Admissions Information

To be considered for admission, international students must have the academic, linguistic, and financial abilities to successfully complete the professional program. Specific requirements are as follows:

Academic RequirementsInternational applicants must fulfill the same undergraduate academic requirements as United States applicants.

Foreign TranscriptsInternational applicants are required to submit official foreign transcripts to an approved foreign transcript evaluation service for a course-by-course U.S. equivalency report. The official evaluation should then be sent to OptomCAS. They highly recommend that you contact the foreign transcript evaluation service as early as possible. The service may take several weeks to process your foreign transcript once it is received. Below is a list of commonly used and accepted evaluation services.

Testing and Interview Requirements

Visa InformationStudents who are outside the US and admitted to the UAB School of Optometry must generally obtain an F-1 or J-1 student visa to enter the US to begin classes. The UAB Office of International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) will assist you and provide the information necessary to obtain a visa after admission. Specific information on sponsorship and financial requirements can be obtained from:

International Student and Scholar ServicesMelvin H. Sterne Library917 13th Street SouthBirmingham, AL 35294Telephone (205) 934-3328This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Graduate Admission FAQ

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the admission process at Saint Louis University, including information about transcripts, financial aid and more. 

Graduate admission requirements at Saint Louis University may vary by program. Contact the department directly for minimum test scores and other required materials. You can find contact information, as well as additional admission requirements, on degree-specific pages or answers to frequently asked admission questions below: 

Yes. The University offers several pre-approved dual degree programs. SLU also considers any requests to enroll in two programs and pursue multiple degrees at the same time on a case-by-case basis.

Contact the departments of both programs to determine the eligibility and policies for a concurrent enrollment. If you wish to pursue a dual-degree, you will need to apply and be accepted by both degree programs.

Your academic transcripts will be required for graduate admission to Saint Louis University. Learn more below: 

Saint Louis University's graduate tuition and fees vary by specific program.

See a Current Schedule of Tuition & Fees

Assistantships are awarded by individual programs or departments and usually require you to assist with teaching, research or other departmental duties. As part of your application, you’ll be asked to indicate whether you are interested in an assistantship, but you should also check with your program to see if any additional application is required. The program or department can provide you with details on the availability of assistantships.

Fellowships are awarded to newly accepted master's or doctoral level students who demonstrate outstanding scholastic achievement and potential for success.

More on Graduate Assistantships and Fellowships at SLU

International students may have additional admission requirements to Saint Louis University's academic programs. Specific information can be found on degree-specific pages. For general questions, see below: 

Admissions information

For applicants from the UK who are eligible for Home tuition fees, contextual information is used to gain a more complete picture of the educational and individual context of an applicant. This allows their admissions selectors to assess achievement and potential whilst recognising the challenges an applicant may have faced in their educational or individual circumstances.

You do not need to do anything in addition to the standard UCAS application, your application will automatically have the contextual information added when they receive it.

What contextual information is used?

The following nine pieces of contextual information will be flagged for the attention of the admissions selector:

1. Care experienced (This means you will have spent time living with foster carers under local authority care, in residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after at home under a supervision order, or in kinship care with relatives or friends, either officially (e.g. a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support). This information is self-declared on the UCAS form and verified at a later stage.

2. The performance of the school/college where the applicant took their GCSEs (or equivalent qualification). Specifically, where the school’s or college’s performance is below the national average.

3. The performance of the school/college where the applicant took their A-levels (or equivalent qualification). Specifically, where the school’s or college’s performance is below the national average.

4. The home postcode of the applicant is compared against the POLAR 4 dataset. The Office for Students (OfS) assess how likely young people from different postcodes are to progress to Higher Education. They will flag applicants with postcodes in quintiles 1 and 2 (the 40 per cent least likely to progress to Higher Education). The Office for Students has a POLAR 4 postcode checker on their website.

5. The home postcode of the applicant is compared against the IMD (Indices of Multiple Deprivation) dataset. They will flag applicants with postcodes in quintiles 1 and 2 (the 40 per cent most deprived areas). The UK Government has this postcode checker for English postcodes on their website. For the IMD classification of Northern Irish postcodes see this postcode checker; for the IMD classification of Scottish postcodes see this postcode checker; and for the IMD classification of Welsh postcodes see this postcode checker.

6. The home postcode of the applicant is compared to CACI’s Acorn dataset. CACI classifies postcodes according to a range of socio-demographic indicators. They will flag applicants with postcodes in Acorn types 40 and above.

7. Participation in an intensive LSE Widening Participation (WP) programme. They will flag applicants who have completed LSE CHOICE, LSE Pathways to Law, LSE Pathways to Banking and Finance, Promoting Potential or the LSE Year 11 Summer School/LSE COMPASS.

8. Participation in any Sutton Trust Pathways programme at any UK university. This includes Pathways to Engineering, Pathways to Medicine, Pathways to Law (in-person or online), Pathways to Banking and Finance (in-person or online), and Pathways to Consulting online.

9. Where a student is known to have been eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) in the previous six years.

10. Other individual circumstances that may have disrupted or adversely affected an applicant’s education and achievement, as outlined in an Extenuating Circumstances Form.

How is contextual information used?

Applicants who have been flagged for the attention of the admissions selector will receive additional consideration.The selector may use this information in the following ways:

- to make an applicant a standard offer where the applicant’s academic record (eg, GCSEs/AS levels or equivalent) or personal statement may be marginally less competitive than the cohort overall

- to make an applicant a standard offer where the applicant is predicted marginally below the usual entry requirements

- when making confirmation decisions for offer holders that have marginally failed to meet the entry criteria (usually this means one grade below the standard entry requirements).

Eligible students (students flagged with a home postcode that is classified as POLAR4 Quintile 1 or IMD Quintile 1, as a care leaver, or a participant in a specified LSE WP programme or a Sutton Trust Pathways programme), may be considered for a contextual offer. The contextual offer will be one grade lower than the standard offer for the programme (with the exception of LLB Laws, BA/BSc Anthropology, BA Geography, BSc Geography with Economics, BSc Environment and Development, BSc Environmental Policy with Economics, and BSc International Social and Public Policy, where the contextual offer will be 2 grades lower than the standard offer). Any mathematics requirement must still be met.

All academic departments are participating in the contextual offer scheme.

The contextual offer grades are listed alongside the standard offer A-level and IB entry requirements on the relevant programme pages. 

Contextual information is used as part of the holistic admissions exam and applicants are assessed alongside all other similar applicants, therefore having a contextual flag does not guarantee that an offer will be made.