10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s Degrees

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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.