Academic Eligibility Requirements

For admission to the Graduate School, an applicant must hold a degree from an officially recognized degree-granting institution in the country in which it operates.  Degree must be a:

1. Baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or
2. Tertiary (postsecondary) degree that is deemed comparable to a four-year bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution.

Minimum Requirements for Admission (by Country) chevron_right

Determination of Eligibility

The Graduate School confirms eligibility for admission of all graduate degree applicants, while programs select and recommend applicants for offers of admission. Final approval of admission to all graduate degree programs lies with the Graduate School.

Official Transcript Requirement

Applicants will be required to arrange for official transcripts/documents (for institutions outside the U.S. documents may include marksheets, record of courses, degree/study certificate, original diploma, etc) to be sent from all post-secondary institutions attended and official English translation if the language of instruction is not English).

Graduate School Review of Official Transcripts

The Graduate School will review all official documents to consider the offer of admission. An offer of admission will be revoked if official transcripts/documents are not received by the Graduate School within specified deadline(s), or if official transcripts/documents differ in any substantive way from the copies uploaded by the applicant prior to the offer of admission. However, for applicants whose degree conferral is in progress at the time of uploading copies of transcripts/documents, the deadline specified for receipt of official transcripts/documents will allow for the passage of the reported date of degree conferral, and that conferral must be confirmed on the official transcripts/documents received by the Graduate School, in order for the offer of admission to be finalized. 

Transcript Falsification

If at any time, including after an applicant has enrolled in the Graduate School and commenced coursework, it is discovered that false information, omissions, and/or misstatements are made in an application – including but not limited to the uploading of copies of transcripts that differ in any substantive way from the official transcripts/ documents – admission, registration, and credit(s) for course work completed may be voided, and information relating to the false information, omissions, and/or misstatements may be distributed to other academic institutions, governmental agencies, and/or other third parties.

English Proficiency

The language of instruction at Penn State is English. All international applicants must take and submit scores for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), with the exceptions noted below.

Acceptable Test Scores

Please note that graduate plans of study may have more stringent requirements.

TOEFL

Internet-based test (iBT) - a total score of 80 with a 19 on the speaking section for the internet-based test (iBT). Applicants with iBT speaking scores between 15 and 18 may be considered for provisional admission, with Graduate School approval, which requires completion of specified remedial English courses ESL 114G (American Oral English for Academic Purposes) and/or ESL 116G (ESL/Composition for Academic Disciplines) and attainment of a grade of B or higher within the first semester of enrollment.

Paper-based test (taken July 2017 or later) – a combined total of the 3 sections evaluated must be 60 or greater.

IELTS – The minimum acceptable composite score for the IELTS Academic Test is 6.5.

	TOEFL iBT		Revised TOEFL PBT July 2017 and later
	Scale	Minimum Acceptable	Scale	Minimum Acceptable
Total	0-120	80	N/A	60
Speaking	0-30	19	N/A	N/A
Listening	0-30	-	0-30	-
Reading	0-30	-	0-30	-
Writing	0-30	-	0-30	-

 

Original TOEFL PBT Prior to July 2017
Scale	Minimum Acceptable
310-677	550

 

IELTS Academic Test
Scale	Minimum Acceptable
1-9	6.5

 

Exemptions from English Proficiency Testing

International applicants who have received a baccalaureate or a graduate degree in one of the following countries are exempt from the TOEFL/IELTS requirement:  

• American Samoa 
• Anguilla 
• Antigua and Barbuda 
• Australia 
• Bahamas 
• Barbados 
• Belize 
• Bermuda 
• British Virgin Islands 
• Canada (except Quebec) 
• Cayman Islands 
• Dominica 
• England 
• Ghana 
• Grenada 
• Guyana 
• Jamaica 
• Kenya  
• Liberia 
• Montserrat 
• New Zealand 
• Nigeria 
• Northern Ireland 
• Puerto Rico 
• Republic of Ireland 
• Scotland 
• Singapore 
• South Africa 
• St Kitts and Nevis 
• St Lucia 
• Trinidad and Tobago 
• Turks and Caicos Islands 
• Uganda  
• United States 
• U.S. Virgin Islands 
• Wales

Please note that specific graduate plans of study may require all international applicants to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score, regardless of their academic background and country of origin.

Application Deadlines

The Graduate School does not have a deadline for processing applications. (Exception: International applicants must submit materials at least four months before the beginning of the semester for which they are applying.) Applicants should ascertain application deadlines by contacting the individual graduate program. Applications should be submitted as early as possible.