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Two-year bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams sound like a hoax because squeez­ing four years of study into 24 months would be too good to be true. How­ev­er, two-year bach­e­lor’s degrees do exist with one caveat: they’re reserved for trans­fer cred­its from a com­mu­ni­ty college. 

Two-year bach­e­lor’s options are degree com­ple­tion pro­grams intend­ed for return­ing adults who’ve fin­ished asso­ciate degrees or equiv­a­lent semes­ter hours at oth­er accred­it­ed colleges.

Non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dents tak­ing this accel­er­at­ed track usu­al­ly attend evening, week­end, or online cours­es to build atop their A.A/A.S. degree foun­da­tion. Some grad­u­ate faster than two years by trans­fer­ring more cred­it hours from com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, tak­ing CLEP exams, and get­ting cred­it for work experience. 

Today’s high­er edu­ca­tion mar­ket is increas­ing­ly flex­i­ble for stu­dents aged 21 and old­er to advance in two-year bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams, and then to a grad­u­ate degree.

Why Get a 2‑Year Bachelor’s Degree?

Earn­ing a degree to get your career start­ed or to increase your earn­ing poten­tial in your cur­rent career can feel over­whelm­ing and even con­fus­ing at times. Many peo­ple are dis­cour­aged when they con­sid­er that a bachelor’s degree pro­gram will usu­al­ly take up to four years to complete. 

If you are already employed or if you have oth­er oblig­a­tions right now, this can seem like an impos­si­ble amount of time. An asso­ciate degree takes two years, not a bachelor’s.

The good news is that there are ways to earn a reg­u­lar bach­e­lor’s degree in only two years. This type of under­grad­u­ate degree pro­gram usu­al­ly takes four years to com­plete with tra­di­tion­al meth­ods, but with care­ful plan­ning and by using alter­na­tive cred­it earn­ing meth­ods, such as you can earn in com­mu­ni­ty col­leges, you can speed up this process.

These types of pro­grams allow stu­dents to fast-track their edu­ca­tion­al goals so that they can get start­ed on their careers or fur­ther their careers quick­ly. If you have been won­der­ing if you can get a bachelor’s degree in 2 years, here are some fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions to help you nav­i­gate this great edu­ca­tion­al option.

What Are The Benefits of a 2‑Year Bachelor Degree?

One of the most impor­tant things to con­sid­er is the why behind mak­ing this type of deci­sion con­cern­ing your under­grad­u­ate degree. When most uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents are per­fect­ly hap­py to take four years to com­plete their bachelor’s degree pro­gram, why are you con­sid­er­ing a two-year option? There are many ben­e­fits to this route.

Mon­ey — The less time you spend in school the less mon­ey you will spend as well. Most col­leges cal­cu­late tuition based on cred­it hours. When you can decrease these cred­it hours, you can cut your tuition costs way down. 

Col­lege costs are con­stant­ly on the rise in the U.S. Any way that stu­dents can save on expens­es will help them start their careers with bet­ter finan­cial secu­ri­ty. Com­mu­ni­ty col­leges are also low-cost ways to earn col­lege cred­its toward a pro­fes­sion­al degree.

Time — When you are get­ting ready to start your career, time is an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion. Many stu­dents are won­der­ing if they can get a bachelor’s degree in 2 years because they are anx­ious to get their careers start­ed. For those who are already employed, they may need to increase their earn­ing potential. 

As the cost of liv­ing is increas­ing in our coun­try, these are legit­i­mate con­sid­er­a­tions and wor­ries that stu­dents have. The more quick­ly you can get your­self estab­lished in a sol­id career, the bet­ter you will be able to pro­vide for your­self and your fam­i­ly. A 2‑year bach­e­lor’s degree in pro­fes­sion­al pro­grams can help you accom­plish this.

Start­ing Late — If you got off to a slow start with your edu­ca­tion, or you chose to take a gap year between high school and col­lege, a 2‑year bach­e­lor’s degree can help you catch up and stay on track. 

For many peo­ple, start­ing their career at a cer­tain age is a top pri­or­i­ty. How­ev­er, life some­times gets in the way of these plans. If your edu­ca­tion­al path got side­tracked, or you pur­pose­ful­ly took time off, you may be won­der­ing if can you get a two-year bach­e­lor’s degree to catch up. You can use this edu­ca­tion­al option to keep your dreams on track.

How Do Two-Year Bachelor’s Degrees Work?

