A.A.S Guidance, what would you do?

Question

I want to learn a skill and sadly I am one class away from an A.A, I thought I wanted to go to college for a Bachelors but I see all my friends with bachelor's and no jobs.I don't have that money to blow away. I can take about 30 more hours to get an A.A.S. at a cheaper rate. I have no true idea on what I want to do, but I plan on doing a lot of career searching before I start. Hence not going for my B.A. I have a lot of electives, about 6 hours in business, and took an introductory course in Criminal Justice. I'm currently writing a novel and write weekly columns. I'm good with people and like to be outdoors.

I've considered these A.A.S, can you tell me if they will get me anywhere?

-Graphic Design

-Business

-Customer Service/Retail

-Physical Therapy Assistant

-Human Services

-I do not want to be behind a desk all day.

I do have some work experience in customer service, shipping, and am now substituting.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! :)

Answer 1

Personally, I'd go for the bachelor's and collect an AA and/or an AAS along the way.  Understand that many AAS courses will not transfer to a senior college and many colleges have a limit on transfer from a community college of 60 hours.

These days, 1:3 people out there have a bachelor's degree.  1:10 have a master's or higher.  Something like 75% have some education beyond high school.

To be competitive these days, you need more education.  Thing is, many of your friends that have a bachelor's and not a job share something in common with you; they don't know what they want to do for a living either.

So what you really want to do is decide what job you want first.  Then find out what credentials are required for that job and get those credentials.

Many of your peers heard "if you get a degree you'll make more money" and took that at face value.  It's only part of the equation - you have to get the degree in something related to a job you want and have a reasonable chance of getting.

Several of those choices you listed have a very low top-out point without a bachelor's degree.  Human Services and Business need a master's (or more) to top out.