Standardized Testing Requirements

TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic is required of most applicants whose native language is not English.

You may be exempt from this requirement if you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years. See "Exemptions" for more information. 

Official TOEFL iBT scores may be used to fulfill the English Language Test requirement.

• Scores must be sent to Yale University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, directly from ETS.
• Use Institution Code 3987.
• You do not need to enter an individual department code when sending your official scores. Institution Code 3987 is sufficient.
• Paper score reports are not acceptable and scores released to other schools at Yale University cannot be transferred to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
• If you are applying to a PhD program associated with one of the professional schools at Yale, send your official scores directly to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Institution Code 3987) and not to the individual professional schools, which may have separate codes for applicants applying to other degree programs.

The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEFL in the United States and abroad. For details and registration forms, visit their site at https://www.ets.org/.

Official IELTS Academic scores may be used to fulfill the English Language Test requirement.

• We will only accept official scores submitted electronically by the IELTS test center via the E-Delivery service.
• When you take this test, please specify Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (also known as the Office of Graduate Admissions) as a score recipient. To identify us in the IELTS system, our address is Warner House, 1 Hillhouse Avenue, room 302, New Haven, CT 06511. Please do not send paper score reports to this address.
• We do not accept paper Test Report Forms, nor do we verify Test Report Forms (TRFs).
• We accept only IELTS Academic test scores. The IELTS General Training module is not accepted.

For more information and to register for the test, please visit https://ielts.org/

If you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years, you are exempt from the English Language Test requirement and are not required to submit the TOEFL or IELTS.

No exemptions are made on the basis of an advanced degree (e.g., MA/MS or PhD) from any institution.

When you complete your application, you will answer questions about your native language and the primary language of instruction at your baccalaureate institution. If either was English, you will not be required to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores when you submit your application. No separate documentation is necessary. 

Note: If you are not required to report TOEFL or IELTS scores (i.e. you are exempt because English is your native language or was the language of instruction at your undergraduate institution and you were in residence three years or more), but you choose to self-report your TOEFL or IELTS scores in the application anyways, you will be required to also submit official test results for verification purposes.