International Application Preparation

Applicants whose native language is not English and whose undergraduate training of at least four years* has not been conducted in English must submit an English language proficiency test. 

*The English language proficiency requirement will be waived for applicants who received a three year undergraduate degree, as long as the entire degree was conducted in English.  

We accept the IELTS, Duolingo English Test, or TOEFL test (including the TOEFL iBT® Special Home Edition offered by ETS). We do not accept any other English language proficiency test. 

Minimum Suggested Scores

• TOEFL: 100 total and a minimum of 25 in each section
• IELTS: 7 overall band score and a minimum of 7 on each section
• Duolingo: 135 total

Test Registration and Submitting Scores

Applicants may register for the IELTS at www.ielts.org, for the TOEFL at www.ets.org/toefl, and for the Duolingo English Test at www.englishtest.duolingo.com. Testing may be limited in some countries and territories. You should register for a test date well in advance of our application deadlines to ensure your scores will be received in time.

Candidates admitted to the Weitzman School of Design may be required to successfully complete an English Language Program prior to matriculation. They will be notified of this condition in their letter of admission. 

Please find information on submitting your scores below as they vary for each testing service:

• IELTS – Log in to your IELTS account and request scores be sent to "University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design".
• TOEFL – Log in to your TOEFL iBT account and follow the prompts through “Order Score Reports.” Use institution code to request official TOEFL 2984. You do not need a departmental code, but if asked, enter 99.
• Duolingo – Log in to englishtest.duolingo.com with the email address you used to take the test. Scroll down to your certified test results and click the "SEND RESULTS" button. Once there, please select University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design.

Transcripts and Course by Course Evaluation (Non-US Institutions except Canadian AAU-Affiliated Schools)

Applicants who have attended international institutions must upload transcripts or certified attestations of study. If these documents are not written in English, certified English translations are required. Once translated, the original transcript as well as the certified translation should be scanned into one file and uploaded to the online application.

Scan or save each transcript (and its English translation, if applicable) as a PDF. Multiple pages from the same transcript must be combined into one file, not to exceed 10MB.

If you are admitted and plan to enroll in the Weitzman School of Design and are completing undergraduate and/or graduate degrees from institutions outside of the United States or have completed more than one year of study for credit at a non-US institution, you are required to submit a either a BASIC course-by-course evaluation from World Education Services (WES) or a course-by-course evaluation from Educational Perspectives for each institution. You do not need to send us an official transcript from your school. Credentials received via the WES or Educational Perspectives service are considered official. Both services charge a fee to evaluate your credentials.

You do not need to submit this course-by-course evaluation if you have taken courses for one year or less, or if you have attended an AAU-affiliated school (McGill University or University of Toronto); however, you will need to submit an official paper or electronic transcript from that institution. If you are admitted to your program before you have received your undergraduate degree, you will be required to submit a second evaluation or upgrade showing your conferred degree prior to entering the Weitzman School of Design in the fall. Note: There is an additional charge for this service.

If you are receiving a degree from a US college or university and have participated in a study abroad program, you do not need to submit a course-by-course evaluation for that program IF the course names and grades from the program abroad appear on your main transcript. If the course names and grades from the exchange program do not appear on your main transcript and you attended the program for only one or two semesters, you may have the study abroad institution send us an official (paper) transcript instead of submitting a course-by-course evaluation. However, if the study abroad program was longer than two semesters, you must submit a course-by-course evaluation for the study abroad program in addition to your official main transcript.

Universities in the US tend to have some difficulty sending emails to or receiving emails from some international email addresses due to firewall issues and restrictions. In the meantime, we recommend setting up an email address through Yahoo or Gmail in order to keep any contact issues to a minimum.