What Is the Quickest Bachelor’s Degree You Can Get?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams can be com­plet­ed in 1–2 years, offer­ing inten­sive, year round courses.
• Fast- track are often more flex­i­ble and cost-effec­tive, allow­ing faster entry into the workforce.
• Entry often requires a high school diplo­ma, a min­i­mum GPA, and some­times rel­e­vant work expe­ri­ence.
• Accel­er­at­ed degrees are avail­able in diverse fields like Busi­ness, Com­put­er Sci­ence, Nurs­ing.

Accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s degrees have become very pop­u­lar over the past years, with stu­dents pre­fer­ring inten­sive cours­es to tra­di­tion­al class­es. The rea­son­ing behind that is sim­ple: they are faster, often more flex­i­ble, and end up with a degree that can have the same pow­er as the tra­di­tion­al type.

With that in mind, accel­er­at­ed degree options can come in dif­fer­ent time­lines, sim­i­lar to any oth­er bachelor’s pro­gram. While the course­work affects this frame, the spe­cif­ic pro­gram you opt for could also impact the dura­tion of the degree. If you want to shift your career in a dif­fer­ent direc­tion and don’t know which bachelor’s degree is the quick­est to get, then this arti­cle will be your guide.

Relat­ed:

• Fastest Online Finance Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Accel­er­at­ed Online Game Design Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Fastest Online Engi­neer­ing Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Accel­er­at­ed Online Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Addic­tion Counseling

How Accelerated Degrees Work

As their name sug­gests, accel­er­at­ed degree path­ways will enable you to get a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion faster than a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram. For the most part, they last between one and two years, depend­ing on the cur­ricu­lum. This means you could get your bachelor’s degree in half the time of a stan­dard program.

Most of these cours­es have con­densed semes­ters, so you will com­plete your class­es in 5–8 weeks rather than the aver­age 15 weeks. Also, the cours­es are more inten­sive, tak­ing out the “filler” class­es and focus­ing on the ones impor­tant for your cho­sen career. The cours­es are tak­en year-round, includ­ing sum­mer school, which allows you to earn a quick bachelor’s degree.

Most of these pro­grams require a high school diplo­ma, a pri­ma­ry bachelor’s degree, and a min­i­mum GPA. Pri­or course­work could short­en the time, as you already meet the gen­er­al require­ments for edu­ca­tion. Rel­e­vant work expe­ri­ence could also short­en the time­line, par­tic­u­lar­ly if you want to advance in your cur­rent domain.

List of Accelerated Bachelor’s Degrees

Most accel­er­at­ed online uni­ver­si­ties offer degrees in var­i­ous fields – so the choice depends on your career goals. The more inten­sive the cur­ricu­lum is, the longer it can take to get your degree. The most pop­u­lar options are the following:

1. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Business Administration

By get­ting a fast-track busi­ness degree, you can learn var­i­ous top­ics such as busi­ness man­age­ment, finances, mar­ket­ing, and lead­er­ship prepa­ra­tion. The cur­ricu­lum will offer you a bet­ter under­stand­ing of run­ning or man­ag­ing a busi­ness, giv­ing you the skills of a leader with­in a cor­po­rate envi­ron­ment. The aver­age pro­gram is com­plet­ed in around two years, but this depends on the spe­cif­ic uni­ver­si­ty you go to.

2. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Computer Science

If the tech world is where your heart is at, then you should con­sid­er get­ting an accel­er­at­ed CS degree online. The key areas cov­ered include every­thing from soft­ware devel­op­ment and pro­gram­ming to cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, net­work­ing, data sci­ence, and sys­tem analy­sis. The aver­age pro­gram is fin­ished in about one year, but you can also find deep­er-dive pro­grams that take up to two years to com­plete. The lat­ter is often rec­om­mend­ed if you are going for a career change and have lit­tle expe­ri­ence in com­put­er science.

3. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Nursing (BSN)

When opt­ing for a bachelor’s degree in nurs­ing, the cours­es will be cen­tered on med­ical knowl­edge, patient care, and health­care man­age­ment. Pro­grams can be avail­able for both those with expe­ri­ence (i.e., para­medics) and those with bachelor’s degrees in dif­fer­ent fields. The aver­age accel­er­at­ed BSN pro­grams last for about 11 to 12 months if you have expe­ri­ence and trans­fer­able cred­its. That said, if you have lit­tle to no expe­ri­ence, it can take up to two years to fin­ish the program.

4. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Psychology

Those fas­ci­nat­ed by the human mind might be inter­est­ed in get­ting a degree in psy­chol­o­gy. Here, you can learn to explain, pre­dict, and per­haps even change human behav­ior (in a bet­ter sense). The short­est psy­chol­o­gy bachelor’s pro­gram lasts for around 11 months, but you can also get into pro­grams that last up to 15 months, mak­ing it one of the least time-con­sum­ing options.

5. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Accounting

If you wish to make a career as a tax advi­sor, pub­lic accoun­tant, or finan­cial ana­lyst, then a bachelor’s degree in account­ing could set you up on your path. With this degree, you won’t just learn how to punch in num­bers on a cal­cu­la­tor but how to use them to make bet­ter busi­ness deci­sions. Class­es revolve around finan­cial report­ing, account­ing prin­ci­ples, audit­ing, and tax­es. Some uni­ver­si­ties even have spe­cial­ized cours­es to help you with your Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant (CPA) exam. You can eas­i­ly earn your degree in one year or slight­ly more, but 2‑year bachelor’s degrees are more in-depth. 

