Top 19 Fastest Bachelor’s Degrees With No Application Fees

arrow_drop_up
  • 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.

Sev­en in 10 U.S. col­lege seniors will grad­u­ate with stu­dent loan debt that cur­rent­ly aver­ages $37,172. Get­ting tied to decades of loan repay­ments can hin­der your career’s salary poten­tial and put you at risk for cred­it-wreck­ing defaults. Bor­row­ers should cut down their loan amounts by nix­ing unnec­es­sary costs like appli­ca­tion fees. An appli­ca­tion fee of $25 to $90 is charged by many col­leges’ admis­sion offices to process doc­u­ments from new stu­dents. Look­ing for free appli­ca­tion schools or waivers can real­ly pro­tect your wal­let. Shrink­ing your study time by pur­su­ing accel­er­at­ed bach­e­lor’s degrees is anoth­er great mon­ey-sav­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty. Squeez­ing course­work into short­er mod­ules will hit fast for­ward on your degree and career start date. There­fore, we’ve out­lined the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee to accel­er­ate your admis­sion process cheap.

To cre­ate this list, our method­ol­o­gy was based upon the Niche search tool. We fil­tered out four-year, under­grad­u­ate col­leges that charge $0 for appli­ca­tions. Afford­abil­i­ty remained a pri­or­i­ty as we elim­i­nat­ed uni­ver­si­ties billing bach­e­lor’s stu­dents more than $1,500 per cred­it. Since online cours­es are the quick­est, we focused on dis­tance learn­ing schools with ses­sions short­er than 10 weeks. Hav­ing at least three online bac­calau­re­ate degrees where trans­fers can grad­u­ate in under three years was required. We nev­er sac­ri­fice qual­i­ty, so we dou­ble checked region­al or nation­al accred­i­ta­tion state­ments. Our final order­ing was dic­tat­ed by rank­ings pub­lished by the U.S. News, Niche, Wash­ing­ton Month­ly, and others.

Here are our selec­tions for the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee:

1. LeTourneau University

Found­ed in 1946 to train R.G. LeTourneau’s fac­to­ry employ­ees, LeTourneau Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non­prof­it Chris­t­ian tech­ni­cal insti­tute that devel­oped a $20 mil­lion endow­ment and adult-friend­ly cul­ture for serv­ing 1,782 under­grads in East Texas and online. LETU is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 33rd best online col­lege on Niche and the West­’s 16th top val­ue by the U.S. News. Online stu­dents can apply for 13 accel­er­at­ed bach­e­lor’s pro­grams, includ­ing the Avi­a­tion Stud­ies B.S. and Psy­chol­o­gy B.A., with eight-week cours­es for free.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $380/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at LeTourneau Uni­ver­si­ty here.

2. Indiana Wesleyan University

Dis­trib­ut­ing $146 mil­lion in annu­al finan­cial aid, Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, evan­gel­i­cal Chris­t­ian CCCU mem­ber led by Pres­i­dent Dr. David Wright in Mar­i­on that’s kept the appli­ca­tion free for 10,877 under­grads. IWU was ranked Amer­i­ca’s 16th best online col­lege on Niche and the Mid­west­’s 13th best uni­ver­si­ty by the U.S. News. Online trans­fers with 60+ pre­vi­ous cred­its could com­plete 11 online bach­e­lor’s degrees, such as the B.S. in Account­ing and B.S. in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment, in 18–20 months.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,115/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty here.

3. Union Institute & University

Known for note­wor­thy alums like Sid­ney Har­man and Jane O’Meara Driscoll Sanders, Union Insti­tute & Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non­sec­tar­i­an HLC-accred­it­ed research cen­ter in Cincin­nati since 1964 that’s enrolling 1,599 under­grads. Union was ranked Amer­i­ca’s 20th best online col­lege and 126th best free appli­ca­tion school on Niche. Accept­ing up to 90 trans­fer cred­its, Union has 13 fast bach­e­lor’s degrees online, includ­ing the Emer­gency Ser­vices Man­age­ment B.S. and Ear­ly Child­hood Stud­ies B.A., start­ing every eight weeks.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $395/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Union Insti­tute & Uni­ver­si­ty here.

4. Loyola University Chicago

Accept­ing free appli­ca­tions until Feb­ru­ary 1st, Loy­ola Uni­ver­si­ty Chica­go is a pri­vate, Jesuit six-cam­pus high­er learn­ing insti­tu­tion led by Chan­cel­lor Michael J. Garanzi­ni, S.J., with a $535 mil­lion endow­ment to instruct 11,129 under­grads and employ 784 fac­ul­ty. LUC is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 142nd best uni­ver­si­ty and 21st top online col­lege by the U.S. News. Sev­en online bach­e­lor’s com­ple­tion pro­grams like the B.A. in Man­age­ment and B.A. in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy have just 13 Fast-Track cours­es of eight weeks each.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $375/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Loy­ola Uni­ver­si­ty Chica­go here.

