What IELTS score do you need for UMass Boston?

The IELTS 6.5 tier covers the College of Management, Applied Linguistics MA, all Biology programs, English MA, History MA, Instructional Design and International Relations MA. UMass Boston accepts only official scores sent by the testing agency (code 3924). The same page says most three-year degrees, including the Indian BA, BSc and BCom, are not equivalent to a US bachelor's. Graduate conditional admission is not stated.

You need no score after at least two academic years of full-time study, excluding ESL and test prep, at an English-language institution in the US or a listed country, such as Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Ghana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa or the UK. India is not on the list. See international graduate applicants.

First-year applicants show proficiency with TOEFL 4 (79 before 21 January 2026), IELTS 6.0, Duolingo 105, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing 480 or ACT Reading and English totalling 34. PTE is not on the list. Students from the same listed countries are exempt; India is not one of them. Provisional admission, with referral to the University Preparation ESL program, may be offered when TOEFL or IELTS falls short, but not for nursing, engineering or management. See international first-year.

The US F-1 student visa sets no English test score of its own. What counts is the requirement UMass Boston 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 UMass Boston international graduate applicants page again before you book a test, and check your own program page, which can set a higher bar.