Want to save $50,000? Try a three-year college degree.

Carmen Lookshire is halfway through her first year of college, but she already has her studies mapped out – and is looking at graduation in just two more years.

The art history major is one of the first students to take advantage of the new three-year college degree at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. – part of a growing number of such programs designed to help students shave tuition costs and get to the job market or graduate school faster.

"It saves a year of tuition, and that's always a good thing," says Ms. Lookshire, who will be taking out loans to help with the $45,000 yearly bill. "But it's also a good challenge. I knew going into the program that I want to attend grad school, and I thought it was a good way to show the schools I'd like to go to that I was committed."

Students always have had the option of finishing their degrees faster if they accumulate enough credits. And many more take five or six years to get through a four-year program. But recently, the idea of a structured three-year degree has gained traction, due in part to spiraling college costs and the struggling economy.

The few schools to offer one so far have made it an optional program for very driven students, with the same requirements as a standard degree. But some educators also question why the four-year, 120-credit model has to be the norm (unlike in Europe, where the standard is often three years).

"We have an undergraduate curriculum that is in need of pruning, reengineering, and clearing out the rubble," says Robert Zemsky, an education professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. "From an educational point of view, I think it would be a stronger curriculum. From a financial viewpoint, it would save families 25 percent."

While almost everyone agrees that soaring costs are a problem, many educators push back against anything that would pare down the college experience, arguing that the strength of the US system – particularly with liberal arts schools – is its emphasis on a broad-based education, along with the ability it gives students to explore new subjects, mature, and gain meaningful experiences in the classroom and on campus.

"I don't think our society suffers from overeducation. It suffers from undereducation," says Diane Ravitch, an education professor at New York University and a former assistant secretary of Education. About one-third of college freshmen enter in need of remediation, she notes, and spend their first year catching up.

Derek Bok, president emeritus of Harvard University, adds that trimming would most likely mean cutting "general education" courses already overburdened with the task of teaching students to write and speak. He envisions a higher-education landscape in which a few elite schools would continue to offer four-year programs while others cut back to three – and begin to resemble vocational schools.

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