Degrees and Careers

A General Studies Degree is a popular choice for many seeking an undergraduate degree program.  If you’re wondering what a General Studies Degree is, where to get one or what the benefits are to having one then you’ve come to the right place!  I will break these topics up so feel free to skip ahead to the sections that are most relevant to what you need to know.

What is a General Studies Degree?

A General Studies Degree is often considered a gateway degree.  Sometimes people refer to it as a “generalist degree” or even “associates degree.”  More commonly when someone says they have a General Studies Degree it refers to the fact that they accomplished an associates degree of the first two years towards an undergraduate degree program.

The idea behind a General Studies Degree is that you’re taking a variety of classes to get a better idea of what type of career you might be interested in.  It also serves to give you a lot of different skills to develop.  The idea being that no matter what direction you go career or education wise, you have some background at least through courses taken in your General Studies Program.

What Are the Benefits to a General Studies Program?

A general studies focus is a great place to start if you don’t know what you want to do career or degree wise.  It will expose you to a variety of subjects and give you a chance to see what things interest you the most.  For example, I know people who after taking a few Psychology classes realized that they wanted to go into the field of counseling.

General Studies is a great place to start as a new student because the classes in a general studies program and usually filled with required classes that most people have to take anyways.  So it’s a good idea to get them out of the way during the first two years of an undergraduate program so that you can focus on your core major courses for the last two years.

Is a General Studies Undergraduate Degree a Good Choice?

While a General Studies program is a great idea for an Associates Degree, I wouldn’t recommend it in most cases as a good choice for a Bachelor’s
Sometimes the argument is made that a General Studies Degree is a good option if you’re going to pursue a Graduate Program.  But I would argue that it’s better to choose a BA program that relates to your MA program.

For instance, if you are thinking of getting an MBA then you should probably consider a Degree in Business.  Likewise, if you’re interested in family counseling and want to eventually get into an MFT Program (Marriage Family Therapy) then a BA in Psychology would be a good choice.Degree.  For most employers, seeing that you have a Undergraduate Degree  in General Studies seems like you don’t know what you want to do or you just wanted to find an easy program to get a BA in.  In most cases it would be far better to bet something like a Business Degree or Liberal Studies Degree.

However, if you’re going into a field like sales where a lot of times they don’t care about what degree you have if they care at all then a General Studies Undergraduate Degree could be fine.  But even in fields where they don’t care about what kind of degree you have, it would usually be better to find a degree that relates more specifically to your career of interest.  In other words, if you are interested in Marketing get a Business Degree (not a General Studies Degree).

How to Utilize a General Studies Degree

In most cases, I think the best approach to a General Studies Degree is for your Associates Degree (typically a 2-year program).  Then after you have an Associated Degree in General Studies you can focus on a Bachelor’s Degree that is more specific (ie. Business, Criminal Justice, Psychology, Liberal Studies, etc.)

Where Can You Get a General Studies Degree?

You local Community College is an excellent place to get an Associates in General Studies.  You’ll be getting a price that’s MUCH more affordable than a traditional university and WAY more affordable than a private school.   Just BE SURE to check the schools accreditation.  In fact, what I would do is contact the school that you would like to get your Bachelor’s Degree from and see if they accept credits from the Community College you’re considering.

Also, be sure to check credit transfer-ability with your state college.  So if you’re in Oregon, that would be Oregon State University or University of Oregon.  If your state schools accept credits from the community college you’re looking at then you should be in pretty good shape.

Another good option for getting a General Studies Associates Degree is to look at an online program.  The benefit to this kind of program is convenience.  The thing people generally have the hardest time with an online program is being accountable to do the work that needs to be done.  Having a class to physically show up for offers more accountability.

When your class learning is all virtual and done online it’s easier to skip a class or put off doing the learning.  Also some people have a harder time learning in a virtual environment than they do sitting in a classroom listening to a real person.

Just as with a ground campus you’ll want to check the accreditation of any online program you’re considering.  And if you’re looking at an online program that’s out of state or that doesn’t have a ground campus it’s attached to it’s even more important that you take the time to research that.  Follow the same process as I mentioned earlier, where you call a few school (including in state schools) you’re thinking of transferring to, to complete your Undergraduate Degree and make sure everything transfers ok.

You’ll be spending a fair amount of time and money to taking the hour or two to cover yourself is well worth it!