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Entry requirements for the United States

Our entry requirements will vary depending on your level of study, the course you are interested in and your English language proficiency.

Undergraduate courses

For entry to our undergraduate programmes, you will be required to have one of the following:

  • three Advanced Placement (AP) tests with scores in the range of 5,4,4 to 4,4,3
  • three dual enrolment/honours classes with grades ranging from A, A, B+ to B+, B+, B-
  • three SAT Subject Tests (pre-2021) with scores of 650 or above
  • a combination of the above totalling three tests/classes

An ACT score of 27 or SAT score of 1350 can be used to substitute one of the above tests/classes but not to replace a subject requirement.

All applicants will also require:

  • a High School Diploma (HSD) with a minimum GPA of 3.0
  • as an alternative to the above: successful completion of an Associate Degree (case by case)
  • OR successful completion of one or more years of undergraduate study (case by case)

As well as your overall grade, many of our academic programmes require you to have achieved a particular grade in a specific subject. This would usually need to be either in your final year of study (equivalent to a UK A-Level) or earlier in your study career (equivalent to a UK GCSE). For these academic programmes, you will need to show that you have studied the relevant subject as part of your qualification, and achieved an appropriate grade.

The entry requirements above may be subject to change, on the basis of changes to qualification content, grading or awards processes, or, due to the level of competition for places. Any subject-specific requirements must still be met.

Postgraduate taught courses

The majority of postgraduate qualifications at Cardiff University, and in the UK, are one year in duration and generally combine a mixture of taught courses and research.

You will be required to have a bachelor's degree with good grades from recognised universities and colleges in the United States to be considered. A minimum GPA of at least 2.8 is usually required and admissions tutors will pay special attention to key subject classes.

"The best thing about living in Cardiff is the independent aspect of studying away from home. Cardiff is a nice city and I have learned to become more independent since living here. I have made some good friends on my course from China, India and Greece, which has given me a broader network once I leave Cardiff."

Derrell Nelson MBA

Postgraduate research courses

If you have a bachelor's or master's degree with good grades from recognised universities and colleges in the United States, you will be considered for our postgraduate research courses. A minimum GPA of at least 3.0 is usually required and admission tutors will pay special attention to relevant classes taken during the degree.

English language requirements

The USA is listed by UK Visas and Immigration as a majority English-speaking country. This means that you should not need to prove your knowledge of English if you have completed a qualification equivalent to a UK degree.

Non-native English-speaking applicants who have successfully completed a degree qualification from a recognised US university should not need to prove their knowledge of English, as long as the degree programme was completed in the US.

If you are unsure of your qualifications or entry requirements, please contact us.

Acceptance rates

The UK admissions system works differently to that of the US. Because most undergraduate students in the UK apply to universities before receiving their final qualifications, they are usually given conditional offers, and can then decide which of their offers to accept. This means most applications in the UK system do not move from ‘application’ to ‘acceptance’ – they usually move from ‘application’ to ‘offer’.

In addition, in the UK, students apply to individual academic programmes, not universities as a whole. Some academic programmes may have relatively high rates of offers to applications, whereas other more competitive programmes may have much lower rates. This means that overall university rates are often not meaningful, and are far less useful than rates related to individual courses.

These factors mean that the concept of an acceptance rate for an overall university is not widely used in the UK. Cardiff University publishes its undergraduate application to offer rate by academic school (faculty) - this information can be viewed for specific undergraduate programmes.

If you would like further information on the application to offer rate for a specific academic programme, please contact us via email at international@cardiff.ac.uk, and we will be happy to advise further.