2010 Application Information Post #1 Changes in the Process for 2010 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

2010 Application Information Post #1 Changes in the Process for 2010 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Admission work pretty much follows an annual cycle and if you have been following the blog you know that much of the focus has been on wrapping up the current cycle of those who will be joining us this fall.   The bulk of admission travel and outreach happens during the fall months, however I have noticed that email traffic is picking up regarding the new application year that is ahead of us. I wanted to post an entry to assure those interested in applying for spring 2010 or fall 2010 that we will have plenty of content coming your way soon.   And for you incoming students, we still have information for you so stay tuned as well.   Thanks to all the new students that have been sending in photos!   If you have sent photos, rest assured I will get them up eventually, and if you have not sent photos yet, please do. For you future applicants, the Admissions Committee has been meeting over the past month to discuss how we can make the application process better for both those who apply and those who read the applications.   We have made some decisions and my staff and I are working with our technical crew as well as Senior members of the Committee to put everything in order for the coming year. The Committee had two main goals in mind this year.   First, we hope to make the process of submitting documents easier.   Second, we hope that some slight changes to what we ask for in the application will help the Committee to better evaluate candidates for admission as well as give candidates a better opportunity to explain their qualifications for our programs. I do not want to sound too cryptic or give too much away at this point.   The real gist of this entry is to assure you that the decisions we are making are in the best interests of all involved.   I can tell you that our goal is to have the new application go live on August 15th.   If you have started an application you will notice at this point there is no option to choose Spring 2010 or Fall 2010 as your application semester.   When the new application goes live these choices will be enabled, along with some modified instructions. Please do not fret, we will not be asking anything radically different, we will just be asking applicants to submit similar information in different formats.   One thing that will stay the same is our deadlines.   The spring deadline will be October 1st and the fall deadline will be January 5th.   So stay tuned and in the coming weeks I will be rolling out the changes we will be making in the applcation process for the coming year.