Are There 2‑Year Bachelor Degree Programs?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Two- Year bach­e­lor degree pro­grams are main­ly for stu­dents who have already earned cred­its at a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, which can be trans­ferred to com­plete a bach­e­lor’s degree in two years.
• These degrees often have flex­i­ble sched­ules, includ­ing evening and online class­es, mak­ing them good for work­ing adults or those with families.
• Accel­er­at­ed learn­ing com­press­es usu­al four-year cours­es into two years, which can be intense but saves time.
• Com­plet­ing your degree in two years can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce edu­ca­tion­al expens­es and allow you to start your career sooner.

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.

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

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.

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

Accredited 2‑year bachelor degree in USA 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Relat­ed:

• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Radi­a­tion Science
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• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Envi­ron­men­tal Science
• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Legal Studies
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• 10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Sup­ply Chain Management
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