Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, with an enrollment of 13,000 students, is renowned for its academic and sports traditions. The university requires all students for whom English is not their first language to take the TOEFL as one of the prerequisites of admission. A minimum score of 250 (converted to 600 on the paper-based test) is required for all applicants and will be used in combination with written essays to evaluate English proficiency.
Columbia University in New York is one of the country's best schools, with its film program and law school being particularly acclaimed. An applicant from a country where English is not the first language is required to take the TOEFL. The minimum score is 600 for the written test or 250 for the computer format. Applicants in New York can take the Columbia University English Placement Test (EPT) instead of the TOEFL.
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has an enrollment of 13,000 that includes students from 120 countries, making it one of the most diverse schools in the country. Cornell's admission policy evaluates applicants based on school and region and requires international students who don't speak English as a first language to provide results of the TOEFL with a minimum score of 100 for the computer test and 600 for the paper-based test. Columbia waives the TOEFL requirement for students who receive 670 or higher on the Critical Reading portion of the SAT Reasoning Test and students who've studied four years in the United States or a country where English is the primary language.
Carnegie Mellon is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recognized as a top research institution. The school has more than 11,000 students with 4,000 faculty and staff members. Any applicant whose native language is not English is required to take the TOEFL and to achieve a score of 600 on the paper test and 102 or better on the computer test. The university will also accept an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 7.5 or above in lieu of the TOEFL.