COLLEGES CONSIDER GOING TO 3-YEAR DEGREES

It typically takes at least four years to get a Bachelor's degree, but some U.S. colleges are looking at slicing a year off their undergraduate programs to save families time and money.

Fans of a three-year degree say it would work well for ambitious students who know what they want to study.

Cramming four years of study into three, schools could require summer work, others will make courses shorter, and some could end up cutting the number of credit hours needed to graduate.

The most recent numbers show that 4 percent of U.S. undergrads finished with bachelor's degrees in three years, 57 percent graduated in four years and 38 percent took more than four years to graduate.