Finish Your Degree - The Easy Way.
A traditional or online degree completion program provides a way for non-traditional students to get college credit for professional and life experience. While many diploma mills advertise “credit for experience” that’s easily given and allows students to earn a four-year degree within a few months, legitimate degree completion programs are more rigorous and exclusive about the types of experience and expertise they will accept.
Most schools offering undergraduate degree completion programs consider existing test scores, transcripts from previous college experience, work and professional experience, certifications and licensure, and in some cases student-assembled portfolios or demonstrations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is required to join a degree completion program? It depends on the school. Some degree completion programs require prospective students to have accumulated or earned a minimum number of college credits before admittance, while others require students to have attended college for a minimum of two years. Others will base their admission requirements on your existing track record of grades, test scores and experience, while others will ask you to fill out a more-or-less traditional application form.
What types of classes will I be required to take? Many undergraduate degree completion programs are highly individualized, with content depending on the student’s background, professional experience, and existing knowledge base. Other degree completion programs may be more generalized, depending on the subject and school.
Who will award my degree at the end of my program? Again, it depend on the school. Most university degree completion programs will award you a degree from their own school—and in many cases, the degree will be indistinguishable from that awarded to a more traditional four-year student. A few schools, particularly state schools that offer online degree completion programs, exist in a network of public universities and will award you a degree from the school in your home state upon completion.
What degrees can I earn under degree completion? Most degree completion programs offer classes toward a Bachelor’s degree. As to the subject, it can vary widely depending on the school. Some schools will let you earn your degree completion credits in any program of study for which you are qualified. Others, however, offer more rigid degree completion programs that will award qualifying students with a single degree option after completion of a set package of classes.
Can I earn a degree through an online degree completion program? Bachelor degree completion programs are designed for adult, working students. Because of this, they are very likely to be found online—a very convenient format for working adults who must fit their classes around a full-time job or family obligations. Bachelor degree completion programs are commonly offered in an online format, although they can also be found as traditional programs.
How do I tell the difference between a legitimate and fraudulent program? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. “Diploma mills”—fraudulent schools that give out unaccredited degrees for a fee—often disguise their scam by claiming their degrees are given out on the basis of life experience. Often these schools will simply ask applicants to send in a resume, and will then award a large number of college credits—reducing the time spent in earning a Bachelor’s degree from four years to as little as a few months.
A legitimate degree completion program will have a more rigorous evaluation process. You may be asked to show your resume, but you’ll probably also be asked to demonstrate your knowledge through an essay, interviews, testing, in-person observance and evaluation, and more. Most legitimate schools invest a lot of money in their instructors, programs and classes—and so they don’t give up credits easily.
Not every student qualifies to participate in a university degree completion program. But for those who do, it can accelerate the process of earning a degree. For some nontraditional students who don’t have the time or money to take themselves out of the workforce for four years or wait that long to earn a credential, it can make earning a degree not just easier, but possible. Earn your degree through a traditional or online degree completion program, and you’ll have a broad range of opportunities to choose from—in work, in graduate school, and in life.
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