English

We are pleased with your interest in our graduate program. Before you continue with the electronic application for admission, we wish to ensure that you are familiar with the minimum requirements for admission to graduate degree study in English.  It is important to recognize that although satisfaction of these basic requirements does not guarantee graduate admission, failure to satisfy these requirements may lead to automatic denial of admission.

Supporting Documents: Additional documents are required to support the application. Supporting documents should be uploaded to the online application as directed below. Click the links below for details. Supporting documents include the following, unless specific instructions are noted in the requirements sections of this page:

• Transcripts
• GRE Test
• English Proficiency  Please note that any wavier of the TOEFL or IELTS (related to Graduate School admission) does not exempt students from the requirement to demonstrate proficiency in spoken English in order to be considered for a graduate teaching assistantship.
• Recommendation letters
• Statement of Purpose
• Writing Sample

Application Deadlines:  Applications and all supporting documentation must be received on or before the deadlines listed below.

	Fall	Spring	Summer
U.S. Citizen	December 30	No Entry	No Entry
International	December 30	No Entry	No Entry

Concentrations:

• MFA Creative Writing - Fiction
• MFA Creative Writing - Poetry
• MA and PhD - Rhetoric and Composition
• MA and PhD - Literature, Theory and Cultural Studies
  
  

Contact Information	Mailing Address	Web Sites of Interest
Name: Graduate Studies Office Phone: (765) 494-3748 E-mail: griff@purdue.edu	Graduate Studies Office Department of English Purdue University 500 Oval Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907-1356 USA	Graduate Program Website Frequently Asked Questions

All applicants need to submit the following: Two transcripts from all colleges and universities attended; official GRE scores from the testing center; a statement of purpose; a writing sample (a 10-15 page critical essay written for a course in English or one of the other humanities); and three letters of recommendation. Applicants for Creative Writing also need to submit samples of recent work.

Applicants for Creative Writing need to submit a critical writing sample AND recent samples of writing - a group of 8-10 poems if applying in poetry; 2 to 3 short stories (or a novel excerpt) if applying in fiction. Please include a brief response to these questions: Whose work do you admire? What collections of poetry and/or works of fiction read in the last year have been important to you and why?

Current master’s students wishing to move to a doctoral degree program in this same graduate program will be required to submit a new application.

Certificate Program Basic Requirements

• Undergraduate Cumulative Grade Point Average:
  3.0 or equivalent required
• Personal statement
• Two letters of recommendation
• Two official transcripts
• Writing sample

Additional International Applicant Requirements:

• TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:
  Minimum Paper-Based Test (PBT) Score Required: 620
  Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 77
  With the following minimum section requirements:
  Reading: 19
  Listening: 14
  Speaking: 18
  Writing: 18
• IELTS (Academic Module):
       An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 6.5 or higher will be accepted
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) (Academic Module):
       An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 58 or higher will be accepted  

Effective for those seeking Spring 2019 admission and beyond:

TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:

Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 80 
With the following minimum section requirements: 
Reading: 19 
Listening: 14 
Speaking: 27 
Writing: 18

Minimum Paper-Delivered Test - no overall score reported
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 19
Listening: 14
Writing: 18

IELTS (Academic Module):
Minimum overall score required: 7.0
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 7.0
Listening: 7.0
Speaking: 7.0 (8.0 to be considered for TA)
Writing: 7.0

Pearson Test of English (PTE):
No longer accepted

Master's Degree Program Basic Requirements

You should send us a statement of purpose, telling us about your intellectual history, development, and academic and professional goals, and a writing sample ( a 10-15 page critical essay written for a course in English or one of the other humanities), plus three letters of recommendation. No applicant will be considered until all the required materials have been received .

Applicants for Creative Writing need to submit a critical writing sample AND recent samples of writing - a group of 8-10 poems if applying in poetry; 2 to 3 short stories (or a novel excerpt) if applying in fiction. Please include a brief response to these questions: Whose work do you admire? What collections of poetry and/or works of fiction read in the last year have been important to you and why?

• Undergraduate Cumulative Grade Point Average:
  3.0 or equivalent required.
• Graduate Record Examination (GRE):
  Required - Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical

Additional International Applicant Requirements:

• TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:
  Minimum Paper-Based Test (PBT) Score Required: 620
  Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 77
  With the following minimum section requirements:
  Reading: 19
  Listening: 14
  Speaking: 27
  Writing: 18
• IELTS (Academic Module):
  An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 6.5 or higher will be accepted. A score of 8 in the speaking section is required.
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) (Academic Module):
  An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 58 or higher will be accepted

Effective for those seeking Spring 2019 admission and beyond:

TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:

Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 80 
With the following minimum section requirements: 
Reading: 19 
Listening: 14 
Speaking: 27 
Writing: 18

Minimum Paper-Delivered Test - no overall score reported
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 19
Listening: 14
Writing: 18

IELTS (Academic Module):
Minimum overall score required: 7.0
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 7.0
Listening: 7.0
Speaking: 7.0 (8.0 to be considered for TA)
Writing: 7.0

Pearson Test of English (PTE):
No longer accepted

Doctoral Degree Program Basic Requirements

You should send us a statement of purpose, telling of your intellectual history and development, and of your specific goals in research and teaching. You should also send a writing sample, a 10-15 page critical essay written for one of your classes as a master's student, plus three letters of recommendation. No applicant will be considered until all the required materials have been received.

• Master's Degree Completion:
  Required.
• Graduate Record Examination (GRE):
  Required - Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical

Additional International Applicant Requirements:

• TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:
  Minimum Paper-Based Test (PBT) Score Required: 620
  Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 77
  With the following minimum section requirements:
  Reading: 19
  Listening: 14
  Speaking: 27
  Writing: 18
• IELTS (Academic Module):
  An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 6.5 or higher will be accepted. A score of 8 in the speaking section is required.
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) (Academic Module):
  An alternative to the TOEFL, scores of 58 or higher will be accepted

Effective for those seeking Spring 2019 admission and beyond:

TOEFL for Non-Native English Speakers:

Minimum Internet-Based Test (IBT) Overall Score Required: 80 
With the following minimum section requirements: 
Reading: 19 
Listening: 14 
Speaking: 27 
Writing: 18

Minimum Paper-Delivered Test - no overall score reported
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 19
Listening: 14
Writing: 18

IELTS (Academic Module):
Minimum overall score required: 7.0
With the following minimum section requirements:
Reading: 7.0
Listening: 7.0
Speaking: 7.0 (8.0 to be considered for TA)
Writing: 7.0

Pearson Test of English (PTE):
No longer accepted

If you do not meet the basic requirements described above, please do not submit an electronic application until you have contacted our graduate program staff.