What Military Families Should Know About Three-Year Degrees
For more than a century, the four-year bachelor’s degree has been the default degree for American college students. Most still require 120 credit hours spread across four years, but some states are now moving to cut that to about 90 credit hours in three years, and the push has accelerated quickly. What can this mean for service members seeking higher education?
What Military Families Should Know About Three-Year Degrees
Finishing college in less than four years isn’t a new concept. In fact, the idea has historical precedent. Some colonial colleges followed the three-year model used by English institutions like Oxford and Cambridge. The four-year degree became established during the 19th century, partly because the U.S. lacked a developed public high school system to prepare students for college-level study.
Some newer three-year degree programs eliminate that last part. Instead of asking students to complete the usual 120 credits on an accelerated schedule, they reduce the requirement itself to as few as 90 credits. Cutting 30 credits can eliminate roughly a full year of coursework.
Three-year bachelor’s degrees are already available in other countries, such as the UK, India, France, and Italy, although graduates from those programs can face hurdles when applying to U.S. graduate programs. Some schools may require them to complete additional coursework before they qualify for admission.
>> Find scholarships for military, veterans, spouses and dependents. Use the CollegeRecon Scholarship Finder.
States Are Taking a Closer Look at Three-Year Degrees
Changes are moving fast in some states. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) officials are exploring how colleges across Texas could offer degrees that students can complete in three years rather than four. That includes deciding how much coursework students would need to complete, which degree programs and in-demand careers are best suited to a shorter format, and whether students and employers are interested in the option.
Virginia and Ohio are pursuing parallel tracks. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), Virginia’s colleges and universities, and Ohio higher education representatives are banding together to create a model for 90-credit undergraduate degrees that can be completed in three years.
Massachusetts has already moved past the planning stage. The state’s higher education board approved three-year programs at Merrimack College and Suffolk University. Merrimack is testing a 96-credit applied bachelor’s degree in business administration, communications, criminal justice, and psychology. Suffolk has tested a 94-credit applied bachelor’s program in healthcare administration and innovation.
Rethinking Degree Requirements
The regulatory groundwork behind all of this is coming from Washington. The DoE has issued a proposed rule implementing reforms from Executive Order 14279, so-called “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education”, intended to ensure that accreditors prioritize student outcomes over legacy credit-hour models.
The Under Secretary of Education said, “The Department’s proposed changes to our higher education quality assurance system will improve college affordability, reconnect education to workforce needs, strengthen accountability, and restore confidence in our accreditation system.”
>> Find scholarships for military, veterans, spouses and dependents. Use the CollegeRecon Scholarship Finder.
What A Three-Year Degree Could Mean for Military Families
For service members and veterans, a shift to 90-credit bachelor’s degrees would touch nearly every part of how education benefits are used.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill funds between 36 and 48 months of full-time enrollment, paid out by semester/term rather than by calendar year, so a degree completed in three years instead of four could leave some GI Bill benefits unused, which can go toward a graduate degree, a certification, or, for eligible service members who have already transferred their benefits, a spouse or child’s education.
The same compression may shorten the total number of months a veteran collects the monthly housing allowance, since that payment runs only as long as the student is enrolled.
Because many service members already carry transfer credit from military occupational training, CLEP and DSST exams, or a Joint Services Transcript evaluation, stacking that credit onto an already-reduced 90-hour requirement could move some veterans through a bachelor’s degree in closer to two years of actual coursework.
Active-duty members using Tuition Assistance (TA) may benefit too: with fewer credits required for graduation, it could potentially cover a larger share of an undergraduate degree before a service member ever needs to draw down GI Bill benefits.
>> Find scholarships for military, veterans, spouses and dependents. Use the CollegeRecon Scholarship Finder.
About the author
Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
Michelle Nati is a contributing writer to CollegeRecon who has written about higher education and finance for Granita Media/Big Edition site Work and Money. She's also written law content for Leaf Group's Legal Beagle site and is a ghostwriter of non-fiction books. She lives in Los Angeles and spends her spare time combing flea markets for vintage photos and decor and playing with her dogs, Jellybean and Jukebox.
