The AAOT degree is designed for students planning to complete an associate's degree before transferring into a bachelor's degree program at one of the Oregon's public universities, including University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Eastern Oregon University, Western Oregon University, Southern Oregon University, Portland State University and Oregon Institute of Technology. The AAOT offers students the flexibility to choose courses that interest them while meeting university lower division general education requirements.

Any student having the AAOT degree recognized on an official college transcript will have met the lower division General Education requirements of baccalaureate degree programs of any public Oregon university.

Students transferring under this agreement will have junior status for registration purposes. Course, class standing or GPA requirements for specific majors, departments or schools are not necessarily satisfied by an AAOT degree.

Students need to be ready for college-level mathematics, writing and science in order to complete the AAOT degree in two years. Students who lack the necessary skills, MHCC offers excellent preparatory courses and tutorial assistance to help students get on track quickly.

Although the AAOT provides an excellent structure for many students—particularly those who are unsure of their primary academic focus—it is not ideal for everyone. In particular, it does not articulate well with certain majors such as engineering, biological and physical sciences and the fine and performing arts. Students contemplating these majors cannot easily accommodate their highly-specific prerequisite coursework into the AAOT framework. In general, an AAOT recipient who is pursuing any course of study that is credit-heavy at the major lower-division level may have to take additional lower-division coursework, specific to the major, after transfer. Students contemplating such majors should consult closely with an adviser and may instead want to consider the Associate of Science degree.

A limited number of private and out-of-state institutions also accept the AAOT. These include Concordia University, Pacific University, Warner Pacific University and George Fox University in the Portland area, as well as Western Baptist College, BYU - Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific University, Boise State University, Seattle Pacific University and Washington State University - Vancouver. Some of these schools have unique general education requirements that must also be met. Advisers can assist students planning for those courses.

The AAOT degree requires a minimum of 90 credits. All courses must be completed with a grade of "C" or better. Students must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 at the time the degree is awarded.

Students must also satisfactorily earn 24 credit hours at MHCC. Non-traditional credit (College Level Examination Program, Experience-Based Credit, Challenge, etc.) does not satisfy this requirement.

Electives: Lower division transfer courses numbered 100 or above. Up to 12 credits of career and technical courses numbered 100 or above may be used.

Repeated courses may be counted only once toward graduation unless specified in the course description. A maximum of nine credit hours of PE185, 15 credit hours of IECC201-level or 12 credits of Cooperative Education Internship may be applied to this degree as elective credit.