Formal admission to the program entails one of the following procedures:

Students who have passed the MA examination (see above) with a grade of B+ or better may be recommended to the program at the discretion of the departmental examination committee.

Students presenting an MA degree in a national literature from another department or university, or an MA in comparative literature from another university, are normally not required to take the master's examination.

Students presenting an MA degree in a field outside literature are required to take an examination based on a few major literary works.

To be eligible for graduate study, you must:

Provide a complete set of your undergraduate (and, if applicable, graduate) transcripts showing one of the following:
You have earned a bachelor's degree (or its equivalent) from a nationally or regionally accredited college or university
You are within one academic year of earning a bachelor's degree (or its equivalent) from a nationally or regionally accredited college or university
You are eligible to apply as part of a memorandum of understanding between your current institution and Binghamton University
Have earned, at minimum, one of the following:
A 3.0 GPA over your entire undergraduate career
A 3.0 GPA during your last 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits of your undergraduate degree, with most courses graded regularly (not as pass/fail
A 3.0 GPA in a graduate degree, with most courses graded regularly (not as pass/fail)
In consideration of the different grading scales used around the world, each academic department evaluates international transcripts to determine on a case-by-case basis whether they demonstrate one of the above requirements. TOEFL: The Graduate School requires a minimum TOEFL score of 80 on the Internet-based test. TOEFL MyBest scores are accepted.
IELTS: The Graduate School requires a minimum IELTS score of 6.5, with no band below 5.0