We appreciate your interest in Columbia University. There is no penalty for submitting documents after the deadline, but we encourage you to complete your financial aid application as soon as possible. Explore the resources on this page as you work to complete your financial aid application at Columbia. Please contact us with any questions you may have.
- Review Financial Aid Application Requirements
Understand the forms and documents that help us determine a student’s eligibility for financial aid.
US Citizens or Eligible Non-citizens
Confirm that you have correctly listed the student Social Security Number and full legal name on the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.
- 2016 tax documents should be submitted through the College Board IDOC service. You will receive instructions from the College Board 3-5 days after submitting the CSS Profile. If either the parent or the student does not file taxes, please submit a Tax Non-Filer Form to our office instead.
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Do not use the IDOC service to submit your tax documents. Please send them by mail or by fax directly to our office. If either the parent or the student does not file taxes, please submit a Tax Non-Filer Form instead.
- Please have all documents translated into English but report all figures in local currency.
- Track your Application Status
Log in with your Columbia Student ID to view which materials have been received.
If the document tracking system shows that all the required materials have been received, you do not need to take any further action at this time.
If you have submitted materials through IDOC that are not yet listed as received in our system, please be patient. There is no need to resubmit those documents.
Please submit any other forms or materials that may be missing as soon as possible. Do not email documents to our office, as email is not a secure method for transmitting confidential information.
- Submit Non-Custodial Parent Information
While the FAFSA only includes information about your custodial parent, Columbia requires information about both your custodial and non-custodial parent.
- For students with divorced or separated parents, the student will provide the additional household's parent email address in the "Additional Parent Information" and "Additional Parent Application" sections of the CSS Profile. The additional household's parent will receive an email from College Board with a link to submitting the CSS Profile. The additional household's parent(s) submit their information online separately from the parent(s) the student indicated living most with during the past year.
- Report Special Circumstances
If your family has additional information about your financial situation that you would like us to consider with in your application, include an explanation on the CSS Profile “Special Circumstances.” You can also contact us at ugrad-finaid@columbia.edu with an explanation of your individual circumstances. A financial aid officer will review the information and reach out to you if we need any further details.
Your explanation should include information about the amount, frequency and start-date and end-date of your special circumstances.
If you have any questions about completing your financial aid application, please contact our office.