ASBA associate's degree in business - useful?

[ryanaryn]

I've just got three more classes to go to finish my BA in psychology, its been a busy 9 months!!  Now I'm beginning to wonder if adding in an associate's degree in business would be useful.  I talked to TESU and they said that it would be easy enough, just do the extra six business classes and pay one graduation fee for the two degrees when I'm done with both. 
I've done a little bit of everything over the years, a Jack of all trades, master of none.  My interests have always been more towards psychology, but for practical purposes it seems having some business classes under my belt may be useful.  Anyone else gone this route?  Does it seem necessary or useful?

[allvia]

I would say it couldn't hurt, and it's different enough from your bachelor that it has some practical use.  There are no fields that I can think of that can't benefit from some fundamental business knowledge.  Even if you go on to become a psychologist (eg), you'll likely have to do some business tasks (especially if you open your own practice). Most, if not all ,the ASBA credits can be obtained free to very little cost - and it has no capstone, so it adds no cost to your TESU bill.

My background is IT, and I had intended to get my bachelor in computer science (or something similar).  I ended up going with the business degree (BSBA) in the final round because I had plenty of ways to certify that I had the IT knowledge, but found myself more often than not having to explain that I was quite familiar with general accounting and understood budgets, or knew the importance of a good communication plan (I work in project management). The business degree (even at the associates level) does allow you to simply reply "I understand, I do have a degree in business".  I did the reverse of what you're saying I took the "free" to me associate in CS and the BSBA. Now for my master,  I will get back to my IT roots - that's not negotiable.

[davewill]

Personally, I don't think it's very useful. If you didn't have a bachelor's, then I'd say, sure it beats the heck out of no degree at all, but since you're getting your bachelor's, I wouldn't bother. If you want to do the extra business classes for your own enrichment, and it won't upset your schedule, then sure, you might as well go for it, but don't expect it to pack much punch on your resume.

[dfrecore]

I agree with davewill, almost no employer is looking for an ASBA - they want the whole enchilada (a BSBA or nothing). But it certainly can't hurt to take additional courses.

[sanantone]

An ASBA would check the box if you wanted to become an administrative assistant, but you already have a degree that can check any generic box.

[Rustydroid]

If you only had an Associate's in Psychology then I would think so. With a BA not so much. Now getting a BSBA or an MBA would be something useful maybe depending on your situation. I don't know if you work in health care but I do. There seems to be a competition among Nurses, social workers, administrators and others on how many letters they can put after their names.
I've looking around at what sort of degrees people above me have. The CEO of my company holds a BSBA in healthcare and what seems like an MBA in healthcare. One of the directors for a heart unit is a nurse and holds an MBA. My managers holds an Engineering degree and an MBA.
One of the Vice presidents holds a BS and an MBA and lists her associate's among her degrees. Each of the VP's and up lists their education in a public page for the company that I work for.
I've also seen some entry level jobs for Bookkeepers/Accounting asking for a minimum of an Associates in Accounting or Business Administration.

[tesu-acct-student]

I don't think it will be very useful, given your BA. Except, as Rustydroid said, for a few low level bookkeeping jobs, then possibly useful.

[bjcheung77]

Original Poster - OP, you might want to list your classes and see if there is another Associates that may benefit you more. BTW, is that 6 extra courses you need or 6 extra credits. If it's 6 courses, that's 18 credits, you can get a BALS with a concentration with those 18 credits. It's up to you to determine for yourself if that ASBA is worth the energy/money/time... If you're into learning a bit about business and it's interesting to you, go ahead, otherwise, concentrate on the Bachelors instead.

Many people including members here have had one or two associates added to their program list and completed en route to the Bachelors without additional fees and didn't take them additional energy/money or time, if you think it's worth it, add it to the list, if not, skip it. I did the BSBA, en route to it, I added the ASBA/ASNSM just for kicks, I could have added a BALS as I just needed 2 more courses, but skipped it.

[Merlin]

Ultimately, once you have a bachelor degree, most employers don't really care about any associate degrees you may have. That said, an associate degree can be useful in the case where you mean to demonstrate competency in a subject area rather than pursue a certification or similar credential. For example, as an employer, I would see an ASBA as equivalent to an undergraduate certificate in business administration.

Where this is useful is another matter altogether. With a BA in Psychology and ASBA, you might be able to show a potential employer how you could leverage your psych and business skills together in an administration position of some kind. While it may not make a difference in qualification, it might be able to set you apart if being compared to someone else with just a BA. But it would also depend on how well you could sell it to the hiring manager.

Either way, if its something you're interested in, and don't mind the extra time or cost, then why not. It's only a few more courses. It won't hurt in any case, and there is a small chance it could be useful. If time or money is in short demand, I wouldn't bother though.

In my case, I only added the ASNSM CS to my degree plan because it was closely aligned with my CIS degree and I'd be taking most of the courses necessary anyway. The extra courses needed for the CS option were also usable in my GenEds for the BSBA so it was a win-win for me... particularly since they are easy courses given I have 30 years experience in software development. I think of it as equivalent to a CS undergrad certificate.

[ryanaryn]

Thanks everyone! That makes a lot of sense.  I think I will just concentrate on the BA for now and hold off on the AS.  I wish I would have thought about this before, then I could have taken those business classes as part of my electives and killed two birds with the proverbial stone.