6. Accelerated Bachelor’s in Education

If you are inter­est­ed in becom­ing a teacher, an accel­er­at­ed edu­ca­tion degree online can help you reach your goals. You can take class­es that put you on dif­fer­ent path­ways, whether you want to teach in preschool, ele­men­tary school, or high school. Here, the class­es will cov­er teach­ing method­olo­gies, how to make les­son plans, under­stand­ing stu­dent psy­chol­o­gy, and more. One semes­ter could also include teach­ing prac­tice, where you are assigned class­es to teach under super­vi­sion. The aver­age pro­gram lasts about 2–3 years, depend­ing on how much class­room expe­ri­ence you get.

Choosing the Right Accelerated Degree – Tips to Follow

When you are look­ing for the fastest bachelor’s degrees, there are cer­tain fac­tors that you should keep in mind when mak­ing your choice. While bachelor’s degree diplo­mas are treat­ed the same as tra­di­tion­al ones, it ulti­mate­ly depends on whether or not you choose a rep­utable insti­tu­tion. The same could be said about con­ven­tion­al class­es – the bet­ter the uni­ver­si­ty you go for, the bet­ter you will be viewed by a poten­tial employer.

Factors to Keep in Mind Before Making a Decision

When opt­ing for a quick online bachelor’s degree, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing fac­tors before applying:

· Accreditation

An accred­it­ed pro­gram is one that proves it meets spe­cif­ic qual­i­ty stan­dards, ensur­ing that you receive the appro­pri­ate edu­ca­tion. There are count­less accred­it­ing bod­ies out there, all of which have been empow­ered by the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. You should look for ones that are rel­e­vant to your field, as they can enhance your credibility.

· Faculty Expertise

A reli­able pro­gram with noth­ing to hide will make its fac­ul­ty mem­bers pub­lic. Whether you get a fast-track account­ing degree or any oth­er kind of online edu­ca­tion, the fac­ul­ty staff must be knowl­edge­able and expe­ri­enced. This can sig­nif­i­cant­ly affect the qual­i­ty of your education.

· Alumni Network

Last but not least, you should con­sid­er the alum­ni net­work and its suc­cess rate. How many grad­u­ates who took this course suc­ceed­ed in find­ing a job or get­ting a pro­mo­tion? How many of them grad­u­at­ed in the first place? If the alum­ni net­work is strong, then you may have high­er chances for qual­i­ty men­tor­ship and job open­ing access.

Tips on Comparing Programs

No two accel­er­at­ed pro­grams are the same, and some­times, three-year bachelor’s pro­grams can be a bet­ter choice than a 1‑year one. It all depends on your pos­si­bil­i­ties and goals. Here are some tips to com­pare your options:

· Look at the Curriculum

Before choos­ing an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram, you should make sure that its cur­ricu­lum aligns with your career goals. Look at the core cours­es. Are they so con­densed that they skipped adding cer­tain class­es alto­geth­er? Some­times, cours­es are short sim­ply because they only offer a frac­tion of what is cov­ered in a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram. For this rea­son, you should make sure they include the sub­jects you specif­i­cal­ly require.

· Consider the Format

The class for­mat can also vary from one accel­er­at­ed pro­gram to anoth­er. Some will only offer the class­es online, where­as oth­ers have an in-per­son or hybrid for­mat. Cer­tain insti­tu­tions could have flex­i­ble sched­ules, where­as oth­ers will need you to log in at spe­cif­ic hours. Depend­ing on your com­mit­ment pos­si­bil­i­ties, you should seri­ous­ly con­sid­er these matters.

· Costs and Financial Aid

The rapid bachelor’s degree com­ple­tion means you will have few­er semes­ters to attend, mak­ing it cheap­er than a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram. That said, this doesn’t make it inex­pen­sive, and some pro­grams might have rel­a­tive­ly high fees. If you are part of the 1.3 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion with min­i­mum wage or are strug­gling to keep up with your bills, you should look for finan­cial aid options (Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics). Most pro­grams offer loans for you to com­plete your stud­ies, which you can pay back once you fin­ish your education.

· Support Services

The short­est pro­grams are often among the most chal­leng­ing to com­plete, as they cram four years of infor­ma­tion in one to two years. Mix this with an active job and per­son­al life, and your sched­ule might become over­whelm­ing. This is why you should look at the sup­port ser­vices avail­able to stu­dents. Check if they offer tutor­ing, career coun­sel­ing, or aca­d­e­m­ic advis­ing to make the process easier.

The Bottom Line

Accel­er­at­ed degrees have great poten­tial, whether you are just start­ing your career or plan­ning to change it. Depend­ing on your lev­el of expe­ri­ence, you can go for pro­grams that last between one and three years, with the infor­ma­tion deliv­ered in a more flex­i­ble time­line. All you need to do now is find the pro­gram that aligns with your career goals and has the high­est suc­cess rate.

Source:

Research Gate