Admitted Graduate Students

Take your next steps as a Columbia College Chicago student.

Congratulations on your acceptance to Columbia! We’re so excited to welcome you. 

Haven’t shared your decision with us yet? Please take a moment to do so on your application status page. Your application status page will be the best resource for you moving forward as it continuously updates with next steps and key dates as they become available.  

Once you have told us your decision and paid your confirmation deposit, you will receive further information from us via email and access to our online orientation portal once it is ready. The portal will outline your next steps in greater detail. 

Decided to attend Columbia? Here are the next steps.

Please note: If you are planning to attend, you are required to submit a $450 tuition deposit to confirm your enrollment.

• Submit your FAFSA

  How do you plan to pay for graduate school? If you are a domestic student, we recommend that you complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at studentaid.gov. Your FAFSA results determine your eligibility for federal student loans and for Federal Work Study positions, and it can be useful to have these options on file. 

   

• Submit required documents
  
  

  Before you can start classes at Columbia, we will require a few documents:

  • Submit Your Immunization Records
    • Illinois law requires that all students born on or after January 1, 1957, who enroll at least part-time (6 credit hours or more) must prove that they have immunity from certain communicable diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, measles, rubella and mumps. Proof of immunity must be on file at the institution the student is currently attending.
    • Starting Fall 2021, students will also be required to receive the COVID vaccine or start a COVID vaccine course by July 15, 2021. More information on the COVID vaccine requirement is available here.
      If you do not have a complete immunization record on file by the end of the eighth week of your first semester (not including the Summer semester), a registration hold will be placed on your academic record, and you will not be eligible to register for the following semester. For questions, or to find out where to send your records, click here.
  • Submit Copies of Your Official Transcripts (If Applicable)
    • If at the time you applied for admission you had not yet finished your bachelor's degree, then you must remember to ask your college or university to send us a final, official copy of your transcript once your bachelor's degree has posted. You will not be able to enroll in classes until we have received proof of your completed degree. If you're unsure of whether we have a final and official copy of your transcript on file, please contact us at 312.369.7260.
• Plan your move

  Are you new to the Chicago area, and looking for apartments here for the first time? We will provide information on relocating in our online orientation portal through Canvas. Be on the lookout for additional invitations from us to events hosted by the School of Graduate Studies team about relocating and Chicago.  

• Stay in touch with us
  Office 365 is the official student email of Columbia. After you've confirmed your enrollment, be on the lookout for further instructions on creating your Office 365 account. All future communications from Columbia will be sent to this address, so it is important that you check it frequently.
• Connect with your new classmates

  Want to meet your cohort? Looking for a roommate? We encourage you to use the discussion boards in our online orientation portal through Canvas.

  Interested in learning about what current students and alumni are up to? Be sure to "like" Columbia's Graduate Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. 

Are you an international graduate student?

If accepted for admission, international students must also submit the following, as applicable, as soon as possible after receiving their decision letter. 

• Submit your international transcript evaluation (if applicable)
  • If you received your undergraduate degree from a school outside of the United States, you need to submit an international transcript evaluation that states that your degree is the equivalent of a United States Bachelor’s Degree. If you did not submit this document during the application process, you will not be able to confirm your spot until we have the evaluation on file. 

  More information on this transcript requirement is available on our international application page.

• Pay your confirmation deposit
  Submit your $450 confirmation deposit
  

  • The confirmation deposit secures your spot in the incoming class and initiates a review of your file by our International Student and Scholar Services, so that they may issue you a SEVIS I-20 Certificate of Eligibility (one of the items required in order to obtain a visa). Note that your I-20 cannot be issued until all the required documents (below) have been received. Your deposit can be paid on your status page at apply.colum.edu/status. 
• Complete your I-20 request form 
  • Your status page contains an I-20 request form outlining the documents that you will need to submit in order to receive your I-20. Log into your status page at apply.colum.edu/status to complete the form. Email the School of Graduate Studies team at gradstudy@colum.edu if you have questions about this form or process.