Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO)

Students must meet the Minnesota Department of Education criteria (click on the "Postsecondary Enrollment Options Reference Guide").

Minimum High School GPA

• Students must have a minimum unweighted high school GPA of 3.600 to apply. Applications that do not meet the minimum GPA requirement will be automatically denied.
  • Exceptions are granted for: students applying to the School of Music, or attending an international school or a high school that doesn't use GPA.

Residency and High School Enrollment

• The UMTC PSEO program is open to 11th and 12th grade students only.
• Students must have a free period (or study hall) during the high school day (public schools only).
• Students must live in Minnesota* and be enrolled in:
  • a public school district, charter school, home school or nonpublic school in Minnesota
  • a public school district or nonpublic school out of state through a tuition arrangement between the out of state district and the Minnesota public school district, OR
  • attending a nonpublic school in another state, whether or not the parent is paying tuition.

*South Dakota resident students attending a Minnesota district under the Minnesota-South Dakota Reciprocity Agreement (includes only border districts) are eligible for PSEO.

Age Requirements

• Age 15 and under: If your birthdate is on or after May 9, 2008, review this important information for minors on campus before applying.
• Age 21: Consult the School Attendance Age Limitations document from the Minnesota Department of Education to confirm you are eligible before applying.
• Age 22 and older: If your birthdate is on or before September 1, 2001, you are not eligible to participate in PSEO.

International Students

Students who hold J–1, J–2, F–1, F–2, or B visas are not eligible to participate in PSEO.

Application for the 2023–24 academic year has closed. The 2024–25 application will open in spring 2024.

Required Application Documents

1. High School Transcript, Official or Unofficial
   • Report cards or grade reports are required in addition to the transcript when there are no grades for the current academic year on the transcript (e.g., schools that only award grades at the end of the full academic year).
2. Post-Secondary Notice of Student Registration (2023–24) Form
   • Complete and sign part 1 the form (a parent/guardian signature is required if under 18).
   • Your high school representative (or homeschool authority) completes and signs part 2 of the form.
3. College Transcripts, Official or Unofficial (if applicable)
   • Submit transcripts if you took college credits outside your high school through a college or university (e.g., PSEO).
   • Transcripts required for all completed and in-progress courses
   • Transcripts not required for University of Minnesota courses
   • You do not need to submit transcripts for concurrent enrollment courses.

Optional Application Documents

1. High School Balance Sheet (Recommended)
2. College Entrance Exam Scores (Optional)
   • Accepted college entrance exams: ACT, PreACT, SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, or PSAT 10.
3. Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) Test Scores (Optional)

After creating your application (step 1), you will be sent an email with an application link to a form where you will upload your application documents.

Use your application link when you are ready to upload your application documents listed in step 2.

If a high school official will be submitting documents on your behalf, you can indicate this in your personal application document upload form. When you submit this form, an email request will be sent to your high school official asking them to upload the documents.

You will receive an email once your application has been reviewed for completeness. This process takes several business days. Please allow additional processing time in the last two weeks prior to the application deadline.

Issues submitting application documents?

• If you didn’t receive an email with your application link after creating your application (step 1), contact our office (pseo@umn.edu).
• Application documents may be submitted via email (pseo@umn.edu) or mail (U of M PSEO Admissions, 20 Nicholson Hall, 216 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455).
• If using Parchment or another transcript service, send your transcript to pseo@umn.edu. Do NOT select University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
• Do not submit college entrance exam scores through testing services. Scores sent through the testing services to “University of Minnesota Twin Cities” are not received by the PSEO Office.

• Students interested in enrolling in private music lessons (one-on-one study) with a faculty member through PSEO also need to apply to the School of Music. Apply to the School of Music if you are currently taking private music lessons and are prepared to submit a virtual audition as part of their application process.
• Students admitted to PSEO and the School of Music may be limited to School of Music courses only, depending on our holistic application review.
• Students with an unweighted high school GPA below 3.600 may use an approved School of Music audition to still be considered for admission to the PSEO program. However, if admitted, these students will be limited to School of Music courses only.
• Admission to the School of Music does not guarantee admission to the PSEO program.  

How to Apply

• Visit the School of Music's website for application and audition information.
• The School of Music PSEO application deadline is April 1.

Admission criteria for acceptance into the UMTC PSEO program are evaluated on a holistic basis. Space is limited to around 750 new students each year. Approximately 45% of applicants are admitted to the program. As a result, we unfortunately must deny admission to many well-qualified students. 

Primary Considerations

• GPA (3.600 or greater high school unweighted GPA required)
  • Exceptions may be granted for School of Music applicants; see the School of Music section above for more information
• Class rank (if available)
• Rigor of courses (honors, accelerated, advanced, enriched, concurrent enrollment (AP, IB, PLTW, other PSEO, etc.)
• Successful grades in rigorous courses (B or higher to be competitive)

Secondary Considerations

• Grade trends
• Extenuating circumstances affecting grades (e.g., illness)
• Additional test scores
  • ACT, PreACT, SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, or PSAT 10
  • Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) test scores

Freshman Admission

The UMTC PSEO office is not part of the UMTC Office of Admissions, and the two offices maintain separate admission processes and criteria. If you are accepted into the UMTC PSEO program, it doesn't mean you are automatically admitted to the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate student. You'll want to apply for freshman admission if you decide to attend the U of M after high school graduation.

• Late applications are reviewed on a space available basis.

• Late application documents will be reviewed if received by May 1. The online application form must be submitted by April 17.

• Be sure all forms include the required signatures. Forms missing signatures will not be accepted.

• Materials submitted on time to the wrong address will be considered late if resubmitted to the PSEO Office after the application deadline.

• The responsibility for submitting a complete, on-time application lies solely with the student applicant. Exceptions to the April 17 deadline are not granted for high school, counselor, parent, or any other person's error.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Arts/Humanities page.

*Access to this course may be limited.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook English/Speech page.

PE classes include, but are not limited to, the following options: running, weight raining, conditioning, self-defense, karate, tennis, rock climbing, bowling, etc.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Health/Physical Education page.

American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, Classical Greek, Dakota, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hebrew (biblical and modern), Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Ojibwe, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Urdu

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Languages page.

*Access to this course may be limited.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Math page.

Limited online course options; not many online courses fulfill high school requirements.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Online Courses page.

*Access may be limited.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Science page.

For additional course information, see the PSEO Student Handbook Social Studies page.