We just made proving English proficiency so much easier COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

We just made proving English proficiency so much easier COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Im often asked if there are separate admissions deadlines for our international students. The answer, simply put, is no. All deadlines are open to all students, regardless of their nationality.  The same goes for our application materials. For example, no one has to submit extra paperwork in order to qualify for our general fellowships (just meet the predetermined deadline). However, international students do have to prove their language proficiency before they apply to SIPA. Until today, international students only had two options: take the TOEFL or IELTS exam. Depending on where they lived  those exams werent always the easiest to arrange;  sporadic exam dates and minimal locations were frequent complaints. Im happy to share that our office has approved a third English-language proficiency exam, known as the PTE Academic. We added it to the list of approved exams because the PTE exam is offered in more locations than the TOEFL and IELTS.  PTE also offers students flexible test sessions, a flexible re-take policy, and results are typically available within 5 working days versus 10-15 days turnaround for the TOEFL.  Lastly, its also  accepted at a number of academic institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, Canada and the US making it easier for you to share scores with several institutions. So while youre making arrangements to take your English-language proficiency exam, keep in mind theres now a third option. (Well update our website to reflect this change, but please forgive us if we miss a page!) For your reference, here are the minimum and preferred score requirements for all three exams. The minimum score is whats required in order to apply to SIPA. While the preferred score means you wont be required to enroll in a special English language course  once admitted to SIPA. If you have questions, just check the blogs archives for more information on these requirements. TOEFL Minimum: 100 TOEFL Preferred: 110 School code is 2161 (there is no department code) IELTS Minimum: 7.0  IELTS Preferred: 7.5 Select Columbia SIPA from the list of schools PTE Minimum: 68  PTE Preferred: 76 [Image courtesy of Pearson]