FAQ for International Students

You are not eligible for financial aid in the form of federal loans, but you may be eligible for other grants and scholarships once you are attending CUNY SPH.

You may complete our Advanced Certificate entirely online from abroad, and for that you do not need any visa. Unfortunately, the Certificate is not available for international students who wish to come to the US and take in-person classes under the F-1 status.

You cannot waive the TOEFL unless the language of instruction for your undergraduate or graduate degree was in English (you must have your transcript evaluation to prove this to Admissions) or English is the official language in your country.

Internet Based Test: 60 (Reading score + Writing score + Listening score)

No.

For submitting TOEFL scores to SOPHAS, please use institution code 5688.

When you take TOEFL, be sure to arrange to have scores sent to SOPHAS. If you have already taken the test and did not arrange to have scores delivered at that time, contact your test provider to resend your official scores. This may incur additional costs, so we suggest that you make sure to arrange delivery of your scores when you take the test.

We cannot review your application until it is complete. The absolute latest we will accept scores is two weeks past the application deadline.

First, contact your test provider and find out if and when they sent out your scores via the correct method. If your TOEFL scores were sent correctly, then you must contact SOPHAS to ensure that they have received it. You can call SOPHAS at (617) 612-2090, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm EST, or email them at sophasinfo@liaisoncas.com with your full name, a detailed description of the issue, and your SOPHAS ID number (it can be found at the top of your SOPHAS application).

If your education took place in a country outside of the US, and the language of instruction was not in English or English is not an official language in that country, you will need to take the TOEFL, regardless of your citizenship status.

Do not send foreign transcripts. SOPHAS and CUNY SPH do not accept any foreign transcripts, including those printed in English.

CUNY SPH will accept either WES (preferred) or ECE evaluations. Currently, SOPHAS cannot accept ECE evaluations, so for the time being, you will need to email ECE evaluations directly to admissions@sph.cuny.edu.

You should contact your transcript evaluation service as early as possible since the evaluation process may take several weeks after your foreign transcripts are received. For WES, please see www.wes.org/cas for complete instructions. For ECE, please see https://www.ece.org/Page/Individuals for instructions.