3 Year Degree Vs. 4 Year Degree

Hi,
I would like to know if a Canadian 3 year degree is recognized in the U.S. I have heard different things before that a Canadian or for that matter any country that has 3 year degrees (Austrialia for one) that they are only looked at as an Associates degree and not as a Bachelor degree in the U.S. If someone out there could give me some insight on this, it would help me out a lot.

Thanks
Stewart McDonald

 

Who are you asking about?

Here's what I have learned from working with large numbers of computer science international students in the US during the past 4 years: Most graduate schools in the US require an honors or 4 year degree for international student admission. Most employers think a bachelors is a bachelors (3-year, 4-year, 5-year, etc.) For H1-B purposes, the INS does not regard 3-year degrees as specialized, professional training unless it is paired with significant post-BA work experience in the field. These observations may be unique to computer science, so I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.

 

I am no expert in this by any means so your ultimate best bet is to consult an attorney if the INS is the issue. But here's what I do know, so take what you can out of it.

The INS requires a bachelor's degree for any work sponsorship. A bachelor's degree in their eyes is one which is from a four year program. You need to be working within the area of your major, i.e. if you studied medicine and went onto work in computer engineering (for whatever reason, you're super at coding), you're doing to have a rough time getting the H1-B sponsorship from your employer approved. But if you studied medicine and went onto work as a Director of a Lab, then that's OK because that's still in the field of medicine. If you had an attorney, he/she would have to be very "creative" to go around the rules of the INS in regards to this.

Where employers are concerned, they don't care if you did the bachelor's in 2 years, 1 year or 8 years. A bachelor's is a bachelor's. The term "4-year" program means that the program should conclude if you were a full-time student taking a general load of 12 units per semester and I believe the program should be about 120-130 credit hours long. I believe that the INS doesn't honor 3-year degrees because of the lower credit hours required for the degree and hence it's not an undergrad degree but an associate's degree.