I also examined which English tests are accepted for admission to undergraduate programs at the 20 universities in the USA with the most international students at any level of study (per Open Doors). I’ve also tracked what tests they accepted in 2022 and 2019. To make the list more interesting, I’ve only listed one school from a given university system (this means I skipped UCLA, UC San Diego and UT Arlington).
Access the full data after the jump.
A few things are worth mentioning:
- TOEFL is accepted at all 20 schools.
- IELTS is accepted at all 20 schools.
- DET is accepted at 19 schools (but at University of Southern California only when other tests are not possible).
- PTE is accepted at 8 schools.
- Cambridge C1/C2 are accepted at 8 schools.
- TOEFL Essentials is accepted at 3 schools.
- MET is accepted at 2 schools.
- ECPE is accepted at 1 school
- iTEP is accepted at 1 school
- SAT/ACT scores can be used to meet language requirements at 8 schools. Some other high school type tests are accepted here and there, but I haven’t listed them.
Also noteworthy:
- Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Northeastern all accepted DET before the pandemic (and still do).
- University of Michigan dropped acceptance of DET sometime after the pandemic.
- I believe that Cornell dropped acceptance of PTE and iTEP after the pandemic.
Here’s the sloppy data:
1. New York University
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- DET
- IELTS
- PTE (no at home)
- Cambridge C1/C2
- iTEP
March 3, 2022
- TOEFL
- DET
- IELTS
- PTE
- Cambridge C1/C2
- iTEP
June 15, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- Cambridge C1/C2
- iTEP
2. Northeastern University – Boston
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
March 26, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
October 2, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
3. Columbia University
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
February 21, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
June 22, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
4. Arizona State University
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL (not at home)
- IELTS
- PTE (not at home)
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2/B2
May 22, 2022
- TOEFL (not at home)
- IELTS
- PTE
- DET
December 21, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
5. University of Southern California
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- SAT
- ACT
- DET (when others are not available)
February 25, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- SAT
- ACT
- DET (when others are not available)
April 8, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- SAT
- ACT
6. University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- IELTS indicator (?)
- DET
March 11, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 14, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
7. Boston University
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 7, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 21, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
8. University of California Berkeley
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- SAT
- ACT
October 18, 2021
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
April 2, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
9. Purdue University – West Lafayette
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
October 26, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- SAT
- ACT
2019
?
10. University of North Texas
March 31, 2025
- SAT
- ACT
- TOEFL
- DET
- IELTS
- PTE
- MET
- Cambridge C1/C2
May 28, 2022
- IELTS
- TOEFL
- PTE
- DET
- ACT
- SAT
- Cambridge C1/C2
- MELAB
2019
?
11. University of Michigan – Anne Arbor
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- TOEFL Essentials
- IELTS
- IELTS Indicator
- ECPE
- Cambridge C1/C2
- PTE
- MET
- SAT
- ACT
May 24, 2022
- TOEFL
- TOEFL Essentials
- IELTS
- IELTS Indicator
- ECPE
- Cambridge C1, C2
- PTE
- MET
- DET
- SAT
- ACT
April 7, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- MELAB
12. University of Washington
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- SAT/ACT (with high school grades)
March 9, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- IELTS Indicator
- SAT/ACT (with high school grades)
July 4, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- SAT/ACT (with high school grades)
13. University of Texas – Dallas
March 31, 2025
- SAT/ACT
- DET
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
March 8, 2022
- SAT/ACT
- DET
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
March 12, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
(I skipped UCLA and UC San Diego, but they have the same requirements as UC Berkeley, I believe)
14. Johns Hopkins University
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
January 11, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
- Cambridge C1/C2
September 17, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
15. Carnegie Mellon University
March 31, 2025
- IELTS
- TOEFL
- TOEFL Essentials
- DET
- Cambridge English Assessment
April 7, 2022
- IELTS
- TOEFL
- TOEFL Essentials DET
2019
?
16. University of Wisconsin – Madison
March 31, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 25, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 9, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
17. Pennsylvania State University – University Park
March 31, 2025
- DET
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- IELTS Indicator
- SAT
- ACT
March 1, 2022
- TOEFL
- TOEFL ITP Plus for China
- IELTS
- IELTS Indicator
- DET
- SAT
- ACT
2019
May 5, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- ACT
- SAT
18. Cornell University
April 1, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
March 18, 2022
- TOEFL
- ITEP
- IELTS
- PTE
- Cambridge C1/C2
March 3, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
19. University of Pennsylvania
April 1, 2025
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
May 22, 2022
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- DET
June 11, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
I skipped the University of Texas – Arlington
20. SUNY University at Buffalo
April 1, 2025
- TOEFL
- TOEFL Essentials
- TOEFL ITP Plus
- IELTS
- DET
- PTE
- ACT
- SAT
March 9, 2022
- TOEFL
- TOEFL ITP Plus
- IELTS
- IELTS Indicator
- PTE
- DET
- ACT
- SAT
April 3, 2019
- TOEFL
- IELTS
- PTE
- ACT
- SAT