MINNEAPOLIS — Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School launched an Alternative Admissions Pathways program in 2023 that allows students to enroll in a master’s program without first completing a bachelor’s degree.

Kevin Doyle, president of Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School, said the program trades work experience for the traditional academic requirement of a bachelor’s degree. He stated that prospective students often have personal or family experience with substance use issues that motivates them to pursue counseling. Admissions decisions consider work history, certificates in addiction counseling, professional activities, and volunteer experience in treatment programs.

The school consulted the Higher Learning Commission after a conference and was informed that nothing in its accreditation standards barred admitting graduate students without a bachelor’s degree.

Alyssa Pecholt was among eight students in the program’s first cohort. She wrote in her admissions essay about growing up in a low-income family affected by substance use and mental health issues. Pecholt said the program “was the answer to all of my problems—it will be faster, end up costing less money than doing my four-year bachelor’s and then another two years for a master’s.” She applied the same day she learned about the initiative and has since graduated and been licensed as a drug and alcohol counselor in Minnesota.

Doyle said students in the Alternative Admissions Pathways program show similar rates of academic success as peers who entered with a bachelor’s degree. The school is tracking GPA, retention, graduation rates, and qualitative feedback from students and faculty. However, he noted there is not yet enough data on licensure passage rates for these students.

Robert Kelchen, professor of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, said Hazelden Betty Ford’s approach aligns with broader trends in higher education to deliver education “quicker, faster, better.” He cited competency-based education and three-year bachelor’s degrees as similar innovations. Kelchen warned that some students may need remediation and additional support to succeed and suggested accreditors could pose obstacles, though that was not the case here. He added that accreditors are under pressure from the Trump administration to be more flexible and predicted they will grant institutions more leeway while closely monitoring outcomes.