5. Siena Heights University

Report­ing 98 per­cent stu­dent sat­is­fac­tion, Siena Heights Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, coed­u­ca­tion­al teach­ing insti­tute oper­at­ed by the Adri­an Domini­can Sis­ters in Adri­an, Michi­gan, that’s attract­ed 1,200 under­grads from 37 states to its Online Learn­ing Pro­gram since 2004. SHU is ranked the Mid­west­’s 55th top col­lege with the 21st best bach­e­lor’s degrees nation­al­ly by the U.S. News. Through Can­vas, online stu­dents select from eight accel­er­at­ed, 20-month bac­calau­re­ate com­ple­tion pro­grams, such as the BBA in Mar­ket­ing and B.A. in Pro­fes­sion­al Communication.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $792/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Siena Heights Uni­ver­si­ty here.

6. Grace Christian University

Accred­it­ed by the ABHE, Grace Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ty is a non­prof­it, faith-based Chris­t­ian insti­tu­tion found­ed in 1939 that’s now enrolling 900 under­grads upon its 23 acres in Grand Rapids, Michi­gan, and online. Grace is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 35th top reli­gious stud­ies school and 38th best online col­lege on Niche. Admit­ting cohorts of 10–16 adults every six weeks, Grace has no appli­ca­tion fee for 11 quick online bach­e­lor’s degrees, includ­ing the B.S. in Human Ser­vices and B.S. in Lead­er­ship & Ministry.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $800/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Grace Bible Col­lege here.

7. Florida Institute of Technology

Endowed for $66.2 mil­lion, Flori­da Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy is a pri­vate, coed­u­ca­tion­al “A+ School for B Stu­dents” that’s led by Pres­i­dent Dwayne McCay in Mel­bourne with 3,586 under­grads. FIT is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 151st best uni­ver­si­ty with the 68th top online bac­calau­re­ate teach­ing by the U.S. News. Charg­ing a $0 appli­ca­tion fee, Flori­da Tech Online fea­tures fast, eight-week terms on Uni­ver­si­ty Alliance for fin­ish­ing 17 bach­e­lor’s pro­grams like the B.A. in Human Resources Man­age­ment and B.A. in Foren­sic Psychology.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,201/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Flori­da Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy here.

8. American Public University System

Giv­en its fifth OLC Effec­tive Prac­tice Award in 2017, the Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem has two pri­vate, for-prof­it online insti­tu­tions direct­ed by Pres­i­dent Karan Pow­ell, PhD, in Charles Town to edu­cate 98,400 under­grads who serve oth­ers. APUS is rec­og­nized for Amer­i­ca’s 92nd best online bach­e­lor’s degrees by the U.S. News and eighth cheap­est tuition on Val­ue Col­leges. Online learn­ers won’t pay fees to enter 45 bac­calau­re­ate pro­grams, includ­ing the Mid­dle East­ern Stud­ies B.A. and His­to­ry B.A., with eight-week courses.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $350/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem here.

9. American Intercontinental University

Estab­lished in Lucerne by the Bar­nettes in 1970, Amer­i­can Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Uni­ver­si­ty is a for-prof­it, HLC-accred­it­ed free appli­ca­tion school acquired by Career Edu­ca­tion Cor­po­ra­tion that’s engag­ing 15,500 online under­grads. Grant­ed the 2010 CCA Inno­va­tion Award, AIU is con­grat­u­lat­ed by the U.S. News for Amer­i­ca’s 110th best bach­e­lor’s edu­ca­tion online. On the Intel­li­path plat­form, stu­dents can trans­fer up to 75 per­cent of cours­es and fin­ish 25 bach­e­lor’s degrees, includ­ing the B.S. in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice and BBA in Entre­pre­neur­ship, in only nine months.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $302/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Amer­i­can Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Uni­ver­si­ty here.

10. Champlain College

Cel­e­brat­ing its 140th anniver­sary in 2018, Cham­plain Col­lege is a pri­vate, non­prof­it bac­calau­re­ate insti­tu­tion orig­i­nal­ly called Burling­ton Busi­ness School that’s now endowed for $17.4 mil­lion and deliv­er­ing “Upside-Down Cur­ricu­lum” to 2,000 full-time under­grads. Cham­plain is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 13th best online col­lege on Niche with the 148th top online bach­e­lor’s degrees by the U.S. News. Speed is max­i­mized in 11 online bach­e­lor’s degrees, such as the B.S. in Eco­nom­ic Crime Inves­ti­ga­tion and B.S. in Web Design, with sev­en-week Can­vas sessions.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,194/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Cham­plain Col­lege here.

