International Students

For application processing purposes, an international applicant is someone who is not a U.S. citizen or a U.S. permanent resident (Green Card holder).

Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident is considered an international applicant for processing purposes. This does not mean that your academic credentials will be evaluated as an international record – we evaluate academic credentials along the same curriculum given in your area, so your academic record will be evaluated as we would any of your peers in your school. The only difference for you is that if admitted, we will ask you to complete a survey to confirm your visa status.

The application deadlines can be viewed here.

To apply for summer, you will need to select your entry term as fall. If admitted, you can email us at undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu to request your application be updated to summer entry. We will then consider you for entry for Summer Session II which begins at the end of June.

Your application is considered incomplete until we receive your non-refundable application fee of $100 USD. International students who will be studying on an F or J visa are not eligible for application fee waivers.

If you need to update or add items to your application after it has been submitted, you can upload the information to your wolfPAW account or email our office at undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu.

Once your application and fee have been submitted, it takes a few days for your application to be downloaded by NC State. Within 24 hours of submitting your application, you will receive an email confirming we have received your application and information on how to access your wolfPAW portal. We also encourage you to keep a close eye on your spam folder for an email from undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu during this time period, as it is possible for our emails to end up there.

If you have submitted your application recently, please allow 2-3 weeks for all application materials to be processed, evaluated and entered into the system before contacting us about the missing items on your checklist. After that, you may log into your wolfPAW account to check the status of your application.

An official transcript is a record, in English, of your academic performance that is provided by the high school or university you attended. This document must list, at minimum, each course you took and include a grading system that evaluates your performance in each course. This document should have an official seal, stamp, letterhead or signature to indicate its validity. You must provide a transcript for all institutions you have attended.

To be considered official, transcripts may be uploaded to your application by your counselor or school official via the Common App portal or by using slate.org. Alternatively, they may be mailed to us in a school-sealed envelope directly to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at NC State. Documents that were not issued in English must be accompanied by the English translation. Translations must be done by the issuing institution, Ministry of Education or a certified translator.

Transcripts uploaded to wolfPAW or emailed by the applicant are considered unofficial.

Letters of recommendation are only required for students applying for the Agricultural Institute. 

For all other academic programs, we consider many factors in our review process and feel we receive the best insight from the essay responses the student submits themselves. While we do not require letters of recommendation, applicants are able to submit them if they choose and they will be considered along with all other application materials. Since it is not a required material, we do not have guidelines or restrictions on who can write a letter or recommendation or how they should be submitted.

If you choose to submit a letter, you or your recommender can email it to our office at undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu (make sure your full name and date of birth are included in the email) or upload it through your wolfPAW account after submitting your application.

For applicants outside of the U.S., decisions are made on a rolling basis. In other words, decisions are made as your application becomes complete and is reviewed. Applicants studying in the U.S. will receive their decision by the decision release schedule that can be viewed here. 

Once you have been admitted, your acceptance letter will be available for you to download and print from your wolfPAW account. Once you have confirmed your enrollment, you will receive instructions via your wolfPAW account on how you may receive the I-20 via email.

Your I-20 form will only be issued once you have confirmed enrollment, completed the transfer documentation/steps added to your wolfPAW checklist and your current school transfers your SEVIS record to NC State University. Keep in mind that once your SEVIS record is transferred to NC State University, you will no longer have work authorization at your current university.

NC State University’s SEVIS School Code is ATL214F10206000. The official SEVIS name of NC State University is North Carolina State University (UNC System) NC State University.

As you have completed college coursework from an institution outside of the U.S., the required World Education Services course-by-course evaluation will be used to determine if you have the equivalent coursework. The course-by-course evaluation will be one of the required items to make your application complete. We are unable to determine how many of your credits will transfer to NC State when you apply. If you are admitted, and once you decide to attend, your department will then determine how many of your non-U.S. university credits will transfer toward your degree. 

Our office does not make decisions on residency for tuition purposes, so we are not able to offer information about in-state or out-of-state tuition determinations. The office that handles that is the NC Residency Office and they preside over all of the North Carolina public universities. Their contact can be found at ncresidency.org.

For the 2025-26 academic year the financial requirement is $57,179. This amount increases each year by approximately 3-5%. Click here to read more about the estimated annual cost of attendance.

We accept a bank letter or statement in English which certifies that the funds are currently in a checking or savings account. We also accept certificates of deposit or money market account statements. Value assessments of properties or stocks/investments, salary information, mortgages, etc. cannot be accepted.

The date of issuance must be clearly indicated on the bank document, and the date must be within 6 months from the application receipt date at NC State University. Bank Letters must be on bank letterhead or include the printed name, job title, and original signature of a bank representative. For more information about proof of financial ability, click here.

International applicants are not eligible for financial aid. However, a limited number of competitive merit-based scholarships are available to international students. 

Admitted students who wish to be considered for scholarship opportunities should submit an application via Pack ASSIST, our scholarship portal, as soon as possible.

