What the Heck is an "Upside Down" Degree?

Students who gained the Associate degree at a localshorter time to gain the Bachelor's degree.
community college took one of two paths:2) Some State Legislatures began researching the
- Transfer Path to a 4-year College. At theneed for Community College to offer Bachelor
Community College, students took General Educationdegrees. This was rejected by the State Colleges
courses and a few lower division major classes andwho feared a huge loss of students.
would transfer into the local state college as a Junior.So the local state colleges began making
- Career Path to a Job. These Associate degreescompromises. One compromise was adding the
would help gain a job after graduation. Some of theseBachelor of Applied Science or Bachelor of Applied
majors that led to employment were-electronics,Technology. Students with the AAS or another
computer repair, automotive mechanic, administrativenon-transferable Associate degree now had a way to
assistant. The college counselors stressed that thesetransfer the Associate degree "as a whole" and would
associate degrees were not easily transferable.come into the state college as a Junior. The term
Two changes have happened to allow students with a"Upside Down Degree" was used to show that the
Career Track Associate (Associate of AppliedMajor was at the community college or lower division
Science, Associate of Applied Technology, orlevel and the General Education would be taught at the
non-transferable AA or AS degrees) to move on andState College or upper division level.
gain a Bachelor's degree without losing all their credits.Recently, more compromises have been proposed. A
1) Private universities (especially For-Profit schools)few states are offering the 90-30 Program. The first
allow students to transfer more of the AAS and other90 credits (usually the first 3 years) are taught at the
non-transferable degrees without losing most of theircommunity college, with only one year at the more
credits. Even though these private schools are moreexpensive state university. All these changes have
expensive, the students see that it will take a muchreduced costs of attending state colleges.