International Admission

International Students

The Graduate School welcomes applications from international students who have completed a four-year bachelor's degree from an accredited institution or its equivalent.

View specific requirements below and please visit the Graduate and Professional Enrollment Management International Student Requirements page to learn more about additional requirements.

English Language Proficiency Requirement for Admission

In addition to completing the regular application procedures, an official TOEFL, IELTS, PTE, or Duolingo score report is required for international applicants whose native language is not English.

The English Proficiency Exam requirement is waived for applicants who are citizens of the following countries or who are currently completing/have completed a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in the U.S. or at a recognized institution in the below countries at which the language of instruction is English.

Australia
Canada (except Quebec)
Great Britain
Ireland
New Zealand
An Anglophone country of Africa (Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria)
English-speaking country of Caribbean (Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Monserrat)

For the TOEFL, a minimum score of 79 on the iBT or a 550 on the written test is required.

For the IELTS, a minimum score of 6.0 is required.

For the PTE, a minimum score of 53 is required.

For Duolingo, a minimum score of 105 is required.

You may self-report your scores on the application, and photocopies, faxes, or scanned images of score reports may be sent for initial review, but these scores not considered official. We must receive the official test scores directly from the testing service (our institutional code is 1412).

Note: English language test scores are valid for two years from the test date.

Financial Assistance

International students are not eligible for any state or federal financial aid. Institutional aid is available on a very limited basis and is generally awarded according to academic merit.

For more information, please see the Graduate School's information on merit awards.

Initial Attendance and Transferring Schools within the US

The Immigration and Naturalization Service requires every international student who enters the United States on the F-1 or J-1 visa for study at a particular school to complete at least one academic term at the school before being eligible to transfer to another school. For example, if you enter the US on an I-20 from Loyola University Chicago, the US government requires that you attend Loyola for at least one term before you are permitted to transfer to another university.

If you are transferring to Loyola from a school in the United States, you must obtain a Transfer Verification Form from your current institution to send to Loyola so that we can transfer your F-1 or J-1 status. The International Advisor should complete this form at your current or most recent school attended. You need to instruct the International Advisor at your former school what date you would like to be released and transfer to Loyola. Loyola cannot issue the transfer I-20 or DS-2019 until your previous school releases you to transfer. If you are out of status with your former school, please contact the Office for International Programs through the options provided.

If you are currently in the U.S. on a dependent non-immigrant visa such as H-4, L-2, F-2, J-2 or Permanent Residency, please let the Office for International Programs know your status and if you are interested in changing your non-immigrant status to F-1.

Transcripts and Credentials

If you have non-U.S. educational credentials, you are required to submit your official education credentials (e.g., transcripts, mark sheets, degree certificates, graduation diplomas) and evaluation fee directly to any NACES member companies. The evaluation is not an English translation of the marksheets, but a separate document completed by an evaluation service which shows that the degree you’ve received or are pursuing outside the U.S. is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree or U.S. Master’s degree.

We accept evaluations from any NACES member companies including:

Educational Credential Evaluators, INC. (ECE)

Phone: 414-289-3400
Request a General Evaluation with Grade Average, unless you are applying to the Quinlan School of Business. Applicants for these programs must request a Course by Course evaluation.

Educational Perspectives
Phone: 312-421-9300
Request a General Report, unless you are applying to the Quinlan School of Business. Applicants for these programs must request a Detailed Report.

World Education Services, Inc.(WES)
Phone: 212-966-6311

*Please note: In addition to the transcript evaluation, you will be required to submit official copies of your transcripts as well. You have the option of requesting that your schools send them to either gradapp@luc.edu or our mailing address, noted above, but it may be more convenient for you to request either ECE or Educational Perspectives to send the transcript along with your transcript evaluation. Transcripts received from ECE or Educational Perspectives are considered official.

Unless the above mentioned qualifications for a waiver apply to you, both the official English language proficiency test scores and official transcript evaluation must be received before you can be considered for admission, per University policy.