The photo above depicts a common scene on campus this week. There’s a confetti of fall-colored leaves throughout the grounds, the air is crisp, and students are sparsely around, spending the limited time before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday to finish up their assignments. And since the students aren’t around, neither are the faculty and staff at Columbia University. Which means the SIPA Office of Admissions is closed to give thanks, starting at 2:00 p.m. EST today, until November 29, 2015. We will reopen at 9:00 a.m. EST on Monday, November 30, 2015.

No matter your nationality, I hope you’ll spend the week giving thanks for what you do have in your life.

And if you choose to spend the remainder of the week working on your application of admission, you may want to review some recent blog posts for application tips and a little bit of inspiration. Here are our top 5 Program Assistant blog posts this month, which you may have missed:

1. A Quantitative/Language Resume Breakdown
2. What I wish I knew as an international applicant
3. MPA-DP: Fighting poverty as a generalist
4. MPA-DP: A Summer in the ‘Hotbed of Terror’
5. The pros and cons of my MIA-MBA experience

As well as our top 5** general blog posts:

1. How Not to write your personal statement
2. Dissecting the Application Checklist
3. What’s with the GRE/GMAT and TOEFL/IELTS?
4. Take a break, experience ‘A Doubled Magic’
5. 6 Quick-and-Dirty Tips For An Outstanding Admissions Essay
6. **We say goodbye to SIPA alumna Anita Datar

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone near and far.