Archive for December 2008 – Page 2

Online Application Technical Support

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 
· No Comments

SIPA works with a third party provider, Hobsons, which administers our online admission application. As much as we work with Hobsons to ensure a stable and easy to use interface, we understand that at times those using the site may have technical difficulties. There are times when you can contact our office for help, but in most cases contacting Hobsons directly is the quickest way to get your technical question answered.  Questions we can handle in our office relate to:

  • Basic application criteria
  • Basic submission instructions
  • Deadline information
  • Admission requirements
  • Document tracking

If you have a technical question about the site you should immediately contact Hobsons technical support. This can include issues such:

  • Uploading information
  • Logging in to the site
  • Retrieving your password or PIN
  • Error messages

Contact Hobsons technical support by using the following hyperlink:

https://app.applyyourself.com/AYContactHelpDesk/TechSupport.asp

If you do not find your question answered in the FAQ section, click on the “Submit a Ticket” hyperlink and you will be able to email the particular issue you are having to the technical support team.  

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Standardized Test Reporting

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 
· 1 Comment

The January 5th fall admission deadline is almost here and we are fielding many questions about the receipt of official GRE and TOEFL test scores.  We are aware that there have been some problems with the administration of the tests at some ETS (Educational Testing Service) testing centers.  Problems include tests being rescheduled, problems with certain portions of the tests, and possible delays in reporting the results.  We are also aware that the holiday season has an impact on how fast test scores can be processed by ETS.

We understand that situations such as this are out of the control of the applicant.  Therefore in certain circumstances we will accept official test reports that are received after the January 5th deadline.  First, if a test has been taken prior to the admission deadline and we receive the test report after the deadline, the late receipt of the score report will not hinder the review of the application as long as the date the test was taken was previous to the admission deadline.

Second, if you encountered a problem out of your control that delayed your ability to take either the GRE or TOEFL, please send an email to [email protected] and clearly explain the particular circumstances. Explain the problem you encountered, what action you plan to take, and an estimation of when you have or will take the necessary test. We can then work with you to ensure that your test score is received and is added to your file so that it can be passed on to the Admissions Committee for review.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Deadline Advice

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 
· No Comments

We are rapidly approaching the admission deadline (January 5th, 2009) for our two-year, full-time MIA and MPA programs and the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is a flurry of activity.  As expected our phone is ringing, postal letters are arriving in massive quantities, and our email box is full us as soon as we clean it out.  The purpose of this post is to give you a few pointers during this busy time of year for our office.

The first pointer has to do with email.  If you email our office we please ask that you send your message to only one email address.  Some applicants will copy several accounts or personal addresses on a single message and this can lead to confusion and extra work in our office.  We highly recommend that you use our main account for your inquires.  The address is: [email protected].

The second pointer has to do with phone calls.  If you call and get voice mail, rest assured that we will answer but it may take us some time.  If you call and cannot get through, please do not call another SIPA office and ask to be transferred.  If you do leave a voice mail please realize that with the heavy phone traffic it may take us some time to get back to you.  If you do leave a voice mail and call again, it is helpful to let us know that you left a voice mail so we know that your question has been answered and can cross the voice mail message off of our call back list.

The third pointer has to do with mail.  As documented a in previous entry we receive hundreds of pieces of mail per day.  We try to keep up but each year we will open mail and update test scores and other documents after the deadline passes.  As long as the documents were received prior to the deadline they will be considered on time.  Please understand that we are not able to respond immediately to inquiries about the receipt of individual documents due to the extremely large volume of mail we receive.

We are very excited to begin the review process and appreciate your understanding regarding this issues.  Thank you in advance for your patience.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Human Rights Study at Columbia and SIPA

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Saturday, December 20th, 2008 
· No Comments

This following comes from the Columbia University publication, The Record:

December 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Across Columbia the teaching, research and advocacy of human rights is not a historical commemoration, but an active, growing and increasingly central organizing principle for a wide range of University programs inside and outside the classroom.

For the full article, please click here.

SIPA provides a fertile environment for the study of Human Rights.  To give you a taste of what is available here are some resources to look into.

First,  SIPA students have a Human Rights Working Group.  As stated on the Web site, the focus of the group is the following:

This committee is working to inject practical elements into the SIPA human rights education, such as by creating opportunities to do volunteer work with HR organizations in the city during the school year and by preparing field trips to human rights organizations in the area.

You can find out more information by clicking here.

Second, you can access several interviews on our Web site with faculty and students.  Click here for an interview with Elazar Barkin, co-director of the Human Rights Concentration at SIPA.

Our office also conducts interviews with students.  Madeline and Ling-chih are two of the students we interviewed last year.  Both concentrated in Human Rights while at SIPA.

For the interview with Madeline click here.

To access the interview with Ling-chih click here.

For more information on the curriculum of the Human Rights program at SIPA please see the curriculum page.

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Categories : Meet Seeples, News
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AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, Teach for America

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 
· 1 Comment

Each year SIPA is proud to provide funding for some of our admitted applicants with ties to certain professional or academic organizations. For example, SIPA agrees to provide fellowships to a minimum number of Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America alumni each year. The process is competitive and we cannot award funding to every admitted applicant with such experience, but we value the experience applicants to our program gain by working for such organizations.

When filling out the admission application applicants have the opportunity to list experience with specific organizations via a drop down list. To be considered for fellowships with ties to particular organizations simply indicate your affiliation in the appropriate place on the application site. This will alert the Admissions Committee and applicants who are admitted will be considered for such awards.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips, Paying for SIPA
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—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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