11. Averett University

Oper­at­ing 12 Vir­ginia cam­pus­es from Danville to Rich­mond and online, Averett Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, coed­u­ca­tion­al Bap­tist col­lege direct­ed by Pres­i­dent Tiffany McKil­lip Franks on a $19.3 mil­lion endow­ment to instruct 2,071 under­grads. Averett is ranked the South’s 17th best uni­ver­si­ty by the U.S. News and Amer­i­ca’s 175th most con­ser­v­a­tive col­lege on Niche. Man­dat­ing 54+ trans­fer cred­its with a min­i­mum 2.0 GPA, Averett’s six online bach­e­lor’s degree com­ple­tion pro­grams like the B.A.S. in Lead­er­ship Stud­ies and RN-BSN are fast.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,046/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Averett Uni­ver­si­ty here.

12. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Ded­i­cat­ed to “Vir­tus cum Sci­en­tia,” Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Col­lege is a pri­vate, non­prof­it Catholic free appli­ca­tion school with HLC approval that hon­ors Sis­ter Mary Joseph Pomeroy by superbly teach­ing 1,577 under­grads on its Terre Haute cam­pus and online. SMWC is ranked the Mid­west­’s 22nd top uni­ver­si­ty and 12th best val­ue col­lege by the U.S. News. Launched in 2011, Woods Online has 18 accel­er­at­ed bach­e­lor’s com­ple­tion pro­grams of 51–64 cred­its, includ­ing the B.S. in Para­le­gal Stud­ies and B.A. in English.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $873/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Col­lege here.

13. Buena Vista University

Affil­i­at­ed with the Pres­by­ter­ian Church USA, Bue­na Vista Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, four-year Iowa Chris­t­ian col­lege locat­ed in Storm Lake that’s giv­ing per­son­al­ized atten­tion and free appli­ca­tions to 1,714 full-time under­grads on a $122.3 mil­lion endow­ment. BVU is declared the Mid­west­’s 24th best col­lege and third most vet-friend­ly school by the U.S. News. Six annu­al start times allow asso­ciate trans­fers to quick­ly fin­ish 13 online bach­e­lor’s degrees, such as the Health Ser­vices Lead­er­ship B.A. and Crim­i­nol­o­gy B.A., in 1.5 years.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,043/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Bue­na Vista Uni­ver­si­ty here.

14. Mississippi University for Women

Estab­lished as the Colum­bus Female Insti­tute in 1847, the Mis­sis­sip­pi Uni­ver­si­ty for Women has become a pub­lic, coed­u­ca­tion­al SACS-accred­it­ed school orga­nized by Pres­i­dent Jim Bors­ing in Lown­des Coun­ty to edu­cate 2,745 under­grads. MUW is named the South’s 52nd best uni­ver­si­ty and 48th most val­ue-added insti­tu­tion by the U.S. News. Offer­ing 24/7 sup­port and $0 appli­ca­tion fees, the 13 online bach­e­lor’s degrees take 2+2 for­mats for com­plet­ing pro­grams like the B.S. in Pub­lic Health and BSBA in Legal Admin­is­tra­tion in 24 months.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $431/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Mis­sis­sip­pi Uni­ver­si­ty for Women here.

15. Roberts Wesleyan College

Named for Methodist bish­op Ben­jamin Titus Roberts in 1945, Roberts Wes­leyan Col­lege is a pri­vate, Christ-cen­tered lib­er­al arts school let­ting 1,708 under­grads apply for free to its 188-acre West­ern New York cam­pus in Rochester or Online Learn­ing Divi­sion. RWC is ranked the North’s 78th best uni­ver­si­ty and 28th top val­ue col­lege by the U.S. News. Four online bach­e­lor’s com­ple­tion pro­grams, includ­ing the Orga­ni­za­tion­al Man­age­ment B.S. and Health Admin­is­tra­tion B.S., can be fin­ished in only 15 months by asso­ciate degree grads.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $955/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Roberts Wes­leyan Col­lege here.

16. Point Park University

Led by Pres­i­dent Paul Hen­ni­gan, PhD, Point Park Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non­sec­tar­i­an RSC mem­ber formed in 1960 that’s now endowed for $34.2 mil­lion to enroll 3,276 under­grads face-to-face in Pitts­burgh’s Gold­en Tri­an­gle and whol­ly online. PPU is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 215th most lib­er­al col­lege on Niche and the North’s 102nd best uni­ver­si­ty by the U.S. News. Busy pro­fes­sion­als can eas­i­ly access fast, eight-week cours­es for fin­ish­ing 10 online bach­e­lor’s degrees like the Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Design B.A. and Pub­lic Rela­tions B.A. in two years.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $989/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Point Park Uni­ver­si­ty here.

