No. The admissions policy requires that you submit all materials aside from recommendation letters yourself, 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; by the Danish-American Fulbright Commission (DAF), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD); and Vietnam Education Fund (VEF). All application materials including statements of purpose and video essays must be your own words and ideas. Applicants found in violation of admissions policy are inadmissible.
Applicants must upload a transcript from each institution attended. If any of your post-secondary coursework is from an institution outside of the United States, you are required to submit all international post-secondary coursework to World Education Services, Inc. (WES), a third-party verification agency for a course-by-course evaluation.
You would not need to provide transcripts for institutions where you completed a total of 11 credits or less (on a traditional U.S. credit system) outside of your degree granting institution and those credits appear on your degree granting institution transcript.
GRE/GMAT is not required upon application submission, however, standardized exams are a useful indicator of academic ability and applicants are strongly encouraged to consider submitting scores to further support their candidacy and strengthen their application.
Fall 2023 applicants and later:
If your first or native language is not English, you must provide official scores on the TOEFL or IELTS Academic unless both of the following are true:
* the language of instruction of your undergraduate degree conferring institution is English, and * and you completed your entire undergraduate degree in English.
Yes, Columbia SPS currently accepts the at-home version of the GRE and TOEFL/IELTS.
Two recommendations are required as part of your application. Recommendations should be submitted from academic and/or professional sources. Please note:
If you are in your last year of undergraduate study at the time of applying, you are required to submit at least one academic recommendation from a faculty member at your undergraduate degree-conferring institution. The second recommendation may be academic or professional;
If you received a bachelor’s degree within 2 years of the date of the application, you are strongly encouraged, but not required, to submit an academic recommendation;
If you received a bachelor’s degree more than 2 years prior to the date of the application, you are not required to submit an academic recommendation.
Recommendations should be submitted by:
a) a faculty member with whom you have studied at your undergraduate degree-conferring institution who can assess your academic work, intellectual ability, and academic potential for graduate work. The recommender should have instructed you directly, academic advisors are not appropriate.
AND/OR
b) a current or former supervisor (preferred) or work associate/project leader who can attest to your professional abilities. If you manage your own business and are your own supervisor, you may select a client as your recommender. Personal references are not appropriate.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All recommendations must be submitted using a professional or academic email domain. References submitted from personal or anonymous email domains (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, 123.com, 163.com, qq.com etc.) may result in your application being considered ineligible for admission. If you are unable to provide a professional email address for your recommender, please email us at apply@sps.columbia.edu with an explanation of why a professional email address cannot be provided.
Yes, to be eligible for admission, applicants must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution by the date on which they will enroll at Columbia SPS. Applicants providing in-progress coursework for admissions consideration are required to provide a final transcript showing all grades and the conferral of a bachelor’s degree.
Applicants are not allowed to re-record their video essay, unless they experienced a technical error, which is confirmed by the committee. To ensure successful submission of the video essay, our team has provided the following suggestions:
Use a wired Ethernet connection, instead of a wireless internet connection
Use Chrome, instead of Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer
Use a headset with a microphone
Use a different computer
Clear cookies
Should you still encounter difficulties, feel free to contact us.
Once your application is submitted and all application materials (including recommendation letters) are received, it can take roughly 6–8 weeks for a decision to be posted to your account.
We strongly recommend that you apply for the term to which you plan to enroll. If you are admitted to the program and encounter exceptional circumstances that will prevent you from enrolling, you may submit a deferral request. Please email erm@sps.columbia.edu with your request, and include the reason you are seeking a deferral. Please note, it is not guaranteed your request will be approved.
Questions about the M.S. Program
Yes, if you are interested in speaking with a faculty member, current student or alum of the program, please email erm@sps.columbia.edu.
Yes, the M.S. in Enterprise Risk Management program can be completed entirely online. Please note that this is a synchronous program, requiring you to log in to class at the given class time.
Most courses are held Monday through Thursday, either from 6:00–8:00 p.m. or 8:00–10:00 p.m. All listed times are in Eastern Time (ET). Courses typically meet once per week.
The average full-time student completes the degree in three terms (16 months). The average part-time student completes the degree in six terms (3 years).
The average full-time student takes four courses per term. The average part-time student takes two courses per term.
The average class size is 30 students.
The student to lecturer ratio is about 28:1. Most ERM courses have at least one associate supporting the lecturer. Associates are working professionals or ERM graduates who are working full-time. The student to lecturer/associate ratio is about 13:1.
The M.S. in Enterprise Risk Management program accepts students with varying degrees of work experience, and depending on the level of work experience you are entering the program with, you can expect different job outcomes. For students with less work experience, some sample job outcomes are:
Risk Analyst
Risk Associate
Risk Consultant
Credit Risk Analyst
For students with more work experience, some sample job outcomes include:
Assistant Vice President, Operational Risk
Corporate Vice President, Corporate Compliance
Director of Enterprise Risk Management
The Career Design Lab supports current students and alumni with individualized career coaching, including career assessment, resume & cover letter writing, agile internship/job search strategy, personal branding, interview skills, career transitions, salary negotiations and more.
Students are able to complete internships for credit. Students must have completed two full semesters in order to take an internship for credit. Students must find their own internship and have it approved by the program before eligibility to enroll in the ERM Internship course is granted.
