Three-year Bachelors Degrees
Our admissions rules require that an applicant have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited
college or university as determined by a regional or general accrediting agency. These
accrediting agencies define bachelor’s degrees, in the U.S. custom, as requiring four years to
complete. In reality, it may take longer or shorter to complete the degree, but the amount of
work involved is typically the same. In the past few years, confusion has arisen as to the
equivalence of the three year bachelor’s degrees offered in some countries. Some are treated as
equivalent to the U.S. bachelor’s (see below) where others may require outside evaluation.
- The Graduate School only accepts three-year bachelors degrees from member institutions
within the Bologna Process. If the institution is not part of this organization, the
applicant will be asked to provide the Graduate School with an evaluation of their higher
education background by an international credential evaluation company. If the evaluation
results show that the background is not equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree, admission
will be denied. If the academic background includes a master’s degree, that should be
evaluated along with the three-year degree to see if the combination is equivalent to a
four-year U.S. bachelor’s degree. If any part of the master’s degree is needed for
equivalency, the student will not be entitled to the 18 hr allowance toward a PhD program
granted to holders of a previous master’s degree. On the other hand, they will be afforded
the extra two semesters under the Graduate Student Support Plan for students without a
previous master’s.
- We accept international credential evaluations from members of NACES (National Association
of Credential Evaluation Services) or AICE (Association of International Credential
Evaluators). Others may be acceptable as well, but please check with the Graduate School if
a question as to the appropriateness of the evaluation arises.
- The University of Wisconsin hosts a directory of foreign institutions describing their
institutional academic environment and the expectations UW has for applicants from these
institutions. This should only be used as a guide.