Two-Year Bachelors Degree Programs

Col­leges usu­al­ly put their unique spin on two-year bach­e­lor’s pro­grams, but all require sat­is­fy­ing 60+ cred­it hours bach­e­lor’s degree require­ments for the lib­er­al arts and sci­ences core before a degree com­ple­tion pro­gram. A gen­er­al lib­er­al stud­ies pro­gram can be a foun­da­tion for many majors, not just a lib­er­al stud­ies bachelor.

Gen­er­al edu­ca­tion cours­es like fine arts and com­put­er sci­ence are some of the most com­mon col­lege class­es and the basis of asso­ciate degrees. Adults then com­plete two years of pri­mar­i­ly major-relat­ed, upper-divi­sion col­lege cours­es for field advancement. 

For exam­ple, a B.A. in Psy­chol­o­gy degree com­ple­tion pro­gram would like­ly con­sti­tute cours­es for brain sci­ence, per­son­al­i­ty, stress man­age­ment, and clin­i­cal coun­sel­ing rather than his­to­ry or English.

Two-year bach­e­lor’s degrees fre­quent­ly com­press these advanced top­ics into five‑, eight- and 10-week ses­sions for accel­er­at­ed learn­ing. Online col­leges might have a set login time or 24/7 free-reign access for their bac­calau­re­ate degree com­ple­tion pro­grams. Though con­ve­nient, remem­ber two-year bach­e­lor’s degrees will be just as rig­or­ous as the junior and senior years on campus.

Can I Use Work Experience To Earn Credit Quickly?

Anoth­er great way to speed up your bachelor’s degree is to use work expe­ri­ence to earn cred­it hours. Most schools will allow stu­dents to use rel­e­vant work expe­ri­ence to apply toward their high­er edu­ca­tion degree.

Work expe­ri­ence poli­cies for bach­e­lor pro­grams vary great­ly from school to school. A lib­er­al arts col­lege may be less like­ly to take work expe­ri­ence for under­grad­u­ate pro­grams than a research-ori­ent­ed uni­ver­si­ty, for instance.

Pro­fes­sion­al degrees may hap­pi­ly accept work expe­ri­ence, on the oth­er hand — a pro­fes­sion­al stud­ies pro­gram will love stu­dents with expe­ri­ence. It will be impor­tant for you to do your research to find out what the poli­cies are at your par­tic­u­lar school.

It is also a good idea to research poli­cies at many dif­fer­ent schools. If you are won­der­ing if can you get a bach­e­lor’s degree in 2 years then you will want to set a pri­or­i­ty on attend­ing a school that has very gen­er­ous poli­cies on earn­ing cred­it in non-tra­di­tion­al ways, such as through work experience.

Is Prior Learning Accepted for College Credit?

Pri­or learn­ing is yet anoth­er way you can quick­ly earn a bachelor’s degree in 2 years. Just like with work expe­ri­ence, each school will have its own unique poli­cies regard­ing this option. You will need to do a lot of research to ful­ly under­stand how these poli­cies work for each school’s bach­e­lor’s degree. You will then want to plan out how you will use these poli­cies to your advantage.

Most schools will have a pro­ce­dure for eval­u­at­ing your pri­or learn­ing. This pri­or learn­ing could have come through job train­ing or real-life expe­ri­ence you have par­tic­i­pat­ed in.

Will Fast Track Courses Help Me Earn A Degree Quickly?

If you are won­der­ing if you can get a bach­e­lor’s degree in 2 years, you will def­i­nite­ly want to check out schools that offer fast-track cours­es. A fast-track course (accel­er­at­ed pro­gram) will allow you to work through the course mate­r­i­al at an accel­er­at­ed pace so that you can com­plete col­lege cred­it quickly.

This option is best suit­ed for stu­dents who are high­ly moti­vat­ed and have a great tol­er­ance for self-guid­ance. If you need a pro­fes­sor walk­ing you through each step of the way, accel­er­at­ed degree pro­grams will not be a good option for your bach­e­lor’s degree.

You must orga­nize your edu­ca­tion­al tasks effi­cient­ly and meet dead­lines pre­cise­ly in order to make this option work best for you.

Benefits of Finishing a Bachelor’s in Two Years

Adults head­ing back to col­lege will dis­cov­er that two-year bach­e­lor’s pro­grams are the most eas­i­ly sched­uled around work or life obligations. 

