10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s Degrees

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  • Find a bachelor's degree




    Bachelors Degree Center is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

Key Infor­ma­tion:

  • Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty has the #1 fastest online bach­e­lor’s degree pro­gram.
  • Fastest online bach­e­lor’s degrees allow stu­dents to com­plete their edu­ca­tion faster than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams through options like cred­it trans­fers and accel­er­at­ed courses.
  • Diverse areas are cov­ered such as Busi­ness, Com­put­er Sci­ence, Social Work, and more, cater­ing to dif­fer­ent career interests.
  • All cours­es are online, pro­vid­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty to study from any­where with­out attend­ing on-cam­pus classes.

Accord­ing to the U.S. Cen­sus Bureau, work­ers who have a bachelor’s degree earn approx­i­mate­ly $24,000 more per year than high school grad­u­ates. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics says that full-time work­ers age 25 and old­er earn near­ly dou­ble the annu­al salary of those with only a high school diplo­ma! What bet­ter way to get an edu­ca­tion than with an accel­er­at­ed online bach­e­lor’s degree!

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in Sep­tem­ber 2023 and revised in Feb­ru­ary 2024.

Earn­ing a bachelor’s degree can: 

  • Help you make more money
  • Be bet­ter pre­pared for the workforce
  • Help you gain a pro­mo­tion faster
  • Bet­ter your chances of sup­port­ing your family
  • Help you to pay off your mort­gage faster
  • Retire Ear­ly!

A bachelor’s degree is a four-year col­lege degree that opens the door to new career oppor­tu­ni­ties and is required before attend­ing grad­u­ate school or earn­ing a pro­fes­sion­al degree. 

There is lit­tle doubt that it is essen­tial to have a bachelor’s degree in hand, but what about those who don’t have the time, flex­i­bil­i­ty, or finances to be able to attend col­lege for four years? For the work­ing adult, stop­ping life to go back to school can be impos­si­ble, espe­cial­ly for those with families. 

What do you do? Look for the quick­est bach­e­lor’s degree. The fastest way to get bachelor’s degree cre­den­tials is an online degree. Online degrees are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, even with those straight out of high school. The cost of attend­ing col­lege has risen 500% since 1982 and young peo­ple are cring­ing at the price tag.

Some of the best choices for accelerated bachelor’s degree programs include:

  • Busi­ness Degree/Business Management
  • Project Man­age­ment
  • Social Sci­ences
  • Social Work
  • Soft­ware Development
  • Com­put­er Science
  • Gen­er­al Studies

With the explo­sion of online degrees over the last ten years, there are more options than ever to help those on the high­er edu­ca­tion path­way. An online degree is more afford­able and con­ve­nient than an on-cam­pus degree, and an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram can dras­ti­cal­ly reduce the cost of our degree—both in tuition and time. 

The short­est degree can be as lit­tle as 10 months! There are sev­er­al ways schools cut down on the time it takes to fin­ish your degree. Schools can:

  • Trans­fer of cred­its earned at oth­er institutions.
  • Allow you to com­plete cours­es at your own pace.
  • Offer life expe­ri­ence cred­its, such as vol­un­teer work, employ­ment expe­ri­ence, etc.
  • Allow you to “test out” of cer­tain classes.

The fastest way to get a bach­e­lor’s degree is to find fast-track oppor­tu­ni­ties that take less time and require­ments. An online school that offers the fastest bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams may have offer­ings in:

  • Com­put­er Science
  • Health­care Management
  • Infor­ma­tion Systems
  • Human Resource Management

Relat­ed:

Methodology: Finding the Quickest Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs

Earn­ing your bachelor’s degree online from the com­forts of your own home not only saves time and mon­ey but work­ing from home reduces stress. This list is a com­pi­la­tion of the fastest online bachelor’s degrees avail­able today. 

The fastest bach­e­lor’s degree pro­gram schools were cho­sen and ranked based on the num­ber of accel­er­at­ed online bachelor’s degrees they offer. Each pro­gram pro­vides a way to get to the fin­ish line faster and more conveniently. 

