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In addition to following typical admissions procedures, international students must provide the following materials:
- TOEFL Examination
- Financial Certification
- Passport Copies
English Proficiency
All non-native English speakers must take the TOEFL or the MELAB Examination. Scores must be no older than two years old to be valid. Non-native English speakers who have earned their degree from a university, where English is the primary language of instruction, are not required to submit a TOEFL or MELAB score. The student must have attended the institution for a minimum of four years, and achieved a 4 year degree from that institution to receive a TOEFL waiver.
TOEFL Examination
Information about the TOEFL including test dates and locations can be found at www.ets.org/toefl/ . Please take the TOEFL exam 6-8 weeks prior to the January 15th deadline in order for test scores to be received in time. Please contact ETS and have an official score report sent to the University of Michigan (Institution code 1839).
TOEFL minimum score:
computer based 220
paper based 560
IBT 84
MELAB Examination
Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) Examination can be found at http://lsa.umich.edu/eli/testing/melab. Please take the MELAB exam 5 weeks prior to the January 15th deadline in order for your score to be received in time.
MELAB minimum score:
78
Financial certification
All international students are required to submit financial certification as part of their application to show they have funding available to study in the U.S.A. The estimated financial certification for 2009-2010 academic year is $60,075 USD. The final tuition rates will be set in July and an exact figure will be available then. Financial certification is an administrative piece necessary to process I-20 forms for admitted students. Only funds in a liquid account, such as a checking or savings account will be accepted: Property, life insurance, stock, bonds, jewelry, mutual funds, land, medical savings, benefit certificates, trusts, securities, retirement accounts, and long term savings for housing do not qualify. If a student is supporting him/herself, we will only need an original bank statement in the student's name showing sufficient funds.
If a person other than the applicant will be sponsoring the student, the applicant must submit two important documents for the financial certification. You must submit either #1 and #3 OR #2 and #3 below. An applicant may have several different sponsors. We will need the following documentation from each source of funding.
- A letter of support (stating who will support the student and their relationship to the student) signed by the family member(s) offering financial support to the student. It must have an original signature(s). Or
- A completed financial certification form (found in the online application) with original signatures from the family member(s) offering support and the proper boxes checked. And
- An original bank statement (on bank letterhead), showing the type of account, the exact balance of the account, and be signed by a bank representative (original signature required). The statement must also show the account holder's name and it must exactly match the name of the person offering support.
Estimated Financial Certification 2010–2011 (PDF 72KB)
Passport copies
Each international applicant should submit a copy of their passport (and copies of any dependent family members' passport that would be accompanying the student to the U.S.A.) with their application materials. Passport copies are required in order to process an I-20 form. In order to avoid processing delays, please submit the passport copies with your application materials.
