In-Person

• Doctoral Admissions

  Applicants who already have a Master of Science degree or equivalent may apply directly to the doctoral degree program. All applicants are expected to have earned the bachelor’s degree in engineering or in a cognate scientific program.

  Applications for admission with financial aid are due in December for the fall semester in the next academic year. All applications must be submitted by mid-February for the fall semester and by the beginning of October for the spring semester. Final decisions for fall admissions will be sent out the week of April 15.

  Meet Our Faculty

  ---

  Requirements

  Please refer to the School of Engineering and Applied Science's Graduate Admissions website for full application details.

  The Engineering School does not admit students holding the BS degree directly to doctoral studies; admission is offered either to the MS program or to the MS program/doctoral track. Admissions standards for the latter category are generally higher than for the former.

  Applicants holding an appropriate MS degree from another institution may apply directly to the doctoral program. The Department of Biomedical Engineering also admits students into the 4-2 program, which provides the opportunity for students holding a bachelor’s degree from certain physical sciences to receive the MS degree after two years of study at Columbia.

  Graduate Fellowships

  All graduate students are strongly encouraged to apply for individual fellowships, such as those awarded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. Students in our department have been highly successful in obtaining these awards and some (but not all) opportunities are listed below. Once admitted, our graduate fellowship advisor, Professor Lance Kam can provide more information on applying for external fellowships.
  
  Do not hesitate to contact individual faculty advisors to discuss application support.

  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships
  • U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
  • Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (For recent recipients of U.S. permanent residency status of citizenship)
  • Fulbright Programs for Foreign Students
  • Fulbright Programs for U.S. Students
  • Further resources

  Eligible master’s students from underrepresented minorities can apply for GEM Fellowships.
  
  Every year, we elect several of our most outstanding new applicants to receive a Presidential Fellowship from the Office of the Dean of Engineering. This prestigious award covers stipend and full tuition for graduate studies within the Department for a minimum of four years.

• MS leading to PhD Program

  The MS leading to PhD program provides an opportunity for bright students who have not yet received a Master's degree to apply to PhD studies at Columbia Biomedical Engineering. Once accepted, students will complete their MS degree requirements in conjunction with their PhD research with a faculty advisor in the lab.

  More
• Doctoral Committee and Thesis

  Each student is expected to submit a research proposal and present it to a thesis committee that consists of at least three faculty members.

  More
• Doctoral Qualifying Examination

  The Biomedical Engineering doctoral qualifying exam is an important evaluation of a student’s mastery of broad, coursework-based knowledge and their ability to analyze, synthesize, present, and discuss contemporary concepts in a specific area of research.

  More

Why Study Mining Engineering at Columbia?

• Global Energy Transition Focus

  Tackle the pressing challenge of sourcing minerals for renewable energy technologies and infrastructure.

• Modernized, Industry-Aligned Curriculum

  Our curriculum has been specially designed to reflect current industry practices, incorporating technical advances, emerging trends and vital soft skills such as strong teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills.

• A Legacy of Leadership

  Columbia's School of Mines, founded in 1864, laid the groundwork for engineering education in the U.S. Our Mining program continues that tradition with a renewed focus on climate and sustainability.

• Sustainability-Centered Engineering

  Learn to integrate environmental stewardship and community engagement into every phase of the mining lifecycle.

• Enhanced Career Prospects

  This specialized training will distinguish you from other engineering graduates, making you a highly sought-after professional in the mining industry.

  Our dedicated Assistant Director of Graduate Career Placement can provide you with expert advice both during your studies and after graduation. You’ll receive personalized career guidance, application support, tailored workshops, and access to exclusive job opportunities within the earth and environmental engineering sector and beyond. 

  With strong industry connections, we also facilitate networking events and internships that give you the experience and confidence to stand out in the competitive job market.

• Major or Minor in Mining Engineering

  If you are interested in our department but want to major in another field, you can still minor in Mining Engineering. Due to our broad and multidisciplinary scope, a number of our courses are already required across other engineering departments. As well as developing interdisciplinary knowledge, this structure will ensure your workload is manageable.

