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Friday, February 17, 2012

Accelerated Degrees - How Long Do They Take To Get Through?

By Ernesto Bates


It seems as if the whole world is speeding up these days, and the realm of education and school is no different. Accelerated degrees are becoming much more popular than they ever used to be for a wide range of reasons. The most obvious of course is that they just take less time to complete than standard programs! But how long do they take, and what accounts for this?

Accelerated degrees aren't all finished in the same amount of time, in fact, the length of time can vary quite substantially from one to the next. A few factors that can alter your own timeline include if you're transferring in any existing credits, and which degree you're working towards.

Even with these kinds of variables, you can still take a look at program lengths and come to some general conclusions. The basic estimate is that accelerated bachelors degree programs take half the time of traditional courses of study for the same end degree or result. In other words, a bachelors degree from the beginning which typically takes four years, can easily be expected to be finished in two.

Accelerated programs don't get finished in half the time by taking double the classes at once, that's too much to ask and wouldn't realistically work for most individuals. Instead, there are other issues at hand that allow accelerated degrees to be moved through quicker and more efficiently.

First of all, most accelerated degree programs are offered on a quarter system. This divides each year into four 12 week periods, which means you'll be rapidly moving from one class to the next all throughout the year. It also means that you won't have any really long, extended breaks.

People in college are used to taking the entire summer off, and then having an extra long winter break thrown in there for good measure as well. But an accelerated degree eliminates this through the quarter system, divvying up the whole year into four parts, and allowing you to squeeze in extra credits. So you won't be doubling up your workload, but you will be squeezing a lot more in at once.

One reason why this is so successful, and widespread, today is the use of the online platform for school and education. This makes doing work more convenient, more flexible and more customized, so that you can entirely dictate when, where and how you get everything done. In this way, you can better juggle all of the other tasks and responsibilities that you likely have in your life, ranging from family and personal time, to full-time jobs and much more.

Hopefully by now you have more of an understanding about how long accelerated degrees take. In general, a four year program can now be completed in less than two years. This is accomplished through online learning, through the quarter system in place of semesters, and with a greater workload that keeps you rapidly moving and busily advancing through your degree.




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