Elizabethtown College: Prospective Students

Prospective Students: Programs

Students seeking to earn an associate's or bachelor's degree through Elizabethtown's accelerated program can choose from the following six major fields of study:

What’s the one thing you need more of and can never get enough of? For most adults, it’s time. And if you’re thinking about going back to school, isn’t that your main concern?

An accelerated program is one way of making the best use of your time. Here’s how the accelerated program at Elizabethtown College works for adult students:

There are six ways to earn credits in the Elizabethtown program: 5-week classroom-based courses, 5-week online courses, blended courses, weekend intensive courses, life experience, and CLEP testing.

Number One: Each 5-week classroom-based course meets one night a week, in most cases. Accounting and computer courses meet twice a week. Learners take one course at a time. That lets them really focus on what they’re doing – they don’t have to juggle two or three courses at a time while they’re trying to manage the rest of their lives.

Students tell us they like that, because it keeps them from feeling overwhelmed.

Number Two: Online courses are also 5 weeks long and don’t require any classroom meetings. A few of them have a weekly online chat, and the rest require posting to the Blackboard website according to the schedule determined by the facilitator.

Online courses work well for our students who travel for their work, or have a particular reason to want to stay home for a while. For instance, one of our learners broke his foot and couldn’t walk very well, let alone drive. He didn’t miss a beat, though, because he took his courses online.

Number Three: Blended courses are those where class members meet once or twice in the classroom throughout the five weeks, and learn online the rest of the time.

Number Four: Weekend intensive courses are just that – intensive! Students meet Friday night, all day Saturday and half the day Sunday. When the weekend is over, they have 2-1/2 weeks to write a research paper relating to what they learned.

Number Five: One of the most valuable things adults bring to the classroom is their experience. At Elizabethtown College, we value what you have learned from the work you’ve done over the years. And we have a method by which you can get credit for documenting that knowledge.

The final (sixth) way to earn credits is through CLEP testing. That stands for College- Level Examination Program. Your admissions counselor can furnish you with all the information you need about CLEP.

You can use any or all of these six ways to earn credits in our accelerated program. You can earn up to 36 credits a year using these options. And you can take a break when you need to.

Let’s say you’ve taken a few courses and you’re getting really busy at work, or you’re planning your wedding, or just need a vacation. You can take a 5-week session off and you haven’t missed out on anything. You can just pick up where you left off. That’s what we call a step-in/step-out program.

Once they’ve begun the program, many of our students tell us how they can see light at the end of a tunnel that had seemed endless before. To them, acceleration means that they can finish their degrees in a lot less time than in a traditional-length program.

As an adult, you have a lot going on: you are working, you have a family, maybe you do some volunteer work or like to worship on the weekend. All of that takes time. You’ve just heard about six different ways you can fit an Elizabethtown education into your life.

Going back to school as an adult can be a surprisingly fulfilling experience, allowing you to move forward in your personal and professional life. Achieving this long postponed goal will bring the benefits of increased self-esteem and wider career options.

If completing your education is a dream that you've been postponing, then don’t delay, do your homework now and find the school that works for you! Contact Elizabethtown College today to start your educational journey! Call 361-1411 to speak with an admissions counselor.