• 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:

  • Saint Louis Uni­ver­si­ty and Cham­plain Col­lege offer two of the fastest high qual­i­ty online bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams.
  • These pro­grams offer con­densed cours­es, allow­ing stu­dents to com­plete their degrees in less than the typ­i­cal four years, often in as lit­tle as 9 to 24 months.
  • Pro­grams are designed for non-tra­di­tion­al stu­dents, with mul­ti­ple start dates, online for­mats, and the abil­i­ty to trans­fer cred­its.
  • Many pro­grams are afford­able, and the abil­i­ty to grad­u­ate soon­er can reduce over­all edu­ca­tion­al expenses.
  • Grad­u­ates from these pro­grams often expe­ri­ence high job place­ment rates, indi­cat­ing strong indus­try recog­ni­tion and demand.

Ben­jamin Franklin’s famed quote “Time is mon­ey” def­i­nite­ly applies to col­lege where extra semes­ters of study cost more tuition bucks and months out of the work­force. That’s why accel­er­at­ed pro­grams are pop­ping up across the inter­net to pro­vide high-qual­i­ty bach­e­lor’s degrees online faster than the stan­dard 48–60 months. Con­densed online cours­es help adults real­ize bac­calau­re­ate ben­e­fits out­lined by Lumi­na Foun­da­tion, includ­ing a $32,000 high­er aver­age annu­al pay, 24 per­cent bet­ter employ­ment out­look, and 3.5 times low­er pover­ty risk, with less wait time. Fast online schools min­i­mize breaks for a year-round cal­en­dar that packs heav­ier course loads into a short­er span. Rig­or­ous cur­ric­u­la in accel­er­at­ed online degrees can be chal­leng­ing, so non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dents should check their readi­ness to avoid the eye-open­ing 54 per­cent col­lege dropout rate cit­ed in The Atlantic.

Below we’ve com­piled the 20 Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online for adults seek­ing short­er stints with the same career pay­off. We began by using the NCES Col­lege Nav­i­ga­tor data­base to nar­row down non-prof­it bach­e­lor’s col­leges with dis­tance edu­ca­tion. Next, our list of 500+ online schools was cut based on the avail­abil­i­ty of accel­er­at­ed cours­es of three to eight weeks. We sought degree com­ple­tion pro­grams accept­ing at least 60 trans­fer cred­its. Our focus was on tra­di­tion­al­ly sim­pler majors out­side the STEM realm to ease the pro­grams’ inten­sive nature. We dou­ble-checked that online col­leges are region­al­ly accred­it­ed, prefer­ably with degree-spe­cif­ic pro­fes­sion­al accred­i­ta­tions. We also con­sid­ered their years of expe­ri­ence, afford­abil­i­ty, job place­ment, tech­nol­o­gy access, and fac­ul­ty sup­port to out­line these 20 fast online bach­e­lor’s offer­ings last­ing under 24 months.

Here are our selec­tions for the 20 Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online:

1. Saint Louis University

Online RN to B.S.N. Program

Saint Louis Uni­ver­si­ty, Amer­i­ca’s 35th best online nurs­ing school on the U.S. News & World Report, launched the Online RN to B.S.N. pro­gram that can take reg­is­tered nurs­es just nine months full-time. Charg­ing $640 per cred­it, the fast bach­e­lor’s trans­fers all pre-nurs­ing cours­es before the NCLEX-RN exam to require only 30 cred­its on Black­board. The School of Pro­fes­sion­al Stud­ies boasts 95 per­cent job place­ment after the eight-week online cours­es like Health Assess­ment and Pub­lic Health.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at St. Louis Uni­ver­si­ty here.

