International Graduate

Welcome to Portland!

As a graduate international student at Portland State, your classroom is in the center of our thriving, multicultural city.

Over 10 percent of our graduate students are from countries outside of the U.S. and our campus hosts groups of students from India, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, South Korea, Brazil, and elsewhere.

The Portland State international community provides immigration advising, life advising, programming and support to graduate students from nearly 100 different countries. From the moment you set foot on campus, you will be paired with a fellow international student who will mentor you as you embark on your graduate education.

Come to Portland State

How do international students apply to graduate school?

Complete the graduate application
Send the Graduate School’s Admissions office your official academic transcripts
Submit evidence of English language proficiency
Provide financial documentation demonstrating adequate financial support for at least the first year of study
Depending on the individual graduate program that you are applying for, additional department requirements may include:
- Personal essay or statement of purpose
- Letters of recommendation
- Standardized test scores, e.g., GRE (not required by all programs)
- Resume
- Writing samples
- Portfolio

Apply to Graduate School

ONCE YOU COMPLETE THE STEPS ABOVE YOUR APPLICATION WILL BE REVIEWED FOR ADMISSION

Submit Financial Documentation to Obtain Your Student Visa

To receive an I-20 or DS-2019, all international applicants who plan to have F-1 or J-1 student visas are required to submit documentation of financial support for at least the first year of study. Submit documentation to graddocs@pdx.edu.

Required documentation includes:

A bank statement or bank letter showing funds for one year of study:

Review required financial documentation at the bottom of the page to issue an I-20 below for acceptable documentation.
For a breakdown of costs please see the below table.

The Immigration Information Form

Click here to complete the Immigration Information form. This includes an affidavit of support from your sponsor if you will not use your own money to study. If you have more than one sponsor, you can turn in bank letters and affidavits for each of them.

Which visa is right for me?

Tuition, Fees, and Estimated Living Expenses: Academic Year 2024-2025

Program of Study	Required Credits	Tuition	Fees	Living Expenses	Total
Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science*	9	$20,628	$5,877	$19,311	$45,816
Liberal Arts Level 1**	9	$19,602	$5,877	$19,311	$44,790
Liberal Arts Level 2***	9	$19,872	$5,877	$19,311	$45,060
College of the Arts****	9	$20,574	$5,877	$19,311	$45,762
School of Social Work	9	$30,264	$5,877	$19,311	$55,452
Master of Business Administration (MBA)	11-14 (+5 in Summer)	$38,525	$6,183	$28,748	$73,456
Master of Science in Finance (MSF)	10-13 (+12 in Summer)	$33,660	$6,580	$25,748	$65,988
All other graduate programs	9	$19,197	$5,877	$19,311	$44,385

*Maseeh College: Engineering and Computer Science programs
**Liberal Arts Level 1: Communication, Economics, English, Foreign Languages, Social Science, History, Psychology, and Sociology
***Liberal Arts Level 2: Anthropology, Applied Linguistics, Biology, Center for Science Ed, Chemistry, Conflict Resolution, English (Writing and Creative Writing), Environmental Science, Geography, Geology, Math, Physics, and Speech & Hearing
****College of the Arts: Art, Music, and Architecture

The expenses listed above are estimated for the nine-month academic year only. Students who plan to remain in the United States during summer term should plan to have an additional $6,643 available for living expenses.
Those coming with family members should add $7,317 for a spouse and $7,353 for each child to the 9-month total.
Tuition, fees and estimated living expenses increase each year. Departments may charge different levels of tuition. While immigration regulations ask you to have the above amount available for each year of study at Portland State, your actual expenses may be more than our estimates depending on what you study and the number of credits in which you enroll.
United States immigration regulations require graduate students to complete a minimum of 9 credits per quarter. The cost for each additional credit ranges from $690-$804. Students are responsible to check with their departments about full-time enrollment requirements and departmental tuition and fee charges which may exceed these estimates.

Health Insurance

PSU Health Insurance is $1,256 per quarter. Students must be covered by PSU health insurance in Fall, Winter and Spring when registered for 1 or more credits. Continuing students are covered summer term without additional payment, but students whose first term of enrollment is summer must pay for health insurance in summer.

Some students may be eligible to waive health insurance charges.

Check Your Application Status

You will be notified by email about the status of your application, for each document you submit and your admission decision. You can also check the status of your application online. Go to Portland State University's online application system and log in to view your decision.

If you are not receiving email communications from Portland State University, be sure to check your @pdx.edu email account. Once you set up your student account all communications will be sent to that email address. If you are not receiving information from us in any email inboxes, contact us at gradschool@pdx.edu.