Who Is Offering Three-Year Undergraduate Degrees?

Posted on | February 23, 2010 | No Comments

I first saw this on the NY Times The Choice blog:

Specifically, the program will be offered to incoming freshmen who
already have at least 12 college credit hours, either through Advanced
Placement or community college classes, or other accelerated work. By
paring a year off their undergraduate experiences, those students would
save an estimated $8,000, or 22 percent, in tuition, room, board and
other fees, compared to their peers in four-year programs."

From the News-Observer: 

"UNC Greensboro plans to become the first public university in North
Carolina to help students earn an undergraduate degree in just three
years.

The
university announced the initiative Monday, joining a growing number of
schools across the country that have created similar programs to help
students save a year of tuition. Last month, Mount Olive College, a
private, liberal arts school based in Wayne County, announced a similar
program."

Here were some statistics I found in a Washington Post article that are somewhat dated about prevalence of three-year degrees:

"The most recent statistics from the Education Department, from 2001,
show that 4.2 percent of U.S. undergraduates finished with bachelor's
degrees in three years, 57.3 percent graduated in four years and 38.5
percent took more than four years to graduate."

So, what other colleges are actively marketing a three-year undergraduate degree program (my sense is that many schools already offer that option for high schoolers entering with significant AP credits)?

Here were a few I found after about 20 minutes of searching:

• Bates College
• Ball State University
• Hartwick College
• Lipscomb University
• Manchester College
• University of Washington
• University of Charleston (West Virginia) – Business
• Franklin and Marshall College
• University of Houston-Victoria (Fall 2010)
• Georgia Perimeter College (Fall 2010)
• Ursuline College
• Lynn University (Fall 2010)
• Southern Oregon University
• Mount Olive (Fall 2010)

I wonder how the results would differ today as to why students select a three-year program.  In this 1973 report found the top three reasons were:  graduate or professional school faster (36.5%), save money (34.1%) and avoid general freshman courses (12.8%).  My hunch is that saving money would trump all responses today. 

View full post on Student Lending Analytics Blog

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