2. Champlain College

BS in Web Design & Devel­op­ment Online

Ranked Amer­i­ca’s 12th best design school by The Prince­ton Review, Cham­plain Col­lege uti­lizes the Can­vas LMS to deliv­er fast, sev­en-week cours­es cost­ing $1,920 each for the BS in Web Design & Devel­op­ment Online. Tech-savvy adults with min­i­mum of 2.5 GPAs enroll six times annu­al­ly to quick­ly start study­ing Net­work­ing Fun­da­men­tals, Serv­er Side Script­ing, Eth­i­cal Hack­ing, and more. Cham­plain accepts up to 90 trans­fer cred­its for asyn­chro­nous, NEASC-accred­it­ed com­ple­tion in as lit­tle as nine months.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Cham­plain Col­lege here.

3. Mercy College

Online B.S. in Orga­ni­za­tion­al Management

On Black­board, Mer­cy Col­lege earns the 13th spot on Crain’s New York Busi­ness list by putting the Online B.S. in Orga­ni­za­tion­al Man­age­ment into over­drive for grad­u­a­tion in only 12 months. Adults with 60–90 cred­its and at least five years of work expe­ri­ence take fast, four-week cours­es, such as Mar­ket Assess­ment and Man­age­r­i­al Behav­ior, with MSCHE accred­i­ta­tion one at a time. Cohorts, who pay $761 per cred­it, have excelled at Accen­ture, Bank of Amer­i­ca, Charles Koch Insti­tute, and others.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Mer­cy Col­lege here.

4. University of Louisiana — Lafayette

Reg­is­tered Nurse to BSN Online

Afford­ably priced at $316 per hour, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Louisiana-Lafayette has Amer­i­ca’s 203rd best nurs­ing col­lege accord­ing to the U.S. News & World Report for an expe­di­ent Reg­is­tered Nurse to BSN Online. Start­ing five times year­ly, the 30-hour, CCNE-accred­it­ed cur­ricu­lum logs asso­ciate grad­u­ates into Moo­dle to advance clin­i­cal capac­i­ty in 12 months. More than 1,000 RNs have tak­en the speedy, sev­en-week cours­es, includ­ing Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice, Nurs­ing Lead­er­ship, and Com­mu­ni­ty Health.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Louisiana — Lay­fayette here.

5. Regis University

Online Bach­e­lor of Applied Science

Declared Amer­i­ca’s 22nd best col­lege for adults in Wash­ing­ton Month­ly, Reg­is Uni­ver­si­ty offers an aver­age 15 per­cent ROI on an Online Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence that costs $470 per cred­it. The HLC-accred­it­ed pro­gram is designed for A.A.S. trans­fers to com­plete cus­tomized con­cen­tra­tions like Home­land Secu­ri­ty, Man­age­ment, or Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Stud­ies in as few as 12 months. Online Reg­is cours­es on Moo­dle, includ­ing Com­put­er Foren­sics and Lead­er­ship Prin­ci­ples, have fast, five-week formats.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Reg­is Uni­ver­si­ty here.

6. Texas Woman’s University

RDH to BSDH Pro­gram Online

Texas Wom­an’s Uni­ver­si­ty, the ninth-best South­ern bang for the buck in Wash­ing­ton Month­ly, charges $219-$634 per cred­it for earn­ing the RDH to BSDH Pro­gram Online fast. On Can­vas, Reg­is­tered Den­tal Hygien­ists with min­i­mum “B” aver­ages dive into non-clin­i­cal, CODA-accred­it­ed cours­es like Oral Health World­view, Process of Den­tal Care, and Applied Research. By trans­fer­ring 90 cred­its, full-time TWU stu­dents online can cul­mi­nate study in 12 months with fund­ing like the Bette Andrews Scholarship.

7. Neumann University

Online B.A. in Lib­er­al Studies

Serv­ing adults for 40+ years, Neu­mann Uni­ver­si­ty was ranked 234th nation­al­ly by the U.S. News & World Report for online bach­e­lor’s pro­grams like the B.A. in Lib­er­al Stud­ies with class sizes aver­ag­ing 15. Accept­ing 90 trans­fer units, this MSCHE-accred­it­ed degree uses Moo­dle for high­ly indi­vid­u­al­ized Catholic cur­ric­u­la cost­ing $500 per cred­it. Atten­dees over age 21 pick their own fast, 7.5‑week lib­er­al cours­es, such as Ideals in Con­flict, Con­tem­po­rary Human Prob­lems, and West­ern His­to­ry, for com­ple­tion in one year.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Neu­mann Uni­ver­si­ty here.

