Honors College
Undergraduate Admissions

English Language Proficiency

UMass Amherst seeks to admit students who will contribute fully to campus life, inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, all non-native speakers of English must demonstrate English language proficiency. There are several ways to satisfy the requirement

  • TOEFL: minimum composite score of 80 no subscore lower than 20 (code #3917). We accept results from the in-person version or the iBT Home Edition only. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Scores.
  • IELTS: minimum composite score of 6.5 on the academic test with no subscore lower than 6.0 (We will not accept paper IELTS test report forms).
  • Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency: minimum combined score of 176 with no sub score lower than 169.
  • Duolingo English Test (DET): minimum score of 115 is required (Use the same email address as used with the Common Application).
  • English education: Entire secondary education (four years) is at a school where English is the primary language of instruction and the British or American curriculum is followed. 
  • Unscripted interview: While not required for admission, all international students may choose to submit a third-party unscripted interview.  If you choose to submit an interview, companies that provide this service include InitialView.

We do not accept results from the IELTS Indicator, the TOEFL ITP Plus for China, TOEFL Essentials, or the PTE Academic Online. Please note that score reports cannot be older than two years from the time you apply and must come to Undergraduate Admissions directly from the testing service. We do not superscore any English Proficiency tests (e.g. We do not accept MyBest scores from TOEFL). 

The University of Massachusetts Amherst downloads IELTS scores that have been transmitted to our e-download account. Please contact your test center and request that your scores be sent to the following IELTS e-download account:

University of Massachusetts Amherst
534 Goodell Building
140 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9333

Please note: Waiver of the English proficiency testing requirement will be granted only after our verification that the applicant has satisfied one of the above waiver criteria, based on official documentation contained in the student's application materials. The official verification process will be conducted after the student's application has been submitted and reviewed.

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or IELTS: A minimum score of 80 or better on the internet-based TOEFL (iBT) is required along with strong subscores in each of the four areas. An IELTS score of 6.5 or higher along with strong subscores in each of the four areas is also acceptable. Official copies of scores must be submitted directly from the testing agency. Student copies are not considered official. The UMass Amherst TOEFL code is 3917.

You may be exempt from the English language proficiency requirement if you have completed two non-ESL English composition courses AND several humanities/social science courses with grades of B or better at a U.S. college or university. Once you apply and have your official transcript sent, we will let you know if we require you to take a proficiency exam.

We are now accepting the Duolingo English test to demonstrate English proficiency.  We require a minimum score of 115.