Application Requirements
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 apply [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (apply[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu).
Fee payment must accompany the online application.
In the Academic History section of the online application, you must list and upload unofficial transcripts for all post-secondary institutions attended for at least one term. This includes all graded coursework, in progress coursework, summer program(s), study abroad program(s), or transfer coursework unless:
- You did not earn academic credits;
- You completed less than 11 credits (on a traditional US credit scale) outside of your home institution. If you completed more than 11 credits outside of your home institution, then you must provide us with unofficial transcripts/ the coursework must be included on your WES evaluation.
If requested, you may be required to provide transcripts or mark sheets from any and all post-secondary institutions.
Applicants who attended a U.S. institution must submit:
- Unofficial transcripts for each institution attended.
Note: Unofficial transcripts must include your name, the name of the institution, each of the terms attended, the courses you took and the grades you obtained.
Applicants who attended an international institution must submit:
- An official ICAP course-by-course evaluation* by World Education Services, Inc. (WES), a third-party verification agency, that includes all post-secondary coursework completed outside of the United States. This is required for your application to be reviewed. The evaluation may take several weeks to be completed and sent to SPS. You should start your evaluation as soon as possible after you begin your application.
Applications will not be reviewed until we have received all of your transcripts and/or WES evaluations.
* Please note that if you completed 18 credits or less abroad, instead of submitting a WES evaluation, you may submit an unofficial transcript for admissions consideration. If admitted, you must order an official transcript to be sent to SPS directly from the institution abroad.
Please upload your résumé or CV. Please be sure to include all relevant work experience, professional organizations, or activities that would be relevant to evaluating your candidacy for admission.
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 [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (apply[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu) with an explanation of why a professional email address cannot be provided.
Your statement of academic purpose (500–750 words) should clearly and concisely address the following:
- Your purpose and interest in pursuing the Enterprise Risk Management program, focusing on how it relates to your immediate and long-term professional plans
- Your qualifications for successfully completing the program, including academic and any professional experiences you may have
- The areas you hope to explore in our curriculum, including particular courses of interest
- A brief discussion of a particular risk field or issue of interest to you
After you have submitted your application and fee, you will be required to submit a 1-minute video essay. You will be given time to create test videos to ensure that your system is working properly. When you are ready, you will be given a randomly selected prompt for which you will have one minute to prepare and one minute to record a response. You will not be able to re-record your video. Please note that the video essay response should be your own thoughts and should not be rehearsed or prepared beforehand.
This may be required.
They are not required upon application submission; however, standard 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.
All official standardized test scores must be received in the SPS Office of Admissions within two weeks of the application deadline for the program to which you have applied. Your application cannot be reviewed until official test scores are received.
GRE test scores can be ordered at www.gre.org. Our school report code is 3602.
LSAT test scores can be sent to transcripts [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu (transcripts[at]sps[dot]columbia[dot]edu).
For complete information regarding the GMAT, go to www.mba.com/exams/gmat. To send your scores, please choose "Columbia University - School of Professional Studies."
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.
Applicant total scores must meet the Columbia SPS minimum requirement of 100 (TOEFL iBT) or 7.0 (IELTS Academic) to be admissible. You will be required to enter your test scores or your anticipated testing date within the online application, and official test score reports will be required for your application to be considered complete and ready for admission review. TOEFL and IELTS Academic scores are valid for two years after your test date. Applicants receiving scores below the posted minimums may be advised to apply directly to the American Language Program.
- To submit TOEFL iBT scores: Visit www.ets.org and send your official score to our school code 2594. Please note: we do not accept TOEFL best scores.
- To submit IELTS scores: Please include your TRF number on the English Language Requirements section of the application. Alternatively, you can also send us your official score through your testing center.
Applicants whose primary language is not English may be required to complete an intensive course with the American Language Program (ALP) prior to beginning their studies in the degree program as a condition for admission.
Applicants may also be asked to complete an interview using a video conferencing tool.