Requirements

• Application Requirements

  What we look for:

  • Transcripts and school reports. We accept all secondary school qualifications (AP, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge A Levels, National School curricula, etc.). We do not have standardized requirements or “cut-off” test scores for first-year admission but we do expect to see coursework in physics and calculus.
  • Teacher recommendations. We would like to learn more about your contributions in the classroom and at school, as well as what you might offer to your Columbia classmates.
  • Responses to our Columbia-specific application questions. Your answers will provide us with insight into your intellectual interests and the way in which your curiosity and sense of community might translate to Columbia’s campus.
  • A personal statement. We review applications in context, taking into account the multiple, intersecting ways that you have been shaped by your family circumstances. Understanding who you are, what your home responsibilities are, whether you have experienced any systemic and situational barriers and advantages will ensure we can review your application fairly and accurately.
  • English language proficiency. If your home language is not English or if your secondary school studies were predominantly in another language, you will need to provide evidence of your English language proficiency. Visit our English Proficiency Requirements for accepted exams and minimum score requirements.

  How to Apply

• Degree Requirements

  BS in Mining Engineering

  To graduate from our BS program you must complete:

  • 18 credits (approximately six courses) of technical Mining Engineering electives during your final two years.
  • The Columbia liberal arts core. This is typically satisfied during the first two years, although you can undertake non-technical electives during your final two years.

  Minor in Mining Engineering

  To earn a minor in Mining Engineering, you must complete:

  • Six courses selected from a specified list approved by your undergraduate advisor.

Why Pursue a Master's in Chemical Engineering at Columbia?

• Research Opportunities

  Engage with research across a broad range of areas in the Department of Chemical Engineering and beyond. Faculty are working on projects in biopolymers, protein engineering, carbon capture, the biochemistry of DNA sequencing, and more, while centers like the multidisciplinary Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center are developing sustainable technologies to address pressing global problems. 

• Holistic Expertise

  Tackle challenges from many angles to find nuanced solutions. Faculty within Chemical Engineering collaborate with experts at Columbia in other areas, like public policy, environmental science, and public health, which will expand your perspective and help you learn to develop responsible technologies that keep the big picture in mind.

• World-Class Facilities

  Enjoy access to state-of-the-art research instrumentation and graduate with confidence to work in any setting. You’ll find specialized equipment in faculty labs and shared facilities in the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center, the Soft Materials laboratory, and the Columbia Genome Center, as well as in the Department of Chemistry. 
  
   

• Career-Focused Concentrations

  Take advantage of concentrations in Climate Solutions, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceuticals, Data and Computational Science, and Electrochemical Energy to build experience in areas of growth and increasing importance to addressing global challenges. 
• Comprehensive Career Support

  Our dedicated Assistant Director of Graduate Career Placement can provide you with expert advice both during your studies and after graduation. You’ll receive personalized career guidance, application support, tailored workshops, and access to exclusive job opportunities within the chemical engineering sector and beyond.

• MS/PhD Track Option

  If you hold an appropriate bachelor’s degree in Engineering and already know you want to undertake a PhD, you can apply to our MS/PhD Track. You will be considered a doctoral student and will be eligible to receive equivalent funding. If you are not successful, you could still be offered a place on our MS program.

• Entrepreneurship Opportunities

  Considering launching a startup during your studies or after you graduate? Columbia Engineering Innovation, Design & Entrepreneurship team can help you develop the business acumen to successfully launch your venture.

  The team offers specialist entrepreneurship courses, bootcamps, networking opportunities and spaces for prototyping and testing. They also organize competitions with opportunities to win seed funding. 

  Explore Entrepreneurship Opportunities

Chemical Engineering Master's Program Details

• Admission Requirements

  To be admitted to our Master of Science program, students must demonstrate B-average or better performance in a science or engineering undergraduate curriculum. 

  Besides undergraduate GPA, the MS admissions committee also considers GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and a personal statement. 

