All applicants, regardless of citizenship, must demonstrate English language proficiency. Applicants are automatically deemed to have met this requirement if they hold a degree from a university in the United States or in an English-speaking country included on the UMD Graduate School’s list, which can be found at the bottom of this page: https://gradschool.umd.edu/admissions/english-language-proficiency-requirements. Note that such exemptions are based solely on the country in which you were educated, and not on your citizenship.
All students who do not meet the conditions described above must meet an English language test score threshold to be fully enrolled, and another, more stringent threshold to receive assistantship funding. The first set of thresholds, for full enrollment, are determined by the Graduate School and not the Department of Economics. They are described here: https://gradschool.umd.edu/admissions/english-language-proficiency-requirements.
The second set of thresholds, for assistantship funding, are set and subject to change by the Maryland English Institute and the Graduate School, and are described here: https://marylandenglishinstitute.com/english-programs/international-teaching-as…. A score below the threshold on any section precludes a student from receiving a teaching assistantship (TA) position and necessitates taking an English course that would interfere with enrolling in the standard first year course sequence in Economics. Therefore, we require applicants to meet these more stringent thresholds at the time of application in order to be considered for assistantship funding. Unfortunately, we are unable to make conditional offers.
Applicants who meet the requirements for full enrollment but not for receiving a TA position and who have secured external funding for their studies may be offered admission, but will not be offered funding by the Department, do not automatically become eligible for TA positions in future years, and are not guaranteed Department funding in subsequent years.
