OUR PHILOSOPHY

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 need.
• 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.