What is the shortest amount of time to reach your bachelor's degree?

Answer 1

A bachelor's degree in most areas can require between 124 to 128 college credits particular to a specific program of study. This would be based on a college or university that operates on a regular two semester academic year, which is the most common. For institutions that operate on a tri-semester or quarter-semester it would be quite different. That being said,The Bachelor's degree - in most cases - is design to be a four year program of study, provided the student is full-time and follows their chosen program of study in the prescribed manner. The minimum full-time student registers for a credit load of no less than 12 credits per semester. However, to complete the degree within the four years, a credit load of approximately 15 to 18 credits is recommended. In addition, there are some colleges and universities that offer accelerated programs of study. For individuals who work or who have other responsibilities that would prohibit them from attending full-time, completion of the degree may take twice as long. Still, some of this time can be cut down by attending summer sessions and/or interim sessions. In addition, the Bachelors and Associate degrees are referred to as undergraduate degrees with the Masters and Doctorate degrees referred to as graduate degrees.

If you take the maximum number of hours during the regular year and attend summer school to complete 6 to 9 hours everysummer, you can complete a bachelor's degree in 3 years, provided you are able to get the prerequisite courses needed for the higher level courses when you need to take them and there are no scheduling problems with other courses. That can get to be very tiring, though. Unless there is a real need to complete the degree sooner, taking the entire four years is recommended.