Almost all Business Schools in US require International applicants to take the English proficiency test if the medium of communication in university were not primarily English. It means that an applicant from Common wealth countries, where one of the primary communication medium is English, has to take the proficiency test. International applicants from Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada are exempt from this requirement. Business Schools accept three test scores: Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT), International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Pearson Test of English (PTE).
Majority of top schools only accept internet based English proficiency test. There are minimum cut-off score for MBA Admissions. We would recommend you to take the GMAT test first, and then TOEFL. The Grammar, Reading Comprehension and Writing sections are much easier compared to GMAT Reading Comprehension, Sentence Correction and AWA. The only additional sections in TOEFL would be listening and speaking tests, which require 2-3 days of practice.
Here is the list of TOEFL, IELTS and PTE requirement of Top US Business Schools.
About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.