Academic Goals: How to Set Meaningful Ones Before Starting Your Associate Degree
| 9 Min Read
Deciding to go back to school is one thing. Knowing what you want from it is another. That’s especially true if you’re a first-generation student, someone returning after a gap in your education or an adult learner juggling work and family. If you are considering applying to an associate degree program, such as Adelphi University’s online Associate of Arts (AA) in Liberal Arts, now is the time to plan.
The weeks before your first class are the best time to figure out what you want from it. According to Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, 57% of adults without a degree have considered enrolling in the past two years. Mental health, emotional stress and finances are the top reasons people drop out once they start. Clear academic goals will not remove every obstacle, but they do give you a reason to keep going once the semester gets hard.
Why Setting Academic Goals Before You Start Matters
Adult students without clear academic goals are more likely to drift once life gets busy. That’s a common risk for returning students juggling coursework with a job, family or both. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part-time students face a steep completion gap.
Only 20% of students who entered a two-year college part time in 2014-15 completed any award within eight years. Full-time peers completed at 39%. Part-time enrollment is common for adult learners balancing work and family, which makes a defined plan more important, not less.
The stakes extend beyond any one student. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 37.6 million working-age adults started college and left without finishing in 2023-2024. That group grew again last year.
A clear plan will not guarantee you avoid that outcome. It does give you a way to notice early when your progress is slipping. There is still time to adjust it while you notice.
The Difference Between Short-Term and Long-Term Academic Goals
Short-term academic goals cover a single class or semester, while long-term goals span your entire degree. If you’re returning to school after several years, your first short-term goal might simply be rebuilding a consistent study routine.
Short-term goals work best when they’re concrete enough to check off within weeks:
- Earn a B or higher in your writing course
- Finish every reading before class
- Build a weekly study schedule
Long-term goals are the throughline that gives those weekly wins a destination:
- Finish your Associate of Arts within two years
- Transfer 30 credits toward a bachelor’s degree
- Build the writing skills a career change will require
That last long-term goal, building writing skills for a career change, is a common long-term goal among students switching fields or re-entering the workforce. Good academic goals usually pair one long-term goal with two or three short-term goals. That way, the big picture and the weekly to-do list point in the same direction.
How to Set SMART Academic Goals
The SMART framework turns a vague hope into a plan you can act on. Each letter stands for a filter: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Instead of “get better at writing,” try a SMART version instead. For example: “Raise my essay grades from a B- to a B+ average by the end of the semester.” That single sentence is specific, measurable and time-bound all at once.
This approach works outside the classroom too. According to Ithaka S+R, an independent higher education research organization, a Philadelphia-area university used the SMART framework to sharpen a vague recruitment goal.
The new plan targeted 15 to 30 adult students per program by fall 2026. If a whole institution benefits from that structure, a single student can use the same filter. Run each academic goal through those five questions before the semester starts, then revisit it at midterms.
Academic Goals Specific to Liberal Arts and Humanities Coursework
A liberal arts curriculum asks something different of you than a narrow technical program does. Adelphi University’s online AA in Liberal Arts degree illustrates the shape of that range: a required writing course, a science and a social science requirement, a math or statistics requirement, and 24 elective credits split evenly across art, humanities and social science. You will move between writing, history, literature and social science most weeks. Many terms also add a lab science or quantitative reasoning course.
If you’re a first-generation student or returning to a classroom after several years, this range of coursework may be your first exposure to college-level writing and research expectations. This is exactly why setting goals around them early matters.
Academic goals for this kind of coursework should account for that range, not just one skill. Set one goal around writing, since it carries across nearly every liberal arts class. Draft a paper outline three days before it is due, rather than the night before.
Set a second goal around discussion, since humanities and social science courses often grade class participation directly. A third goal can target research skills, such as using the library’s databases before a general web search. Naming these goals before the semester starts makes the breadth feel manageable instead of scattered.
How to Stay on Track in an Online Program
Online success advice often assumes you have long, uninterrupted blocks of free time, an assumption that doesn’t hold for adult learners balancing a work and family responsibilities. Staying on track in an online program starts with protecting a routine. Set consistent days and times for coursework, and treat live sessions the way you would treat an in-person class. Plan a weekly check on what is due before the week gets away from you. Your academic advisor is a resource here, not just a scheduling contact.
According to NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, advisors partner with each student on short- and long-term goal setting. That partnership includes decision-making and planning tied to your education.
Bring your academic goals to your first advising appointment. A short-term goal, like a target GPA, becomes easier to track with someone checking your progress. So does a long-term goal, like a transfer credit count.
Building Habits for Success as an Adult Learner
Adult learners are not just younger students with less free time. You are managing a job, and often a family, alongside coursework. The habits that worked in high school rarely survive a return to school. Building new ones on purpose works better than hoping old habits still fit.
Block specific study time on your calendar the same way you would block a work meeting. Protect that time from being the first thing to get canceled. Tell your household when that time is happening, so interruptions become the exception.
Keep a single running list of deadlines for every class instead of relying on memory or scattered notes. Update it the same day a syllabus changes, so the list stays the one place you trust.
None of this is complicated. It is exactly what turns good intentions into daily habits instead of plans that fade by week three.
How Your AA Goals Connect to Your BA and Beyond
The goals you set for your Associate of Arts do not disappear once you finish it. Adelphi University structures the online AA in Liberal Arts degree to enable direct transfer to further study. A goal like “build strong research and writing skills” pays off again in upper-level coursework.
Many students use the AA as a deliberate bridge into Adelphi University’s online Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Liberal Studies program. They carry transfer credits and the habits built here straight into the next degree. For career changers especially, that bridge can shorten years of trial and error into a direct path toward a new field.
Set a long-term goal now, such as finishing a bachelor’s degree within a specific number of years. That goal gives your associate degree a clear place in a bigger plan, so it stops feeling like an isolated finish line.
Ready to set your own academic goals? Explore Adelphi University’s online Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts program and start building your plan today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Setting academic goals before your first class raises a few practical questions of its own. Here are answers to the ones adult learners ask most often before starting an associate degree.
What is a realistic number of academic goals to set before a semester starts?
Most students do well with one long-term goal for the degree and two to three short-term goals for the current semester; adding more than that makes the plan hard to track.
What happens if I miss an academic goal partway through the semester?
A missed goal is a signal to adjust the plan, not to abandon it, so revisit it with your academic advisor and reset the target rather than dropping it.
Should I share my academic goals with my academic advisor?
Yes; bringing specific goals to your first advising appointment gives your advisor something concrete to check your progress against all semester.
How many credits from other colleges can transfer into Adelphi University’s Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts?
Up to 34 transfer credit hours may be accepted toward the 64-credit program, subject to approval, which can shorten the path to graduation.
Can I change my academic goals once the semester has started?
Yes; goals should flex as circumstances change, and the SMART framework works as well for revising a goal at midterms as it does for setting one before the semester begins.
Is it too late to set academic goals if I’ve been out of school for a long time?
No. Goal-setting works the same whether you’re starting right after high school or returning after a decade-long gap. The SMART framework adjusts to wherever you’re starting from.
About Adelphi University’s Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university in Garden City, New York. It has educated students for more than 125 years. Its online Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts degree spans up to 64 credits across the humanities, arts, sciences and social sciences. The program is built for adult learners, first-generation students, career changers returning to school and students returning after a gap in their education.
Small classes and faculty who work directly with adult and transfer students support that return. Up to 34 prior credits can transfer in to shorten the path to graduation. That combination gives students a realistic runway to finish what they started.