10 Accelerated Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• The Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa’s Col­lege is the #1 accel­er­at­ed online bach­e­lor’s degree pro­gram.
• Accel­er­at­ed online pro­grams are designed to com­plete a bach­e­lor’s degree in less time than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, often with­in two to three years.
• Online pro­grams cater to work­ing adults and those need­ing a flex­i­ble sched­ule, allow­ing for learn­ing from anywhere.
• Fields from Busi­ness and Health­care Man­age­ment to Social Sci­ences, are cov­ered match­ing dif­fer­ent career aspirations.

Although bach­e­lor’s pro­grams are usu­al­ly adver­tised as four-year degrees, only one-third of cam­pus under­grads fin­ish the 120-cred­it behe­moth cur­ricu­lum on time. Accord­ing to Cours­era, the aver­age bach­e­lor’s length is cur­rent­ly four to five aca­d­e­m­ic years. That’s part­ly why non­tra­di­tion­al learn­ers are turn­ing to online edu­ca­tion to accel­er­ate their learning.

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in April 2023 and was last updat­ed in Feb­ru­ary 2024.

Online col­leges are increas­ing­ly short­en­ing the tra­di­tion­al 16-week semes­ter to fit more vir­tu­al course­work into stu­dents’ sched­ules. Accel­er­at­ed stu­dents work year-round with­out extend­ed breaks to jump into their dream careers faster. 

Not only will you poten­tial­ly save thou­sands on tuition, but you’ll quick­ly enter a work­force where bach­e­lor’s grads snag a medi­an annu­al salary of $58,862. There­fore, we set out to out­line 10 of the Best Accel­er­at­ed Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams that take two to three years or even less.

What are the benefits of an accelerated bachelor’s degree?

There’s no easy way to high­er edu­ca­tion, but accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s degree pro­grams are at least con­ve­nient. Full-time study in online class­es is more flex­i­ble than on cam­pus. You can earn col­lege cred­its from work expe­ri­ence or trans­fer cred­it hours from a low­er-lev­el under­grad­u­ate degree like an asso­ciate or cer­tifi­cate program. 

If your gen­er­al edu­ca­tion require­ments are out of the way, your accel­er­at­ed online degree can take just a year and require no internships!

Adult learn­ers pay low­er tuition rates for online cours­es as well. Areas like Human Resource Man­age­ment, Social Work, Health­care Man­age­ment, and Social Sci­ences have excel­lent job mar­ket val­ue. You may even move on to online master’s degree pro­grams from your bach­e­lor of arts degree!

Relat­ed Articles:

• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Radi­a­tion Science
• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Real Estate
• 10 Fastest Online RN to BSN Programs

Method­ol­o­gy

To com­plete this ranking: 

• We con­sult­ed with the U.S. News and World Report’s online bach­e­lor’s rank­ings to access the qual­i­ty of and record tuition data for each fast-track program. 
• We nev­er over­look accred­i­ta­tion, so every bach­e­lor’s need­ed region­al approval from CHEA-rec­og­nized bodies. 
• We gave pref­er­ence to non­prof­it col­leges with tra­di­tion­al cam­pus­es over big-name online uni­ver­si­ties like Capel­la and Stray­er which every­one knows. 
• We also pre­ferred accel­er­at­ed degrees where life expe­ri­ence, pri­or learn­ing, and CLEP cred­its were eas­i­ly transferred. 
• Oth­er fac­tors includ­ed online tech­nol­o­gy, course length, major flex­i­bil­i­ty, cohort size, grad­u­a­tion rate, and sup­port services.

Here are our selec­tions for 10 Accel­er­at­ed Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree Programs:

1. The University of Oklahoma

Begin­ning in 2003, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa’s Col­lege of Pro­fes­sion­al and Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies began serv­ing its under­grads with a 100 per­cent online option!

The PACS Extend­ed Cam­pus offers eight-week cours­es on Can­vas for trans­fers to com­plete six bach­e­lor’s degrees, includ­ing a B.A. in World Cul­tur­al Stud­ies, a B.S. in Avi­a­tion, and a B.A. in Lifes­pan Care Admin­is­tra­tion, in just 18 months.

Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion
Accep­tance Rate: 85%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 68%

Learn more about the Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa’s Accel­er­at­ed Online Com­ple­tion Pro­grams.

2. Arizona State University

Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty wel­comes under­grad Sun Dev­ils with up to 90 trans­fer cred­its into its HLC-accred­it­ed vir­tu­al classroom. 

Funds like the Star­bucks Col­lege Achieve­ment Plan help afford 7.5‑week, accel­er­at­ed cours­es in 71 ASU Online bac­calau­re­ate pro­grams, such as the Oper­a­tions Man­age­ment BAS, Inte­gra­tive Health BS, and Food Indus­try Man­age­ment BA.

Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion
Accep­tance Rate: 88%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 66%

Learn more about Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty’s Accel­er­at­ed Bach­e­lor’s Online Degree Pro­grams.

3. PennWest Global Online

Belong­ing to the 14-school PASSHE sys­tem, Pen­nWest Glob­al Online enrolls online under­grads into 12 bach­e­lor’s degrees.

Pen­nWest Online admits asso­ciate-lev­el trans­fers into asyn­chro­nous, accel­er­at­ed cours­es for fin­ish­ing the B.A. in Land Man­age­ment, B.S. in Glob­al Busi­ness, B.A. in Ara­bic Lan­guage, and oth­ers in four semesters.

