International applications require additional materials beyond the standard application materials. Please review the following requirements.

English Proficiency Requirement

Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)

Students who received their undergraduate degree from a non-English speaking institution must also take the TOEFL iBT (Please see our International Admissions requirements for more information). We require a minimum score of 100 for your application to be reviewed. We must receive an official TOEFL score by our deadline; we recommend taking your TOEFL at least 20 days prior to our deadline to assure that we receive the score.

This year, we will accept scores from the TOEFL MyBest Score feature to meet the total score of 100 or above for proof of English proficiency.

International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

In addition to the TOEFL, the IELTS is also accepted as proof of English proficiency. The band score of 7.0 is required for admission to the College of Communication.  IELTS Scores can be sent electronically to our E-Delivery Account, “Boston University Graduate Programs.” 

We recommend taking the IELTS at least 20 days prior to our deadline.

Duolingo

Boston University has implemented an alternative option to the TOEFL and IELTS exams. For this application cycle, the College of Communication will accept scores from the Duolingo English Test, an online English proficiency test that can be taken on-demand, remotely from your home computer.

  • After taking the exam, select Boston University Graduate & Professional Programs as a score recipient. You will then need to email our admissions office at comgrad@bu.edu with a screenshot of your results and the exact date you have taken the Duolingo test.
  • The cost of the Duolingo Exam is $49 USD.
  • Most questions about the exam can be found on the Duolingo FAQ page (https://testcenter.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/201147826-Frequently-Asked-Questions).
  • Please be aware that to accept this score in place of official TOEFL or IELTS scores, we will require a minimum Duolingo score of 125.