Students looking into four-year degrees for the fall may want to tune in for Highline’s summer BAS open house.
Highline offers six BAS degrees for students.
A BAS degree stands for Bachelor of Applied Science, a degree often designed to be built off of an associate’s degree.
“We have cybersecurity and forensics, global trade and logistics, respiratory care, youth development, teaching and early learning, and integrated design, which is our most recent one,” said Dr. Tanya Powers, associate dean for BAS and Workforce Pathways.
In the six and a half years Powers has been at Highline, the BAS degree programs have quickly grown.
“When I came on board, we had four degrees, and … approximately 30 full-time students,” Powers said. “The pandemic had some impact to enrollment, but prior to the pandemic, we were close to 300.”
The open house is on July 15, running from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The first BAS open house was over Spring Quarter, where it was well-received.
“We had never done a BAS open house virtually until the one in spring,” Dr. Powers said. “That one had pretty good participation – at one point we had 42 people in the student lobby.”
The upcoming open house will follow the same structure as the last one.
“We opened up with an overview of our programs, we talked about our admissions process.” Dr. Powers said. “We had a panel of students currently in the bas programs. They did a phenomenal job sharing what they learned through their programs.”
“We had Financial Aid come in and do a presentation,” she said. “Finally, we ended up in breakout rooms with faculty associated with the programs.”
Those who would like to learn more about the open house or to register, can do so by contacting Dr. Powers at tpowers@highline.edu.
“Folks are welcome to email me, and I can send them a registration form until our website goes live,” Dr. Powers said.
One reason BAS degrees were brought to Highline was to bring 4-year education to more people in the South King County area.
“For folks living in South King County, when we look at other options, lots of times these options are based in Seattle and Tacoma, which isn’t always easily accessible,” Dr. Powers said. “I also love the diversity of our campus as well, we are the most diverse college in the state of Washington. It’s hard to find that anywhere else – it’s pretty amazing.”
And the programs through Highline are led by people who know what they’re doing, she said.
“Our BAS programs are really strong programs. They’re built off of our professional technical programs,” Dr. Powers said. “We are working with our advisory boards, who are employers in this region, and are telling us what they’re seeking from employees.”
Additionally, BAS admission applications are accepted every quarter, with the exception of respiratory care.
“Not all students come in the Fall Quarter and end in Spring Quarter,” Dr. Powers said. “Sometimes courses are only available once a year, this gives students the opportunity to not pause their education.”
For 2021-22, the admissions fee has also been waived.
“With the pandemic going on, we wanted to take away one more thing to make the process easier,” Dr. Powers said. “It’s not a big amount of money, but it’s something.”