If you’re looking for an easy online bachelor’s degree program, it can help to first figure out what an easy degree program means to you. For some students, a program that requires few math and science courses is easiest. Other students excel at complicated equations, but consider public speaking, open-ended essay questions and literary analyses to be daunting. While there are concrete factors you can look at to determine the easiest online bachelor’s degrees – like the number of elective courses a student gets to choose or graduates’ GPAs – a big part of deciding whether a bachelor’s degree program will be easy or difficult for you is evaluating your strengths and weaknesses.
Flexible Curriculum
One factor that can separate an easy undergraduate degree program from a difficult one is how rigid its curriculum is. A program that requires students to follow a strict or particularly challenging schedule of courses can seem far more difficult than a laidback program where students have plenty of electives to choose from and can take most of their courses in whatever order is convenient.
How important is the flexibility of the curriculum in determining the ease of earning a degree? It can affect your grades and even how long it takes you to finish school. If your degree program requires you to take multiple demanding laboratory science courses or high-level mathematics classes at the same time, you might find that you struggle more in your studies and earn poorer grades than you might have gotten otherwise. Additionally, these courses often build on each other, and you have to take them in a specific order. If you have difficulty coordinating your class schedule, you could be stuck spending an extra semester – or more – just to earn your bachelor’s degree.
Programs that have a fairly open curriculum, with a lot of electives and general education requirements that students can satisfy by taking a wide range of courses, may be easier. That’s one reason why liberal arts, general social science and other broad subjects of study have a reputation as easy degrees.
Grades of Incoming Students and Graduates
Looking at the average grades of students by major can also help you gauge how easy or challenging a degree program is. Graduates who majored in chemistry, mathematics, economics, psychology and biology have some of the lowest average GPAs, while students of education, foreign language, English, music and religion leave school with the best grades, according to CBS News. The lower students’ average grades, the more challenging the degree program is likely to be.
Experience Requirements
Some degree programs require a great deal of hands-on experience, which can be particularly challenging for online students. The fewer experience requirements a degree program has, the easier it will be to graduate. However, sometimes degrees that might otherwise seem easy include mandatory internships or field work. For example, though CBS News names education as the nation’s easiest degree program, education majors must spend a semester working in the classroom to meet student teaching requirements.
Realistic Expectations
Even if you choose what’s supposed to be an easy degree path, you need to be aware that there will be challenges. After all, no matter what subject you’re studying, your courses will be at the college level. If your school is accredited – and it should be – then your degree program must live up to the high standards set by regional or programmatic accrediting bodies. If your degree program truly was easy, it wouldn’t be worth much – because you wouldn’t have to learn much to get your degree.