International Students

For support and guidance, students choose personalized faculty advisory committees featuring professors from different areas of study. While more traditional U.S. universities focus on memorization and testing, Hampshire helps you build important skills for the modern job market: critical thinking, writing, creative problem-solving, and original research.

As a Hampshire international student, you’ll also enjoy the diversity of Amherst, Massachusetts, a community with more than 30,000 undergraduate students from all over the world who make up the Five College Consortium.

To be considered eligible to apply as an international student, you may not be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. International students are eligible to apply for financial aid; more information on deadlines and required documents for financial aid can be found here.

We look forward to learning more about you through the application process, and we invite you to learn more about Hampshire in the meantime by signing up for a virtual information session or interview. If you have any questions — or if you’d like to schedule an interview — please feel free to contact us at admissions@hampshire.edu!

Fast Facts on International Students at Hampshire

• Percentage of international students in the student body: 6.3%
• Countries represented: 10 (China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Spain, Mexico, and Ghana)
• Student groups serving international students: Forum for International Students at Hampshire (FISH); JUNOON (South Asian student affinity group); Men of Color Alliance (MOCA); Muslim Student Association (MSA); Pan-Asian Student Association (PASA); Queer-Identified People of Color and International Students (QIPOC); Raíces (affinity group for Latinx students); SISTERS (affinity group for women of color and international students who identify as women)

Application Deadlines

Am I a First-Year or Transfer?

As a first-year student you must have received, or be on track to receive, a high school diploma or high school equivalency and must be 17 years of age or older at the time of enrollment. College coursework completed during high school often counts towards advanced standing and possibly an accelerated timeline towards graduation. If you have completed more than 15 transferable college credits, you are eligible to apply as a transfer student.

As a transfer student, you must have completed at least 15 college credits with a grade of C or better. The courses from which you earned these credits must have been worth at least 3 credits each, and these courses cannot have been recorded for credit on your high school diploma. Hampshire College accepts transfer credits for courses taken at a regionally accredited college or university if the courses are comparable in content, nature, and intensity to courses offered at Hampshire College. The minimum residency requirement for graduation is three semesters, regardless of how many credits are transferable. Students receiving financial aid should consult with the financial aid office regarding the number of semesters of financial aid eligibility.

Required Application Materials

All official documents — transcripts, reports, recommendations, etc. — must be in English, or translated into English. Please check with your school(s) regarding translation services. To apply, submit the following materials through the Common Application:

First-Years

• Completed Common Application 
• Mid-Year Report (if currently attending high school)
• Current or completed high school transcript(s)
• School report and college counselor recommendation
• One (1) teacher letter of recommendation
• English Proficiency Requirement: If available, please submit a TOEFL iBT (minimum score of 91), IELTS (minimum score of 6.5), or Duolingo English Test (DET) (minimum score of 110). If you haven’t taken the TOEFL, IELTS, or DET, we will also accept the following as evidence of English proficiency:
  • IB (Higher Level) English A1 or A2 grades: minimum grade of 4
  • AP English Literature and Composition grades: minimum grade of "C'"or 75/100
  • Predicted A-level English exam marks: minimum predicted mark of "C"
  • If none of these apply, you may also request an English Proficiency waiver by contacting us at admissions@hampshire.edu. (Reasons for a waiver might include: speaking English as a first language, living in a majority English-speaking country, etc.)

Transfer Applicants

• Completed Common Application and Writing Supplement (Proposed Program of Study)
• Writing Supplements:
  • Proposed Program of Study: 
    Please describe your academic interests and goals in detail. Provide examples of the types of courses you wish to take and any independent projects, internships, or field studies you envision yourself doing. The Proposed Program of Study is not a contract; is it intended to determine an appropriate academic advisor.
  • Why are you transferring?
• All college transcripts
• Transfer Mid-Term Report (if currently enrolled)
• Final high school transcript
• One (1) academic letter of recommendation
• English Proficiency Requirement: If available, please submit a TOEFL iBT (minimum score of 91), IELTS (minimum score of 6.5), or Duolingo English Test (DET) (minimum score of 110). If you haven’t taken the TOEFL, IELTS, or DET, we will also accept the following as evidence of English proficiency:
  • IB (Higher Level) English A1 or A2 grades: minimum grade of 4
  • AP English Literature and Composition grades: minimum grade of "C'"or 75/100
  • Predicted A-level English exam marks: minimum predicted mark of "C"
  • If none of these apply, you may also request an English Proficiency waiver by contacting us at admissions@hampshire.edu. (Reasons for a waiver might include: speaking English as a first language, living in a majority English-speaking country, etc.)
  • Any international transfer applicants who have studied for at least one year at a U.S. college or university will automatically have their English Proficiency requirement waived.

Optional Application Materials

Some optional application materials can be submitted through the Common Application. You will also have the opportunity, after applying, to submit additional optional materials such as photos, videos, PDFs, Word documents, and music files through your online application portal with Hampshire College.

• Video/media supplement. This could be music, dance, film, animation, monologue, etc.
• Project sample: Submit an example of your independent or collaborative project work. This project can be creative, scientific, or otherwise showcase the type of work you've done in high school.
• Additional letters of recommendation, up to three.

We also highly recommend an interview.

Application Status

Once we process your application, we will send an acknowledgment email that includes a username and password for you to check the completeness of your admissions file online. To make sure that you receive your decision, we recommend not opting out of email communications.