Do I need an associate's degree and a bachelers degree before my MBA in management degree?

Answer 1

I strongly suspect not. An Associate's degree is about one half a Bachelor's degree, and graduate degree programs virtually always require a Bachelor's level degree prior to admission. A possible exception might be an MBA program that is willing to include life experience that is arguably equivalent to the BA. This may be worth exploring, but it's possible there are no such programs.

Answer 2

Answer 1: Typically, no. A two-year associates degree is equivalent to only one-half of a four-year bachelors degree; and pretty much all MBA programs require that you have a bachelors degree first, beforee you may enter the MBA program.

Remember that an MBA is a masters-level degree... a "graduate" degree. But both an associates degree and a bachelors degree are "undergraduate" degrees. You cannot enter a graduate program until you have completed all of your undergraduate work; and "completed," in this case, means having completed the four-year bachelors degree (either that, or a two-year associates degree, which then, in turn, counts as the first two years of the four-year bachelors degree, followed, then, by completing the last two years of said four-year bachelors degree). Until you've done all that undergraduate work, you may not enter a graduate MBA program.

Now, that said, there are special combination bachelors/MBA programs out there... programs which allow a person to complete both a bachelors and an MBA at more or less the same time. Where an associates plus the remainder of a bachelors (or an entire bachelors) degree would normally take four years, and then the MBA after that would normally take two years (for a total of six years of both undergrad and graduate work, some of these bachelors/MBA combo programs can help you shave a year off that six years and earn you both your bachelors and MBA at kinda' the same time. It's entirely possible (likely, even) that you could enter such a program with a two year associates under your belt, and then go to school for only three more years and emerge with both your bachelors and your MBA... for a total of five years of combined undergrad and graduate work, instead of the normal six.

Doing that, though, you need to know, would be REALLY hard. Unless you're a genius who almost never needs to study, yet still gets straight A's, then, trust me, the combined bachelors/MBA program will likely leave you no social life.

Now, all that said, there is an entirely-distance-learning MBA program offered by an excellent (and fully accredited, by its country's standards... though its country doesn't use the word "accredited" like we do in the US) university in the United Kingdom (UK) that will allow people to enter its MBA program even if they've completed no undergraduate college coursework, whatsoever. The name of the university is Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, Scotland. And it's fully accredited in Scotland, except that they don't call it that there. But, believe me, it's the exact same quality as any US regionally-accredited university...

...and, once one in the USA has a distance learning MBE degree from Heriot-Watt, all s/he would have to do is have it reviewed by what's called a US Foreign Credential Evaluator, who would then declare it equivalent to a US regionally-accredited MBA, and from that moment forward most US employers, government and colleges/universities would treat the Heriot-Watt MBA exactly the same as if it had been earned from a US regionally-accredited college/university.

In fact, any non-US degree may be evaluated like that, and if it passes muster with the legitimate and credible foreign credential evaluators out there (the ones that all of academia knows and respects), then said non-US degree is typically accepted by US employers, colleges and government exactly the same as if said degree had been earned in the US, at a regionally-accredited college or university. All the non-US country has to do is exhibit the same kind of culture of academic integrity that we in the US exhibit; and said country also has to have some kind of educational quality assurance scheme that is either run or overseen by government, so that it has something at least akin to accreditation, even if said country doesn't actually call it that.

The UK -- all of it, including Ireland and Scotland -- have such a culture of educational accountability, and also the equivalent of accreditation (though they don't call it that), and also an education quality assurance framework; and so most US Foreign Credential Evaluators routinely assess UK degrees as equivalent to US degrees. Same for Australia, and South Africa, and many other countries... both English-speaking, and otherwise. As long as the country cares as much about the quality of education as does the US, and has a system in place to ensure it that's at least akin to US "accreditation," then degree from said countries may freely be used in the use... that is, as long as one of the reputable US Foreign Credential Evaluators declares it so.

One must be careful, though, because there are fake/bogus US foreign credential evaluators, just like there are fake/bogus colleges/universities (degree mills) and the fake/bogus accreditors that such schools create, online, and with which they try to fool people. Don't get fooled!

The reputable US Foreign Credential Evaluators are:

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)

- and/or -

Any member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES)

Simply use only those agencies to get your non-US degree evaluated, and whatever they declare about said degree will be taken as gospel by most US colleges/universities, employers, and government agencies.

And the benefits of getting a non-US degree can be considerable. For example, Heriot-Watt will let you earn an MBA without having first gotten either an AA/AS or BA/BS. Almost no US college/university will allow that.

Or, another advantage: Cost! The South African Rand, for example, is so weak against the US dollar that a masters degree that would normally cost $16,000 or more in the US can be had from someplace like University of South Africa (UNISA) for as little as literally 1/8th that amount (as little as $2,000), give or take.

Or, a Bachelor of Divinity (BD or BDiv) degree, which consists of mostly reading and writing papers and preparing for examms (in other words, which doesn't have a lot of lectures and only discussion participation requirements) from the University of London's Heythrop School of Religion and Philosophy may be earned, entirely by distance learning, for only around $7,000(US), books and everything included. Imagine an entire bachelors for only $7K!

Those are just a couple of examples, and there are gazillions of others. Not all non-US education is cheaper than US education, but I'm just saying that there can be real bargains out there...

...and, again, they're excellent, reputable degrees which, once a US Foreign Credential Evaluator like AACRAO or any NACES member agency declares them equivalent to a US regionally-accredited degree, then they're acceptable by pretty much all US employers, schools and governement. And the cost, I should have earlier stated, to get someone like AACRAO or a NACES member agency to evaluate a non-US degree is typically only around a hundred dollars ($100(US)), give or take. It's not that expensive!

So, though it's highly unlikely that one could get an MBA in the US after having earned only an associates degree (unless maybe one enters a special combo bachelors/MBA program), one can go earn an MBA from Scotland's Heriot-Watt straight out of high school... without even having earned the associates! And then all one would need to do is get the MBA evaluated by AACRAO or any NACES member agency, and, voila!, one in the US has an MBA that's as acceptable to employers, or schools, or government as any other MBA!

One caveat, though: If you skip the associates-and-bachelors (or just the bachelors if you do all four years that way), and then go for the Heriot-Watt MBA, there may be some employers that balk because they know that only undergraduage college/university work provides a good, well-rounded general education. If you skip that, even if you have an MBA, the employer may suspect that you're still not well educated. A college or university to which you present your Heriot-Watt MBA as requisite for entry into a higher-level degree program, but with the applicant having not gotten any undergrad work in life, would likely balk, too.

In the end, there really aren't any shortcuts in life. When it comes to education, one typically needs to earn it honorably, the old-fashioned way. That means a four-year bachelors (either that or a two-year associates, and then the completion of the last two years of the bachelors) first...

...and only then the graduate MBA. That's how the world wants it, and if you end-up shortcutting any of it, you end-up spending the rest of your life explaining why you're different, and convincing people that it doesn't matter. It's usually not worth it.

So, just do the four years of undergrad work and get the bachelors; and then you will have your choice of whatever either US or non-US MBA program you like...

...any of which will look "normal" to potential employers, to colleges/universities, and to government so that you won't have to explain anything.