Associates degree and unrelated Bachelor's? (and Grad school enrollment)

[TrailRunr]

Associates are almost always a waste. The few worthwhile exceptions involve vocational degrees with in-person demo/lab sections like auto mechanic and nursing.

Grad schools won't care if you have an AA and won't allow the AA degree itself to satisfy prereqs. The AA degree may be a hindrance since you will take courses that meet the AA requirements rather than the grad school's prereqs. Like you said, you would be slowing yourself down and spending time and money for a worthless degree.

Almost nobody is going to give you a raise because you got an associates. The few that do have it explicitly stated in their union contracts, usually for unionized blue collar folks.

You might get a new grad discount at the car dealership, but that doesn't fly since the BS/BA would have done the same. In fact, it would be an argument to not graduate with the AA since you might want to hold off on graduation until you need to buy another car.