Visiting Student Programs and Postbaccalaureate Studies at Columbia SPS

Hello good afternoon everyone.

Welcome to the online information session for visiting students, programs and post Baccalaureate studies at Columbia University. It's the afternoon for you all in Tunis. It's the morning for myself.

But I'm glad that we're all here and able to join today. First, let's make sure that everyone can hear me properly. If you can hear me, can you please type yes in the chat box?

OK great, it looks like I'm coming through loud and clear.

I'd like to let everyone know that work we are recording today's presentation and you'll be receiving an email with the link to that recording, so you will be able to go over all the information we're discussing here today.

We are happy to have you here tonight. I also want to remind everyone of some virtual webinar etiquette.

If you would have any questions, please go ahead and type it here in the chat box. It is yours for you to use and mind to view an answer questions.

And if you have anything else, if any technical things go wrong, anything like that, please let me know here in the chat and that's how we'll be able to interact. So without further ado, let's get started.

OK, so here's our agenda for today. I will introduce myself and our school. I'll give you a little context for how Columbia is operating during the time of COVID-19 an I'll be going over our post Baccalaureate and visiting students programs as promised. Finally, I'll be going over some vital application information.

And what you can do for next steps?

My name is Bud. Got hook. I am in admissions counselor for Columbia's non degree programs which the visiting Students program in Post Baccalaureate is housed under. I also am a counselor for some of our Master of Science programs. I'll be happy to talk to you about that later if you are interested.

Normally I would be joined by my supervisor, Vicki Yang. She's the associate director of international recruitment. Unfortunately, she had a meeting. Rescheduled is unable to join us, but she is here in Spirit as well.

So Columbia University, as you may know, we are, according to the USN News World Report, top three University in the United States. We are the 5th oldest University, having been founded in 1754 through them to the present, we have remained one of the world's most important Centers for research in all areas and disciplines. We have over 4000 full-time faculty who are widely recognized in their fields.

Over 30,000 students, representing almost all of the world's countries and throughout our institutional history, we have had the privilege.

Of hosting more than 80 Nobel Prize winners. So just to give you a snapshot of the intellectual and academic activity Columbia just happening in all corners of our campus.

We are the School of Professional Studies. One of the 20 prestigious Schools of Columbia University and we are under the Faculty of Arts and Science, which is the consortium that teaches the humanities and the arts. We are known for our flexible class schedules and different modes of study which accommodate our mostly working professional population. On top of that, we are the main.

Armed, that administers Columbia's non degree programs, which does include the visiting students and post Baccalaureate program.

Excuse me for any background noise.

School of Professional Studies offers a various range of programs for Masters degree programs to a diverse list of non degree programs including certificates, certifications. We have some programs in business that you would be eligible to study as well. We also House Columbia's High School and pre college programs. We administer Columbia's summer terms, which are included in visiting and post BAC students.

We also have an English language program for English language learners as well as programs to help with Graduate School preparation.

The 17 Masters degree programs offered by SPS. What we call school professional studies are in academic disciplines focused on emerging market needs that cover business, management, science and humanities disciplines. If you are looking to take the next step in your academic, intellectual or professional life.

Are Masters programs offer rigorous academics, real world application and immediate business impact to take you to the next level in your career. Among these 17 programs, there are six STEM designated programs which you can see marked on your screen.

Our scholar practitioner approach is at the core of our commitment to academic excellence. Our scholar practitioner approach means that the faculty that teach our courses are also professionals, seasoned professionals, and leaders in their field. So our professors, including our academic director's that you see on our screen, lead our programs.

And they are thought leaders within their domains with years and even decades of professional practice.

This also ensures the curriculum stays relevant in today's rapidly evolving marketplace.

As a school of professional studies, SBS recognizes that a key driver for enrollment in our programs is to have a positive impact on one's career.

We have our own career Resource Center called the Career Design Lab, staffed with industry relations and career development specialists who work to build out relationships and opportunities within organizations.

And with students to develop skills.

