Accelerated Baccalaureate Program
Overview
Why take four years to earn your degree when you can do it in three?
Southern Oregon University is one of a few select colleges and universities in the United States that provides motivated and self-disciplined students the opportunity to have their freshman year of course work removed from their graduation requirements. Instead of compressing a four-year degree into three years as many programs do, the required credits are reduced based on exemplary high school work.
Application to the Accelerated Baccalaureate Degree program requires one of the following criteria:
- a 3.4 cumulative HS GPA,
- a 3.2 cumulative HS GPA and a combined SAT score of at least 1150 on the critical reading and mathematics sections with neither individual section below 500, or
- a 3.2 cumulative HS GPA and composite ACT score of 25 with scores of at least 22 on both the math and English sections.
Students can begin major course work immediately. Some students are eager to complete a degree in the shortest time possible in order to enter the job market; others want a streamlined college program that prepares them for graduate school. Most importantly, all students pursuing an accelerated program know exactly what they want to study.
Kara Hanley needed only three years to earn her English degree at Southern Oregon University, in Ashland. Kara was part of the Accelerated Baccalaureate Program at Southern. Now Hanley will fly to New York and prepare to serve the Peace Corps in the North African nation of Morocco, a former French colony. Since she speaks fluent French, she isn't worried about a language barrier. "I'll be OK except for the heat. I've traveled around the world so much, to more than 30 countries, that I feel I have enough street smarts to keep myself out of trouble." Bellingham Herald news article about Kara.
