What is an Articulation Agreement?
This page contains information about college partnerships, also known as articulation agreements. These are agreements between community colleges and four-year colleges to provide a smooth transition for transfer students from community college graduates into four-year colleges. Typically, they guarantee either that the associate’s degree will satisfy all freshman and sophomore general education requirements at the four-year university or specify a list of courses that will be treated as equivalent.
Some colleges offer dual admissions programs where the student applies to both the community college and the four-year college at the same time. If admitted, the student is guaranteed a spot as a transfer student at the four-year college provided that they obtain an associates degree from the community college. Won’t this be a huge time and stress saver? Knowing you have already been excepted two years down the road. That is planning for the future.
Some four-year colleges have such well-defined articulation agreements that the community colleges act as feeder schools for the four-year colleges, with a large percentage of transfer students coming from those schools.
There is pending legislation in the US Senate, S1677 Community College Partnership Act of 2003, which is intended to encourage such partnerships between community colleges and four-year colleges.
Students can save on tuition and there student loan bills by completing some of their credits at a lower-cost community college and then transferring to a four-year college or university. The average community college tuition rate is 40% of the average tuition rate at four-year public colleges and 10% of the average tuition rate at four-year private colleges. Even when one compares net tuition rates, one can still save thousands of dollars a year on there student loan bill by attending a community college for the first two years.
Most college partnerships are either limited to colleges within a specific geographic area or between all of the public community colleges and public four-year colleges in the state’s system of higher education. Depending on the state you live in or plan on going to college in, this can be a very large choice of schools to attend.
Two states, Florida and Pennsylvania, guarantee admission into the state’s public four-year colleges for students who complete an associate’s degree at one of the state’s community colleges.
The League for Innovation in the Community College has articulation agreements between the more than 600 League Alliance Member colleges and several four-year colleges, including Antioch University McGregor, Capella University, Franklin University, Strayer University, University of Phoenix, United States Open University, and Western Governors University.
Besides looking into articulation agreements, students should also ask about the college’s advanced standing policy (the ability to get credit for AP tests, CLEP and other exams). Obtaining credits for these will only decrease you time at school so you can get out there in the real world.
Looking into this type of program can only enhance your college experience as well as cute the cost of a student loan down significantly. So, once again, do your home work and check out all the options that are available to everyone. Eliminate the ones that will not work for you and check further into the ones that look right for you.
