Associate Degree - Time Requirements

Time Requirements

The associate degree is awarded to students who complete 2 years of schooling. The requirements usually include courses such as English composition, Algebra, social interaction, humanities, etc. Some people refer to associate degrees as "two-year" degrees because it is possible to obtain the degree in approximately that long. For students who place into developmental (sometimes called pre-college or remedial) courses, the time will be extended since these credits will not apply toward the associate degree.

A lesser diploma, called a certificate, is awarded for specific studies that may be completed in one year or less, for example certification in a particular field of information technology may only run for four to six months.

At 2-year colleges in the United States, more students attend part-time than full-time. To accommodate part-time students, many of whom work, most US community colleges offer required courses during evening and weekend hours and, increasingly, online (the Sloan Consortium reports that 51% of all degrees earned online are associate degrees.)