Trine University doesn't have the name recognition of Arizona State or Purdue, but among Indian engineering applicants specifically, it has become a well-known "value" pick: a small, private, ABET-accredited engineering school in rural Angola, Indiana, with a moderate acceptance rate, comparatively low tuition, and a heavy concentration of STEM-designated degrees that qualify graduates for the 24-month STEM OPT extension. This guide is honest about what that means in practice, Trine is a regional, teaching-focused university, not a research-prestige brand, and its international population is genuinely small. If you're weighing it as a cost-effective, practical route into a US engineering or computer science degree with real work-authorization value afterward, here's what the numbers actually say.
Trine Acceptance Rate
Trine does not publish its own acceptance rate on its website, and it does not publish a separate figure for international applicants. The most commonly cited number, from US News & World Report (a third-party estimate, not a Trine-published figure), puts Trine's overall undergraduate acceptance rate at roughly 86%, with other secondary sources placing it anywhere from 70-86% depending on the year and methodology used. Trine is test-optional for most applicants, and admissions officers describe GPA as the most heavily weighted academic factor.
Trine does not publish a university-wide graduate acceptance rate either. Graduate admission (including the online/hybrid master's programs many international students use) is evaluated primarily against fixed criteria, an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution, a minimum GPA, and English proficiency, rather than through a competitive, capped-seat review process.
In plain terms: Trine is a moderately accessible school for students who meet its academic and English-proficiency thresholds. It is not a "safety school with no bar," but it is far less selective than flagship state universities or brand-name research institutions, and its own international enrollment is small (around 230 international students total, of which roughly 128 are undergraduates), so class sizes and campus culture for international students are noticeably more intimate than at a large public university.
Tuition and Cost of Attendance
Trine's published 2026-2027 sticker prices (confirmed on Trine's official cost pages) are the same for domestic and international students, there is no separate, higher international tuition rate at the undergraduate level, which is unusual among US universities and part of Trine's cost appeal.
| Cost item | Undergraduate (per year) |
|---|---|
| Standard tuition (12-18 credits/semester) | $37,750 |
| Engineering-track tuition | $40,850 |
| Mandatory fees (student, health/wellness, engineering/science, parking) | ~$400-$1,130 depending on program |
| Housing (studio to residential single) | $7,600-$8,600 |
| Meal plan (19 meals/week to commuter) | $450-$5,700 |
| Estimated total (non-engineering) | ~$51,500-$53,200 |
| Estimated total (engineering) | ~$54,600-$56,300 |
International undergraduates also pay a one-time $1,000 international enrollment fee ($500 goes to document processing and orientation, $500 is credited toward tuition).
Graduate tuition is dramatically lower. Trine's official rate for master's programs (domestic and international, seated or online) is $575 per credit hour, with no international surcharge. A typical 30-36 credit master's therefore costs roughly $17,250-$20,700 in tuition for the entire degree, well below the $30,000-$60,000+ a comparable master's costs at most other US universities. The Doctor of Information Technology program is billed at $700/credit hour.
Financial aid: International students are not eligible for US federal aid, but Trine offers a merit-based International Award, reported at up to $22,000/year, renewable for four years for students who maintain the required GPA. Actual award amounts vary by applicant profile, so treat this as an upper bound rather than a guaranteed figure.
Admission Requirements
Undergraduate
- Completed international application
- Official secondary school transcripts (with certified English translation if needed)
- English proficiency score (IELTS/TOEFL/PTE/Duolingo, or a qualifying SAT/ACT sub-score, see below)
- Passport copy and financial documentation for I-20 issuance
- No essay or letters of recommendation strictly required for most programs, though strong applicants often include them voluntarily
Trine does not publish a hard minimum GPA cutoff the way some large public universities do; admission is evaluated holistically against secondary school performance, but a solid B-average (roughly 3.0/4.0 or equivalent) is a realistic practical bar based on the profile of admitted students.
