Starting with the Fall 2026 semester, non-resident new first-time graduate students who demonstrate high academic achievement on the GRE, GMAT, or MAT graduate school entrance exams3, and with a GPA of 3.25 or higher for Master's degree students and a GPA of 3.50 or higher for Doctoral students, will pay an alternate tuition rate of 1.0 times the current in-state graduate tuition rate.3
The definition of "high academic achievement on the GRE, GMAT, or MAT graduate school entrance exams" – as established by the Graduate Council – is a GRE Verbal Reasoning score and a GRE Quantitative Reasoning score having a combined average percentile rank of 70% or higher (over both exams) or a GMAT score or a MAT score whose percentile rank is 80% or higher as determined by the creators of the particular exam.4
Official GRE, GMAT, or MAT scores must be sent directly to the appropriate SIU graduate department at the time of application. Failure to properly complete these steps in a timely fashion (early in the student's first semester) may result in the incoming graduate student not qualifying for this alternate tuition rate.
Master's students can access this benefit for up to two years. Doctoral students may utilize this benefit for a total of six years, with the possibility of extending it for an additional two years upon request from the program and with approval by the Dean of the Graduate School.
This alternate tuition rate will not apply to students pursuing undergraduate or professional degrees. It also will not apply to students pursuing the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies. It also will not apply to students who were SIUC graduate students prior to the semester noted above.5
1 The High Achievers Alternate Tuition Rate noted here is not the same as the one noted elsewhere for undergraduates. A student that had previously qualified for the undergraduate version may not necessarily qualify for this graduate version, and vice versa.
2 An earlier version of this graduate student High Achievers Alternate Tuition Rate had different qualifying conditions related to test scores and GPAs. Other SIUC web pages that attempt to describe this alternate tuition rate but whose qualifying conditions do not match what is noted on this web page may not yet be up-to-date.
3 While some graduate departments do not require any of these exams for admission to their programs, the interested student must take and score appropriately high enough on at least one of these exams in order to be able to qualify for this alternate tuition rate. You should check with your department to see which exam they require – or which exam they recommend – for the graduate program to which you are applying.
4 Your score report from taking the exam should list both a score and a percentile rank of that score. The average and distribution of scores for a particular exam may vary over time, and the scaling of scores for a particular exam may occasionally be altered, so the percentile rank – which portrays the individual's score in relation to the scores of all test takers – is what is significant for determining eligibility for this alternate tuition rate.
5 All of these eligibility exclusions aside, new graduate students at SIUC who start their graduate studies during or after the semester noted above can still be considered for this ATR even if they had previously attended SIUC as undergraduates prior to the start of their graduate studies.