Frequently Asked Questions

Please speak with the liaison at your school, who should be familiar with your school’s policies. If the course appears on your home institution's transcript and if your liaison approves by noting this in their recommendation letter, we will accept credit taken at other institutions as fulfillment of the prerequisite course. Official transcripts from all institutions attended are required. Please note that additional information about your school's credit policies may be required as part of your application.

Yes. Your application materials will be reviewed by the Combined Plan Admissions Committee.

For students who began at an affiliate school in fall 2011 or later, the minimum grade for each pre-engineering prerequisite course must be a B (3.0) on the first attempt. As a B- is less than a B on a 4.0 scale, receiving a B- or less would preclude a student from guaranteed admission, and would put the student in our competitive review process. Students who began at an affiliate school prior to fall 2011, there are no minimum grade requirements for guaranteed admission.

Please speak with the Combined Plan liaison at your school to determine how the prerequisite class may be taken. Depending on the course, you may be able to take the class at another institution or through independent study.

No. The Combined Plan Committee on Admissions will review applications individually.

Financial Engineering is a concentration in the Industrial Engineering & Operations Research department that requires an application after at least one semester of study at Columbia. Entrance in this program is very competitive.

Combined Plan students interested in the Financial Engineering track should consider Operations Research, Engineering Management Systems or Industrial Engineering as fields of study.

For all information about the graduate study of engineering at Columbia, please contact the Office of Graduate Student Services at seasgradmit@columbia.edu.

Yes. You will need to resubmit a new application with an updated transcript and materials. 

Depending on the course of study, Combined Plan students will take five or six classes per semester (including laboratory supplements to classes).

Depending on your department and schedule, you may be able to take non-technical elective courses.

No. Combined Plan students are exempt from the Columbia Physical Education requirement.

Combined Plan students are guaranteed housing in their first year.

While Columbia will do its best to accommodate students’ requests to live on campus after the first year, there is no guarantee that Combined Plan students will be offered a room on campus beyond the first year of the program. Off-Campus Housing Assistance (OCHA) assists Columbia students and affiliates in their search for housing in non-Columbia owned buildings in the metropolitan area. The OCHA website provides advice, resources and an online database of available housing.

Yes! Combined Plan students have access to the Center for Career Education, which assists students with finding appropriate internship opportunities and preparing for postgraduate careers.

Combined Plan students have full access to the Center for Career Education, Preprofessional Advising and Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, which provide individual advising, programming and rich resources to help students explore and prepare for internships and jobs, graduate school and fellowship programs. Graduating student survey results demonstrate that Columbia Engineering students are equipped to pursue a variety of paths upon graduation.

Columbia will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for admitted Combined Plan Students. As Columbia awards only need-based financial aid, however, your aid package may change from your affiliate school. Please see the financial aid section on our website for more information.

We will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted Combined Plan students. 

All applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States, as well as students granted refugee visas by the United States, DACA recipients and undocumented students, are read in a need-blind manner, no matter where they attend school or where they reside. The term “need-blind” means financial need has no bearing on the admissions decision. All other applicants are evaluated in a need-aware manner, which means that the admissions committee takes into consideration how much financial aid a student requires when rendering an admissions decision.

Yes. Please obtain documents demonstrating eligibility from your Financial Aid office and contact the Combined Plan program by email.

Upon successful completion of your initial semester on campus, Visiting Students may have the option to continue their enrollment at Columbia for the immediate following semester, pending approval from Columbia. More information will be emailed to you once you are enrolled and on campus.

Columbia does not guarantee that Visiting Students will be able to enroll in any specific class until the time of registration, and we therefore encourage students to have a wide selection of courses ready at the time of registration. Visiting Students may not enroll in any of Columbia’s graduate schools (including Columbia Business School) without first consulting their Advising Dean in the Berick Center for Student Advising.

Visiting Students must maintain full-time status by registering for a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester and may take a maximum of 18 credit hours. Most students schedule 15-18 credit hours (approximately 5 classes) per semester. We recommend that you consult with your dean/academic adviser at your home institution to help plan your curriculum at Columbia and ensure that Columbia credits will transfer.

No, only undergraduates in degree-seeking programs may apply for the Visiting Student Program.

We encourage you to browse our website for lots of helpful information on campus life, academic life, applying, the admissions process, required standardized exams, financial aid, visiting Columbia, events, international students, diversity, parents and families, guidance counseling, alumni, frequently asked questions and more!

Students interested in receiving additional information from Columbia may fill out our inquiry form.

Yes, Columbia will superscore your test scores. This means if you submit results from multiple test sittings, you will be evaluated on the highest score you received in any individual section of that test (known as superscoring).  This includes scores across the current ACT and the new ACT, as well as across paper/digital and school day/weekend administrations of a test.

No, Columbia Undergraduate Admissions does not require the optional Writing or  Science sections of the ACT. We are test-optional, and students who choose to submit their test results can decide whether to take the optional sections during their test sitting. Please note that if you opt to take an optional section, the score will be included on your ACT score report and cannot be selectively suppressed. You will not be at a disadvantage should you choose not to take these optional tests or submit test scores to Columbia.

As an international student that will be read in a need-aware manner, you should determine what amount you feel you and your family could afford to pay each year for four years of study. If you conclude that you and your family will be unable to assume the estimated total cost of attendance, you should apply for financial aid at the same time you apply for admission. If you are traveling to Columbia from another country, you will also want to consider travel expenses. If you do not apply for financial aid at the time of applying, you cannot be considered for financial aid in the future unless there has been a drastic and unforeseeable change in your family's circumstances.

The Financial Aid & Educational Financing website has information for foreign students interested in applying.

If you submit an application to Columbia College or Columbia Engineering, then withdraw your application, you must wait until the next application cycle to reapply to Columbia College or Columbia Engineering. For example, if you apply through our Early Decision program and then withdraw, you will not be eligible to apply through the Regular Decision program in that same cycle.