Visiting the beautiful Furman University campus in South Carolina.
We want to meet you.
I just got back from our G4 recruiting trip in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina with representatives from Tufts Fletcher, Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service, and Johns Hopkins SAIS. The G4 (Group of 4 schools) is part of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), and the G4 schools have been traveling together to inform students about educational and career opportunities in international affairs for more than 40 years.
The G4 group is currently visiting schools throughout Utah and Colorado this week, and I’ll be in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle next week for Idealist graduate fairs.
A great way to keep up with us the next few weeks is through our Recruitment Calendar. It lists all of the places around the world that you can meet an admissions staff and alumni in person. We highly encourage you to come out and meet us, especially if you are applying this term.
Class visits are open.
If you’re considering SIPA or graduate school at all, I highly recommend you visit a class this semester. I always encourage students to read through course descriptions and syllabi online, and experiencing the SIPA faculty and students in person may help you decide if this is where you want to spend two years for graduate school. This is a big commitment, and we want to ensure our students find the right fit and community. A great way to do that is through a class visit.
Evergreen admissions advice.
The Spring 2020 application deadline is next week and fall applications are picking up as well. I’ve noticed some spikes in activity on the blog and wanted to link some archived posts that may be helpful those going through the application process:
- If you don’t know where to start: Program assistant Nabila Hassan MPA ’20 made an entire application timeline for you. This isn’t a definitive guide to follow, because everyone works at their own pace. But when you have a lot to do, sometimes it’s nice to have a checklist and a place to start, from someone who has been through the process.
- If you want to help us, help you: This is a short list on how to best communicate with the Admissions Office here. We’re a small staff and often get busy, especially around deadlines time, and we want to ensure you get your information in a timely manner.
- If you can’t find applicable advice in the archives: As we recommend in the “how to best communicate with us” post, familiarize yourself with the resources available; we have a ton. If you can’t find the information on our blog and want an in-depth walk through, submit an idea to this blog. We absolutely take requests from y’all, including one about being a first-generation student at Columbia, how to manage stress during the application process, being really good at math, and advice on adjusting back to an academic lifestyle.
- If the video essay is freaking you out: Our program assistants are putting together a post on this! Every year I see searches for “video essay” spike around application time, so we’re putting together new content to walk you through it.
