Admissions
Columbia Journalism School’s degree programs are designed for a diverse and global student community, from those with little to no journalism experience to those who have been working in the field for years. Our students arrive at Pulitzer Hall hailing from dozens of countries and states and from a wide range of educational backgrounds.
The Application for the 2025-26 school year is now open, and this year, there is no fee to apply.
Learn more about the application fee waiver and the School's commitment to Access.
Where to Begin
Why Columbia?
Centers and Institutes
You will have the chance to engage with our eight world-class centers and institutes, which serve as global industry leaders in journalism innovation, research and training.
World-Class Faculty
You will have the opportunity to take small, hands-on classes in all storytelling mediums taught by distinguished journalists, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, the National Magazine Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Report in N.Y.C.
You will tell stories across the vibrant communities of New York, an inexhaustibly exciting and international city that is also one of the great media capitals.
Career Development
You will participate in the largest journalism career expo in the world and receive thorough, one-on-one career development counseling and the year-round opportunity to network with news organizations from across the U.S. and around the globe.
Prizes
You will have the opportunity to meet with many of the recipients and jurors of the preeminent journalism prizes that are administered by the school.
Alumni Network
When you graduate, you will join the more than 15,000 members of the Columbia Journalism School alumni community, which spans the globe and offers professional and social networking throughout the year.
Explore Our Degree Programs
9.5 months
The Master of Science Program offers a broad and flexible curriculum in which you can select a world-class education in the journalism mediums and subjects that matter to you, all while you gain the fundamental professional skills in reporting, storytelling and ethics that will make you stand out throughout your career.
9 months
The Master of Arts trains experienced journalists to go deeper and equips them with subject-area expertise in one of four concentration areas - Arts & Culture, Business & Economics, Politics, or Science - so they can explain complicated issues to the public through ambitious, compelling storytelling.
Many Paths Lead to Columbia
“Whether you are new to journalism or looking to accelerate your career in the field, Columbia has degree programs that will meet you where you are and help you achieve your professional goals. Regardless of where you’ve studied, worked or lived before, if you are passionate about storytelling, this is the ideal community for you.”
The Columbia Student Experience
“You might think coming here: ‘It’s Columbia, it’s an Ivy League, it’s going to be competitive.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth. Everybody is here to support one another. And we all have our individual goals, but everybody was super open to giving advice and accepting feedback. It was like we were all working as one to get to the end goal, which was graduation and then to continue our careers. Some of my best friends now are the people whom I met when we were all in front of Pulitzer Hall at orientation.”
“The M.A. Program is something that will change your life. Some mornings, I still look back on it because I miss everybody. I miss my former classmates. I miss the relationships that we’ve established with our professors. I had not experienced that level of support before — it was new to me. If you know that you’ve worked hard, that you have some experience in reporting and that you find you’ve been trying to find your niche, I would tell you to go for it. It’s the experience of a lifetime.”
“I always knew I wanted to come to Columbia because it’s a world leader in audio and broadcast journalism. All of the professors here are industry leaders, so I knew I would be learning from the best in the business. I remember looking at pictures of Columbia when I was living in Belfast, and never really believing I could make it here, but I did. And, in my time here so far, my skills, my abilities and my passion for this business have just been utterly transformed. I’ve never been more excited to start a career in journalism.”
“Choosing the J-School was probably one of the best decisions I could have made for my career trajectory, not only because of the work I did and the tools that I got, but because of the people I met. The network there is immense. And after I got published in The New York Times, the amount of people from the J-School who reached out to me, and created a network with me just from that one article, was really awesome.”
"I definitely think people should apply if they are determined to pursue a career in journalism and to use the skills they gain to report in the public interest - because it's a big investment for anyone. Applying was one of the best decisions that I made, and I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to study here and to be a part of the J-School family. I think that's the same for people in the other J-School programs too - you build really tight connections with each other through the challenges everyone faces together."
"When I applied to Columbia, I hadn't really thought of the fact that I would be doing research in New York, the city with the highest concentration of media. Some of my best moments were visiting the Associated Press headquarters, digging in the archives, looking through old boxes - as well as hanging out in the newsroom at the New York Times."