Students enter our program from various backgrounds. Some have no prior experience in the study of the languages and cultures of the Middle East, others do. Our program is not considered to be one of the professional schools so we do not require that our applicants have work experience as a prerequisite for admission. Please upload copies of your transcripts for all post-secondary schools that you have attended. We require three letters of recommendation in support of each application. A candidate statement of academic purpose should discuss your academic and career objectives in a concise, sharply focused, and well-crafted essay. This statement must be completed online as part of the Online Graduate Student Application. Programs requiring a writing sample are: Anthropology, Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, Economics, History, Comparative Human Development, Committee on International Relations, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, Committee on Social Thought, and Sociology. The GRE General Test is required of all applicants for admission. We will accept scores from either the new or the old test, as long as they are valid, unexpired scores. The University of Chicago accepts either the internet-Based Test (iBT) of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) for the purpose of meeting the English language requirement. Minimum requirements for the TOEFL iBT are: The minimum required score for the TOEFL is 104 overall, with 4 sub scores of 26 each, Minimum required scores in the IELTS are an overall score of 7, with sub scores of 7 in each section.