Applicants attending school outside the U.S. are not required to submit SAT/ACT test scores. Applicants attending school inside the U.S. who have a weighted GPA greater than or equal to 2.5 and less than 2.8 will be required to self-report a standardized test score with your application (SAT or ACT). Read more here. 

Applicants can self-report SAT or ACT test scores on the application, but verified test scores will be required for enrollment. We will not accept standardized test scores on your high school transcript. 

The SAT college code for NC State is 5496 and the ACT college code for NC State is 3164.

We do not accept any self-reported English proficiency test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo). We require official test scores to be sent directly to us from the testing agency, electronically.

• TOEFL
  • We only accept official scores submitted electronically from Educational Testing Services (ETS). Use NC State University’s school code (5496) to have your scores sent.
• IELTS
  • We only accept official scores submitted electronically by the IELTS Academic test center via the e-delivery service. We do not accept paper score reports.
  • We do not accept IELTS Online.
  • When you take the test, you must specify North Carolina State University Undergraduate Admissions as a score recipient.
  • Enter the address below in the IELTS system:

North Carolina State University
Undergraduate Admissions
Campus Box 7103
121 Peele Hall
Raleigh, NC 27695

• Duolingo
  • Visit englishtest.duolingo.com and login to your Duolingo account.
  • Choose the score you want to send under the “Tests Taken” tab and select “Send to an Institution” in the share menu.
  • Type North Carolina State University or select it from the dropdown menu.
  • Click “Share Certificate.”

Test scores take 7-14 business days to process.  Even if the testing agency confirms an electronic test score has been received by our institution, a series of steps must be taken to process the scores and upload them to your application.  In the event that there is a name, email, or birth date discrepancy, the scores may not sync to your application.

After 7-14 business days from receipt date, if you still do not see an update in your application checklist, you may contact us again with the following information:

• The spelling of your name on the test,
• the email address you used to register for the test,
• and the date that you took the exam,

and we will search for your scores and match them with your account.

If you have a minimum reading subscore of 27 on the ACT or a minimum reading subscore of 33 on the SAT, and the score report is sent to us electronically from the testing agency, the English proficiency test score is not required. You may need to check with the testing agency to ensure that your test score includes the reading subscore. If your test score does not include the reading subscore, the results cannot be used to waive the English proficiency test.

If you began attending a high school in the U.S. in 9th grade, and are completing 10th -12th at a U.S. high school, an English proficiency test score is not required

• For overseas exam takers:
  • The Office of Undergraduate Admissions cannot accept a Statement of Results from Cambridge to award NC State credit as it does not certify your final results. In order to award NC State credit, we must receive an official Certificate or Certifying Statement via postal mail or courier in a Cambridge sealed envelope. You can find our mailing address here. Please visit the Cambridge website to request your certificate once it is available. 
• For U.S. exam takers:
  • Please visit the Cambridge website to request your certificate to be shared with us once it is available using their Grade Transcript Service. 
  • There is a $17 fee per transcript paid by the student.

The department to which you have been admitted and Registration and Records will review the scores to determine how credit is to be awarded. View our credit opportunities for AS/A-level results here. Currently, only Cambridge A and AS level grades are considered for credit opportunities.

If you are interested in studying at NC State as an undergraduate student and are academically competitive, but don’t have the minimum required TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo score for full admission, conditional admission may be an option for you.

There is no separate application process for conditional admission. You will apply for undergraduate admission through the regular process, and if you meet the criteria for conditional admission, you will be automatically considered.

Students who are conditionally admitted to NC State study in the Intensive English Program (IEP) before entering their academic programs. After completing the IEP, conditionally admitted students proceed to their major without having to take an additional TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo.

It will depend on the result of the placement exam, but generally students spend one to four semesters in the program. There are four levels in the IEP, and it usually takes one semester to complete a level.

Yes, you must still complete the IEP. Once a student accepts the offer of conditional admission to NC State, he/she has made an agreement with the University and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to fulfill the conditions of admission.  To fulfill the condition of admission, a student must successfully complete the IEP.

A submission of a new TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo score will not exempt conditionally admitted students from completing the IEP.  It is true that a higher score on a standardized test does indicate improved English proficiency.  However, student performance in an IEP is a better predictor over time of a student’s ability to successfully use English in an academic environment.

There is not an undecided major option for transfer applicants. Transfer applicants must select a specific major on the application. View all majors here.

First-year applicants have the opportunity to explore major options through one of our unique first-year programs. These programs include Exploratory Studies, Life Sciences First Year, Engineering First Year, Management First Year and Environmental First Year. Learn more about the different programs here.

Please email our office at undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu if you are interested in changing your major.

Yes, you can register to attend a virtual information session here. The sessions are conducted via Zoom and our international admissions staff conducts a presentation on NC State, the admissions process and application requirements. At the end of the presentation, students have an opportunity to ask questions.

View the best method for contacting our office here. You can email us with any questions at undergrad-admissions@ncsu.edu and one of our international admissions specialists will get back to you as soon as possible.

Complete our interest form to receive personalized communication about NC State. We will contact you regarding upcoming application deadlines, events and when the admission application is available.