Degree com­ple­tion stu­dents max­i­mize their cred­it trans­fers, using their exist­ing col­lege cred­its to fin­ish a bach­e­lor’s that’s vir­tu­al­ly required in many fields. Two-year bach­e­lor’s grad­u­ates find new careers like sales engi­neer, soft­ware devel­op­er, finan­cial advi­sor, air­line pilot, oper­a­tions man­ag­er, and sec­ondary teacher sud­den­ly opened.

Since bach­e­lor’s degrees are so respect­ed by employ­ers, grad­u­ates have a low­er unem­ploy­ment rate (2.7 %) than asso­ciate hold­ers (3.6 %). Pur­su­ing a two-year bach­e­lor’s degree could make you appear more ambi­tious, well-round­ed, skilled, and inno­v­a­tive dur­ing inter­views. A Career­Builder sur­vey found that 56 per­cent of employ­ers have raised their degree requirements.

Unless you’ve cho­sen a tech­ni­cal job like chef or elec­tri­cian, a bach­e­lor’s degree will help get your foot in the door and bet­ter secure your posi­tion. Employ­ers val­ue high­er edu­ca­tion, so you’ll be less like­ly to get axed dur­ing the next recession. 

Accord­ing to the Col­lege Board, this secu­ri­ty trans­lates into job and life sat­is­fac­tion with 70 per­cent of bach­e­lor’s grads report­ing reg­u­lar exer­cise. Bach­e­lor’s-lev­el jobs more fre­quent­ly add eco­nom­ic perks like insur­ance, 401k retire­ment plans, vaca­tion time, and bonuses. 

Accord­ing to Payscale, this builds even greater val­ue atop the high­er aver­age start­ing salary for bach­e­lor’s grads ($43,200) than asso­ciate grads ($35,100). Many folks attend­ing two-year bach­e­lor’s pro­grams also sim­ply want to expand their wealth of knowledge.

Get­ting your bach­e­lor of arts or sci­ence degree quick­ly from a region­al­ly accred­it­ed school also means you can move on to a grad­u­ate degree faster, like mas­ter’s degrees, law degrees, and even doc­tor­al degrees (but not med­ical degrees). 

Some doc­tor­ate degrees allow a stu­dent to jump right in, earn­ing their mas­ter’s degrees along the way. A doc­tor­al degree, and grad­u­ate degrees in gen­er­al, are a whole oth­er ket­tle of fish, though. Your mas­ter’s degree can make a dif­fer­ence, even if it’s not your final degree.

Tips for Finding Credible Two-Year Bachelor’s Programs

Two-Year Bachelors Degree Programs

Research is essen­tial to select the right two-year bac­calau­re­ate and avoid falling for mon­ey-wast­ing scams. Always pri­or­i­tize region­al accred­i­ta­tion because it means the col­lege exceeds qual­i­ty stan­dards, is rec­og­nized for cred­it trans­fers, and gifts fed­er­al finan­cial aid. 

The NCES reports that the enroll­ment of adults over age 24 hit 8.1 mil­lion in 2015, so look for col­leges that attract high­er per­cent­ages of non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dents than fresh-faced fresh­men. Search help­ful resources like the Col­lege Nav­i­ga­tor for bach­e­lor’s dis­tance edu­ca­tion by your major and bud­get limit. 

Review pub­lished rank­ings; for instance, Wash­ing­ton Month­ly updates the “Best Col­leges for Adult Learn­ers” each Sep­tem­ber. Also check into two-year bach­e­lor’s pro­grams’ trans­fer cred­it poli­cies, sched­ul­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty, cohort sizes, rep­u­ta­tion, and prices.

Can I Sit for Exams To Earn A 2‑Year Bachelor Degree?

Most stu­dents do not real­ize that attend­ing class­es and com­plet­ing cours­es is not the only way to obtain cred­it for col­lege. Under­stand­ing the many dif­fer­ent ways you can earn cred­its towards your degree will be cru­cial to com­plet­ing your 2‑year bach­e­lor’s degree — the same length as a mas­ter’s degree.

The best way to earn cred­it with­out spend­ing time in class is to sit for CLEP exams. These exams will eval­u­ate your grasp of many core class­es more than your grade point aver­age. You can study for these exams inde­pen­dent­ly and then pay a fee for the test itself. 

The fees asso­ci­at­ed with these exams are far less expen­sive than the price you would pay for the course itself. Choos­ing CLEP exams for cred­it will save you both time and mon­ey. You should take some time to review which cred­it you can obtain through CLEP exams so that you can plan your 2‑year bach­e­lor’s degree accordingly.