Graduate
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution (in a related field for technical master's programs)
- Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions
- English proficiency score (unless exempt)
- Resume/CV (program-dependent)
- GRE/GMAT are not typically required for Trine's master's programs, this is one of the more applicant-friendly aspects of its graduate admissions
How to Get Into Trine
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Meet the English-proficiency bar comfortably rather than at the exact minimum. Because Trine's academic bar is largely GPA- and document-based rather than deeply comparative, a clean, complete application with a proficiency score above the floor (see below) is usually enough to clear admission for both undergraduate and graduate programs.
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Apply early for the International Award. Since Trine's merit scholarship is awarded as part of the standard admission review rather than through a separate competitive application, submitting transcripts and test scores early gives the admissions committee the fullest picture of your academic record to work from.
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Pick a STEM-designated major if OPT/STEM-OPT is your goal. Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and most of Trine's Allen School of Engineering and Computing programs carry STEM CIP codes; this is the single most important practical decision for students choosing Trine specifically for its US work-authorization value.
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Confirm current test-score thresholds directly with Trine's International Admission office before applying, since Trine periodically updates accepted tests and cutoffs, and this guide's figures were cross-verified across several education-consultancy sources rather than pulled from a single unbroken official page (Trine's international admissions subpages were intermittently unreachable during research for this article).
IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, and Duolingo Requirements
| Test | Undergraduate | Graduate (most programs) | Doctor of IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| IELTS Academic | 6.0 overall | 6.5 overall (6.0 minimum per section) | 7.0 overall |
| TOEFL iBT | 71 (Trine's institution code: 1811) | 79 | 90 |
| PTE Academic | 50 | 58 | 60 |
| Duolingo English Test | 95 | 95 | 110 |
Trine also accepts NETPAW and GETPAW, two less common English-proficiency assessments, an option worth knowing about if you've already tested through one of those systems.
Waiver: Undergraduate applicants are exempt from the English test requirement if they score at least 560 on SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing or at least 21 on the ACT Reading section.
Because Trine's thresholds sit toward the lower end of what US universities require (IELTS 6.0 undergraduate is a floor found at many mass-volume-friendly schools), the same caution applies here as elsewhere: a bare-minimum score gets you admitted, but coursework, especially technical writing and lab reports in engineering and CS programs, is easier with a comfortable margin above the minimum.
Career Outcomes and OPT Relevance
Trine markets itself heavily on outcomes, and its headline number is genuinely strong: the university has reported a "career outcome" rate above 99% for 13 consecutive years (Class of 2025: 99.2%; Class of 2023: 99.5%), a figure that includes graduates who are employed, enrolled in further education, or in military service within six months of graduation. Two honest caveats worth flagging:
- This figure is university-wide and not broken out separately for international students, whose job-market outcomes (constrained by visa sponsorship willingness among employers) can differ meaningfully from domestic graduates.
- More than 63% of recent graduating classes stayed in Indiana for work, and over 90% stayed in the broader Midwest, so Trine's employer network is regional and Midwest-manufacturing/engineering-oriented rather than a national or Big Tech recruiting pipeline. Trine's Career Services office did not have a published, named list of top recruiting companies available at the time of this research.
OPT and STEM OPT: Standard F-1 graduates are eligible for 12 months of OPT. Graduates of STEM-designated majors, which includes Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering at Trine, can apply for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, extending total US work authorization to up to three years post-graduation. This is the central practical reason Trine appears on so many "best value" and mass-volume study-in-the-US lists for Indian STEM applicants: low tuition, a real ABET-accredited engineering credential, and a straightforward path to three years of US work authorization without needing an H-1B immediately.
Is Trine the Right Fit?
Trine makes sense if your priority is a legitimate, ABET-accredited US engineering or CS degree at a genuinely low price point, with STEM-OPT eligibility, and you're comfortable with a small, rural, teaching-focused campus rather than a large research university or an urban tech hub. It is a weaker fit if you want a brand name with international recognition, a large and established international student community, or direct, visible recruiting pipelines into national or global employers, Trine's outcomes data, while strong, is regional and not specifically reported for its international cohort.
Go in with realistic expectations: Trine is a solid, honest "cost-and-OPT-value" choice for STEM master's or bachelor's study, not a research-prestige credential, and the university's own marketing (rightly) leans on affordability and job placement rather than rankings or research output.