We think of our Career Center as an ecosystem rather than just one place, and the office is located in Midtown Manhattan by Times Square. If you are familiar, but our resources and programs extend beyond just that location, we assist students with identifying the right career paths, connecting them to the real world of work, through customized connections and communities. We provide workshops, connect you with employers.

And even provide support for you as alone.

SPS Masters degrees are typically either recent college graduates already in their career but looking to pivot to a new field or role, or looking to accelerate their careeer most of the time in their own organizations.

Many programs have students in all three stages of their career taking classes together, each bringing something unique to the classroom.

Other programs also offer executive pathways, with students with seven to 10 or more years of experience in a cohort.

So some of you may be currently in an undergraduate and graduate program and may not be able to pursue a Masters degree just yet. You may be wondering about our other options, and that's what we'll be talking about today. Our short-term non degree programs allow you to take courses for credit at Columbia without committing too.

The long haul for another degree, and here are just some of the options of study that you could partake in an endeavor in at Columbia.

So this is interesting and study students interested in studying at Columbia. Excuse me for one semester or one academic year can look to our visiting students and post back studies program.

The Visiting student program also classified as a study abroad option for international students such as yourself.

Are open to undergraduate and graduate students.

The Post Baccalaureate studies program is designed for those who have completed their degree and want to come back and study, enhance their job performance, or perhaps pivot their careers and study a new subject area for personal development.

Get the opportunity to study with Columbia students. Choose from a wide array of subjects and customize your course plan with our team of academic advisors.

Here is our comprehensive list of certification answer tific IT programs.

Three of these programs are offered in summer, which you can see on your screen. To find out specific information for each certificate, please check out our website.

The Columbia Alumni Association.

Which you will be a part of if you complete either one of our Masters degrees or certificate programs is a global network connecting Colombians of all schools, undergraduate and graduate to one another?

To contribute to our intellectual and social fabric of our community, this alumni network boasts 350,000 members around the world. Through more than 100 regional clubs, including 65 international locations, I would not doubt that there is one in Tunis, although I should have looked that information up for the presentation. There also shared interest groups such as the Women's Business Society.

The business venture community and of course, this network.

Enables you to network around the world. Play an active role in the University and continue staying connected with Colombians from all walks of life.

So I'll just pause here for any questions in general about Columbia SPS. I'll give it about a couple of minutes.

In case there's anything that I could clarify for you here.

If anyone has any questions or throughout the presentation, please feel free to drop it in the chat.

So before we go a little dot. I'm sorry before we go a little bit deeper into the visiting students and post back program. I do want to take a moment to talk about current updates. Living in the time of Kovid and how this is impacting students at Columbia. Even right now, while there is.

Some rates of covid happening in New York City, Columbia is making sure that every single possible step in ensuring students safety as well as the safety of others is being made. the University has developed a number of strategies to ensure our students are able to study while remaining a safe and healthy as possible. This includes our hyflex modality, which allows students who are online an in person to take courses.

Uh, the same courses so they so they can contribute and attend at the same time. They have the choice depending on their preference and their location. We have testing, social distancing, PE and all the all other measures to make sure that everything can operate.

In the in the semblance that Columbia usually operates and I'm proud to say that in the past two months of our current semester.

We have had virtually 0 problems with executing this University plan and it's become one of the University models for others to look after and adopt.

So first we have expanded our offerings of remote education courses. As I have said.

We also developed, as I mentioned, our hyflex modality. We have 4 to 7 students Max in a room depending on the size. With discussing masks and barriers and of course you can attend the same course online if you choose.

I'm going to drop a video here in the chat box so you can get a visual idea of what this looks like in practice.

And again, the safety of our students is the highest priority and I am happy to say that all of the steps being made is ensuring that that intended goal is met.

Apart from direct educational safety measures, Columbia has taken a huge initiative in keeping our campus safe on the left side of your screen is a picture of our Community resource guide. I'm going to drop that here in our.

Chat box as well.

Website is updated weekly with what our University has done to improve safety measures.

