Hi,
We surveyed a sample of regionally accredited universities in the United States to establish their policy on acceptance of the three-year Indian degree for entry to a Master’s program. Among the universities which were prepared to consider an applicant holding this qualification with an appropriately distinguished academic record were,
• Harvard University • Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) • Georgetown University • I.M.P.A.C. University • Huntingdon College of Health Sciences • The American Graduate School of Management • Grantham University • East Michigan University • Hult International Business School • New York Chiropractic College • Kellogg Business School ( Northwestern University) • Fuqua Business School ( Duke University) • Tuck Business School ( Dartmouth University) • Goizueta Business School ( Emory University) • Carnegie Mellon University • Aspen University
Privately, some other institutions have stated that if the student’s three-year degree is evaluated as equivalent to a U.S. bachelors degree they would consider the student for admission.
Karin Thompson, Assistant Director, Office of Graduate Admissions at Georgetown University responded to our inquiry as follows,
“At Georgetown University we evaluate all three year degree applicants on a case by case basis. We look at the school the degree was received from, the courses the student took, and the grades received. If the rest of the student’s application is strong and competitive in the applicant pool and we feel the coursework the student took at the University is sufficient, then we will admit a student who only has a three year degree.”
The website of Wharton University says,
“There are a number of universities around the world that offer 3-year undergraduate programs. If you received a bachelor’s degree upon completion of one of these undergraduate programs, you are eligible to apply to Wharton’s MBA program. Many candidates from 3-year programs have a master’s degree as well, but it is not required.”
Leo Sweeney, Assistant Vice Chancellor (Retired) and Consultant for the International Student Affairs Office at the University of Missouri-Kansas City advocated the acceptance of the three-year degree in his reply to us,
“As one of the advocates for the acceptance of the Indian 3-year degrees for graduate admission consideration, I welcome the chance to be part of your research project.
Generally we do accept 3-year bachelor’s degrees for graduate admission consideration from educational systems that we consider to be of sufficient quality as to justify such consideration and particularly when the alternative would be to require the applicants also to possess either one year of a master’s degree or the full master’s degree in addition to the 3-year degree that they have earned.”
Margaret Crotty, Director of Recruiting at Hult International Business School, wrote as follows,
“We have accepted students already from 3 year universities in India, and they have been very successful, and are very interested in recruiting Indian students. For your information, I have attached the transcript of an Indian publication’s interview with our Asia Director of Recruiting showing our commitment to Indian students. As you know, Hult was founded in 1964 as the Arthur D. Little School of Management and offers a one-year MBA program in Boston. Hult has been the top-ranked one-year MBA in the US by the Economist for the past 2 years.”
Dr Robert Royal, Graduate Dean of the Catholic Distance University, indicated that he would consider individuals on a case-by-case basis,
“I cannot say in advance whether I would or would not recognize a 3-year Indian degree. It would probably depend on the individual and the program. If you want to send some candidates our way, I’ll be happy to review them. But we do not make promises with anyone, even in the United States , in advance.”
A small number of graduate schools had a “bridge program” where the graduate of the 3 year program was admitted into the graduate school but had to take additional classes to make up for the “deficit” of their degree.
In some cases, this was a 30 credit undergraduate program within the graduate program, as at Eastern Michigan University -“Three-year bachelor’s degrees from other countries will be evaluated on a case by case basis for eligibility.” Others required only a minimal number of additional hours such as the University of Dallas College of Business.
The Texas board of teacher certification would accept the Indian three-year bachelor’s degree if evaluated by an approved credential evaluator.
It was interesting to note that in many other cases the U.K. and French three-year degrees were accepted as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree and only the Indian and Pakistani degrees were not. This raises the question of whether such decisions in admission may be deemed to be racially discriminatory rather than based on sound academic arguments.
World Education Services, the leader in international education credential evaluation for American and Canadian universities, has revised its assessment of India’s three-year undergraduate degrees.
Prominent American universities are prepared to consider International applications for graduate admission from candidates who hold three-year degrees.
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