Navigating College Transfer Courses

After you have chosen between the Associate of Arts (AA) and the Associate of Science (AS) degree paths and gotten all your required General Education Requirements out of the way, your next important task becomes: Choosing the more college/degree specific courses that will help you advance your future degree the fastest.

But first, let's breakdown those first few General Education Requirements that are the most transferrable.

• English: ENG111, ENG112

• Social Science: PSY150, SOC210

• Arts/Humanities: ART111, MUS110

• Computer: CIS110

• College Transfer: ACA122

• Second Language: SPA11, SPA112

• Health/Wellness: PED110, HEA112

Both the AA and the AS will require Math and Science.  AA requires 1 in each category and AS will require 2 in each subject area.  While MOST students and MOST colleges look for and accept for Math: MAT171 (PreCal Algebra), this is a great example to look at.  If you are thinking about becoming a potential Nursing student, you might be interested to find that along with MAT171, many schools also want MAT152 (Statistical Methods) rather than or in conjunction with MAT172 (PreCal Trig). This may be a bit confusing and don't worry, you don't have to navigate this alone! Not only are we here to help you. There is also a chart provided by the state that gives you a break down of every NC Public college and most college degree programs are represented. It's one of my favorite websites to teach students and their families to use.

Here is a great example of how your Community College Classes transfer to UNC-Wilmington into the Nursing Program.  You may see some acronyms you don't get understand like *UGETC* Don't worry, stay tuned for futre blog posts where they will be discussed in full detail! The important thing to better understand here is how to develop a plan for your future.  This is why we are constantly asking students: What do you want to do after high school? Where are you thinking about going? We don't want to just "throw spaghetti" at a wall when it comes to planning your colleges classes.

So what happens if you truly don't know what you want to do or don't know where you want to go? Will that mess you up completely? Absolutely NOT! The classes you take at your Early College earn you an Associate Degree. That will never change and a degree earned is something that cannot be taken away from you, EVER! Will all of your classes transfer? As long as you go to one of the schools that we have an approved agreement with (in NC, our 16 Public institutions and even some of our Private Colleges!), you bet they will! It just means that some of your elective choices, may just be that, electives.  They may roll into your university as a general elective credit.  This is neither good or bad.  It's a credit you earned and an area you were able to explore further.  More education, in my opinion is never a bad thing!

However, you can see why our goal is to try and make sure we are guiding you in the BEST way possible.  Now with that being said.  We could even still, make the BEST plan for your future.  Your DREAM school could be like the one listed above, UNC-W and we schedule every single course so you are ready to roll in the fall of your first year there.  But what if on a whim, you apply to a few other schools during your senior year...just to see what happens.  And because you are so academically prepared, you get a full ride offer at a school that isn't UNC-W.  An opportunity so rich in experience and scholarship that you can't turn it down???? This school really wanted Biology instead of Chemistry.  They wanted the MAT172 instead of the MAT152.  These things happen, but the important thing is, we were initial with your courses. You had a plan.  You didn't just fill up your electives with Basket Weaving 101 because it checked a box and fit your schedule.

Knowing what transfers into your chosen areas, to the schools you are most interested in and making a game plan are a great starting point to helping you make the BEST choice for where you will spend your next years after graduation!