Email communication
We will communicate with you by email. A few days after initiating your application, you should receive a confirming email from the Statistics Department. To receive this email and other important communication, your email server must accept messages from oregonstate.edu. In the past several years, we have had trouble getting email to servers such as 123.com, 169.com, and others. Please add oregonstate.edu to your safe senders list.
International transcripts
International transcripts often have different names for the prerequisite courses Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Mathematical Statistics, making it difficult for us to evaluate your application. In some countries, the transcripts simply list test scores. The online application will ask for the term, year, and grade of these prerequisite courses. Please include information that will help us properly understand your transcripts.
English proficiency
The Graduate School requirement for regular admission is that international students obtain a score of at least 80 on the internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), including a minimum of at least 18 on each of the four sub-tests, or a total of 6.5 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test. If you do not meet this standard, it is unlikely that the Statistics Department will accept your application. Standards are higher for teaching assistants (see below).
Financial assistance
About a third of the graduate students in the Statistics Department come from countries other than the United States. Many of these are on financial assistantships.
Many international students ask about the likelihood that they will be admitted and receive financial aid. While we cannot provide individual evaluations before seeing a full application, we do recognize the difficulty in deciding whether the OSU application fee is a worthwhile investment. The following information may help:
English proficiency
Applicants seeking a teaching assistantship must submit official TOEFL or IELTS scores as part of their application, unless the applicant's native language is English. For a student to be considered for a teaching assistantship, the Statistics Department strongly prefers a score of at least 22 on the speaking portion and 19 on the other three subtests. For the paper-based TOEFL, OSU requires a minimum score of 550, and the Statistics Department requires a minimum score of 600 for a student to be considered for a teaching assistantship. For the IELTS, OSU requires a minimum of 6.5 for teaching assistants, and the Statistics Department strongly prefers a score of at least 7. Given the University’s teaching standards and the difficulty in practical assessment of English proficiency from test scores, though, we seldom give aid to an international student unless we have very clear information about their communication skills. (See the Graduate School Admissions page and the Office of Admission Statistics Major page for more information.)
Financial certification
OSU requires financial documentation. However, the Certification of Finances form is not required at the time of application. If the Statistics Department accepts your application for graduate study, then the Graduate School will contact you via email to request the financial documentation. The form is available from the Graduate School. The Statistics Department does not review this form, and it has no bearing on any offers of financial assistance.
Visa information
The Graduate School handles visas. They must receive all financial documentation before they will issue visa documents (I-20 for the F1 visa or DS-2019 for the J1 visa). Please contact International Admissions if you have questions.
