<p>The info in the colleges' websites is not always accurate or complete; I asked one college that "requires" TOEFL and got this answer:</p>
<p><<Hi Emiliano,</p>
<p>Certainly, Colby will waive the TOEFL requirement
for you. One can not get higher than an 800
score on Critical Reading and this insures your
ability to learn in English. Hope this helps...</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Steve Thoms>></p>
<p>so what is the "äpproximate" cut off point for TOEFL?</p>
<p>Well,cant say about iBT,but generally (atleast in case of Brown) they want min. of 600+ and 250+ in CBT....</p>
<p>250+ will do for any university....it is sufficient to 'prove our competence' in English language...</p>
<p>The TOEFL is not a waste of time. I taught English as a Second Language to international students at a small American college. These students were REALLY smart (some already had degrees in areas such as biochemistry and physics from international universities), but they failed to make the TOEFL cut-off and so had to enroll in an intensive year-long program in English before they could take regular classes. As smart as they were, these students could not have passed a college course because their grasp of grammar and their writing abilities were subpar. Sure, they understood English, and they could speak it and be understood, despite grammatical mistakes. However, they began the program without being able to write sentences more complex than an eight year old native speaker would because of limitations in vocabulary and an inability to grasp the more complex sentences/grammar needed to sound mature.</p>
<p>Colleges want to avoid enrolling students who will fail. In some countries and in some regions of countries, the SATs and GREs have had lapses in security so that the students get perfect, or near-perfect scores. Obviously, these scores cannot always be trusted, although the university has no way of knowing which scores are legit. The colleges require the TOEFL to ensure that the grasp of the language is indeed solid enough. For admissions, it's another piece of the puzzle.</p>
<p>You <em>can</em> be highly intelligent but unable to speak/write English fluently at the college level. (Trust me, many native Americans are unable to write well enough to do well at top 50 colleges.)</p>
<p>I know one thing for sure.... TOEFL is a complete waste of time and money..at least for a 'typical' CC erions....I am a second language English speaker but with just around 5 days of 'casual' prep ended up with 280...(belive me i was hoping for more).....</p>
<p>English is my third language, but I've lived in the United States for five years and have an 800 in CR, 710 in Writing, and 750 in Literature, so taking the TOEFL doesn't make much sense. I'd rather spend that money on getting slides done for my photo portfolio, or something that might actually make a difference.</p>
<p>yeah...add to the fact that the registration fee has also been increased....its a blady mess...165$....the average annual per capita income of my country is 210$.....</p>
<p>Well,I just found that the fee is $150 and NOT $165...(it wont make much difference though......)..</p>
<p>I paid $165.</p>
<p>I guess u hav registerd for pen-paper test?...coz iBT costs $150...</p>
<p>Best of luck to you all....make the bucks count!!!!</p>
<p>If you dont take TOEFL, even though the college REQUIRES you to take it (even tho critical reading is 650+ or/and been taught under the instruction of english or/and been living in an english speaking country), do you think the college will automatically reject you?
I'm mainly talking about public uni's, since privates dont seem to be as strict as publics are on this toefl dilemma..</p>
<p>private won't ...i am pretty much sure about that but regarding public ones...i think they might....and i have even heard somewhere that embassy consuls might look for it (although i think that's rubbish)...the bottom line is... take 165$ (or whatever amount of money) as an investment..and be on the safe side....</p>
<p>this is so LAME!!
I've been emailing colleges but only privates have been replying back - most said that I'm all good and dont need to take toefl.
But Im applying to 4-5 publics and NONE of them have replied back to my email.
I'm really trying to get out of this toelf requirement crap hehe</p>
<p>No, I did iBT, but just noticed that I didn't pay $165 but $155, according to my iBT online profile.</p>
<p>yeah...its a blady crap.....</p>
<p>Yeah Once Upon a Time there was such a hungama for the test dates, I heard that there was registration line at 2 am for CBT.</p>
<p>According to me TOEFL is one of the way ETS cheats Int' Students !!!
I hate ETS. They say they are non profit organisation, and what the hell is taking such a disastorous amount of money !!!!
And btw when i registered the f$$king price of dollar was so high !!!! :(:(</p>