The New Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree in the U.S.: Part 3

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment, titled “The Perspective of a U.S. University Considering Recognition of Three-Year Bachelor’s Degrees for Graduate Admission,” as part of a multi-part series on “The New Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree in the U.S.: Redefining Graduate Admissions and International Credential Recognition.” See Part 1 and Part 2, and stay tuned for more installments by a selection of authors with expertise on the subject.

By LesLee Clauson Eicher, Seattle University, AACRAO International Institute Faculty

An Institutional Perspective

Seattle University (Seattle U), a Jesuit, Catholic university founded in 1891, is a private, national, urban university located in Seattle, Washington. The student population is about 8,300 students, including undergraduate, graduate, law, and students at the newest campus, Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University (South Lake Union campus).

Our Situation

Seattle U has been authorized to admit foreign students on F-1 visas for many years, but until relatively recently, international students made up only a small percentage of graduate students in many of the graduate programs (with notable exceptions in business and technology). Transcript evaluations were done in-house by the Undergraduate Admissions office when needed, which was not often.

Seattle U based its admissions decisions on the recommendations of the (former) National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials and of AACRAO EDGE (Electronic Database for Global Education). These resources tended to be conservative rather than generous in their placement recommendations and tended to rely on year-counting as a methodology; see the previous section for an overview of benchmarking versus year-counting. The year-counting methodology meant that non-U.S. three-year undergraduate degrees following a twelve-year elementary/secondary sequence were deemed inadmissible, since 12+3=15 clearly fell short of the 12+4=16 U.S. model.

Over time, Seattle U realized that using the conservative year-counting methodology could decrease enrollment numbers. We didn’t want to lose potentially good students, so, in collaboration with the Registrar’s Office, we created a pathway allowing otherwise ineligible three-year degree holders to be considered for admission.

Three-Year Degree Policy

The Three-Year Degree Policy (3YDP), as it was titled, was drafted in 2004 and last revised in 2014. It is based on year-counting. To illustrate: a student with a twelve-year elementary/secondary sequence + a four-year undergraduate degree (12+4) is admissible, as is a student with a 13+3 sequence. In contrast, a student with 11+3 or 11+4 is inadmissible.

It is in the middle of these two areas that the 3YDP can take effect. Students with 12+3 or 11+4 may take a standardized examination such as GRE, GMAT, or MAT and can then be deemed eligible for consideration of admission to graduate standing.

This system worked for Seattle U for some time, but gradually, we noticed that students who were required per the 3YDP to take the GRE most often simply disappeared. We assume that they enrolled at another U.S. university with more relaxed admissions requirements.

At this point, the possibility of admitting holders of non-U.S. three-year bachelor’s degrees to graduate standing crept into the conversation. With it came many questions. We asked ourselves the following:

• Are the three-year degrees comparable in content and outcomes to four-year degrees?

• Would we be compromising our high academic standards to accept the shorter non-U.S. degrees as comparable to U.S. bachelor’s degrees?

• Would it be unfair to domestic students?

• Would we be delivering unqualified students to our faculty?

• Would we be setting international students up to fail?

• If we didn’t accept three-year degrees, would we lose students to other institutions, thus losing tuition dollars?

• If we didn’t accept three-year degrees, were we being stubbornly slow to modernize and adapt to changing standards and best practices?

The Current Situation

Seattle U’s business school made the decision within the past two years to accept some three-year (12+3) degrees to some programs. Graduate Admissions, together with the business school, drafted and applied a new policy: holders of three-year (12+3) bachelor’s degrees can be considered for admission to one of Seattle U’s two graduate accounting programs if they also hold an accounting credential from a professional accounting body such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Additionally, Seattle U accepts three-year Bologna-compliant bachelor’s degrees across the board, although some Bologna-compliant bachelor’s degrees represent 12+3, while others represent 13+3.

What Next?

Once U.S. institutions begin awarding three-year, 90-credit fully accredited degrees that could even admit to graduate standing, we will have to take a closer look at our international admissions policies. If we accept U.S. three-year bachelor’s degree holders to our graduate programs, will we also accept non-U.S. three-year bachelor’s degree holders?

Our new Dean for Graduate Studies is a proponent of admitting three-year (12+3) degree holders to graduate standing. Some reasons for admitting these candidates include:

• Fairness: Why do so many U.S. institutions admit Bologna three-year bachelor’s degrees without question, while three-year bachelor’s degrees from other parts of the world have additional requirements?

• Preparedness: Faculty report that some three-year degree holders from India and Africa are better prepared than their American counterparts.

• Applicant numbers: India is the top sending country to U.S. institutions.

• Institutional values: Refusing three-year bachelor’s degrees outright is an unwelcoming and non-inclusive policy; some may even see it as racism.

• Best practices: Many more U.S. institutions admit three-year (12+3) bachelor’s degree holders to graduate standing than did so in the past.

Note from the author: While we cannot say for sure where this process will lead us, at Seattle U, the discussion will continue. With the support of our like-minded Dean, I have proposed a policy update for Seattle U’s Graduate Admissions. The Dean will bring it forward to the Academic Assembly, which will make the final decision.

Proposed Policy Update: Admission of Three-Year Degree Holders

• Policy Statement: Applicants holding “true” three-year undergraduate degrees will be considered eligible for admission to graduate standing. We will not state that the three-year (12+3) is comparable to a U.S. bachelor’s degree. This distinction aligns with institutional accreditation standards and avoids reliance on year-counting. 

• Admission Criteria: Eligibility will be based on academic preparation relevant to the graduate program. Faculty approval is required for admission to appropriate programs. Examples include: 

Outstanding Questions:

• Applicant Quality: 
  Will this policy change lead to an increase in underqualified applicants? How can we ensure clarity in admissions criteria to help applicants self-assess their eligibility? 

• Student Success Monitoring: 
  What systems can we implement to track student success and attrition among admitted three-year degree holders? 

• Impact Measurement:
  How will we measure the effectiveness of this policy change in terms of: 

  • Enrollment yield 

  • Time to decision 

  • Overall benefit to students and the institution 

References

Cargill, K. “Graduate Admissions for Students with Three-Year Degrees: Admissions Briefing”. Unpublished manuscript, 2025.

Seattle University, Academic Policies: Admission 3 Year Baccalaureate Degree

Watkins, Robert, Emily Tse, and LesLee Clauson Eicher. “What Do We Do Now? U.S. Three-Year Degrees and the Effect on U.S. International Admissions”. Session presented at 2025 AACRAO Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington, April 2025.