Our primary goal is to work with you and your family in developing a plan to pay for college. We want to help you achieve your goal of attending Columbia University and we do not want the cost of attending Columbia to be a barrier to your applying for admission. We understand that paying for college is a concern for most families, and as a result we have outlined a few facts about financial aid at Columbia:
- Columbia is need-blind for US Citizens & Permanent Residents, citizens of Canada and Mexico and persons granted refugee visas by the US. As a result, the Office of Admissions considers your application without regard to your financial need.
- Financial Aid at Columbia is need-based. There are no academic, athletic or talent-based institutional scholarships.
- Columbia meets 100% of the demonstrated financial need for all students admitted as first-years, including foreign students. And we continue to meet your 100% of your demonstrated financial need for all four years of study.
- Columbia admits a large number of foreign students who apply and receive a substantial amount of financial aid. However, Columbia is not need blind for foreign students. If admitted and you demonstrate financial need, then Columbia will meet 100% of your demonstrated financial.
- Columbia is need-blind for transfer students. Though transfer students are admitted regardless of their financial need we do have a limited amount of funds available to fund transfer students.
- Columbia has launched a $4 billion fundraising campaign. One of the primary goals of this campaign is to raise $425 million for financial aid.
- John Kluge, CC’37 pledges $400 million for financial aid. Half of the $400 million will be targeted toward supporting and expanding existing financial aid programs for Columbia College.









