Front Range Community College is now offering a two-year Associate of Engineering Science (AES) degree, the first community college in Colorado to do so.
FRCC received approval from the Higher Learning Commission, a move that will provide a clear pathway for community college students to complete the first two years of course work needed from a bachelor’s degree in engineering — at a significantly lower cost, a FRCC news release states.
Students can then seamlessly transfer to a university in Colorado for their junior and senior years, the news release states.
FRCC will begin offering its new AES degree in 2022. Students in the program will be able to take class at any of FRCC’s campuses — many of the classes will also be offered online, the news release states.
The new degree option is expected to open doors of students of color, as well as low-income and first-generation college students.
“I think this is an incredible step toward making higher education in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) more accessible to a wider cross section of the American population,” FRCC engineering student Ryan Tepper said in the news release.
“In a country where students are racking up an astronomical amount of debt — and where an engineering degree is a first-class ticket to a middle-class lifestyle — I think it’s incredible that we are creating more pathways for more students from more walks of life to get into these careers,” Tepper said.
The engineering associate degree will transfer to the engineering school at the following universities:
- Colorado School of Mines
- Colorado State University
- The University of Colorado (Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs) The articulation agreement with CU is coming soon, the news release states.
Students in the AES program will complete their core engineering requirements at FRCC, maximizing the number of credits they can transfer to their four-year school, the news release states.
“This streamlined process will make it easier for students to be confident that all their credits will transfer to their university engineering program,” Rebecca Wolfe, vice president of academic affairs for FRCC, said in the news release.
“It will also save them time and money by paying FRCC’s lower tuition rate for their first two years in college,” Wolfe said.
FRCC math faculty member and Engineering Coordinator Christy Gomez worked closely with their counterparts at Mines, CU, CSU and the Community College System to help make this option become a reality for students, the news release states.
“This pathway ensures that courses at community colleges with AES programs fulfill Colorado bachelor’s degree requirements,” Gomez said in the news release. “Associate degree students will not end up taking excessive credits that can delay degree completion and unnecessarily add to their education costs.”
