NewU still requires 120 hours to graduate. School is year round (for most AFAIK). At some schools, students can graduate in 3 years by bringing in DE credit from HS (or early college) and/or accelerating classes during college by taking a heavy load during the school year and classes in the summers. Other schools are starting to offer 90 hour bachelors degrees.
NewU’s offering is an early college model. This press release says the HS is non-profit, down towards the bottom:
I don’t know how successful NewU (or it’s early college model) will be, but it is legit. It does fit with the early movement/trend to reduce college costs by shortening the time to a bachelor’s degree.
Edit: We’ve discussed three year (and other college models) here:
I read “The Unmaking of the American University” by Nicholas Lemann that was recently published in The New Yorker and think that the some of the issues raised would be interesting to be discussed by the CC community.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/03/16/the-unmaking-of-the-american-university?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
The author posits that higher ed will look different in the future, no matter what administration is in office. My curiosity is about how the community thinks higher ed will look different and how it should exist in the future (and sadly, those two things aren’t always the same).
The piece is long, but below are some selections that get to the heart of some of the questions I’d love discussed, though topics based on other parts of the article are welcomed, too. And for context, I didn’t include a specific quote, but the bulk, of research-heavy fields get most of their research funding from the federal government. So for all those STEM departments, the…
In a major shift for higher education in the Southeast, the University of North Carolina (UNC) System is moving forward with a pilot program to offer accelerated three-year bachelor’s degree programs.
The initiative, approved by the UNC Board of Governors on April 27, aims to address growing concerns about the rising cost of college and the time it takes for students to enter the workforce. By condensing the traditional four-year timeline, the system hopes to reduce student debt and increase access to higher education across the state’s 16 public universities, the Triangle Business Journal reported.
System officials estimate that graduating one year early could save students and their families up to 25% in tuition and fees.
The program will initially launch as a pilot at select institutions within the system, including UNC Greensboro, UNC Asheville, and Appalachian State University. Each campus will select specific majors—likely those with high workforce demand, such as Business…
Johnson and Wales is definitely a “fit” institution. Great for some kids; not for others. But in CS I don’t think any employer confuses Johnson and Wales with CMU, UIUC, etc. Different type of student; different degree of preparation for the more theoretical and mathematical side of CS; different outcomes.
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