How Fast Can You Get a Bachelor's Degree Online? 2024

Are you wondering how fast you can get a bachelor’s degree online? Getting a bachelor’s degree usually take 4 to 5 years, but not everyone can go on-campus and wait for this long before they can grab their degree. Even though some people might want to do that, there are lots of responsibilities like family, and work that can’t allow them to follow the regular traditional college routine.

But, the question is, should this set of people totally give up and just allow fate to decide their life?

So if you’re wondering about the fastest way you can get a bachelor’s degree online, then we have all the answers for you.

How fast can you get a bachelor’s degree online?

Like I said earlier, a normal on-campus Bachelor’s Degree can take 4 to 5 years or 6 years (for medical degrees), but online you can reduce the period to its minimum. You can get a degree online for as fast as 12 to 18 months and we will show you exactly how to do this.

Step 1 – Choose an alternative college

A normal traditional college education has to do with going to campus, taking lectures in a big hall, living in a dorm or around the school, and following a certain prescribed program. But in an alternative college, the school will decide how the degree will run, and credits may be gotten in the form of hours of work.

This means you can get academic credits through your work experience, military duty, exams, and also by accelerated online courses. We’ve listed these alternative colleges and you can find them towards the end of this article, they will help you get your bachelor’s degree fast.

Step 2 – Enroll in an accelerated bachelor’s degree

An accelerated bachelor’s degree is another answer to how fast can you get a bachelors degree online because a typical traditional bachelor’s degree allows you to complete your degree within 4 to 5 years.

This is to complete the bachelor’s degree minimum credit requirement of 120 credits. But through an accelerated bachelor’s degree, which is mostly an online or hybrid model, you can complete this minimum of 120 credits within 1, 2, or 3 years.

This means you can get a bachelor’s degree online fast, but you should also know if you are going to reduce 120 credit hours to a few years, you have to get ready for full study years.

However, not all bachelor’s degree major is available for the accelerated program, of course, you shouldn’t expect any medicine or engineering degree to be involved in accelerated programs. Because these majors require serious practical work which cannot be completed online, and they require consistent on-campus presence.

Meanwhile, Nursing, Marketing, Communication, Finance, Criminal Justice, Education, Accounting, Psychology, etc can be found in accelerated programs.

Step 3 – Take More Classes

As I said earlier, the minimum credit required to get a bachelor’s degree is 120 credits, so full-time students need to take a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester, which will lead to 10 semesters. But if you decide to almost double the number of credits you take, you will complete this credit within a shorter period.

You can even decide to take classes during the summer.

Step 4 – Get Credit for Your Previous Experience

Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) or Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) or any other related name it bears, is a method that colleges or universities use to review the learning you have acquired outside the traditional classroom. So these credits can be gotten through exams such as CLEP (College Level Examination Program), DSST, portfolio, training, Military Service, etc.

Don’t assume any experience is welcomed here, countries offering a fast bachelor’s degree have to follow guidelines provided by their country’s educational board. In the United States, the American Council on Education (ACE) will assess your CPL to make sure it’s equivalent to academic credits.

Step 5 – Apply Concurrent Degree

As long as fast means to get a bachelor’s degree online are concerned, a concurrent degree can be one of your solutions. A concurrent degree or a joint degree allows you to earn double degrees at the same time.

It operates in different ways, high school seniors can take advantage of this and enroll in college classes even while still in high school, and their credit will be transferred to college when they graduate. Another approach to this method is where the high school senior can choose to partake in college classes while still a student in high school. But you need to have a good GPA before schools can allow you to partake in a concurrent degree.

Step 6 – Enroll for the Advanced Placement Program (AP)

This is also another method to get a bachelor’s degree online fast because high school students can earn college credits by participating in AP exams. This allows them to skip most introductory courses offered in college, and it also saves them money and time.

Step 7 – Earn Credit by Examinations

Do you know you can study on your own (without going to on-campus classes), take exams, and still earn college credits? And this method is accepted by more than 3,000 accredited institutions.

For instance, the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) allows students to sit for the exam at any official CLEP test center or at home with remote proctoring. And, these exams are multiple-choice questions that can last for 90-120 minutes, and you will get your result immediately.

Also, the good part is, there are amazing CLEP study guides on Amazon that can help you prepare for these exams.

I believe these steps have answered the question of how fast you can get a bachelor’s degree online, so let’s list the colleges that offer these fastest online bachelor’s degree programs.

Fastest online bachelor degree programs

1. Ohio University

This college offers 60 graduate and undergraduate programs fully online. Also, they have served more online students than any other public university in Ohio. More than 7,500 students from across the United States choose this college for their online education.

2. Walden University

This college Accepts credits from;

Work and life experience
Independent study
Massive open online courses (MOOCs)
Volunteer work
Military Training
Previously completed college courses

3. University of Wisconsin

Offers Bachelor’s accelerated programs in;

B.S. Business Administration
B.S. in Biomedical Sciences Diagnostic Imaging
B.S. in Biomedical Sciences Health Sciences
B.S. in Information Science and Technology
B.S. in Nursing, RN to BSN

4. Walsh University

Offers Online Bachelor’s Accelerated Degrees in;

Aviation
Business
Communication
Computer Science & Information Technology
Healthcare
Interdisciplinary Studies
Social Science

5. Southern New Hampshire University

SNHU offers low online tuition, you can transfer up to 90 credits, and they offer Online Bachelor’s Accelerated Degrees in;

Social Sciences
Business & MBA
Healthcare

6. Ecpi University

Can earn a Bachelor’s Degree within 2.5 years and you still earn the Same Amount of Credits for this degree.

7. Grand Valley State University

Offers Online Bachelor’s Accelerated Degrees in Integrative Studies.

8. University of Michigan-Flint

This university helps you to get your bachelor’s degree online very fast through its Fast-Track Program. They also give you the privilege to get credit for your prior learning.

9. University of Central Florida

UCF Online provides up to 100 programs and they are ranked among the Top 10 online programs by U.S. News & World Report.

10. Ball State University