Students can earn an associate degree in six majors without ever setting foot on the Arnold campus, and AACC administrators hope to grow that number.

Although AACC has two satellite campuses and four smaller, off-site locations, the majority of degrees require students to attend at least some classes at the main Arnold campus.

But AACC President Dawn Lindsay said she wants to “make sure … that opportunities are in place” for everyone to work toward their degrees from the Glen Burnie Town Center and Arundel Mills campuses as well.

“I’d much rather go to Glen Burnie,” second-semester nursing student Tristan Weiman said. “[My commute] is a pain in the a–.”

In fall 2017, AACC began offering associate degrees at Glen Burnie in computer information systems, supply chain management and business management, as well as three transfer studies areas of concentration degrees: psychology, communications and sociology.

Dr. Mike Gavin, the vice president of learning, said the administration is looking at enrollment data to decide which other degrees to offer at the satellite campuses. Each campus will have its own “identity,” offering different programs according to student interest, he said.

While no associate degrees are available in full at Arundel Mills, AACC’s Regional Higher Education Center, located there, partners with some four-year colleges to help students complete bachelor’s degrees without leaving the county. In those programs, students take two years’ worth of general education classes from AACC without earning an associate degree.

Gavin said he expects some of the two-year programs within that partnership to result in an associate transfer degree at that campus.

“I live literally five minutes from Arundel Mills, and it takes me at least 40 to 45 minutes to get [to Arnold],” first-year nursing student Sara Smith said. “[But] all of our nursing is all here.”