Admissions Requirements
Applications for admission from qualified men and women for September entrance must be received no later than January 1. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted. You may not apply to more than one department within Columbia Business School’s PhD Program.
An application fee of $100 in the form of a credit or debit card must be submitted in tandem with your application.
An application is not considered complete until the fee has been paid. You may use Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover when using our online application.
Our PhD Program is full-time only. We do not offer a part-time course of study. The average completion time is five years.
All applicants must use the online application technology. Columbia Business School’s Doctoral Program does not distribute hard-copy applications.
Program Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or the equivalent, representing a four-year course of study in an accredited college or university, is required for admission.
A master’s degree is not required, although many applicants have a master’s degree in such fields as economics, engineering, psychology, and statistics. Superior academic performance is expected. Those who hold American PhD or ScD degrees or their foreign equivalents are not normally eligible for admission. (Occasionally, an exception to this rule can be arranged.)
All applicants to all Divisions may take either the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT).
Please Note
- The GRE is administered by Educational Testing Service at numerous centers throughout the United States and abroad.
- Further information about the GMAT is available from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). There is no a minimum test score requirement for the GRE or the GMAT.
- All foreign applicants must also take either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the IELTS unless they received a degree from an institution where English was the language of instruction.
- Test scores are only one component of the admission package, and all applications will be reviewed thoroughly.
- There are absolutely no waivers for the GRE, GMAT or TOEFL requirements.
Enrollment Commitment Deposit
Students admitted to the program are required to pay a deposit to reserve a place in the entering class. This commitment deposit can be waived for an applicant who is already a registered student at Columbia University. For those students receiving financial aid, this deposit is refunded after the successful completion of one term in the program; it is not refundable in the event that the admitted student fails to register at the School.
