Policies

• Applicants to the Visiting -- Graduate program must have earned a U.S. bachelor’s degree or international equivalent from an accredited institution and be currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at another institution and in good standing. 
• 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 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 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 visiting [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (visiting[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 or third-party vendor that provides that service for 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]] ed (transcripts[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]ed) 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.

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.