collageAre you looking for a quality bachelor degree in Canada and want to get the best deal possible? If you don’t want to waste time and money on programs that end up not providing you with what you really need, then it’s time to look at 2 year programs.
The number of 2 year degree programs is increasing globally. There are many reasons for that, but it’s mainly due to the fact people are able to graduate faster because only part of the studies are held within the classroom. Women become more involved in economic issues, people are traveling more often, students aren’t as committed to their studies as before which leads to high failure rates, etc. These are just a few of the reasons why today, you can accomplish so much more in shorter time periods if you have a bachelor degree.
How to Get Your Bachelor’s Degree in 2 Years
There are four primary ways to get your bachelor’s degree faster:
- Bachelor degree completion programs
- Transfer credits
- Self-designed degree plan
- Universities that advertise “accelerated degree programs“
- Can you finish your bachelor’s in 2 years? Yes, it’s possible… but it depends on you.
- Do you have any existing college credits?
- Are you willing to test out of a few classes?
- Do you have any applicable professional training or military experience that may be worthy of college credit?
- Do you feel comfortable taking classes online?
- Can you handle the pace of accelerated classes?
In this guide, I will let you in on some insider secrets to finishing faster, but the first step in this process is to select a university that offers accelerated online courses.
Graduate Faster with Accelerated Classes
If you want to finish your degree in less time, the first step is to select a college with accelerated courses.
- Choose a college that offers 5 week, 6 week, or 8 week online classes here.
Your actual time to completion will vary. It depends on the number of college credits you already have and how many classes you are able to handle at one time.
Remember, none of these schools guarantee a faster completion rate.
Each university will tell you what’s required to graduate. Then, you fulfill those requirements using a variety of methods outlined in this guide.
Most universities expect you to complete your degree in 4 years: freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years.
If you go the traditional route, 4 years in a university will take:
- $38,600 (public in-state) or $133,920 (private non-profit)
- 1,800 hours of in-classroom instruction
- 3,600 hours of work outside of the classroom
Who has time for that??
I’m going to show you how to create a self-designed degree plan that can help you to finish your bachelor’s faster…
2 Year Bachelor Degree Programs
A Step-by-Step Guide
Getting a bachelor’s degree in 2 years is a real thing. You can make it happen.
Keep in mind, the how-to is the best kept secret in academia:
- You are not changing your bachelor’s degree requirements.
- You are changing the speed. To wicked fast.
A bachelor’s degree will typically take 4 years of sitting in class.
But testing out of classes (credit by exam) and 8-week online classes are the turbo-boost needed to finish your bachelor’s degree in 2 years.
You still complete a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year. You just do it in half the time!
- You are no longer restricted by time and place.
- You can take classes from anywhere at anytime. Mind blown! It’s like giving you time-travel skills.
Here’s the challenge: There are no accredited colleges that will advertise a 2-year bachelor degree… but that DOES NOT keep you from finishing in 2 years.
Accredited colleges may offer a 2-year degree completion program. But in order to enroll in a degree completion program, you must already have a pile of college credits under your belt. If you do, then the school will help you finish your degree in 2 years.
But if you are starting with no college credits, you will be looking to complete your entire bachelor’s degree from zero to finish.
Pro tip: You can make any traditional online degree program into a 2-year bachelor’s degree if you pick the right school.
How to Get a Bachelor’s Degree in 2 Years
Welcome to square one!
You have no credits. Yet. But you are going to be done with your bachelor’s degree in 2 years with these 3 simple steps.
Step 1: Get college credit without sitting in class
Getting college credit by going to class is so 1980s. Like scrunchies and slouch socks.
I’m going to give you 2 other options for getting credit for a year (or more) of college before you even start.
I know where you are coming from. Sitting in class is horrible when your to-do list is 3 feet long, your toddler is sick, and your bills are stacking up.
Testing out of college classes
All bachelor’s degree programs will have a list of general education requirements. They are similar from state to state.
These general education classes can be mind-numbingly boring, but everybody has to take them.
Except for you. Because you are smart.
Instead of taking classes, you take an exam that proves you already know the material AND you get credit for it.
Pro tip: You do not have to ace the exam to get college credit. Most schools just require a 50% score to give you credit for the class!
How to test out of up to 1 year of college classes:
- Choose an exam to take and register via the exam website.
- Pay your registration fee.
- Grab a study guide and cram, cram, cram. May require large amounts of coffee.
- Schedule a time to take the exam at the test center.
- Take that exam and get a passing score.
- Enjoy the credits you just earned without going to class!
