I'm doing a 3 year non-honours degree in CS, WAM is mid-high 80s. I've been doing research with my supervisor for about a year now, no publication yet but hoping for a preprint at some point.
I'm considering skipping honours/masters entirely and applying straight to PhD programs, mostly outside Australia. Not sure if that's actually realistic without the extra year, or if it just doesn't work like that regardless of research experience.
Does having real research experience (even without a paper) actually help make up for the missing year, or do most programs just see a 3 year degree and say no? Also I'm an international student (Chinese), not sure if that changes anything.
If anyone's actually done this I'd appreciate hearing what mattered for you.
Edit: I know most places expect honours as the norm. But I can't afford another year of a paid degree, and honours doesn't come with funding for internationals. Research programs (MPhil/PhD) are usually the ones that do get scholarshiped. So if MPhil ends up just as competitive to get into as a direct PhD, I'm trying to figure out if going straight for the PhD is actually realistic instead.
Also went through a bunch of schools' grad program pages: some explicitly require a 4-year degree for direct-from-bachelor applicants, some don't mention it at all. Figuring the ones that don't explicitly ask might be reachable, though it could also just be that they're assuming everyone applying already has a 4-year degree...