The cost per cred­it and annu­al return on invest­ment are cal­cu­lat­ed into the rank­ing. All sta­tis­tics were gath­ered from the Nation­al Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Sta­tis­tics, payscale.com, and school web­sites. Cal­cu­la­tions were made based on the fol­low­ing percentages:

  • Cost per cred­it – 40%
  • Num­ber of online bach­e­lors degrees avail­able – 40%
  • Annu­al return on invest­ment – 20%

You may also be inter­est­ed in the fastest bach­e­lor’s degree for mil­i­tary learn­ers. Vet­er­ans and active-duty mil­i­tary look­ing for the quick­est way to get a bach­e­lor’s degree have a lot to choose from.

1. Liberty University

  • Loca­tion: Lynch­burg, VA
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 48,906
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 18:1
  • Cost per Cred­it: $275
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, One but less than two years cer­tifi­cate, Asso­ci­ate’s degree, Two but less than four years cer­tifi­cate, Bach­e­lor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Mas­ter’s degree, Post-mas­ter’s cer­tifi­cate, Doc­tor’s degree — research/scholarship, Doc­tor’s degree-pro­fes­sion­al practice
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools, Com­mis­sion on Col­leges as well as numer­ous oth­er accred­it­ing bodies.

Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty is the most exten­sive pri­vate, non­prof­it uni­ver­si­ty in the nation and the largest uni­ver­si­ty in Vir­ginia. Found­ed in 1971, Lib­er­ty is home to over 135,000 stu­dents and offers approx­i­mate­ly 700 pro­grams of study.

There are more than dif­fer­ent online bachelor’s degree options avail­able at Lib­er­ty. These pro­grams are offered in areas such as: 

  • Busi­ness
  • Edu­ca­tion
  • IT
  • Crim­i­nal Justice
  • Med­ical Office Assistant
  • Psy­chol­o­gy
  • Reli­gion

A unique aspect of an online Lib­er­ty edu­ca­tion is that stu­dents can use their for­mer school­ing, train­ing, mil­i­tary or on-the-job expe­ri­ence to earn addi­tion­al cred­it toward an under­grad­u­ate degree. This sig­nif­i­cant­ly cuts down on time it takes to com­plete a bachelor’s degree. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, Lib­er­ty allows stu­dents to trans­fer up to 75% of pre­vi­ous­ly earned cred­its. These two options make Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty one of the fastest degree com­ple­tion schools on the list. 

Class­es are offered in 8‑week ses­sions with no set login times ensur­ing stu­dents ulti­mate flex­i­bil­i­ty. Flex­i­bil­i­ty, ample options, and a low cost of only $275 per cred­it hour place Lib­er­ty at the top of the list.

2. Lamar University

  • Loca­tion: Beau­mont, Texas
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 8,257
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 19:1
  • Tuition: $8,690 in-state tuition
  • Degrees Offered: Bachelor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Master’s degree, Doctor’s degree — research/scholarship, Doctor’s degree-pro­fes­sion­al practice
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools, Com­mis­sion on Col­leges as well as numer­ous oth­er accred­it­ing bodies.

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty is one of the fastest grow­ing col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties in the state of Texas and a mem­ber of the Texas State Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem. Over 15,000 stu­dents in a high­ly diverse stu­dent body are cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degrees in over 100 pro­grams of study.

There are sev­er­al bachelor’s degrees avail­able in the Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty online pro­gram. Stu­dents can take their class­es in tra­di­tion­al 15-week semes­ters or accel­er­at­ed eight-week cours­es depend­ing on their pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al needs. 

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty also offers dual cred­it cours­es for high school stu­dents. This means that qual­i­fied stu­dents can take online class­es through Lamar and receive both high school and col­lege cred­it. Appli­ca­tion of dual cred­it is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the stu­dent, who must con­tact their high school for spe­cif­ic require­ments and restrictions. 

These accel­er­at­ed options and Lamar’s com­mit­ment to diver­si­ty make this online pro­gram an excel­lent choice.

