With Associates in Science degree or Associates in Arts, the curriculum is highly focused on the major subjects of English, science, social science, history and math. While an Associates in Applied Science degree which curriculum focuses more in the technical level, so there will be only a few classes in English, science, math, social science and history.
The Associates in Applied Science is also known as vocational degree, which can stand alone. It is not a foundation of a Bachelor’s degree like an AS degree is. Also, while an AS degree is transferrable to a university, an AAS degree is not able to.
All that these things mean is that a person with
a Associates in Science degree or Associates in Arts degree can get a Bachelor’s degree in two years. While a person with Associates in Applied Science degree could take up to four years to obtain a Bachelor’s degree.
While the Associates in Science and Associates in Arts degree has a research or an academic approach, The Associates in Applied Science has a technical approach. So the AAS degree allows a person to enter directly into the workforce, while the Associates in Science or Associates in Arts degree gives the person the choice to pursue their Bachelor’s degree for their career choice.