Including improving upon the previous week as well as our testing protocol and infection rate, which is miniscule at this moment. The image on your right is from our Student Resources page, which I will link as well.

Can I link it right here? Columbia wants to make sure that once you are in a program of your choice that you're able to access resources you need to complete it. This website includes links to virtual library research assistants, ways to help others during the pandemic, another vital health information.

It's important for me to present this to you all and for everyone to see that Colombia is taking this pandemic seriously and every measure possible is being made to ensure the health and safety of our students. And again we would not be offering the courses of study that are now if it were not for the success of our of all of these safety measures.

So now we're going to transition to talk a little more in depth about our post Baccalaureate studies. The name Postbaccalaureate refers to after your bachelors degree, so these are courses that you can take after you finish your bachelors degree and would like to come back to take some individual courses. So if you're a student who doesn't want to take.

An entire program, but still wants to earn credit advance in a certain field. Hold on your knowledge that you have acquired up to this point. This could be a program for you. You could take one class in one semester. You could continue on to the next. The choice is yours. I will say that if you are an international student studying on campus, the visa laws require you to be a full time student to take four courses in a semester for online options. These.

Requirements are less strict and you can take less than four if you choose.

So I want to take a moment to highlight the main kinds of students we see in this program. Some of our students have an interest that they would like to explore for personal reasons, including finance. They want to take a course that's aligned with their field. So let's say they're working in a museum and want to take an art history course. Things like that other students have graduated and they're looking for work. They're looking to enhance their resume.

So they'll take courses at our University.

Take courses in fields such as business or economics. Some of our students have been in their desired professional field for awhile an update. Their knowledge, such as an analyst who is looking to take an advanced statistics course, right?

Other students have just started a new job and they're looking to really learn as much as possible and supplement their professional experience with the course. All and other students are.

Applying for grad school and they'd like to boost their overall GPA or otherwise learn new skills and their desired fields so they'll come to us for that.

So these are some of our more popular courses. As you can see from this list, they tend to be.

Courses that can position someone for greater success, either in grad school or in the workplace. But as I said, and as one of my previous slides had mentioned, you can take courses across the University in a wide range of fields that can apply to whatever situation that you might be in, or that you might want to go into. So if you are someone who's really curious about the Civil War.

And you have some position in a history Institute. This could be the place where you could enhance that knowledge. That's just an anecdotal example. If you want to study anything else, chances are there is a class out there for you.

So for our visiting students program, this is pretty much the same deal, except you can take the same courses if you are currently enrolled in your undergraduate or graduate institution.

So if you have let's say some more time during a semester that you'd like to fill with something productive, if you have a summer in between in which you'd like to take courses, you would apply through our visiting students program and a lot of our international students will take advantage of that summer study. Become full time students on our campus, get that New York City an Ivy League experience, and take it back home with them.

They can transfer the course, transfer the credits they receive for the courses that they take, and they can position themselves for better success with the courses that they've taken here. I do want to know in terms of numbers we have on in any given semester rhue about 3000 or more courses in over 100 subject areas.

So now that I've talked about our school and more specifically about our programs, if you are interested in applying, I'm going to talk about our application process.

So for our required application documents, is all done on our website through our online application. There is an $80.00 application fee. When you complete the application form and in order to complete that application form we will need you to submit some required materials. This includes transcripts from all institutions that you have attended. It says unofficial here. If you have any.

US based transcripts.

Of course, if you have transcripts from outside the United States, we will request that you complete an evaluation to have sent to us.

And that's the Wes evaluation that you see towards the bottom. If for any reason because of COVID-19 or other circumstances.

There is a way for us to work with you so that you so that your application and the timing of your application is not compromised by factors beyond your control. So if so, if you are a little worried about that, no worries, we are happy to work with you in that regard.

For both the visiting students, an postbac studies program, we have a statement of purpose required just asking you to, you know, declare what you're interested in, why you're interested in, and how you think these programs can help you and why you think you're qualified, optional, or letters of recommendation from either your professors or employer. We will ask for AUS business format resume detailing your professional experience and professional.