3. Colorado State University-Global Campus

  • Loca­tion: Green­wood Vil­lage, Colorado
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 6,897
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 17:1
  • Tuition: $42,000 is the tuition to com­plete a 120-cred­it hour bach­e­lor’s degree 
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, Bachelor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Master’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Commission

Found­ed in 2007 by the Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem Board of Gov­er­nors, Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty-Glob­al Cam­pus is the first inde­pen­dent and entire­ly online state uni­ver­si­ty in the Unit­ed States. Over six thou­sand stu­dents are cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing under­grad­u­ate degrees in 14 dif­fer­ent disciplines.

CSU-Glob­al offers both tra­di­tion­al 4‑year degrees and degree com­ple­tion options with a con­sid­er­able degree of flex­i­bil­i­ty. Stu­dents can trans­fer up to 90 cred­it hours from anoth­er col­lege toward the 120 hours need­ed to earn a degree. 

Class­es start every four weeks, terms last only eight weeks each, and with no time or loca­tion require­ments, you can com­plete your 100% online degree entire­ly on your sched­ule. The cost of $350 per cred­it hour, com­bined with no stu­dent fees and a tuition guar­an­tee that a student’s rates will not increase as long as they stay enrolled, means that you can earn your degree afford­ably and quickly.

4. Western Governors University

  • Loca­tion: Salt Lake City, Utah (dis­tance learn­ing only)
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 107,952
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 42:1
  • Tuition: $8,010 is the aver­age annu­al tuition for a bach­e­lor’s degree
  • Degrees Offered: Bachelor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Master’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: Dis­tance Edu­ca­tion Accred­it­ing Com­mis­sion, North­west Com­mis­sion on Col­leges and Universities

West­ern Gov­er­nors Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non­prof­it uni­ver­si­ty found­ed in 1997 by 19 U.S. gov­er­nors from the West­ern Gov­er­nors Asso­ci­a­tion. With over 150,000 total stu­dents from around the coun­try and 32 bachelor’s degrees to choose from, West­ern Gov­er­nors is lead­ing the way in online uni­ver­si­ty innovation.

Degrees at West­ern Gov­er­nors Uni­ver­si­ty are award­ed for com­pe­ten­cy, not based on cred­it hours, mean­ing stu­dents don’t have to sit through class­es or home­work cov­er­ing things they already know. If they can prove they know the infor­ma­tion, they move on to the next assign­ment or course. 

With these options, moti­vat­ed stu­dents can earn their degree quick­ly. Each stu­dent is assigned a per­son­al men­tor to guide, encour­age, and teach them dur­ing their uni­ver­si­ty expe­ri­ence. Stu­dents also have access to a vast full-text online library while they’re enrolled. 

West­ern Gov­er­nors is ful­ly accred­it­ed, wide­ly respect­ed, and is one of the most cost-effec­tive accel­er­at­ed online col­leges avail­able.

5. Florida State College at Jacksonville

  • Loca­tion: Jack­sonville, Florida
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 37,163
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 23:1
  • Tuition: $104.88 cost per cred­it hour
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, One but less than two years cer­tifi­cate, Associate’s degree, Two but less than four years cer­tifi­cate, Bachelor’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools, Com­mis­sion on Colleges

With a phys­i­cal cam­pus locat­ed in the heart of beau­ti­ful Jack­sonville, Flori­da, Flori­da State Col­lege at Jack­sonville Online allows stu­dents from any state to take advan­tage of FSCJ’s degree and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams. FSCJ Online also offers many career-spe­cif­ic associate’s degrees.

The empha­sis at FSCJ Online is on voca­tion­al skills and skills train­ing, mak­ing this an excel­lent option for those already work­ing with­in a giv­en field. Stu­dents look­ing to earn a bachelor’s degree at FSCJ Online start by earn­ing an Asso­ciate of Arts degree, which they can com­plete in as lit­tle as 18 months.

From there, they apply for one of 13 bachelor’s degrees. There are sev­er­al ways to accel­er­ate both degrees, including: 

  • advanced place­ment and dual enroll­ment cours­es in high school
  • exam­i­na­tions like CLEP or DSST
  • doc­u­ment­ed work experience
  • mil­i­tary train­ing and service
  • eli­gi­ble cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or licenses

Work­ing adults can also get cred­it for Post-Sec­ondary Adult Voca­tion­al (PSAV) courses.

