* AA: This stands for Associate of Arts degree. It's a two-year degree from a community college or junior college. Many community colleges offer this degree as a pathway towards a bachelor's degree. The courses taken for an AA are often designed to fulfill general education requirements at many four-year institutions.
* Educational Goal Transfer: This is a broader term encompassing the process of transferring credits earned while pursuing an educational goal (like an AA) to a four-year college or university. It emphasizes that the transfer isn't just about credits, but about recognizing the student's progress towards a specific academic objective. The university will evaluate the transferred credits to determine how well they align with the requirements of their bachelor's degree programs.
In short, a student might earn an AA degree and then "transfer" those credits as part of their "educational goal transfer" to a four-year college to continue their education towards a bachelor's degree. The AA is a common, but not the only, pathway for this type of transfer. Other associate's degrees (like an Associate of Science – AS) also facilitate educational goal transfer.