Profile and for international students. The rest of the requirements are down below the West evaluation. As I said, for transcripts for schools that are located outside the United States.

If you are not in English language speaker, a native speaker or if you graduated from a bachelors institution in which the language of study was not English, we will ask you to provide test scores for English proficiency and the tests that we do accept are the TOEFL, the IELTS and dual lingo. All of these tests have rolled out online tests.

That you can take from the comfort of your home.

For your convenience as well as safety at this time.

So important dates to know that you see here our next upcoming semester is spring of 2021. This is usually the semester that begins in January and goes through May. Our application deadline for that is December 28th. If you are an international student interested in applying, I would recommend you to submit earlier so that you have more time for.

Any document processing as well as any visa proceedings. If you do choose to attend in person.

For fall next fall.

Final Deadline is July 30th and again we recommend international students to apply a little earlier, this time by June 1st, just to give that extra time for anything else. If you're interested in studying here for the summer, we have a priority deadline of February 1st so that you can have your application fee waived and receive priority review.

The final deadlines for the summer are.

Are not determined yet, but they will be posted on our website and so you can expect about. You can expect deadlines of around May or so.

More April, but again, you can check our website in the coming weeks for that final determination.

So this is all the information that I have for you today. One last thing is just some frequently asked questions that we get from our applicants. In case this was on any of your minds. We also have time here at the end to go over questions.

So some of these FAQ R is the point the same as a credit.

Our at our institution of Columbia. They are the same thing. It may be different in other universities.

So what is the current tuition rate classes are currently at 2132 per credit and most of the courses that you will be taking or three credits. So each course is around $6500. In terms of scholarships and financial aid, we have a student financial planning office that you can contact at SFP at columbia.edu. For resources I'm going to drop that email here in the chat here.

Just so you have that saved, and again if you need or are curious about any of this information, we are here to assist and support you if you.

Happened to forget misplace anything? No worries. Our team of counselors, happy to assist and provide you the right information.

Next question, do I need to have my application completed in order to submit it? No, you do not, as long as you submit your online application form by the posted deadlines, you can be reviewed, but for any missing materials after the deadline.

Will ask you to provide them so that we can conduct your application. Review your application review does not happen until all of those materials are accepted.

For the deadline to accept an offer to enroll. So let's say you do receive an acceptance letter and you're deciding.

If you would like to attend or not, usually our acceptance letters will say that you'll have 30 days to commit.

During which time you could speak to us about more information. We're happy again to provide that over email, phone and appointments, and if any even if you need a little bit more time than that, that's something that you could request as well.

And the last question, do I need to submit English language scores if my courses are primarily instructed in English?

So you will need to submit if this is the case for you, you'll need to submit proof in order to have the English language test scores waived.

The proof should be submitted in the form of a screenshot from your university's website or a letter from your school. Please note that your undergraduate program must have been taught in English for you to be eligible.

So usually this is a quick quick thing on my website for you to find right.

So that's it for my FAQ in terms of next steps. If you would like to follow up with us, our contact information is on this page. Again, as I said, we are able to assist you.

Over by email or by phone, you can schedule an appointment with myself or any of the other ones. Other councillors I have the appointment link here in the chat box, but I'm going to post it here again. This video platform for some reason is breaking apart this hyperlink, but this entire link is the entire text of this link is all just one link, so just want to.

Put that out there.

So thank you so much for joining. We hope that you received helpful information. We hope that this increased your interest in attending Columbia. If you have any questions, I'll be here for the next while to help answer them, you could put that here in the chat box.

So on behalf of everyone at Columbia University School of Professional Studies on behalf of Vicki and the recruitment team, I appreciate your time here today Ann, for joining me to learn more about our programs again, please use these contact information if you would like to follow up. We do look forward to speaking with you and hopefully receiving your application. We hope you have a good rest of your night and thank you very much.

For your time, take care everybody bye.