What’s the Best Way to Move from an Associate to a Bachelor’s Degree?

If you’re like many of the online students we work with at the University of Cincinnati, you spent at least two years working hard to complete your associate degree.

Now that you have it, you may find yourself wondering what to do next:

Continue your studies because you know there’s value in getting your bachelor’s degree?

Start researching top university programs?

Something else that might be on your mind is the transferability of your associate degree. With the time and energy you put into earning it, you’d hate to take new associate-level classes and lose some of those hard-earned credits.

Benefits of a “2+2” Degree

We designed our Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies in Applied Administration program for students like you: You want to spend only two more years completing your bachelor’s degree and not have to do any backtracking.

Sometimes called a “2+2,” “2:2” or a “completer degree,” our Applied Administration program helps you easily transition from your associate to a bachelor’s education. You’ll find it to be an efficient way to complete the next step in your educational journey. You retain the college credits you have already completed and earn a degree that many employers demand for internal promotions.

Meet Michele Kegley and Brad Price, Applied Administration Co-Directors

UC’s Applied Administration program allows students to take 100% of the classes online. Our focus on online learning excellence goes back more than two decades, and we are excited to offer the program to even more students throughout Ohio and across the country.

Studying online for your bachelor’s degree is a great way to get a quality education at an affordable price, coupled with a flexible schedule and no requirement to travel to and from school.

Michele Kegley, PhD, and Brad Price, CPA, MBA, jointly oversee the Applied Administration program. They’re responsible for the curriculum, staffing, and handling of essential student and administrative duties. Michele is also one of the instructors in the program.

Students come to UC with diverse professional and educational backgrounds. They may have recently graduated with an associate degree — or they’ve had their degree for years and want to move into a new career. They know a bachelor’s degree can help their career marketability and their ability to move into a new industry or ask for a raise.

“What our students have in common is they’re working full- or part-time and don’t want to attend college in person and have to live in a dorm,” Michele says. “They need to juggle their family demands and personal life with their education.”

Diverse Student Body from Across the U.S.

Students find UC’s bachelor’s degree program broad enough to accommodate their diverse professional backgrounds and interests and value its focus on critical skills development. They quickly learn the program can help them take their careers to the next level or give them a solid foundation if they’re relatively new to the workforce.

Some Applied Administration applicants work in human resources, financial services, or healthcare. Others enroll in the program because they want a promotion at work.

“From my own experience obtaining an associate’s degree at UC Clermont and later completing my bachelor’s degree,” Brad says. “I know firsthand how a ‘completer degree’ such as ours can unlock new career opportunities. I returned to school as an adult, earning my degrees from UC, and they played a critical role in my career advancement.”

For those seeking promotions or career changes, the Applied Administration program is designed to equip students with leadership, project management, and communication skills—key assets for stepping into higher-level roles or transitioning to new fields. Brad goes on to say, “My own experience, from earning CPA licensure, working in public accounting, and eventually moving into higher education, shows the value of a bachelor’s degree in achieving career growth. The Applied Administration program can be your next step toward similar success.”

Michele echoes this sentiment, highlighting the program’s flexibility through the story of one of her students. “We’ve had military veterans in our program before, but this student is on active duty and currently stationed outside the U.S.,” she says. “He’s in our program full-time and can complete his degree while deployed. He couldn’t do that if the Applied Administration degree wasn’t flexible and fully available online.”

Business World-Ready Courses

The online bachelor’s degree curriculum has a mix of what students need to succeed in business today, no matter what industry they work in or whether their employer is a large company or a small one.

Course topics include team building, diversity, finance, technology, professional writing, and law and ethics. Our curriculum emphasizes the practical skills essential for success in supervision and management, with a strong focus on finance and human resources,” Brad says.

Three of the courses Michele and Brad cite as being quite popular with students are:

• Applied Technology for Personal and Professional Productivity – This course focuses on ways in which technology can be applied to facilitate and improve productivity, problem-solving skills, and decision-making ability.
• Financial Information for Managers – Here, you will learn how to read and use financial statements and how to employ ratios and performance measures. The course covers concepts that include leverage, working capital management, traditional and activity-based costing, and budgeting.
• Senior Capstone – You’ll experience this course at the end of your bachelor’s degree program studies. It’s designed for you to apply your newfound knowledge and skills to the phenomenon of organizational change that regularly occurs in the business world. Michele describes the capstone course as a service-learning project where students work with a community partner — for example, helping an organization apply for a grant.

Connect with a Bachelor’s Degree Specialist

Michele and Brad enjoy seeing the Applied Administration program students grow over their two years at UC, developing new leadership, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Students often express greater self-confidence, which some say they didn’t have before. “In the program evaluations our students complete, I often see them write something along the lines of this: I came into the program thinking I didn’t know if I could complete it. Thanks to the instructors’ support, now I feel like I can do anything.”

If you’re ready to explore the benefits of the Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies in Applied Administration degree and how it helps you make a smooth transition from your associate degree into a bachelor’s program, we encourage you to connect with an advisor or call an Online Enrollment Services Advisor at (833) 556-4428 today.

Be sure to ask about the program’s low tuition rates that help you save money while preparing you to earn more in your professional career. We look forward to meeting you!