Does an associate's degree expire?

Question

I was trying to apply my associate's degree towards a Bachelor's in the State of TN. When I went to apply it. They told me it had a seven year expiration. It wasn't in a certain field. Just an applied science associate's. Now they are trying to make me take and pay for it all over again. I can't find anything online verifying that it does expire. If anyone could help, that would be great. Thanks! Thera

Answer 1

An AA degree from any accredited university or college never expires. Once you have completed the classes necessary and passed the class, that can never be taken away from you. Once you have diploma its good for life. Contact the school where you received your degree and verify the facts.

Answer 2

It's not that the degree itself expires.  You will always have an Associate's Degree, and you can use the Associate's Degree in any field that requires it.  The issue is that at many universities, classes taken more than seven years ago are non-transferable.  This means that you can't transfer any classes taken more than seven years ago in to a Bachelor's Degree program, whether those classes were part of an Associate's Degree program or if you just took random classes.

Also, an AAS usually doesn't transfer as seamlessly as an AA, unless it's for a specific program (like AAS Management to BS Management).  Unfortunately, you probably would have had to take many classes over anyway.

Answer 3

As someone else said, degrees don't expire. But many schools cut off the transferability of the coursework you took to earn your associate's degree after a certain amount of time. If it's been more than seven years since you received your associate's degree, then you would be better off getting a BA or BS in a related field. If you'll be finished with your BA or BS before the 7 years are up, then you should be fine.