While there may be some, perhaps misguided, enthusiasm for the three-year bachelors degree, it looks like the popularity of the accelerated BA is increasing. The University of Texas system announced yesterday that it was offering what it called “Fast-Track Bachelor’s Degrees.” From the press release:
The Bachelor’s Accelerated Completion (BAC) program will be offered entirely online from UT Arlington, UT El Paso and UT Permian Basin. Administered through the UT TeleCampus, the program will target adult students who completed roughly 60 semester credit hours or more and provide an accelerated pathway to obtaining baccalaureate degrees that include concentrations in up to three disciplines. Courses will be six to seven weeks long. Students from anywhere in Texas – or elsewhere across the country – will be eligible to apply for admission to the program.
The ideal student for this program will be someone who has already earned significant college credits and needs a few more to complete a degree but who may have a job or other commitments that would make attending traditional college courses difficult.
Students can finish a semester in the UT program for $2,400 a semester. That’s significantly cheaper than most online schools. Of course, it looks like one has to actually live in Texas to take advantage of the program.