8. Roberts Wesleyan College

Health Admin­is­tra­tion B.S. Online

Placed 191st nation­al­ly on the Social Mobil­i­ty Index, Roberts Wes­leyan Col­lege launched the Health Admin­is­tra­tion B.S. Online through its Adult & Grad­u­ate Divi­sion for hasty, stan­dard com­ple­tion in 15 months. The 37-cred­it, IACBE-accred­it­ed cur­ricu­lum costs $20,239 total for asso­ciate grad­u­ates from clin­i­cal fields into five-week Black­board cours­es like Bioethics and Inter­per­son­al Rela­tions free of exams. Job place­ment is 94 per­cent at St. John’s Home, Well­care Health Plus, Strong Memo­r­i­al Hos­pi­tal, and more.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Roberts Wes­leyan Col­lege here.

9. Walsh University

Online BBA in Marketing

Walsh Uni­ver­si­ty, Amer­i­ca’s 58th best Catholic col­lege on Niche, has six annu­al intakes for busy adults with up to 92 trans­fer cred­its to com­plete the Online Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion in Mar­ket­ing rapid­ly. Belong­ing to the AACSB Alliance, the pro­gram max­i­mizes the $500 per cred­it spent for a medi­an year­ly salary of $127,560. Hope­ful mar­ket­ing man­agers could grad­u­ate in just 15 months after the School of Pro­fes­sion­al Stud­ies’ eight-week ECN cours­es like Con­sumer Behav­ior and Pro­mo­tion Management.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Walsh Uni­ver­si­ty here.

10. Gwynedd Mercy University

Online Accel­er­at­ed BSN Program

Val­ued in The Wall Street Jour­nal’s top 25 per­cent, Gwynedd Mer­cy Uni­ver­si­ty has a 100 per­cent finan­cial aid rate to help Online Accel­er­at­ed BSN Pro­gram entrants afford the $810 per cred­it. The CCNE-accred­it­ed Frances M. Maguire School of Nurs­ing cre­at­ed this 68-cred­it track for sec­ond-degree bach­e­lor’s stu­dents seek­ing clin­i­cal jobs with­in 15 months. Draw­ing on 50 years of expe­ri­ence, the cur­ricu­lum blends Black­board and Ben­salem cours­es from Genomics to Glob­al Health and Nurs­ing Care of Women for NCLEX-RN prep.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams Online at Gwynedd Mer­cy Uni­ver­si­ty here.

11. King University

Bach­e­lor of Arts in Eng­lish Online

Mul­ti­ple starts year-round allow adults to earn the Bach­e­lor of Arts in Eng­lish Online fast from King Uni­ver­si­ty, Amer­i­ca’s 35th best online and 177th top Chris­t­ian school accord­ing to Niche. For $305 per cred­it, trans­fers to the Col­lege of Pro­fes­sion­al Stud­ies with min­i­mum 2.0 GPAs may com­plete the 48-cred­it, SACS-accred­it­ed major with­in just 16 months. Online Black­board cours­es, includ­ing Con­tem­po­rary British Lit­er­a­ture, Gram­mar, Rhetoric, and Lit­er­ary Imag­i­na­tion, lead to the Out­comes Assess­ment at King (OAK).

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at King Uni­ver­si­ty here.

12. California Baptist University

Online Bach­e­lor of Arts in Human Services

On Black­board 9.1, Cal­i­for­nia Bap­tist Uni­ver­si­ty pro­vides Amer­i­ca’s 23rd best online under­grad­u­ate study accord­ing to the U.S. News & World Report for a WASC-accred­it­ed Bach­e­lor of Arts in Human Ser­vices. Trans­fers tak­ing 12 units cost­ing $566 apiece each eight-week ses­sion have an aver­age com­ple­tion rate of 16 months. The 42-unit major fos­ters Chris­t­ian ser­vant lead­er­ship with fast, practicum-option­al cours­es like Social Jus­tice, Fam­i­ly Vio­lence, Group Dynam­ics, and Case Management.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at Cal­i­for­nia Bap­tist Uni­ver­si­ty here.

