Policies

• To be eligible for admission, applicants must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution by the date on which they enroll at the Graduate School.
• The Narrative Medicine program at SPS does permit students to be dual enrolled in another degree program while completing the CPA. Written permission from the applicant's home institution is required before we can begin our review. Prospective Narrative Medicine students should email apply [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (apply[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu) with questions about this policy.
• Applicants 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 2019, you are not eligible to apply again to that same program or another SPS degree program until Fall 2020. 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.
• 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.
• 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 an 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 your prior U.S. institution’s webpage concerning transcript orders to confirm that paper is the only option and obtain permission to submit a paper transcript.

If a paper transcript is the only option, it must be sent directly from the institution to Columbia, and not delivered or forwarded by you. Please have the institution send the approved paper transcript to:

Office of Admissions
School of Professional Studies
203 Lewisohn Hall
2970 Broadway, Mail Code 4119
New York, NY 10027-6902

For International Institutions

Official transcripts from prior academic institutions outside the United States must be submitted through World Education Services, Inc. (WES) as a course-by-course evaluation. If a WES transcript was provided reflecting in-progress study, a follow-up WES course-by-course evaluation showing the complete academic record and degree conferral is required.