Parents & Guardians

For many, helping your child navigate the college search and application process can feel like a profound responsibility. It’s a challenging but rewarding journey, and we’ve found that the best results are achieved when everyone—students, parents and guardians, counselors, and admissions staff—prioritize finding the right-fit community for each student. 

Three students sit on the steps together in front of the pillars of the Low Library. They chat and use their hands expressively.

In order to best understand how this process works, and whether Columbia is the right fit for your child, we encourage you to review information we’ve posted about the first-year application, our admissions process and our approach to financial aid. These pages will  help orient you in the process and tell you what you and your child need to know to make informed decisions about the best course of action for your family.

We’ve also organized links to the information that parents most often request for easy reference:

Visit

Whether you want to get to know the neighborhood in person or from the comfort of your own home, we’ve got you covered.

Our Community

Columbia is home to a vibrant, curious, welcoming community of students and faculty, drawn together from every walk of life and corner of the world.

FAQs

Whether it’s finding the right program for you or navigating the application and financial aid process, we’ve got the answers you need.