National Louis University English Program

The National Louis English Program (NLEP) offers immersive, English for academic purposes (EAP) courses to prepare non-native English speakers for college where English is the primary spoken language. Using student-centered teaching methods and an outcome-based curriculum, the highly qualified faculty supports each student as he or she improves his or her English speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and integrates the culture of the United States, so the student may be a successful English communicator and college student.

All of the levels and their corresponding courses in the National Louis English Program are correlated to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

This program was designed to support the English language development of participants who aspire to enter National Louis University as degree-seeking students or wish to advance in English to continue their education at another college or university.

Admission Requirements:

Complete application available at www.nl.edu/applyonline
Students are encouraged to submit the TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE. These are not required but can help with placement process.
Complete the Cambridge English Placement Test (CEPT)
Complete Skype interview with the program director
Complete a writing sample at orientation and be placed into the appropriate classes for your level
An enrollment deposit is required at the time of acceptance of enrollment by all international students. The enrollment deposit is required to be paid before international students receive their visa documents.
- International Students Seeking Housing Deposit: $1,300 ($1,000 is applied to tuition. $300 is a non-refundable housing fee.)
- International Students Not Seeking Housing Deposit: $1,000 ($1,000 is applied to tuition)

Students who meet all other admission requirements except for the English language requirement will be admitted to National Louis University provisionally, and must complete the NLEP program with an admissible score in order to matriculate to the program level coursework.

Students who apply solely to the NLEP program without applying to a degree seeking program will be admitted as a Non-Degree Seeking student to the university.

Program Details:

Students wishing to enter the NLEP participate in a four-step placement process:

Students complete the Cambridge English Placement Test (CEPT). CEPT is an adaptive online Reading and Listening test which takes 30 minutes to complete. The test is automatically scored, and results are aligned with the Common European Framework.
Upon completing the test, students complete a screening interview with the LEP director to confirm that they level of English proficiency matches the levels offered by the LEP program (B1-/A2-B2 on the common European Framework (CEFR)).
Upon arrival, students complete a diagnostic essay. Diagnostic prompts vary based on the candidates CEPT score and screening interview.
After the diagnostic essay is read, students are given an oral interview, which assesses their level of English proficiency, as well as their goals for study and educational background.

Program Coursework:

Level 3- LEP 030 Intermediate Speaking and Listening

LEP 031 Intermediate Reading and Writing

Level 4- LEP 040 High Intermediate Speaking and Listening

LEP 041 High Intermediate Reading and Writing

Level 5- LEP 051 Advanced Speaking and Listening

LEP 095 Advanced Reading and Writing

Matriculation Requirements:

Students in the National Louis English Program who wish to matriculate into a degree program at NLU must meet the following proficiency requirements:

TOEFL: 72 for the Internet-based test (iBT), or a minimum of 533 total for the TOEFL paper test (PBT), or a minimum of 173 for the TOEFL Computer-based test (CBT)
IELTS: 6.0, with no individual band below a 5.5
Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE): Grade of A or B

Once students are in level 4 they can start meaningfully engaging in test prep.

Upon successful completion of the NLEP courses, and once appropriate documentation of NLU’s published English proficiency requirements is provided, provisionally admitted students will be fully admitted to the college. If a provisionally admitted student passes the NLEP courses but does not meet the required published English proficiency requirements at the end of the quarter, the student will have to continue in NLEP courses the following quarter.

Students who do not provide documentation of meeting NLU’s English proficiency requirements will not be offered admission. NLEP courses can be repeated two times, for a total of three attempts. Students who do not successfully complete the NLEP course after three attempts will not be allowed to continue at National Louis University.