Policies

• To be eligible for admission, applicants must have earned a U.S. bachelor’s degree or international equivalent from an accredited institution by the date on which they enroll in the program.
• You may not apply to more than one program offered by the School of Professional Studies in any one semester. If an applicant submits applications to more than one program offered by SPS in the same semester, both applications may be denied automatically on that basis alone.
• If you apply to a program and are denied admission to that program, you may not submit another application for admission to that same program or another SPS degree program for a year. For example, if you were denied admission to a program for Fall 2024, you are not eligible to apply again to that same program or another SPS degree program until Fall 2025. 
• If you have been denied admission to the same program three times, you are no longer eligible for admission to that program and any further application will not be considered.
• All admissions decisions are final. There is no appeal process. The Admissions Committee reviews each application thoroughly and with great care.
• Enrollment in another degree program at Columbia or elsewhere while enrolled in an SPS master’s or certificate program is strictly prohibited by the School of Professional Studies. Violations of this policy will lead to the revocation of an offer of admission, or termination for a current student.
• You must submit all materials directly, not through an agent or third-party vendor, with the sole exception of submissions by the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program and its three partner agencies IIE, LASPAU and AMIDEAST, and by the Danish-American Fulbright Commission (DAF), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), and Vietnam Education Fund (VEF). If you have any questions about this requirement, please contact the admissions office at apply [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (apply[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu).
• Application materials become property of Columbia University upon submission and cannot be returned.

You must disclose on the application for admission all colleges and universities you have attended for at least one term, regardless of the number of credits received, including professional schools and summer study from which you have received academic credit, and provide transcripts from each institution.

Official transcripts are required to complete the admissions process for every SPS program, and you are therefore strongly encouraged to arrange for the submission of official transcripts at the earliest possible stage. While you must upload unofficial transcripts at the time of application, any decision granting admission on the basis of an unofficial transcript will be provisional only and subject to the receipt of official transcripts directly from the issuing institution.

If offered admission, before being permitted to enroll, you must provide official verified transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended for academic credit in the manner outlined here.

For Domestic Institutions 

For each institution attended, you must provide a certified electronic transcript directly from the institution to transcripts [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (transcripts[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu). 

If your prior institution does not offer electronic transcript transmission, you must write to transcripts [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (transcripts[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu) with the link to the institution’s webpage concerning transcript orders to confirm. After verification, we will respond with further instructions.

For International Institutions

You will have provided an official transcript from the institution for use in the review of your application. No other transcripts are required at this time unless noted by the Admissions office during the review process. 

• Under no circumstances should you upload a letter on behalf of a recommender. Any person who writes a letter of recommendation must submit that letter themselves through the application system. 
• All letters must be uploaded by the recommender directly to the application system. Letters of recommendation may not be sent via email, nor may paper letters be sent via postal mail. 
• You must enter the institutional or professional email address of your recommender in the application system. If you are unable to provide a professional email address for your recommender, please email us at certificates [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (certificates[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu) with an explanation of why a professional email address cannot be provided. References submitted from personal or anonymous email accounts without prior approval (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, 123.com, 163.com, qq.com etc.) may result in your application being considered ineligible for admission.
• If the current supervisor, former supervisor, or faculty member writing a letter of recommendation for you is a family member, this MUST be disclosed in the letter of recommendation. You must also request two additional letters of recommendation from non-family members, for a total of three letters of recommendation with your application. If the affiliation is not disclosed OR you lack two additional non-familial letters of recommendation, you will be considered ineligible for admission. Please email  to inquire about your specific situation
• Under the guidelines of the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), all letters of recommendation are confidential during the admissions process, even if you have not waived your right to view them. This policy applies to both domestic and international applicants.  If you did not waive your right to see one or more of the letters, you may view them only after you are enrolled in Columbia SPS. Students who do not receive an offer of admission, or those admitted who do not enroll, are not permitted access to the letters at any time.  A complete explanation of the FERPA policy can be found here

• Before being permitted to register, you must provide written consent to participate in a verification process of all academic, professional, and reference information provided during your application process. For us to proceed with this verification, you must sign and date an authorization and release form. We will provide the link to do so once you have submitted your application.
• Failure to submit complete, accurate, and authentic application documents consistent with these instructions may result in denial or revocation of admission, cancellation of academic credit, suspension, expulsion, or eventual revocation of degree. Applicants may be required to assist admissions staff and faculty involved in admission reviews in the verification of all documents and statements made in documents submitted by students as part of the application review process.