What is the PASSHE sys­tem? Penn­syl­va­nia State Sys­tem of High­er Education

Accred­i­ta­tion: Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of State Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties
Accep­tance Rate: 94%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 48%

Learn more about Pen­nWest Glob­al’s Accel­er­at­ed Online Bach­e­lor’s Com­ple­tion Degree Pro­grams.

4. West Texas A&M University

Taught by ter­mi­nal­ly qual­i­fied fac­ul­ty, West Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty’s Dis­tance Edu­ca­tion Office serves under­grads in 10 ful­ly online bach­e­lor’s degrees. 

Accred­it­ed by the SACS, Edu­ca­tion on Demand cours­es con­dense the 16-week semes­ter into six weeks to accel­er­ate through online cre­den­tials like the BBA in Eco­nom­ics, B.S. in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, or B.S. in Health Sciences.

Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools Com­mis­sion on Col­leges
Accep­tance Rate: 97%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 44%

Learn more about the Fastest Online Com­ple­tion Bach­e­lor’s pro­grams at West Texas A & M Uni­ver­si­ty.

5. California Baptist University

Uti­liz­ing Black­board 9.1, Cal­i­for­nia Bap­tist Uni­ver­si­ty deliv­ers one of Amer­i­ca’s best online bach­e­lor’s pro­grams that attract under­grads dur­ing rolling admission.

Since 2012, CBU Online has devel­oped 22 WASC-accred­it­ed bac­calau­re­ate degrees, includ­ing the Account­ing B.S., Pub­lic Health B.S., and Kine­si­ol­o­gy B.S., that asso­ciate grads can com­plete in 12 to 18 months with two eight-week ses­sions per semester.

Accred­i­ta­tion: West­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Col­leges Senior Col­lege and Uni­ver­si­ty Com­mis­sion
Accep­tance Rate: 64%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 62%

Cal­i­for­nia Bap­tist Uni­ver­si­ty’s Accel­er­at­ed Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams are just a click away.

6. New England Institute of Technology

Accred­it­ed by the NEASC, the New Eng­land Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy in East Green­wich expand­ed its oper­a­tion in 2011 to teach many under­grads online.

The Flex Pro­gram lets trans­fers with 60+ cred­its enter 10-week online ses­sions start­ing quar­ter­ly to fin­ish the Auto­mo­tive Ser­vice Man­age­ment B.S., Crim­i­nal Jus­tice B.S., or Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Sci­ence B.S. in 18 months.

Accred­i­ta­tion: New Eng­land Com­mis­sion of High­er Edu­ca­tion
Accep­tance Rate: 77%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 71%

More infor­ma­tion about New Eng­land Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy’s Accel­er­at­ed Bach­e­lor’s Degree Online Pro­grams.

7. CSU Global

Direct­ed by pres­i­dent Becky Take­da-Tin­ker since 2010, Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty-Glob­al enrolls work­ing adults in its HLC-accred­it­ed online bach­e­lor’s programs.

Free appli­ca­tion codes help under­grads trans­fer up to 90 cred­its into 13 CSU-Glob­al degrees, such as the B.S. in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, B.S. in Human Ser­vices, or B.S. in Mar­ket­ing, with accel­er­at­ed, eight-week terms start­ing monthly.

Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion
Accep­tance Rate: 96%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 36%

Fol­low the link to learn more about Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty — Glob­al’s Accel­er­at­ed Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree Programs.

8. Daytona State College

Offer­ing 100 per­cent admis­sion, Day­tona State Col­lege is a SACS-accred­it­ed FCS mem­ber ranked nation­al­ly for asyn­chro­nous online bach­e­lor’s courses.

Trans­fer mod­el, Day­tona Online accel­er­ates the com­ple­tion time for the B.A.S. in Super­vi­sion and Man­age­ment, B.S. in Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, and B.S. in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy to 24 months.

Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools Com­mis­sion on Col­leges
Accep­tance Rate: 100%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 46%

Learn more about Day­tona State Col­lege’s Online Bach­e­lor’s Accel­er­at­ed Degree Pro­grams.

9. Charleston Southern University

Affil­i­at­ed with the South Car­oli­na Bap­tist Con­ven­tion, Charleston South­ern Uni­ver­si­ty start­ed SACS-accred­it­ed online edu­ca­tion in 2009.

Accel­er­at­ed, sev­en-week semes­ters allow CSU Online stu­dents to tack­le six bach­e­lor’s like a B.S. in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism, a B.S. in Project Man­age­ment, or a B.S. in Health­care Admin­is­tra­tion fast with CLEP cred­it acceptance.

What does CLEP stand for? Col­lege Lev­el Exam­i­na­tion Program

Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools Com­mis­sion on Col­leges
Accep­tance Rate: 57%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 41%

Want more infor­ma­tion? Charleston South­ern Uni­ver­si­ty’s Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree Programs.

10. Siena Heights University

Report­ing a whop­ping 98 per­cent stu­dent sat­is­fac­tion, Siena Heights Uni­ver­si­ty is an HLC-accred­it­ed Catholic school in south­ern Michigan.

The Adult Degree Com­ple­tion Pro­gram pro­vides speedy, eight-week terms for 18 upper-divi­sion, 60-cred­it majors, such as the B.A. in Mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary Stud­ies, B.A.S. in Res­pi­ra­to­ry Ther­a­py, and B.B.A. in Entrepreneurship.

Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion
Accep­tance Rate: 68%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 68%

Learn more about the online accel­er­at­ed pro­grams at Siena Heights Uni­ver­si­ty.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources:

• BankRate.com
• Coursera.org
• U.S. News and World Report