Boston University Admission 2027: Deadlines, Requirements, Fees for International Students

Admission at a glance

Boston University is a private research university with programs spanning liberal arts, engineering, business and the arts. International applicants use the same admission process as domestic applicants and can apply under a binding Early Decision I plan closing November 1, a binding Early Decision II plan or non binding Regular Decision, both of which share a January 5 closing date. Boston University does not offer a non binding early action option.

BU requires international applicants to submit TOEFL, IELTS or the Duolingo English Test even though the university has made SAT and ACT scores optional for the next several admission cycles. BU frames its TOEFL and Duolingo figures as the range where the most competitive applicants land, 90 to 100 and 125 to 135 respectively, alongside a flat IELTS threshold of 7 that satisfies the requirement across all programs.

According to Boston University's own Common Data Set for 2025 to 2026, the university received 76,776 first time first year applications and admitted 9,853 for an overall admission rate of about 12.8 percent for the entering class it reports; international applicants specifically saw a slightly higher admit rate of about 16 percent within that pool. Tuition and mandatory fees for 2026 to 2027 total 74,594 dollars for the year, one of the higher figures among the universities in this dataset, reflecting Boston University's status as a private institution charging a single tuition rate to all students regardless of residency.

Requirements

Bachelor

BU reviews secondary school transcripts, course rigor and grades as the central academic factor; standardized test scores are optional for all applicants through the cycles Boston University has announced. International applicants must submit TOEFL, IELTS or the Duolingo English Test as the primary means of demonstrating English proficiency, evaluated alongside the rest of the application rather than against a single hard cutoff below the levels described in english_waiver_md.

Full requirements and documents