Five Ways to Get a Faster Bachelor’s Degree

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s degree pro­grams allow stu­dents to com­plete their stud­ies faster, typ­i­cal­ly tak­ing one to two semes­ters less than tra­di­tion­al programs. 
• Stu­dents can lever­age pri­or learn­ing assess­ments (PLA) and trans­fer cred­its to accel­er­ate their degree completion. 
• CLEP exams and port­fo­lio assess­ments are com­mon meth­ods to earn cred­its for knowl­edge gained out­side tra­di­tion­al class­room settings.
• Some pro­grams offer com­bined cred­it oppor­tu­ni­ties, where stu­dents can earn cred­its that apply toward both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, sav­ing time and money.

Get­ting a bachelor’s degree requires a lot of effort and hard work. But it doesn’t have to take up all your time to com­plete your degree…

In recent years, accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s degree options have become more and more com­mon. These pro­grams often take at least a semes­ter or two less than a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram, which allows you to fin­ish your stud­ies faster and get into the job mar­ket sooner.

But these pro­grams aren’t just for typ­i­cal col­lege stu­dents. Instead, accel­er­at­ed degrees are ide­al for adult edu­ca­tion. As a work­ing adult, you can stay at your cur­rent job while get­ting your accel­er­at­ed degree and the cre­den­tials you need to advance your career and achieve your per­son­al goals.

This guide explores five pop­u­lar paths peo­ple in your sit­u­a­tion pur­sue to get their edu­ca­tion — and fast!

Relat­ed:

• High Accep­tance Rate Col­leges for Spe­cif­ic Majors
• Why is Accred­i­ta­tion Impor­tant for Choos­ing an Accel­er­at­ed Degree Program?
• 5 Pop­u­lar Accel­er­at­ed Degree Teach­ing Specializations

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)

Pri­or learn­ing assess­ment (PLA) is an umbrel­la term for exams that assess learn­ing you’ve com­plet­ed out­side of a typ­i­cal col­lege set­ting. This kind of learn­ing might occur in a for­mal work set­ting or be some­thing you acquired infor­mal­ly over the years. Ser­vice mem­bers can also use PLA assess­ments to earn col­lege cred­it for mil­i­tary training.

One of the most com­mon PLAs is CLEP exams. These exams are admin­is­tered by the Col­lege Board and are offered in sev­er­al broad aca­d­e­m­ic fields:

• His­to­ry and Social Sciences
• Com­po­si­tion and Literature
• Sci­ence and Mathematics
• Busi­ness
• World Lan­guages

Then, with­in each cat­e­go­ry are var­i­ous tests on spe­cif­ic sub­jects. For exam­ple, you can use pri­or learn­ing to earn col­lege cred­it for French, Ger­man, or Span­ish — and you can do so whether your pri­or learn­ing was for­mal or not. On the one hand, you could use your mil­i­tary train­ing in Ger­man to pass the rel­e­vant CLEP exam. On the oth­er hand, you could use an app like Duolin­go to study Ger­man on your own and take the CLEP exam when you feel you’re ready.

PLAs aren’t always tests, though. In some instances, you might be required to com­pile a port­fo­lio of work to demon­strate your mas­tery of a cer­tain sub­ject. The port­fo­lio is usu­al­ly sub­mit­ted to a spe­cif­ic fac­ul­ty mem­ber who eval­u­ates your work and decides to grant or not grant cred­it accordingly.

Of these options, CLEP exams are the way to earn col­lege cred­its faster. Though you can (and should) take time to study ahead of time, you’re essen­tial­ly rely­ing on what you’ve already spent time learn­ing. Then, you take a 90–120 minute test, and if you pass, you can earn cred­it at near­ly 3,000 dif­fer­ent col­leges and universities.

Port­fo­lios, on the oth­er hand, require time to gath­er rel­e­vant mate­ri­als and com­bine them into a cohe­sive and coher­ent pre­sen­ta­tion. You might also have to com­plete spe­cif­ic assign­ments or oth­er assess­ments as part of the port­fo­lio process. Still, a port­fo­lio requires much less time and effort than a full course!

Relat­ed:

• Fastest Online Bachelor’s Degrees
• Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py Fast-Track Degrees for a New Career
• Fastest Online Media Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Bachelor’s Programs

Online and Accelerated Courses

Per­haps the most com­mon way to earn a bachelor’s degree more quick­ly is to enroll in an online bachelor’s degree pro­gram. Online stud­ies are inher­ent­ly more flex­i­ble than tra­di­tion­al on-cam­pus class­es. In many cas­es, you can study at your own pace (with­in broad para­me­ters and dead­lines), which allows you to study when it’s con­ve­nient for you.

Addi­tion­al­ly, accel­er­at­ed cours­es are often part of online learn­ing. Rather than a tra­di­tion­al 15–16 week for­mat, many online cours­es are any­where from 4–12 weeks. So, you take few­er class­es at a time, but the short­ened time frame means you fin­ish each class much faster. The advan­tage of accel­er­at­ed cours­es is that you only have to wor­ry about one or two class­es at a time — not four, five, or six class­es all at once.

