Special Admission
There are two groups of students who must meet special admission requirements:
- All international students must have their transcripts evaluated by Josef Silney & Associates, International Academic Credential Evaluators, or Worldwide Education Services (WES). International students who qualify for admission are required to take the English Language Institute Test of the University of Michigan, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) given by the Educational Testing Service. If the Michigan Test is taken, a minimum score of 82 is required. Students taking the IELTS must score a minimum of 5.5. A TOEFL score of 500 on the old testing system or 61 on the new system is required for admission to all graduate programs except the Master of Art in Communication, Master of Business Administration program, the Master of Science in Information Systems, and Biology, which require a score of 525 (old system) or 70 (new system) for admission. International students who have completed a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in the U.S. are exempt from this requirement.
International students will be officially admitted and issued a Form I-20A only after Enrollment Services has been notified that they have passed the English Test successfully, have met program admission requirements, and have submitted a statement certifying their ability to meet all financial obligations. The TOEFL examination is given regularly in most foreign countries. For further information regarding these tests, the applicant should contact the U.S. Counsel in the country of residence.
- Graduates of non-accredited colleges must meet the MSU undergraduate requirements for graduation before their applications for graduate study will be approved. If a student's undergraduate preparation is inadequate, this deficiency must be satisfied by taking designated courses that will not be counted as graduate credit. Courses at the 600 level will not be acceptable for this validation work. A minimum of 12 semester hours of credit for such work is required. This deficiency also may be satisfied by presenting a GRE score of Verbal 450 and Quantitative 450.