6. Columbia College of Missouri 

  • Loca­tion: Colum­bia, Missouri
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 15,588
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 20:1
  • Tuition: $375 per cred­it hour
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion, Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion for Edu­ca­tion in Nurs­ing, Inc., Com­mis­sion on Col­le­giate Nurs­ing Edu­ca­tion, Mis­souri State Board of Nursing

Start­ed in 1851 as a two-year women’s col­lege, Colum­bia Col­lege in Colum­bia, Mis­souri is now a pri­vate, non­prof­it four-year coed­u­ca­tion­al lib­er­al arts and sci­ences col­lege boast­ing 16,431 stu­dents. Unlike many online insti­tu­tions, Colum­bia Col­lege offers both pro­fes­sion­al and human­i­ties degrees in sub­jects like His­to­ry, Lit­er­a­ture, and Polit­i­cal Science.

A total of 15 online bachelor’s degrees are offered in many fields. There are six-term sched­ules each year, mak­ing it easy for new stu­dents to jump in when they’re ready and easy for con­tin­u­ing stu­dents to keep going year-round to fin­ish as quick­ly as possible. 

With the ses­sion sched­ules offered at Colum­bia Col­lege, a new stu­dent could com­plete an entire bachelor’s degree pro­gram in as lit­tle as three years and five months. Stu­dents can trans­fer as many as 90 cred­its toward a bachelor’s degree at Colum­bia, and up to 60 of those can come from non-col­lege cred­it, including: 

  • Mil­i­tary Service
  • CLEP tests
  • Pro­fes­sion­al Training

At $375 per cred­it tuition is low—roughly half the nation­al aver­age for four-year pri­vate schools.

7. Park University

  • Loca­tion: Parkville, Missouri
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 7,387
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 15:1
  • Tuition: $550 per cred­it hour
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, One but less than two years cer­tifi­cate, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Master’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion, Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion for Edu­ca­tion in Nurs­ing, Inc., Mis­souri State Board of Nursing

A four-year lib­er­al arts col­lege whose phys­i­cal cam­pus is locat­ed in the greater Kansas City, Mis­souri area, Park Uni­ver­si­ty has a rich aca­d­e­m­ic tra­di­tion going all the way back to its found­ing in 1875. Today, it con­tin­ues that tra­di­tion with its accel­er­at­ed online pro­gram that offers a range of majors and minors for every inter­est and career.

Park University’s eight-week online terms begin five times a year in Jan­u­ary, March, June, August, and Octo­ber. Stu­dents can trans­fer up to 75 cred­its from a two- or four-year col­lege, and mil­i­tary per­son­nel can use mil­i­tary train­ing and ser­vice as trans­fer credit. 

Park pro­vides a num­ber of ser­vices and spe­cial pro­grams for mil­i­tary vet­er­ans and cur­rent Active Duty, Reservist, and Nation­al Guard mil­i­tary per­son­nel. For tra­di­tion­al under­grad­u­ate stu­dents, cred­it hours are $550 a piece, while for qual­i­fy­ing mil­i­tary per­son­nel the rate is $250 per cred­it hour ($550 per cred­it for veterans). 

All stu­dents can expect a high lev­el of fac­ul­ty engagement—Park’s 1:15 fac­ul­ty to stu­dent ratio means class­es are just the right size for stu­dent-to-stu­dent and stu­dent-to-fac­ul­ty interaction.

8. King University

  • Loca­tion: Bris­tol, Tennessee
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 1,122
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 14:1
  • Tuition: $305 per cred­it hour
  • Degrees Offered: Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, Post-master’s cer­tifi­cate, Doctor’s degree-pro­fes­sion­al practice
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools, Com­mis­sion on Col­leges, Com­mis­sion on Col­le­giate Nurs­ing Education

Occu­py­ing 135 forest­ed acres just out­side Bris­tol, Ten­nessee, King Uni­ver­si­ty is a doc­tor­al-lev­el com­pre­hen­sive uni­ver­si­ty offer­ing over 90 majors. Since it began as King Col­lege in 1867, the uni­ver­si­ty has focused on prepar­ing stu­dents for mean­ing­ful careers.

