New — a map of every US university for your Master's or PhD, with fees, tuition and international students

Thinking about a Master's or PhD in the United States? The first questions are always the same: Which universities should I look at? How much is the application fee? How much is tuition? Do they take many international students?

The answers are scattered across hundreds of university websites. So we put them on one map.

👉 Open the US universities map — it is also on our homepage, just under the world research map.

What is on the map

The map shows 1,863 US universities that award master's degrees. 764 of them also award PhDs. Universities that do not award graduate degrees are left out, so every dot is a place where you can study for an MS or a PhD.

Dot colour shows the research level: R1 (very high research), R2 (high research), other doctoral, master's universities and specialized schools.
Dot size shows how many graduate students study there.

Together, these universities teach 558,462 international graduate students.

New: deadlines, TOEFL/IELTS, GRE and WES

For the 200 US universities with the most international students, we checked each university's official graduate admissions pages and added:

📅 Application deadlines for international graduate applicants — Fall and Spring intake, earlier dates for funding and assistantships, and whether admission is rolling
TOEFL iBT and IELTS minimum scores (and Duolingo where accepted)
GRE policy — required, optional, not required, or depends on the program
WES / credential evaluation — whether you need a WES (or similar) evaluation of your transcripts

You can also filter the map: GRE optional or not required, TOEFL 80 or lower, IELTS 6.5 or lower, No WES evaluation needed and Spring intake offered.

Deadlines and score minimums often differ by program, so each card links to the official page — always confirm there for your program.

Tap a university — see everything in one place

Search a university or city, or tap any dot. You will see:

For international graduate students

Graduate application fee
Graduate tuition per year (for public universities, the out-of-state rate — what international students pay)
Estimated cost per year: tuition plus room and board
International graduate students: how many, and what share of all graduate students
Master's degrees and PhDs awarded per year
Student–faculty ratio
Top master's programs and top PhD fields, with the number of degrees per year

Undergraduate: application fee, tuition, acceptance rate and whether TOEFL (or another English test) is required.

Research: papers, citations and h-index, with links to the university's research profile and to find professors and supervisors there.

Buttons take you straight to the university's Apply page, website, financial aid page, cost calculator and its official government profile.

An example: Georgia Tech

Graduate application fee: $95
Graduate tuition: $30,646 a year (out-of-state rate)
Estimated cost with room and board: $43,406 a year
International graduate students: 11,868 — 36% of all graduate students
7,054 master's degrees and 572 PhDs a year; computer science is its biggest master's program

Quick lists under the map

Below the map you will find lists that change with your filters:

💰 Lowest graduate tuition at research universities (R1 and R2) — some charge under $10,000 a year.
🆓 No graduate application fee — 549 universities charge nothing to apply.
🌍 Highest share of international students — research universities where more than half of graduate students come from abroad.
🗺️ States with the most international graduate students — New York, California, Massachusetts, Texas and Illinois lead. Tap a state to zoom in.
📍 When you open a university, you also see other universities within 100 miles.

The typical (median) graduate application fee across all these universities is $50, and typical graduate tuition is about $18,000 a year — but it ranges from a few thousand dollars to more than $60,000, so it pays to compare.

Filters

Narrow the map by state, by type (R1, R2, other doctoral, master's, or "offers PhDs"), by public or private, or show only universities where at least 10% of graduate students are international.

Where the data comes from

All numbers come from IPEDS, the official database of the US Department of Education that every university receiving federal student aid must report to. Tuition and fees are for the 2023–24 academic year, the newest year with complete figures. Research numbers come from OpenAlex.

Fees and deadlines change every year, so always confirm on the university's own website before you apply — the Apply button takes you there in one tap.

Next steps

Open the US universities map and shortlist 5–10 universities.
For each one, tap Find professors & supervisors to see who publishes on your topic — or read our guide How to find a research supervisor in 5 minutes.
Check Study Abroad for scholarships and for US professors with active research grants — they are the ones who can hire research assistants.

Good luck with your applications!