How Many Years Does IT Take to Finish a Bachelors Degree?

Bachelor's degrees are structured so students taking a full course load can complete the degree requirements in four years, though some professional bachelor's degrees in accounting and architecture may add a fifth year of study. A few programs are structured for shorter completion, and students often take longer than four years.

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Bachelor's Degree

Bachelor's degrees require at least 120 semester credit hours of coursework, with one credit hour representing an hour of classroom lecture and three hours of outside preparation. Degree plans laid out by schools usually outline a full-time, and sometimes a part-time, schedule for completing all major and general education requirements for a bachelor's degree within four years for full-time study and six years for part-time study. Most universities set full-time enrollment status at a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester, in line with the definition of the U.S. Department of Education, so students need to take more than a minimum full-time schedule to complete a bachelor's degree in four years.

Typical Completion Time

While bachelor's degree programs are designed for a 4-year completion time, most students do not finish their undergraduate degree in four years. Of the students who began a bachelor's degree program in 2001, only 36% graduated within four years, according to the U.S. Department of Education (www.ed.gov). Given six years, 57% of those students completed their degree program. The remaining students may not complete the bachelor's degree program they began, or they may take time off and go back to school years later.

Degree Completion Programs

Some colleges offer degree completion programs, typically structured for a 2-year completion time, that allow students to apply college credits earned several years earlier, either through an associate degree or an incomplete bachelor's degree, to a new bachelor's degree program. The colleges assess which of the earlier credits apply to the new degree program, and may allow students to waive some degree requirements by taking College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams to demonstrate knowledge.

Accelerated Bachelor's Degrees

A few bachelor's degree programs are structured so students can complete the full program, including general education requirements, in less than four years. Typically, these programs require higher course loads each semester than the 4-year plans, and students attend class year-round, adding a third semester in the summer. This reduces the completion time to three calendar years or less, but schools frequently counsel students not to hold outside jobs while attending these intensive programs.

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