Lake Forest College in Illinois responded to the recession by rolling out a three-year bachelor’s degree, offering students a chance to finish school sooner and join the workforce.
There were no takers.
Reformers have hailed the three-year degree as the potential salvation of higher education: a rewrite of the academic calendar that lowers the price of college by compressing it into 36 months. Several institutions have launched three-year degrees in a flurry of activity triggered by the economic downturn that began in 2008. Political leaders in at least two states, Ohio and Rhode Island, have instructed public colleges to offer accelerated degrees.
But students have not responded, and most three-year degree programs have flopped — a reminder, college leaders say, that students still regard college as an experience to be savored. Why rush the best four years of your life?
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a campus of 17,500 students, enrolled five students last year in its inaugural three-year degree program. The Fast Forward program at Manchester College in Indiana enrolled 20. The Degree in 3 program at nearby Ball State University served 29.
There are exceptions. A new three-year Global Scholars degree at American University in Washington has been somewhat more popular, with 58 students expected to enroll this fall. A three-year program at Hartwick College in Upstate New York served 47 students last year and expects about twice as many this fall. But even those programs serve a tiny percentage of overall students.
Katie Miller enrolled in the three-year degree program at Manchester, a liberal arts college southeast of Chicago. But once she arrived on campus in fall 2009, the rich palette of collegiate life beckoned. She studied in Spain, London and Paris and signed up for obscure courses outside her education major. She soon realized she would need more than three years to experience it all. She opted out of accelerated study.
“I decided that you only have a certain amount of time to enjoy the college experience,” said Miller, 20, from Winchester, Ind. “And I wasn’t in as much of a hurry as I thought.”
Pluses, though few takers
Some scholars see the three-year degree as the next logical step in the evolution of American higher education. More students arrive at college with a stack of credits from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams, allowing them to graduate sooner, even if the college has no accelerated program. College leaders are looking to reverse the upward trend in sticker price, which at top private institutions tops $50,000 a year for tuition and living expenses.
Most colleges hew to the agrarian calendar and an arbitrary four-year pace for the bachelor’s degree, a schedule adopted by Harvard College in 1652 in accordance with British custom. (England long ago switched to a three-year degree.)
Compressing the bachelor’s degree into three years could be healthy for American colleges, advocates say, encouraging them to use buildings that would otherwise be empty during winter and summer breaks and to expand online study.
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