Purdue Global's undergraduate door is effectively open: a high school diploma or GED, with attestation on the application accepted as proof, advisor-guided from the first call. The two features worth planning around are unusual in this space: a 3-week undergraduate trial with no financial obligation, the Purdue Global Commitment, and one of the most generous prior-learning economies anywhere, where paid competency assessments can convert free Open Learning courses into transcript credit. Terms run 10 weeks on overlapping calendars, so a start date is never far away.
The fast facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate entry | HS diploma or GED equivalent; attestation accepted; Indiana under-21 bachelor's applicants need the Core 40 transcript |
| Entrance exams | None observed in the published process |
| The trial | 3 introductory weeks with no financial obligation for new undergraduates; continuing past it bills the full term including the trial weeks |
| Terms | 10 weeks, on overlapping A, B, and C calendars year-round |
| Classroom | D2L Brightspace, entered through the PG Campus portal |
The 3-week trial, used well
The trial is a genuine test drive: three weeks inside real courses with real deadlines, walk away owing nothing, or continue and the whole first term bills including those weeks. The smart use is diagnostic, treat the trial like the term it secretly is. If the weekly bundle of assignment, discussion, and seminar already strains week two of a trial, that is priceless information at zero cost, and it is also precisely the moment students first find us: the trial is long enough to reveal the workload and short enough to fix your setup before money moves.
Calendars and starts
Three overlapping academic calendars mean start dates recur through the year rather than clustering in traditional semesters; the practical translation is that waiting for the right start is rarely worth more than a few weeks of patience. What matters more than the date is the load decision: traditional courses run the weekly cumulative-grading bundle, and ExcelTrack programs, where eligible, run flat-rate terms of self-paced modules. That choice shapes your week and your bill more than any calendar letter.
Transfer credit and the prior-learning economy
Transfer accepts accredited credits at C-minus or better for undergraduates and B or better for graduate work, marked TC on the transcript. Beyond classic transfer, two Purdue Global mechanisms convert experience into credit: assessment credit, AC, earned by paid ASK competency assessments over free Open Learning courses, and experiential credit, EC, for documented prior learning. RN-to-BSN students get the biggest block of all, substantial credit granted for the RN license itself. Every one of these marks is catalog you never pay tuition on, and stacking them before enrollment is the single best financial move available.
The process, step by step
Talk to the advisor with your transcripts ready
The application is advisor-guided; arriving with transcripts and work history turns the first call into a credit-mapping session.
Choose pathway before start date
Traditional weekly or ExcelTrack where eligible. The ExcelTrack page explains what the flat rate rewards.
Use the trial as a real test
Three weeks, full effort, honest reading of the workload. Continue or walk with the data.
Stack prior learning early
ASK assessments and experiential credit take time to process; start them before the first full term, not during it.
Starting a trial or a term?
Tell us your program and calendar and we will map the first ten weeks before they start, free sample included.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.purdueglobal.edu: Purdue Global's official site, the primary source for program and tuition facts
- catalog.purdueglobal.edu: the official Purdue Global catalog, where grading scales and policies live
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules