Next year, I will be transferring from a Seattle public high school to Bellevue college, through the running start program - a program in Washington state that lets high school juniors/seniors take classes at local CCs for credit. Running start has a limit of 15 credits/quarter, and students are allowed to take 3 quarters per year.
I’m having trouble understanding if it would even be possible to earn an associates in electrical/computer engineering there.
I work at Everett Community College, just up the road from Bellevue, and we have a similar Engineering transfer degree. You can definitely enter Bellevue’s Engineering MRP (Major Related Program. It used to be Major Ready Pathway, but for some reason it got changed) as a Running Start student. However, it would be unlikely that you will have completed the program, even if you go full-time Running Start for all 6 quarters of your Junior and Senior years.
If you look at the Bellevue Electrical Engineering MRP checklist, you will see that the math requirements start at MATH 151, Calculus I. It is a rare High School rising Junior who is qualified to place into Calculus I. Usually, Juniors place into Precalculus I (MATH 141) or Precalculus II (MATH 142). If that is the case, you would already be set back one or two quarters from finishing in 6 quarters. Math 151 is a prerequisite to enter the Physics sequence, and Physics in turn is needed as a prerequisite for some Engineering courses.
The other issue is that students need at least six full quarters to complete the Engineering MRP, assuming that they don’t have to take any other courses. And, some of those quarters involve taking more than 15 credits. In order to satisfy the requirements to graduate from high school, you will have to take at least a couple of courses at Bellevue that do not relate to the Engineering MRP. While this is not a bad thing, it just means that you will be further delayed.
Bottom line: I expect that you will have to go to Bellevue for a total of 7 or 8 quarters to complete an Engineering MRP, depending on your entering math level, and the courses you need to graduate from high school. Still, this is a fantastic deal. When you graduate from high school, you will be less than a year away from completing an Engineering transfer degree. If you go to Summer quarter between your Junior and Senior years, you will be even closer (although you will have to pay for those Summer classes). You may also have to pay for a class or two along the way that exceeds the Running Start 15-credit limit.
It is much more likely that you can complete a CS transfer degree in 6 quarters of Running Start. There is not yet an approved MRP list for CS, but it ought to be completed some time this year.