13. Northwest Nazarene University

Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Online

North­west Nazarene Uni­ver­si­ty, a “Col­lege of Dis­tinc­tion” with Amer­i­ca’s 52nd best stand­out aca­d­e­mics on Niche, has accel­er­at­ed an ACB­SP-accred­it­ed Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Online via Can­vas. This rig­or­ous, 16-month cur­ricu­lum pre­pares asso­ciate trans­fers for today’s glob­al­ized econ­o­my at $415 per cred­it. Cohorts simul­ta­ne­ous­ly take two sev­en-week cours­es like Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, Ele­men­tary Sta­tis­tics, and Human Resources twice each semes­ter with a 16:1 stu­dent-fac­ul­ty ratio.

14. Rochester College

Online B.S. in Ear­ly Child­hood Studies

Ranked Amer­i­ca’s 98th best bac­calau­re­ate school by Wash­ing­ton Month­ly, Rochester Col­lege launched the non-licen­sure Online B.S. in Ear­ly Child­hood Stud­ies for adults over age 20 with 3+ years of expe­ri­ence. The HLC-accred­it­ed pro­gram accepts up to 90 trans­fer cred­its to fin­ish child devel­op­ment train­ing in only 16 months. Online Moo­dle cours­es, includ­ing Emerg­ing Lan­guage, Spe­cial Needs Chil­dren, and Fam­i­ly Advo­ca­cy, cost $396 per cred­it with speedy, eight-week ses­sions beyond Metro Detroit.

15. Simpson University

Bach­e­lor of Arts in Psy­chol­o­gy Online

Present­ly priced at $519 per cred­it, Simp­son Uni­ver­si­ty is Amer­i­ca’s 180th best Chris­t­ian col­lege on Niche that cre­at­ed the Adult Stud­ies ASPIRE Pro­gram to com­plete a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Psy­chol­o­gy Online. Start­ing with a brief Moo­dle ori­en­ta­tion, the cur­ricu­lum inte­grates 12 five-week cours­es, includ­ing Coun­sel­ing The­o­ries, Adult Devel­op­ment, Moti­va­tion, and Abnor­mal Psy­chol­o­gy, from a Bib­li­cal per­spec­tive. Enter­ing the fast, 16-month track will require at least 84 trans­fer cred­its grad­ed “C” or higher.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at Simp­son Uni­ver­si­ty here.

16. Geneva College

Online B.P.S. in Pub­lic Relations

The North­east­’s 54th best val­ue in Wash­ing­ton Month­ly, Gene­va Col­lege, awards the Online Bach­e­lor of Pro­fes­sion­al Stud­ies (B.P.S.) in Pub­lic Rela­tions for $399 per cred­it. Ground­ed in Chris­t­ian faith, the 36-cred­it major accepts a max­i­mum of 84 trans­fer cred­its from region­al­ly accred­it­ed schools for brisk com­ple­tion in 16 months. Adults access­ing MSCHE-accred­it­ed Moo­dle cours­es like Cri­sis Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Dig­i­tal Media Design, and Spe­cial Events Plan­ning can also join the Gene­va PRSSA Chapter.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at Gene­va Col­lege here.

17. Antioch University Midwest

B.A. in Indi­vid­u­al­ized Stud­ies Online

Accred­it­ed by the HLC since 1927, Anti­och Uni­ver­si­ty Mid­west was ranked 138th nation­al­ly for lib­er­al arts edu­ca­tion by Col­lege Fac­tu­al with a fast B.A. in Indi­vid­u­al­ized Stud­ies Online. For $350 per cred­it, trans­fers com­plete as few as 45 cred­its with­in eight self-designed con­cen­tra­tions like Human­i­ties, Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion, Cre­ative Writ­ing, Health­care Admin­is­tra­tion, and Lead­er­ship for Change. Accep­tance is cur­rent­ly 100 per­cent for eas­i­ly work toward the cap­stone with Black­board cours­es in just 18 months.

