Degree Type: Associate/Bachelor’s, Arts/Sciences
Associate and bachelor’s degrees have some different purposes and academic expectations. Many associate degrees provide breadth of study, with a number of courses in different areas, while many bachelor’s degrees provide depth of study with more of a focus in one academic area. Read about the differences more fully below.
Associate Degrees
Associate Degree Credit Requirements at ESU
At Empire, for an associate degree, “You must successfully complete 64 credits, with at least 24 earned at SUNY Empire. Up to 40 credits for college-level learning prior to enrolling at SUNY Empire may be accepted as transfer credits.” [1]
Reasons to Choose an Associate Degree
You might choose to pursue an associate degree for a number of reasons:
- to complete one step toward a bachelor’s degree
- to acquire an initial level of academic knowledge in a particular field
- to meet employer expectations or requirements
- to acquire new knowledge in many areas of potential interest
- to fulfill intellectual curiosity
Content of Associate Degrees
Most associate degrees provide breadth of study, with a number of courses in different areas, fulfilling general education requirements.
General education courses, common to any associate degree, are important, in Cohen and Brawer’s words, because:
“American culture rests on literacy, shared values, common understandings, an appreciation for diverse points of view, respect for tradition…The liberal arts curriculum teaches principles of rationality, language, judgment, criticism, inquiry, disciplined creativity, sensitivity to cultures and the environment, and awareness of history…These disciplinary areas are considered useful for purposes as diverse as training for professions, strengthening the mind, broadening outlooks, and developing better citizens.” [2]
Associate degrees usually contain introductory-level courses (freshman – sophomore level). Introductory-level courses in associate degrees help develop and strengthen basic academic skills, such as college-level reading and writing, quantitative reasoning, analysis and critical thinking. Additionally, you will learn the vocabulary and main concepts of a field in an introductory course for an associate’s degree (e.g., basic scientific method, the vocabulary of literature, the types of questions a sociologist asks, the purpose of studying statistics).
Bachelor’s Degrees
Bachelor’s Degree Credit Requirements at ESU
You must successfully complete 124 credits, with at least 31 earned at SUNY Empire. Up to 93 credits for college-level learning prior to enrolling at SUNY Empire may be accepted as transfer credits. [3]
Reasons to Choose a Bachelor’s Degree
You might choose to pursue a bachelor’s degree for a number of reasons:
- to fulfill requirements of an employer or a profession
- to explore in depth academic topics that are of personal interest
- to move on to graduate school
Content of Bachelor’s Degrees
Bachelor’s degree programs are expected to include both introductory and advanced studies, to show progression from introductory-level to more advanced-level study in which topics are examined with increasingly greater complexity, sophistication, and depth. You hone and strengthen more advanced thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and creation of information.
In advanced-level courses (junior-senior level), you learn to:
- analyze information, using methods accepted by the field to break the information down into parts, re-structure those parts according to your own insights, and offer an informed opinion
- apply theories (e.g., explain an occurrence in terms of a theory in order to understand past actions and predict future outcomes)
- apply the methodology of the field
- synthesize information, coordinating data from many sources and understanding how your viewpoint compares with the viewpoints of others in the same field of study
- create your own theories and/or research, based on your understanding of methodologies and other theories in the field
Most bachelor’s degrees have a concentration, a number of courses in one field of study that can provide depth of knowledge in that area. Depth of knowledge comes not only from the number of courses in a field, but also from differing perspectives and viewing a field in different contexts.
For example, a degree in psychology may include advanced-level courses that deal with cognitive psychology, social psychology, biological psychology, cultural psychology, abnormal psychology, and more, to create depth of knowledge in the field.
Degrees in Arts vs. Sciences vs. Professional Studies
An associate or bachelor’s degree may be one of many types, based on the types of courses in your degree plan. Professional practice courses are non-liberal; theory courses are liberal. The number of liberal credits determines your type of degree.
Some courses focus on professional practice, courses in which you learn how to do something, learn a professional skill, and/or apply professional concepts to real-world problems. Examples of professional practice courses include Accounting, Case Management, and Applied Mathematics. These types of yield important “hands-on” information, but do not carry liberal credit.
Some courses focus on theory. Theory-based courses do carry liberal credit. According to ChatGPT, “a theory-based course emphasizes understanding of underlying principles, concepts, or frameworks that explain phenomena within a discipline.” [4] Theory-based courses are those such as literature, ethics, history, psychology.
Degrees designated as “Arts” – A.A., B.A. – have approximately 3/4 of the degree in liberal credits.
Degrees designated as “Sciences” – A.S., B.S. – have approximately 1/2 of the degree in theory-based courses that carry liberal credits and 1/2 of the degree in professional, hands-on courses.
Degrees designated as “Professional Studies” – B.P.S. – have approximately 1/4 of the degree in liberal credits, with more of the courses focused on hands-on professional practice.
Summary of Differences between Associate and Bachelor’s Degrees
Differences in Types of knowledge
The difference between associate and bachelor’s degrees can be seen in the language used to describe each one: note the difference between “you learn” (associate degrees) and “you learn to” (bachelor’s degrees).
In associate degrees, you learn foundational information to get a sense of the scope of the field. In bachelor’s degrees, you learn to think more specifically and critically about content by using primary sources, and you learn to apply the methodologies of the field to manipulate that content (e.g., formulate and complete a scientific investigation, critique literature, do a sociological study, apply advanced quantitative methods in a management setting).
Example of the Difference between an Associate and a Bachelor’s Degree in Type of Knowledge
in an associate-level course in macroeconomics, you may focus on learning terms such as “money supply” and “planned economies” and concepts such as “supply side economics.” You may learn to use the Business Index to find articles written by professional economists on these subjects, and you may learn to question what they say and offer your own interpretations in writing.
In a bachelor’s-level course in Money and Banking, you may be asked to apply the field’s methods and types of questions to analyze the strategies available to the Federal Reserve and offer opinions about the effect of those strategies on the money supply in the larger economy. You may be asked to apply time series data in order to explain the effect of supply side economics and predict future Federal Reserve strategies. You may be asked to write a research paper using information from many articles, books, and original federal publications to support your own analysis.
Differences in Credits
Link to Empire’s page on Undergraduate Degree Requirements.
There you will see a chart that tells you, at a glance:
- the number of credits required for different degrees
- the number of credits you can transfer in (maximum advanced standing)
- the number of liberal credits you need for different degree types
One Similarity between Associate & Bachelor’s Degrees:
General Education
Every degree at Empire – A.A., A.S., B.A., B.S., B.P.S. – needs to fulfill the same SUNY General Education Requirements.
The idea is that all degrees need to be well rounded, offering students the chance to develop different perspectives and understandings of their worlds.
Consult Empire’s catalog page on General Education to see general education areas and requirements.
- https://alp.sunyempire.edu/degrees-programs/undergraduate-aos/degree-requirements/ ↵
- Cohen, Arthur, and Florence Brawer. The Collegiate Function of Community Colleges. 1987. ERIC ED348111.pdf, at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED348111.pdf, page 7. ↵
- https://alp.sunyempire.edu/degrees-programs/undergraduate-aos/degree-requirements/ ↵
- ChatGPT accessed 7/17/25 ↵