It is impor­tant to talk with the school you plan to attend to find out if they accept these exams for cred­it. Some schools pro­vide their own exams for cred­it which can still save you time and mon­ey (which you can put for­ward to your grad­u­ate degree).

Inter­est­ed in an Edu­ca­tion degree? Where Can I Find the Best Accred­it­ed Mas­ter’s Degrees in Education?

Accredited Two-Year Bachelor’s Degree Examples

Using the above meth­ods, we’ve stum­bled across hun­dreds of wor­thy two-year bach­e­lor’s degree com­ple­tion pro­grams rec­og­nized by the col­leges and schools com­mis­sion, so let’s review some of the bright­est exam­ples. Region­al­ly-accred­it­ed pro­grams are important. 

Pal­met­to Col­lege is a Uni­ver­si­ty of South Car­oli­na branch that has 14 online two-year bach­e­lor’s options, includ­ing a B.S. in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment, a B.A. in Ele­men­tary Edu­ca­tion, and a B.S. in Health Promotion. 

On the oth­er coast, Azusa Pacif­ic Uni­ver­si­ty is a Cal­i­for­nia-based Chris­t­ian school with nine 2+2 pro­grams like the B.S. in Orga­ni­za­tion­al Lead­er­ship, B.A. in Lib­er­al Stud­ies, and B.A. in Crim­i­nal Justice. 

Maryl­hurst Uni­ver­si­ty in Ore­gon lets work­ing adults choose from nine two-year bac­calau­re­ates, such as the Inte­ri­or Design B.F.A., Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture B.A., and Busi­ness Man­age­ment B.A.S.

If you’re lack­ing the cred­its req­ui­site to begin a two-year bach­e­lor’s degree, don’t fret because oth­er accel­er­at­ed path­ways exist. Online col­leges are espe­cial­ly famous for short­en­ing class times for grad­u­at­ing faster after a high school diplo­ma too. 

For instance, ECPI Uni­ver­si­ty in Vir­ginia offers a SACS-accred­it­ed sched­ule of 2.5 years for degrees like the B.S. in Cloud Com­put­ing and B.S. in Radi­o­log­ic Sciences. 

Sim­i­lar­ly, speedy online ses­sions at Herz­ing Uni­ver­si­ty could lead to a B.S. in Health­care Man­age­ment or a B.S. in Mar­ket­ing in 36 months. 

If you’re lack­ing the cred­its req­ui­site to begin a two-year bachelor’s degree, don’t fret because oth­er accel­er­at­ed path­ways exist. Online col­leges are espe­cial­ly famous for short­en­ing class times for grad­u­at­ing faster after a high school diplo­ma too. Alter­na­tives to two-year bachelor’s degree pro­grams spread your study year-round to get your two-year degree in hand faster.

Major course­work and elec­tives in accel­er­at­ed cours­es make online bachelor’s degrees much faster. Some exam­ples of great career paths include:

  • Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty
  • Health­care Administration
  • Human Resources
  • Infor­ma­tion Technology
  • Project Man­age­ment
  • Nurs­ing BSN

Part-time online learn­ing can make the process eas­i­er for online stu­dents because the course load for a four-year degree can be spread out. A col­lege degree like a busi­ness degree can lead to job oppor­tu­ni­ties right away.

How Do I Make This Happen?

The first thing you need to do in order to earn a 2‑year bach­e­lor’s degree will be to do your research. You need to find schools that pro­vide fast-track cours­es and have gen­er­ous cred­it poli­cies for cred­it exams, work expe­ri­ence, and pri­or learn­ing. By putting all of these dif­fer­ent types of cred­it-earn­ing options togeth­er, you can plan out a 2‑year bach­e­lor pro­gram that works for you.

It is imper­a­tive that you plan your time wise­ly so that you can move through these cred­it-earn­ing options quick­ly. You will most like­ly still need to take some class­es through tra­di­tion­al meth­ods as well. You will want to include the time these class­es will take for com­ple­tion in your timeline.

If you plan care­ful­ly and uti­lize the dif­fer­ent types of cred­it-earn­ing avail­able, you can earn a bach­e­lor’s degree in two years. This can help you move ahead with your career and edu­ca­tion­al goals more quick­ly so that you can achieve your dreams.

Relat­ed:

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Radi­a­tion Science

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Real Estate

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Nursing

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