17. St. Joseph’s College of Maine

Stand­ing on Seba­go Lake’s shore­line, St. Joseph’s Col­lege of Maine is a pri­vate, com­mu­ni­ty-engaged Catholic teach­ing insti­tute endowed for $17 mil­lion to edu­cate 2,775 under­grads. SJCME is ranked the North’s 136th best col­lege by the U.S. News and 237th top val­ue in Wash­ing­ton Month­ly. Start­ing class­es on the first of every month, 27 online fast-track bach­e­lor’s degrees, such as the B.S. in Radi­o­log­ic Sci­ence Admin­is­tra­tion and B.A. in The­o­log­i­cal Stud­ies, are avail­able with­out appli­ca­tion fees.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $1,111/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at St. Joseph’s Col­lege of Maine here.

18. Franklin University

Waiv­ing appli­ca­tion fees for its near­ly 10,000 U.S. under­grads, Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, adult-cen­tric Ohio school with HLC accred­i­ta­tion that’s led by Pres­i­dent David R. Deck­er to deliv­er accel­er­at­ed cours­es of six to 15 weeks in Colum­bus and online. Franklin is deemed Amer­i­ca’s 39th best online col­lege by OnlineDegreeReviews.org and 215th top col­lege loca­tion on Niche. Online stu­dents save time and tuition by trans­fer­ring up to 94 cred­its into 35 bach­e­lor’s pro­grams like the Ener­gy Man­age­ment B.S. and Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Audit­ing B.S.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $266/credit

Learn more about the Top 20 Fastest Bach­e­lor’s Degrees With No Appli­ca­tion Fee at Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty here.

19. Independence University

Accred­it­ed by the ACCSC, Inde­pen­dence Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non­prof­it online insti­tu­tion owned by the Cen­ter for Excel­lence in High­er Edu­ca­tion in Salt Lake City that has giv­en free appli­ca­tions to 5,704 under­grads under Pres­i­dent Eric Juh­lin. Inde­pen­dence is ranked Amer­i­ca’s 82nd best online col­lege by OnlineDegreeReviews.org and 221st top busi­ness school on Niche. Rang­ing from 20–36 months, 15 bach­e­lor’s degrees like the B.S. in Graph­ic Arts and B.S. in Res­pi­ra­to­ry Care Man­age­ment offer fast online tracks to success.

Bach­e­lor’s Tuition: $461/credit

What is the Application Process for Most Colleges?

Your col­lege appli­ca­tion is the first step to a high­er edu­ca­tion. Enroll­ment starts here!

Well before you grad­u­ate high school — prefer­ably in the spring of your junior year or fall of your senior year — you will need to learn the admis­sion require­ments of the school you want to attend. In almost all cas­es you will need:

  • appli­ca­tion form
  • col­lege appli­ca­tion fees (though many schools offer appli­ca­tion fee waivers for prospec­tive stu­dents with finan­cial need)
  • let­ters of recommendation
  • test scores (ACT, SAT, etc)
  • offi­cial transcripts/school transcripts

Almost every col­lege offers an online appli­ca­tion today, and many take part in the Com­mon Appli­ca­tion pro­gram). From there, dif­fer­ent under­grad­u­ate pro­grams have dif­fer­ent require­ments. For instance, a state col­lege or state uni­ver­si­ty may have low­er stan­dards than a pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty. A catholic uni­ver­si­ty may expect stu­dents to be churchgoers.

Inter­na­tion­al stu­dents often have to pass a lan­guage com­pe­ten­cy exam as well for under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate pro­grams. Even online schools will usu­al­ly expect com­pe­ten­cy for eli­gi­bil­i­ty. On-cam­pus and online degree pro­grams often have dif­fer­ent require­ments as well.

Prospec­tive grad­u­ate stu­dents look­ing into a master’s degree pro­grams, doc­tor­al pro­grams, cer­tifi­cate pro­grams, or anoth­er kind of grad­u­ate degree, will have oth­er stan­dards. Some, like Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty, except every­one who applies. Rank­ings like U.S. News & World Report can help guide your choices.

Relat­ed:

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Radi­a­tion Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Mechan­i­cal Engineering

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

10 Most Afford­able Online Bach­e­lor’s in Train­ing and Development

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Real Estate

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Nursing

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Legal Studies

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Sup­ply Chain Management

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Engi­neer­ing Management