Degree completion programs may be found in a variety of places when you’re looking into your possibilities for a college education.
They help pupils to expand on their previous knowledge. Due to the lack of beginning from scratch, students in degree completion programs may typically finish their degrees sooner.
As it turns out, many of the fastest online bachelor’s degree programs are degree completion programs, and past college credits are a significant part of what makes these programs so rapid.
Degree Completion Programs and Transfer Credits
Almost all bachelor’s degree programs provide generous transfer credit rules. However, you should be aware that conventional programs may accept certain credits from other universities, but there may be restrictions on the total number of credits you may transfer.
As a result, they may be more stringent in terms of the time period in which you must have finished the courses.
As an alternative, several degree completion programs enable students to transfer up to 90 credits from another university.
If you transfer the maximum number of credits, you’re already three-quarters of the way to a bachelor’s degree, and you may frequently finish that degree in a year or less.
Many degree completion programs allow students to get credit for not just their prior college work, but also for additional educational experiences.
Instead of transfer credit, some colleges may call this previous learning credit or PLC. For example, students may be able to obtain credit for employment training or professional certifications or simply for building a portfolio of their work.
Advantages of Programs for Degree Completion
Choosing a degree completion program has several benefits. Your previous college-level work, for example, will be worth more than you paid for it.
Many students who transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions lose more than 10 percent of their credits, according to USA TODAY. Your degree will take longer and cost you more because of the squandered credits.
Having finished college credits, degree completion programs tend to have more mature students in their student groups.
Some schools even have a minimum age requirement and only accept students who do not fit the mold of the typical college student.
With classmates your own age, with comparable life and job experience, you could feel more at ease while returning to school after a period of absence or having to balance work and family duties while also completing your education.
Who Can Benefit from Degree Completion Programs?
Most of the benefits of degree completion programs go to students who have previously completed a significant number of college courses.
Students who have completed two or three years of college and are able to transfer all of their credits will notice the largest differences between a degree completion program and a typical bachelor’s degree program.
The group comprises students who have completed an associate’s degree but have not yet completed a bachelor’s degree.
To make up for this, you should take advantage of every credit you can get from another school.
Degree completion programs might be attractive even if you don’t have 90 credits to transfer because of the flexibility they offer in granting alternate forms of prior learning credit and the extra help they provide transfer students during the admissions process.