Just like that.
How to Skip Classes and Still Get College Credit
Let’s say you are getting a degree at Texas A&M University. Here’s a list of the general education courses you need and the matching exams that you can do with the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) to earn credit without going to class.
| General Education Requirements | College Level Examination Program (CLEP) Exam |
| Communication – 6 credits | College Composition – 6 credits |
| Mathematics – 3 credits | College Algebra – 3 credits |
| Life and Physical Sciences – 6 credits | Biology – 6 credits |
| Language, Philosophy and Culture – 3 credits | Western Civilizations I – 3 credits |
| Creative Arts – 3 credits | Humanities – 3 credits |
| American History – 6 credits | History of the United States I/II – 6 credits |
| Government/Political Science – 6 credits | American Government – 3 credits (Texas requires a course in Texas history)May need to take a Political Science exam through Excelsior – 3 credits |
| Social and Behavioral Science – 3 credits | Introductory Psychology – 3 credits |
| Institution option – 6 credits | Principles of Management – 3 creditsPrinciples of Marketing – 3 credits |
Did you see that?
You can get ALL your general education requirement credits through Credit by Exam. Your whole freshman year and half of your sophomore year could be done before you even go to class.
Check your college’s fine print before you take an exam
Over 3,000 universities accept credit by exam, but each college sets its own policies such as minimum passing score, which exams they will honor, and the maximum number of college credits that can be earned by exam.
To give you an idea, Liberty accepts up to 30 credit hours in exam credit. That’s an entire year of college! Be sure to check your destination college’s academic catalog to make sure you are up to speed on their policies before you take an exam.
Companies Administering Exams for College Credit
There are 5 exams that offer Credit by Exam. The most-widely accepted exams are CLEP exams which are honored by over 3,000 colleges.
- CLEP – 33 exams available
- DSST – 34 exams available
- Thomas Edison State Credit – 38 exams available
- Excelsior College Exams – 52 exams available
- New York University Language Exams – 12 credits in 50 languages
Isn’t that amazing?
These Credit by Exam programs each have more than 30 exams.
You can get between 3 to 6 credits for each exam. Most of the CLEP exams are multiple-choice and are completed in 90 minutes!
As I mentioned, Liberty University will allow you to take up to 30 credits via CLEP exams. Most of the schools I’ve encountered accept between 18-30+ credits by exam.
The beauty of this approach is you don’t have to get 100% on an exam. At most schools, all you need is a score of 50% and you get credit for the class. Sure beats sitting in class for 16 weeks, don’t ya think?
College Credit for Life and Work Experience
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the age of college students is on the rise. There were over 8.2 million students over 25 years old who were attending college.
So what have you been up to the last few years?
Maybe you were working in law enforcement or health care, traveling, or piloting a plane. Those experiences count. You can make them count in a big way now that you have started college by using your experiences for college credit.
Credit for Prior Learning
Using Liberty as an example, you can receive credit for prior learning either by submitting a portfolio or through your credentials.
Look carefully at this list of skill sets and see how many you have. Each one could potentially earn you college credit.
Skills that Translate into College Credit for Prior Learning:
- Administration
- Early Childhood Education
- Management
- Nursing
- Public Speaking
- Aviation
- Emergency Medical Technician
- Hospitality Management
- Payroll
- Real Estate
- Banking
- Evangelism
- Human Resources
- Property Management
- Supervisory Experience
- Border Patrol
- Flight Attendant
- Insurance
- Pharmacy Technician
- Sign Language Interpretation
- Corrections
- Facilities Management
- Law Enforcement
- Project Management
- Teaching English as a Foreign Language
- Counseling
- Financial Planning
- Legal Secretary
- Property Management
- Youth Ministry
Did you notice how frequently management appears on this list? If you have worked your way up to management, you may be able to get credit for that.
Also, healthcare. Hello EMT, nurses, pharmacy techs.
What about those of you working to keep us safe? Border patrol, corrections, and law enforcement. You may be eligible for college credit, too.
Let’s not forget those with the math brains! Bankers, financial planners, insurance, payroll.
And we won’t forget the world travelers in the group. Pilots, flight attendants, ESL teachers.
Obviously, each university has the final say in what they deem worthy of receiving college credit for prior learning.
Step 2: Attend a university offering accelerated online classes
There are 2 types of class schedules: traditional and accelerated. It is like choosing between decaf or caffeinated coffee. One will make you go a lot faster!
Accelerated online classes are classes offered online.
