Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the doctoral program, a student must:

  • Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from an accredited college or university. Special cases, such as holders of a degree in a related field, will be evaluated individually by the Department.
  • Demonstrate near-native proficiency in Spanish and advanced proficiency in English. International graduate student applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). A total score of 80 on the iBT TOEFL or 6.5 overall on the IELTS is required.
  • Have attained a minimum 3.0 grade point average, during the last two years of her/his undergraduate program as determined by the FIU Graduate Admissions Office. Applicants with Master’s degrees are required to have a graduate GPA of 3.5.
  • Provide recent competitive scores for the EXADEP or the GRE. For admission to the Spanish PhD, the Department prefers the EXADEP, which offers assessment in Spanish. Contact Click Here for testing arrangements
  • Apply for graduate admission to the Admissions Office and submit to the Department of Modern Languages the following documentation:
    • Two letters of recommendation from former professors in the format required by the Graduate Studies Committee,
    • A resume,
    • A statement of purpose in English or Spanish, addressing the candidate’s goals and objectives in pursuing doctorate in Spanish,
    • A writing sample in Spanish, preferably a term paper or thesis, of analytical nature, on a literary subject,
    • Official transcripts,
    • Online application ($30 fee) through my.fiu.edu, and
    • (Optional) A letter requesting a possible Teaching Assistantship from the department.
  • Receive approval of the departmental Graduate Studies Committee. Admission is competitive, and meeting all minimum requirements does not guarantee automatic entrance to the program. The Spanish Graduate Committee will evaluate carefully all application materials and will make a decision based on the potential of the student to finish graduate work successfully. Special attention will be given to the quality of the writing sample.
  • Admission for the PhD is done only for the Fall term, all application materials must be received by the Department of Modern Languages no later than January 15th.