[ti:Out of Class Early: College in Three Years]
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[by:51voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:03.29]Education Report.
[00:04.88]The last time the United States 
[00:07.44]Education Department asked young people 
[00:10.59]how long they took to finish college 
[00:13.43]was in two thousand one. 
[00:15.93]Fifty-seven percent graduated 
[00:18.49]with a bachelor of arts degree 
[00:20.79]in four years. 
[00:22.74]Thirty-nine percent took five years.
[00:25.98]And what about the others, 
[00:28.03]the remaining four percent? 
[00:29.80]They did it in three years. 
[00:32.74]To some people, 
[00:33.69]that is a smart idea.
[00:35.89]In February, Senator Lamar Alexander 
[00:39.84]warned higher education leaders 
[00:42.35]that they risk rejection 
[00:44.70]unless they lower the cost of 
[00:47.29]attending college. 
[00:49.22]The Republican senator 
[00:51.12]is a former education secretary 
[00:53.86]and former president of 
[00:56.46]the University of Tennessee. 
[00:58.86]He suggested offering 
[01:02.17]a three-year bachelor's degree 
[01:04.82]that would save money as well as time.
[01:08.67]Many students can already graduate 
[01:12.13]in three years. 
[01:13.51]They take bigger class loads 
[01:16.20]and classes in the summer. 
[01:18.85]And they have college credit 
[01:21.21]from passing Advanced Placement tests 
[01:24.16]in high school. 
[01:25.95]A.P. credits can mean 
[01:28.20]fewer required classes.
[01:30.75]Others who want to graduate 
[01:33.45]in three years must pay for 
[01:35.59]the same education as four-year students, 
[01:39.56]but in a shorter period of time.
[01:42.36]Three-year graduates, though, 
[01:45.36]can enter the job market sooner. 
[01:48.31]That adds another year of wages 
[01:51.60]to their lifetime earnings.
[01:54.40]In two thousand five, 
[01:56.90]Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, 
[02:01.05]began a program called "Degree in Three." 
[02:05.50]Students take full loads of classes, 
[02:08.85]including two or three summers.
[02:12.05]Cindy Marini, 
[02:13.76]assistant director of academic advising, 
[02:17.24]says twenty-eight programs currently 
[02:20.68]offer a bachelor's degree in three years. 
[02:24.47]These include business and nursing. 
[02:28.53]As of March, 
[02:30.32]about fifty of the eighteen thousand students 
[02:34.17]at Ball State were taking part 
[02:36.78]in the Degree in Three program.
[02:40.18]Students in the three-year program 
[02:43.53]at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, 
[02:46.83]take more classes each semester 
[02:49.91]than the other students. 
[02:52.31]But the cost for a year 
[02:54.65]is the same for all, 
[02:57.04]more than fifty thousand dollars.
[02:59.94]Bryan McNulty, the communications director, 
[03:03.38]says Bates has offered 
[03:06.16]a three-year bachelor's degree 
[03:08.40]since the nineteen sixties. 
[03:10.89]But he says only one or two students 
[03:14.69]usually choose it each year, 
[03:17.53]and no one did in the graduating class in May.
[03:22.18]Still, other schools 
[03:24.57]are preparing their own programs. 
[03:26.86]These include Hartwick College in New York State 
[03:30.95]and the University of Houston-Victoria in Texas. 
[03:35.39]And lawmakers in Rhode Island 
[03:38.19]are considering a bill 
[03:39.49]that would require state schools 
[03:42.13]to offer the choice of a three-year degree.
[03:46.57]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:50.51]Education Report, 
[03:52.56]written by Nancy Steinbach. 
[03:54.80]I'm Steve Ember.