You will read your textbook, watch lectures, write papers, and participate with your classmates on the virtual discussion board.
Although the assignments you complete are similar, online classes allow you to log in after work, on your lunch hour, whenever it’s convenient for you. That might mean you are watching a lecture at 1 am after working a late shift or getting up early to finish your class before the kids wake up.
With online classes, you don’t have to put your life on hold. You work the classes into your life when it’s most convenient for you.
How does it work?
First, pick a college that offers 5-week, 6-week, or 8-week classes online.
You can take 18 credit hours, about 6 classes for each fall, spring, and summer semester. So, in 12 months you would have 54 credits! Most students would have 30 credits after sitting in (and paying for!) classes for a year.
But if you like your education caffeinated with a shot of espresso and you can keep your GPA (grade point average) above 3.5, you can even petition to get approval to take 4 classes (12 credit hours) every 8 weeks at some universities.
That would be CRAZY! And really hard! You would be running like a caffeinated squirrel, but I’d do it if someone gave me the green light!
Earning up to 72 credits in 12 months.
That is double the regular speed.
Step 3: Create your own accelerated degree plan
So, there are no “official” 2-year bachelor degree programs.
But you’re in charge of your education, right?
Let’s make a custom fit 2-year bachelor degree program for you.
You don’t need to follow a traditional plan. But you do need to be done in 2 years. We can make this happen.
- Grab a cup of coffee. Life is always easier with coffee.
- Pick a school. Really, that’s where we start: Colleges offering accelerated classes online.
- Choose your degree. I’m going for Business Administration.
- Open up a browser window and search for your degree requirements. Go to Google, type in the name of your university, your desired major, and “degree requirements”.
- Click on “degree requirements” or “degree completion plan”.
- Create a table with 3 columns. Either on your computer or a scrap piece of paper.
- In the first column make a list of ALL the classes you need. Your college might say you need 40 classes for 120 credits.
- Compare your class list against the list of Credit for Prior Learning.
- I found 105 Business courses that I can use to apply for credit with a portfolio. Now, I just need to narrow down the list.
- Mark in the second column of your class list which classes you are going to try to get Credit for Prior Learning for.
- Check the CLEP website to see which classes you can test out of. In the second column, write “take exam” next to each class you are going to test out of.
- Review the empty boxes. All the empty boxes in column 2 are the classes you will need to take now. Doesn’t that look better already?
- Check your school’s course catalog for the schedule of classes. Some classes will be available all the time, some will be rotated through fall, spring, and summer. Choose the rotated ones first. You don’t want to slow yourself down having to wait until the next spring to take the last class you need because you didn’t take it on the first rotation.
- In the third column, write down when you are going to take each class. Be very thorough! Make sure each class is accounted for.
- Now finish your coffee. Take a deep breath, sit back, and finish that last bit of your now cold coffee. In less than an hour, you have created a blueprint that will let you finish an entire bachelor’s degree in 2 years.
That’s it. It wasn’t all that hard, right?
Sample Timeline: How to Get Your Bachelor’s Degree in 2 Years
You should know how quick you finish does depend on where you start. To help you get your bachelor’s degree in 2 years I am going to break it down depending on where you are right now.
Whether this is your first time attending college or if you are coming back to college with a few credits. Or if you have already completed 2 years and have 60 credits already.
You can do this. Choose which one you are and let’s get that 2-year degree.
First-time college student: You have zero college credits
You are starting at square one. You’ve never taken a college course but you are going to rock this now!
I’ll continue our example of a college offering 8-week classes online with a 9 credit hour course load.
You can use ANY university you want to get your bachelor’s degree in 2 years. They just have to offer 8-week (or less) online classes and allow you to take 9 credit hours per term. Most only allow you to take 6 credit hours per term and that will slow you down considerably.
If you decide to ONLY take online accelerated classes and aren’t going to muck around with CLEP exams or Credit for Prior Learning, it will take you 2 years and 8 weeks.
| First-time college student with zero credit hours | ||
| Semester | Semester Length | Number of classes/credit hours |
| Fall 1 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Fall 1 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Spring 1 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Spring 2 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Summer | 6 classes x 3 credit hours = 18 credit hours | |
| Fall 1 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Fall 2 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Spring 1 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Spring 2 | 8 weeks | 3 classes x 3 credit hours = 9 credit hours |
| Summer | 6 classes x 3 credit hours = 18 credit hours | |
| Fall 1 | 8 weeks | 4 classes x 3 credit hours = 12 credit hours |
| Bachelor’s degree completed: 120 credit hours |
collage