also earned AS degrees in physics, mathematics, and natural sciences. Don't expect to get it done in just 2 years, just like you shouldn't expect to get a bachelors in engineering done in 4 years. Dual enrollment is a great option for taking courses that your community college can't match.

 

[Hercuflea]

This is the best path financially. Just make sure you get as close to straight A's as possible at the community college so that you will get admitted to the university. Honestly everyone should do this, you learn the same information for half the price. And nobody cares where you went to CC, what matters is the university on your diploma.

 

[helofrind]

Dual enrollment definitely sounds like a plan. I have been trying to set up an appointment with the university i want to go to. As well as the community college. If it takes a little longer than 4 years than i have enough patients for that. Id rather take in as much knowledge as possible and be a great engineer rather than a half fast crappy one. And if i can do it for half the price that's even better. Thanks for the input guys