INTERNATIONAL FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

First-year applicants are those who are in high school or have received a high school diploma and have fewer than 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of college credit.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 404-413-2500
Location: 33 Gilmer St. SE, Sparks Hall, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30303

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Admission for International First-Year Students

Steps to Apply

1	Complete and submit your application. Sign and date your application.

2	Pay the application fee. Georgia State requires a $60 nonrefundable application fee. Online applications are processed only when accompanied by the fee through a credit card or checking account system. Paper applications are processed only when accompanied by a check or money order.
3	Submit ACT or SAT SCORES electronically (OPTIONAL).* Georgia State is test-optional through Summer 2025. If you are a first-year international student and your high school GPA is 3.4 or higher, you do not have to submit your test scores to us.* If your GPA is below 3.4, you should submit test scores to us. Submit SAT SCORES through collegeboard.org (Georgia State’s SAT code is 5251) Submit ACT SCORES through act.org (Georgia State’s ACT code is 0826) **Some merit scholarships may still require test scores.
4	Submit proof of English proficiency. Read the information below on this page to learn more about the English requirements.
5	Submit official high school transcripts (international first-year students only).
6	Check your application status. After you are academically admitted to Georgia State, International Student & Scholar Services will contact you about next steps to request your immigration documents and student visa.

Overview of Requirements

Applicants to Georgia State are classified as “international” if they meet any of the following criteria:

Students who are in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa (B-1, H-1, J-1, etc.)
Students who are living outside the U.S. and will require an F-1 visa to study in the U.S.
Students who are in the process of applying for Permanent Residency status but have not yet received the Permanent Residency Card
Students who have been educated outside the U.S.

International applicants must meet the admission requirements for their student type. If you have never been to college or have earned fewer than 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of college credit, you are a first-year applicant. If you have earned more than 30 transferable hours or 45 transferable quarter hours of college credit and wish to complete your undergraduate degree at Georgia State, you are a transfer applicant. If you don’t fit in either of those categories, review the other applicant types.

In addition to meeting all of the admission requirements for your student type, as an international student you must also submit the following materials by the appropriate deadline:

Proof of English proficiency if English is not your first language (students from Puerto Rico must meet the English-proficiency requirements)
Official evaluations of all foreign transcripts

2024-25 International First-Year Regular Deadlines

Atlanta Campus

APRIL 1
First-year students

Perimeter College

JUNE 1
First-year students

More on International First-Year Admission Requirements

Foreign Credit Evaluations

Georgia State performs in-house evaluations for international first-year applicants. Official copies of the following documents must be submitted to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions by your school or examination board:

High school graduation certificate (if you earned it already)
High school academic transcript (includes all subjects taken and grades earned for at least three recent academic years of study)
Mark sheet (includes the final examination results)
Special examinations
National and regional examinations (if they are required for university admission in your home country)

Note:

Students must submit all academic records in the original native language, accompanied by an English translation if the native language is not English.
Documents submitted by students are considered unofficial unless they can be verified online through the Ministry of Education or an Examination Board.
Georgia State will not preview any credential(s) without an official submission of an online application.

Georgia State offers in-house evaluations for all international first-year applicants. Students are required to submit all official documents directly to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

High school graduation certificate (if you earned it already)
High school academic transcript (includes all subjects taken and grades earned for three recent academic years of study)
Mark sheet (includes the final examination results)
Special examinations

Examinations System	Accepted Credential
French Baccalaureate Program	Diplôme du Baccalauréat / Diploma of General Baccalaureate (if you earned it already) Relevé de Notes de l’Examen Final (final examination results)
International Baccalaureate (IB) Exams	Certificate/Diploma (if you earned it already) Academic Transcript (includes all subjects taken and grades earned)
Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)	Caribbean Examinations Council Secondary Education Certificate (CECSEC) Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE)
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC)	West African Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Please contact our in-house evaluator for details of your country’s WAEC verification requirement after you apply to Georgia State
IGCSE, GCSE: O-Level, A-Level, AS-Level Exams	Official Final Examination Results (includes all subjects taken and grades earned)
Examinations System: Indian Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)	Accepted Credential: Year 10 Examination Results Certificate, Year 12 Examination Results Certificate, and Admit Card or additional information needed to verify results online
Examinations System: Ethiopian National Education Assessment and Examinations Agency (NEAEA)	Accepted Credential: Year 10 Examination Results – Ethiopian General Secondary Education Certificate, and Year 12 Examination Results – Ethiopian University Entrance Examination

See the Document Submission section for additional details.

If you have questions about an in-house foreign credential evaluation or country-specific requirements, contact International Admissions at [email protected] with your Georgia State Panther ID number and your full name.

English Proficiency

In addition to meeting all other applicable requirements for admission, non-native speakers of English must demonstrate sufficient English language proficiency. This may be demonstrated by any of the following methods:

Graduation from a U.S. high school
Completion of an approved University System of Georgia (USG) campus-based English-as-a-second-language (ESL) program of study
Proof of degree completion inside or outside the U.S., where English is the official language of academic instruction
Proof of completion of the equivalent of English 1101 and/or 1102 with a grade of C or better at an accredited U.S. institution
Minimum scores on one of the following approved English-proficiency tests:

Test	Minimum Score
TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language	69
IELTS – International English Language Testing System	6
PTE – Pearson Test of English Academic	53
SAT Critical Reading Score	480
ACT English Score	17
EIKEN	Pre-1
MET (Michigan English Test)	55
Cambridge English Scale Score	169 (CPE=180)
Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) IGCSE & “O” Level “English” exams	“D” or better
UK GCSE “English” Exam	“C” or better
UK GCE A-Level “English” Exam	“C” or better
EdExcel International A-Levels and EGCSE English exams	“D” or better

Non-native English-speaking students who do not yet have the required level of English proficiency for admission are encouraged to seek the following support:

Intensive English Program (IEP) at Georgia State University: full-time English-for -an academic-purposes program offered at Georgia State’s Atlanta Campus
Accuplacer Preparation: links from Georgia State’s Counseling & Testing Center to various websites that may help students studying for all areas of the Accuplacer Exam

Conditional Admission

F-1 Visa Applicants Only
Non-native speakers of English who meet all admission requirements except English language proficiency may be granted conditional admission.

To be eligible for conditional admission, applicants must meet one of the following:

TOEFL score of either:
- 480-524 (paper test)
- 54-69 (internet-based test)
IELTS score of 4.5-5.9

Students granted conditional admission will be required to take certain courses in the Intensive English Program (IEP) before matriculating and taking any academic courses at Georgia State.

Conditionally admitted students are required to:

Apply for admission to IEP online.
Obtain an official I-20 from IEP if you have a student visa (F-1).
Enroll full time at IEP until the required English proficiency level is met.

A student may remain on conditional admission status for no more than three semesters.

Financial aid is not typically available to IEP students.

Document Submission

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions will accept official documents from:

Verified school counselors
National examination boards
Verified officials from a national or regional Ministry of Education
Education USA

All documents submitted by students will be considered unofficial unless they can be verified online by a national or regional examination board. Unofficial documents will not be processed unless they can be verified.

Schools must submit transcripts, graduation certificates, mark sheets, examinations and any other official documentation to [email protected] with the student’s full name and Panther Number.

All documents must be submitted in the original native language, accompanied by an English translation, if the native language is not English.