What IELTS score do you need for CU Boulder?

You need no test if you are a citizen of a qualifying country; the Graduate School's list includes India, with one exception: applicants from India to Engineering Management must submit scores. You are also exempt after at least one year of full-time study at a university in the US or a qualifying country that ended within two years of your admission term, or after OPT that ended within two years. Music does not accept the study or OPT routes. Medium of Instruction letters are not accepted. See the Graduate School.

If you test, the exam date must be within two years of your intended admission term, and you can upload a verifiable score report (TOEFL reports must show the MyBest scores date). The 7.0 tier also covers Asian Languages, Linguistics, Music (DMA, PhD), Political Science and Psychology; the 7.5 tier also covers Advertising, Biochemistry, Chemical and Biological Engineering, ATLAS, English, Journalism, Law, Math and MCDB. TOEFL goes to code 4841.

Undergraduates need TOEFL 80 or 4.0, IELTS 6.5, Cambridge 180, PTE 58 or Duolingo 115, or IB SL English A 6, HL 5, GCSE English B, AP English 4, SAT Reading and Writing 580, ACT English 23 or WAEC English B3, within two calendar years of starting. The undergraduate qualifying-country list for school or university study does not include India, and Medium of Instruction letters alone do not count. Conditional admission is available through the Pathway to CU Program. See undergraduate requirements.

The US F-1 student visa sets no English test score of its own. What counts is the requirement CU Boulder sets for admission, which leads to your Form I-20. For the wider picture of studying in the US with each test, see IELTS for the USA and PTE for the USA.

Requirements change between admission cycles. Check the CU Boulder Graduate School English proficiency page again before you book a test, and check your own program page, which can set a higher bar.