Bachelor's Degree Completion Programs: Who They Are For

Many online bachelor's degrees are not designed for someone starting college from scratch. A large share are degree completion programs: they assume you already have college credit, an associate degree, or a professional license, and they cover only the remaining part of a four-year degree. Knowing which kind of program you are looking at saves you from applying to something you cannot enter, and it changes how you should read the credit totals, timelines and tuition on its page.

Three ways into an online bachelor's degree

Online bachelor's programs generally fall into three entry patterns:

• First-year entry. You can start with no prior college credit and complete the whole degree,

usually 120 semester credits, at that university.

• Degree completion. You must arrive with a minimum amount of transferable college credit. The

program then fills in the remaining general education, major and elective requirements.

• Credential pathways. Admission depends on a specific prior credential, not just a number of

credits. The most common examples are RN-to-BSN programs, which require a nursing diploma or associate degree and an RN license, and applied bachelor's degrees (BAS, BAAS) built on top of an Associate of Applied Science.

A completion program is not a shortcut open to everyone. If you have no prior credits, it is usually not an option at all, and you should look for programs with first-year entry on our bachelor's degrees page.

What degree completion programs require

The minimum varies widely, so read the exact number and how it is counted.

• Auburn University says its online BSBA Degree Completer is for "undergraduate students who have

earned at least 45 hours toward their degree."

• Boise State University describes its online BBA in Management as a degree completion program and

asks applicants to have an associate degree or approximately 60 transferable credits from an accredited institution.

• The University of Kentucky's online Communication BA/BS requires at least 60 credit hours earned

at another institution, or after leaving UK and being out at least a year, and states that current UK students will not be admitted.

• The University of Southern Maine's online Leadership and Organizational Studies program is

designed for students who have earned at least 75 undergraduate credits.

• East Carolina University says its online bachelor's degrees are "degree completion" programs open

to eligible transfer students; its criminal justice program asks for at least 24 transferable credit hours from the last or current institution attended.

• The University of Rhode Island's Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies is aimed at adult learners

who previously started, but did not complete, a four-year degree.

Notice the qualifiers: "transferable" credits, credits "from an accredited institution," credits from a particular institution. Credits you earned are not automatically credits a new school will accept. Our guide to transfer credits for online degrees explains how that evaluation works.

Credential pathways: RN-to-BSN and applied bachelor's degrees

RN-to-BSN

RN-to-BSN programs are written for working registered nurses. Arizona State University, for example, asks for an associate degree in nursing from a regionally accredited institution and an active RN license in good standing. The details of the license rule are where programs differ most:

• Some accept students who are still finishing an associate degree in nursing. Auburn accepts

either a current unencumbered license or a document stating the anticipated date of completion of an ADN/ASN program, and Texas A&M requires applicants to be licensed no later than the end of their first term.

• Some restrict where your license is issued. UF Online states that it is currently able to accept

only students with an active, unencumbered Florida RN license or enhanced licensure through the Nurse Licensure Compact.

Several programs award credit for the license itself. Old Dominion University says licensed RNs automatically receive 33 of the 66 required nursing credits as experiential learning credits based on licensure (program page). If you are comparing nursing programs, also check the state-by-state disclosures described in our guide to professional licensure disclosures.

Applied bachelor's degrees (AAS to BAS)

An Associate of Applied Science is often built for direct employment and may not transfer neatly into a traditional bachelor's degree. Applied bachelor's programs exist for that gap. New Mexico State University requires an Associate of Applied Science or an equivalent degree from a regionally accredited institution for its Bachelor of Applied Studies (program page). Texas Tech University's BAAS in Applied Leadership requires an AAS and lets students select an occupational specialization of up to 36 hours using AAS coursework or military training. The University of New Hampshire's Allied Health Leadership B.S. requires an associate degree in allied health "or the equivalent in professional licensure or advanced training."

Residency credits: the part you cannot transfer in

Almost every completion program sets a minimum number of credits you must earn at the degree-granting university. Schools call this an academic residency requirement. Here "residency" has nothing to do with living on campus or making campus visits; it is about where the credits come from.

A residency rule caps how much your prior credits can do for you. Even with far more than enough transfer credit, you will still take at least the required number of credits from the new school, and "last 40" or "last 60" rules also affect when you can take courses elsewhere.

Reading credit totals and timelines

Credit totals on completion programs are not always comparable. Some pages list the full degree (for example, 120 credits), while others list only the credits you take at that university. Auburn's RN-BSN, for instance, is listed in our records at 27 credits, while ASU's RN to BSN is listed at 120. That gap does not by itself mean one program is four times longer; the two figures may simply be counting different things. Ask each school which one it is reporting.

Timelines are usually conditional minimums. Arkansas State says its RN to BSN can take "as few as 10 months depending on the required support courses previously earned." Sacred Heart University lists 18 months for its traditional track and as few as 10 months for an accelerated track that assumes an associate degree in nursing, 90 transfer credits and two courses at a time. Penn State World Campus gives a range from two to three years at six courses per semester to five or more years at two or three courses. Treat the shortest figure as the best case, not the expected case.

Questions to ask before you apply

• Is this program open to first-year students, or only to applicants with prior credit or a

credential?

• What is the minimum number of transferable credits, and does it count credits from every

institution or only some?

• How many credits must I complete here, and is there a "last X credits" rule?
• For a credential pathway, when must my license or associate degree be in hand, and from which

states are licenses accepted?

• Does the listed credit total describe the whole degree or only the credits I would take here?
• Does the stated timeline assume full-time study or a specific amount of transfer credit?

Get an unofficial transcript evaluation in writing before you commit, and then use the per-credit rate to estimate cost for the credits you actually have left, as described in our guide to understanding tuition per credit.