King offers 11 online bachelor’s degrees. Stu­dents can trans­fer up to 76 cred­its toward their com­plet­ed bachelor’s degree. Adult stu­dents who already have 30–45 cred­its can enroll in The Path­way pro­gram. The Pro­gram pre­pares stu­dents for a pro­fes­sion­al stud­ies degree by tak­ing up to four major-spe­cif­ic class­es of their choos­ing per semester. 

Active mil­i­tary per­son­nel can seek trans­fer cred­its by sub­mit­ting doc­u­men­ta­tion of mil­i­tary train­ing and ser­vice for eval­u­a­tion. Major course­work can be com­plet­ed in as few as 16 months, mean­ing that stu­dents with the max­i­mum num­ber of trans­fer cred­its will com­plete their degree in under two years. 

9. Eastern Kentucky University

  • Loca­tion: Rich­mond, Kentucky
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 12,072
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 16:1
  • Tuition: $434
  • Degrees Offered: One but less than two years cer­tifi­cate, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Post­bac­calau­re­ate cer­tifi­cate, Master’s degree, Post-master’s cer­tifi­cate, Doctor’s degree-pro­fes­sion­al practice
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools, Com­mis­sion on Col­leges as well as numer­ous oth­er accred­it­ing bodies.

East­ern Ken­tucky Uni­ver­si­ty is a com­pre­hen­sive, ful­ly accred­it­ed uni­ver­si­ty locat­ed in Rich­mond, Ken­tucky. They empha­size “qual­i­ty of instruc­tion, qual­i­ty of schol­ar­ship, and qual­i­ty of ser­vice” as they seek to equip stu­dents to be excel­lent cit­i­zens and soci­etal contributors.

There is no lim­it to the num­ber of cred­its stu­dents may trans­fer from anoth­er insti­tu­tion, though stu­dents must earn a min­i­mum of 32 cred­its at EKU to com­plete their degree, thus sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing the time need­ed to graduate. 

EKU empha­sizes the fact that stu­dents in the online pro­gram learn from the same excel­lent pro­fes­sors and teach­ers as stu­dents attend­ing the phys­i­cal cam­pus. The dif­fer­ence is that online stu­dents can com­plete their degrees on their own time, tak­ing advan­tage of accel­er­at­ed eight-week terms and a per­son­al­ized grad­u­a­tion plan to take the next step in their life and career as soon as possible.

10. Upper Iowa University

  • Loca­tion: Fayette, Iowa
  • Total Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dents: 2,510
  • Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 11:1
  • Tuition: $498 and the self-paced option is $330 per cred­it hour
  • Degrees Offered: Less than one year cer­tifi­cate, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: High­er Learn­ing Commission

Through its main cam­pus in Fayette, Iowa, 25 satel­lite cam­pus cen­ters in the U.S., two cam­pus cen­ters in Hong Kong and Malaysia, and its online pro­grams, Upper Iowa Uni­ver­si­ty has been offer­ing aca­d­e­m­ic and pro­fes­sion­al train­ing since 1857. It is a pri­vate, non­prof­it com­pre­hen­sive uni­ver­si­ty ded­i­cat­ed to “Integri­ty, Excel­lence, Acces­si­bil­i­ty, Respect, Stewardship.”

Upper Iowa’s online pro­gram offers eight-week terms that start five times per year. For those unable to devote the time required by a tra­di­tion­al degree pro­gram, UIU also offers a Self-Paced Degree pro­gram.

Self-paced class­es start on the first day of each month, and stu­dents have six months from the start date to fin­ish the mate­r­i­al. This allows those with oth­er work and life oblig­a­tions to con­tin­ue to pur­sue their degree with­out putting every­thing else on hold. The wide range of ful­ly online bachelor’s degrees avail­able at UIU includes: 

  • Graph­ic Design
  • Lib­er­al Arts
  • Account­ing
  • Crim­i­nal Justice
  • Mar­ket­ing
  • Soft­ware Engineering

Online stu­dents also have access to a vari­ety of resources, such as tutor­ing ser­vices and online libraries.