18. Indiana Wesleyan University

Online BS in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Management

Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty, Amer­i­ca’s 59th best col­lege on the Social Mobil­i­ty Index, grants the Online BS in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment with bimonth­ly starts for engaged cohorts of 12–18. Designed for adult trans­fers with min­i­mum 2.25 GPAs, the 42-cred­it major can take just 18 months in the ACB­SP-accred­it­ed DeVoe School of Busi­ness. Cur­rent costs are $432 per cred­it for sev­en-week cours­es like Tourism Devel­op­ment, Human Asset Man­age­ment, and Quan­ti­ta­tive Deci­sion Mak­ing on Blackboard.

19. Florida State College at Jacksonville

Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence in Logis­tics Online

Ranked 11th coun­try­wide for degree pro­duc­tion in Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Week, Flori­da State Col­lege at Jack­sonville uti­lizes Black­board Learn to con­fer the Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence (B.A.S.) in Logis­tics Online in just 20 months. Rec­og­niz­ing 90 trans­fer and CLEP cred­its max­i­mum, the SACS-accred­it­ed pro­gram present­ly costs $104 in-state and $401 out-of-state per cred­it. Trans­fers spend five fast terms full-time tack­ling online cours­es like Sup­ply Chain Tech­nol­o­gy and Dis­tri­b­u­tion Man­age­ment for APICS certification.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at Flori­da State Col­lege at Jack­sonville here.

20. Thomas Jefferson University

Online B.S. in Law Enforce­ment Leadership

Part­nered with Philadel­phia Uni­ver­si­ty, Thomas Jef­fer­son Uni­ver­si­ty caps cohorts at 15 for the Online B.S. in Law Enforce­ment Lead­er­ship as Amer­i­ca’s 74th best col­lege cam­pus accord­ing to Niche. For $605 per cred­it, stu­dents trans­fer into a 22-month, MSCHE-accred­it­ed cur­ricu­lum that accepts asso­ciate and police acad­e­my cred­its. Rolling admis­sion helps begin eight-week TJU online cours­es, includ­ing Police Admin­is­tra­tion, Con­tem­po­rary Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, and Cor­rec­tions, on Black­board quickly.

Learn more about the Fastest, High-Qual­i­ty Bach­e­lor’s Degree Pro­grams at Thomas Jef­fer­son Uni­ver­si­ty here.

How Can I Get a Bachelor’s Degree in 1 Year?

The first key to get­ting into fast-track online bachelor’s degree pro­grams is start­ing with col­lege cred­it. If you have your gen­er­al edu­ca­tion out of the way with an asso­ciate degree before enroll­ment, you’re halfway there.

Many schools also allow you to skip course­work based on com­pe­ten­cy exams. If you already know the mate­r­i­al, you can place out of the class. Accel­er­at­ed degree pro­grams are designed for work­ing adults already in the field, so work expe­ri­ence and life expe­ri­ence adds to online learning.

If you’ve com­plet­ed cer­tifi­cate pro­grams, you may also add those cred­it hours to your accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s degree. That can bring your com­ple­tion time down sig­nif­i­cant­ly, since a 9 or 12 cred­it cer­tifi­cate adds up to a whole semester’s worth of elec­tives and less time in the class­room on-cam­pus. Learn­ers in online class­es can fin­ish in less than two years with all of these advantages.

Some of the best spe­cial­iza­tion degree options for a one-year online edu­ca­tion under­grad­u­ate degree include human resource man­age­ment, com­put­er sci­ence, and infor­ma­tion technology.

Relat­ed:

10 Fastest Online RN to BSN Programs

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Radi­a­tion Science

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Real Estate

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Envi­ron­men­tal Science

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Legal Studies

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Sup­ply Chain Management

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Busi­ness Administration

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Engi­neer­ing Management

15 Best Online Train­ing and Devel­op­ment Programs

15 Best Online BSN Programs