As detailed in the SEAS Bulletin, all higher degrees from the school are contingent on a minimum level of English language skill, which is established through a test administered by the American Language Program (ALP, Columbia's ESL school). If English is not your native language, when you first arrive at Columbia you will take the ALP's English Placement Test. To receive the MS degree, you must achieve a level 8; if you do not when you first take the test, you will have to improve your English and retake the test until level 8 is achieved. The ALP limits the frequency with which you can take the test to once every 6 months.
Note that this requirement comes from the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS, a/k/a the Dean's office), not the Electrical Engineering department; we in the department have no discretion in this matter. For their part, the Dean's office have become very strict about this requirement. We have had several unfortunate incidents of students not receiving their degree, despite having met all the department's requirements, because their English proficiency was inadequate.
It is particularly important to make sure you achieve the English proficiency in time to graduate as normal if you are here on a visa and are planning to take advantage of practical training, since being in the limbo of completing the department's requirements but not having received your degree can mess up your visa status.
Previous: 2.9 What kinds of financial aid exist? - Next: 3.1 How do I choose which courses to take?
Back to Columbia MSEE FAQ index
Generated by build-faq-index on Wed Sep 12 17:45:24 EDT 2007