Bachelor's degree is always an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years. It may also be the name of a postgraduate degree, such as a Bachelor of Civil Law, the Bachelor of Music, or the Bachelor of Philosophy.Bachelors' degrees in the United States are typically designed to be completed in four years of full-time study, although some programs (such as engineering or architecture) usually take five, and some universities and colleges allow ambitious students (usually with the help of summer school and/or high school Advanced Placement courses) to complete them in as little as three years. Some U.S. colleges and universities have a separate academic track known as an "honors" or "scholars" program, generally offered to the top percentile of students (based on GPA), and offering more challenging courses or more individually-directed seminars or research projects in lieu of the standard core curriculum.
Many U.S. universities and colleges award bachelor's degrees with latin honors, usually (in ascending order) cum laude (with honor/praise), magna cum laude (with great honor/praise), the occasionally seen maxima cum laude (with maximal honor/praise), and summa cum laude (with highest honor/praise) -- degrees without honors are awarded "rite".