If you’re a strong inde­pen­dent learn­er and have good time man­age­ment skills, fast-track degree pro­grams can be a boon for advanc­ing your edu­ca­tion quick­ly and on your own terms.

Enroll in Competency-Based Education Programs

Com­pe­ten­cy-based edu­ca­tion focus­es on mas­ter­ing learn­ing tar­gets tai­lored specif­i­cal­ly to you. Rather than a tra­di­tion­al learn­ing mod­el where­in you learn based on a cur­ricu­lum designed for all stu­dents, you work at your own pace, explor­ing top­ics you need or want to learn to accom­plish your edu­ca­tion­al goals.

The advan­tage of flex­i­ble col­lege pro­grams that allow you to work at your own pace is that you can suc­cess­ful­ly meet the com­pe­ten­cies you’re adept at and devote more time to those that you’re not. In the end, it allows you to address more dif­fi­cult con­cepts and take the time you need to mas­ter those con­cepts rather than be pushed along as part of a one-size-fits-all curriculum.

Of course, if you’re a quick study and can demon­strate your learn­ing rapid­ly, you can work through a course much faster than a tra­di­tion­al course. This, in turn, allows you to earn cred­it quick­ly and move on to anoth­er class to mas­ter its competencies.

Maximize Transfer Credits

Anoth­er option for earn­ing your bachelor’s degree more quick­ly is to trans­fer col­lege cred­its you’ve already earned. Per­haps you start­ed your degree a few years ago and nev­er fin­ished. Or maybe you began a pro­gram at one school and want to con­tin­ue in a sim­i­lar pro­gram at anoth­er school. What­ev­er the case, ensur­ing that your cred­its trans­fer will help you min­i­mize the time you need to fin­ish your studies.

Use the fol­low­ing tips to max­i­mize the num­ber of cred­its you can trans­fer to degree com­ple­tion programs:

• Cred­its from region­al­ly accred­it­ed col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties are most like­ly to trans­fer. If you’re just begin­ning your degree pro­gram, be sure it’s offered by an accred­it­ed insti­tu­tion in case you trans­fer lat­er on.
• When trans­fer­ring, pri­or­i­tize schools with gen­er­ous trans­fer poli­cies. Some schools allow you to trans­fer up to three-quar­ters of the total cred­its need­ed to graduate.
• Work close­ly with your aca­d­e­m­ic advi­sor to ensure your cred­its trans­fer appro­pri­ate­ly. Even if some of your class­es don’t trans­fer as major-area cours­es, they might count toward gen­er­al edu­ca­tion or elec­tive credits.
• Main­tain good grades through­out your pro­gram. Earn­ing trans­fer cred­it might be more like­ly if you have an A in a course ver­sus hav­ing a D-.

Also take the time to exam­ine each school’s trans­fer poli­cies, includ­ing the required doc­u­ments for ini­ti­at­ing a cred­it trans­fer, cred­it eval­u­a­tions, and so forth. If you’re inti­mate­ly famil­iar with dead­lines and require­ments, the cred­it trans­fer process will be more like­ly to go smoothly.

Choose a Degree with Combined Credit Opportunities

A final option worth con­sid­er­ing is earn­ing cred­its that apply toward two degrees. This is pop­u­lar among high school stu­dents who can take dual-cred­it cours­es, earn cred­it toward their high school diplo­ma, and earn col­lege cred­its for the same work. This is also com­mon for bachelor’s degree stu­dents — you can earn cred­it toward your under­grad­u­ate degree that also applies toward a rel­e­vant master’s degree.

It goes with­out say­ing that earn­ing cred­it that applies to two dif­fer­ent degrees saves a lot of mon­ey and time. At the high school lev­el, you might have more free­dom to take more class­es that apply toward a col­lege degree. For exam­ple, some stu­dents who take dual-cred­it cours­es grad­u­ate from high school and grad­u­ate with an associate’s degree at the same time.

This is often not the case with com­bined bachelor’s and master’s pro­grams. Usu­al­ly, you can take up to 9–12 cred­its that apply to both degree lev­els. Still, this rep­re­sents a sav­ings of an entire semes­ter of time and mon­ey! You can then use the time and mon­ey you’ve saved to con­tin­ue pro­gress­ing through your degree pro­gram, fin­ish ear­ly, and get a jump start on your career.

Conclusion

Being a col­lege stu­dent can be hard. Being a work­ing adult is hard, too. When you com­bine the two, it’s easy to become over­whelmed. That’s why online learn­ing for work­ing adults has evolved over the years to include fast-track options like those sum­ma­rized above. 

Whether you pri­or­i­tize dual-cred­it learn­ing, CLEP exams, com­pe­ten­cy-based learn­ing, or anoth­er strat­e­gy, you can reap the ben­e­fits of enor­mous time and mon­ey sav­ings. This, in turn, allows you to reach your edu­ca­tion­al goals more effi­cient­ly, get the train­ing you need to move into a new career or advance in your cur­rent job, and begin reap­ing the rewards of high­er pay and bet­ter job sat­is­fac­tion sooner. 

If you’re ready to kick-start your edu­ca­tion, explore the options dis­cussed above more thor­ough­ly, choose the ones that best fit your sit­u­a­tion, and get your degree faster—perhaps much faster!