Admissions & Aid
Apply as the student
you actually are.
Requirements, deadlines and costs differ by where you are coming from. Pick your situation below and this page answers for it — no fee, no test requirement, and applications read as they arrive.
Which one is you?
Admissions is not one process. What you need to submit, when it is due, and who reads it all depend on where you are coming from, so start there.
You are finishing high school and this is your first degree application.
There is no fee, no test requirement, and no committee meeting in June that decides everything at once. Applications are read as they arrive, so submitting earlier genuinely means hearing back earlier.
- Your application — through UB directly or the Common Application, whichever you are already using.
- Your high school transcript, sent from your school.
- Either SAT/ACT scores or a 250–500 word personal essay. Not both. If you are not submitting scores, the essay takes their place.
You have already earned college credit and you want it to count.
The question that matters to you is not whether you get in. It is how much of what you have already paid for and passed comes with you. So here is that answer first, before the process.
- Up to 66 credits from an accredited two-year institution.
- Up to 90 credits from an accredited four-year institution.
- Your final 30 credits must be completed at UB — that part is fixed regardless of what you bring.
- Your application — no fee.
- Transcripts from every institution you have attended, not only the most recent one.
You are returning for a master’s or doctoral degree, probably while working.
Graduate requirements are set by the program, not by the university, so the honest answer to “what do I need” is on your program’s page. What is true everywhere: there is no application fee, and many programs no longer ask for the GRE or GMAT.
- Your application — no fee.
- Transcripts from your prior degree work.
- Your program’s own requirements. Test scores, recommendations, a statement, or a portfolio: which of these apply depends entirely on the degree. Find your program and check its admission section.
You are applying from outside the United States and a visa depends on this.
Your timeline is longer than everyone else’s on this page, because admission is only the first half. The I-20, the visa interview, and travel all follow it. You can apply up to twelve months before the term you want, and you should.
- Your application — no fee, for undergraduate or graduate study.
- Academic records from your secondary school or university.
- Proof of English proficiency, or a plan to meet it — see the note below.
- Visa documentation once you are admitted, handled with the Office of International Admissions.
You want to become a nurse, and you are working out where to start.
Nursing does not have one door. Most people begin with prerequisites, the science and general education courses every nursing program requires, and then apply to the RN program itself. Admission to the associate degree is competitive and points-based, and completing your prerequisites here improves how you score.
- Pre-Nursing — the required general education and science courses. This is where most applicants start, and it is a real enrolment, not a waiting room.
- Apply to the RN program (Associate Degree in Nursing). Admission is competitive; prerequisites completed at UB strengthen your application.
- Sit for licensure, then continue to the RN to BSN online if you want the bachelor’s. Many students do this while working as an RN.
Your English is not where you need it yet, and that does not have to delay your degree.
The English Language Institute is an intensive English program and a route into UB at the same time. If you have been conditionally accepted into a degree program, you can study here first and move into that program when you are ready. You are a UB student the whole time.
- Apply to your degree program and to ELI. Conditional acceptance means your place in the degree is held while you build the language.
- Study intensive English in classes of three to fifteen students, taught by faculty with advanced degrees in the field.
- Start taking academic courses at the advanced level through Bridge to College — degree credit and language study at the same time, rather than one after the other.
What it costs, and what brings it down.
Published tuition is almost never what a student actually pays. Rates change every year and are maintained centrally, so this page links to the current numbers rather than quoting figures that go stale. But here is how the billing works, so the numbers make sense when you get to them.
How you are billed
Full-time undergraduates are charged a flat rate per term. Part-time study, the evening nursing program, and most graduate work are billed per credit, so a lighter semester genuinely costs less.
See current tuition and fees →What reduces it
Nearly every UB student receives financial aid: scholarships, grants, and need-based support, plus assistantships in some graduate programs. Merit awards are considered from your application; you do not apply separately.
See scholarships and aid →Transfer credit as savings
Every credit that transfers is a credit you do not pay for twice. With up to 90 accepted from a four-year institution, a credit evaluation is the single largest cost conversation a transfer applicant can have.
Ask for a credit review →Nobody chooses a university from a website.
They choose it from a walk across campus, a conversation with someone in the program, and a look at the labs and clinics where the work actually happens. Come see the 56 acres on Long Island Sound, an hour from New York City.
