An Unusual Private College Associates’ Degree Online

Tiffin University in Ohio thinks it’s found a unique niche for online education: a two-year associates degree for people who start out with the intention of transferring to another school to finish a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree. Most associates degree programs online tend to serve adult students who want a particular credential that will help their career. But Tiffin’s program is angled at college-age kids who just aren’t ready to sign on for a four-year degree. The idea isn’t unique in higher education. Students at large universities often do a two-year program, and then make a choice about which direction they will go in to complete their four-year degrees (my older son did this at Boston University, doing two years in the school of general studies and then transferring to the communications school, and my younger son is about to do it at FIT, where almost all art students take a two-year associates degree and then choose a bachelor’s degree to focus on for their last two years of school). But it is a bit of a new idea in online education. Tiffin’s administrators point out that the two year “starter” option online is particularly good for freshmen who aren’t socially developed enough to go into a full-fledged university, and that disabled and home-schooled students may find it helpful as a way to ease themselves gradually into a four-year program.
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