  All MS applicants are expected to have completed General Chemistry I and II, Calculus I, Calculus II, Calculus III (multi-variable calculus), and an Ordinary Differential Equations Course. 

  While most applicants for the Master of Science program have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, this is not necessarily a requirement. The field of chemical engineering is broad in scope, so we encourage applicants who hold undergraduate degrees in chemistry, polymer science, physics, materials science, or any engineering discipline to apply. 

  While the exact program for each student is adapted to his or her previous training, students admitted without a chemical engineering undergraduate degree are normally required to participate in the Scientist to Engineer program. This special program saves the MS student both the time and expense of the undergraduate chemical engineering program. 

  A list of application requirements, including materials you will need to submit to be considered for admission into our program, is described here.

  Full Application Requirements
• Scientist to Engineer

  A student who is admitted to the MS program without an undergraduate degree that is equivalent to an ABET accredited chemical engineering baccalaureate degree is given Scientist to Engineer (S2E) status. These students must complete CHEN E4001, Essentials of Chemical Engineering A, and CHEN E4002, Essentials of Chemical Engineering B, in their first semester. These courses cover essentials from the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum in an intensive, accelerated way in 6 credits. These 6 points of credit must be taken and passed in addition to the 30 points of graduate credit required for the MS itself, so that these students need a total of 36 credits to graduate. Typically this can be accomplished in 3 semesters.

  After completing CHEN E4001 and CHEN E4002, students admitted with S2E status must also take CHEN E4010, Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering, as part of the core requirement, and a graduate-level chemical engineering course with substantial design content as one of their technical electives.

  Chemical Engineering Scientist to Engineer (S2E) FAQ
• Beyond the Master of Science Program

  Students in the Master of Science program who later decide they would like to obtain a PhD in chemical engineering at Columbia would need to formally apply to Columbia’s PhD program after completion of their first term at Columbia. Acceptance into the PhD program would not be assured. As such, students would be in competition with all other applicants to the PhD program.

  Applicants holding a BS in chemical engineering who wish to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at Columbia should apply directly to the MS leading to PhD program rather than only the Master of Science program. While it is against school policy to allow application to more than one program/department per term, applicants to the MS leading to PhD program may choose to indicate on their application that they would consider admission to the MS only. 

• Program Educational Objectives

  Graduates of the Chemical Engineering Program achieve success in one or more of the following within a few years of graduation:

  1. Careers in industries that require technical expertise in chemical engineering.
  2. Leadership positions in industries that require technical expertise in chemical engineering.
  3. Graduate-level studies in chemical engineering and related technical or scientific fields (e.g. biomedical or environmental engineering, materials science).
  4. Careers outside of engineering that take advantage of an engineering education, such as business, management, finance, law, medicine, or education.
  5. A commitment to life-long learning and service within their chosen profession.
• Important Links

  html Copy code

  • Bulletin
  • Old Chemical Engineering Study Plan*
  • New Chemical Engineering Study Plan*
  • Chemical Engineering Registration Form
  • "Old" Chemical Engineering Technical Electives List
  • "New" Chemical Engineering Technical Electives List
  • Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Concentrations
  • Course Equivalency Form for Combined Plan Students
  • Course Equivalency Form for Transfer Students
  • SEAS Outside/Summer Credit Approval Form
  • Chemical Engineering Senior Thesis Guidelines

  *Note: students in the Classes of 2026 & 2027 may choose to use either the "new" or "old" study plan. Students in the Class of 2028 and later are required to use the "New" study plan.

• Student Outcomes

  Upon graduation, we expect our students to have:

  1. An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
  2. An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
  3. An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
  4. An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
  5. An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
  6. An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.
  7. An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.
• Enrollment and Graduation Statistics

  	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
  Sophomores	19	15	11	13	19	25
  Juniors	38	30	23	19	17	22
  Seniors	31	37	29	22	19	16
  Total	88	82	63	54	55	63

  	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
  Graduates	31	39	29	21	20	14

Requirements

• Degree Requirements

  To earn your PhD, you must:

  • Only for students who have not yet earned an MS before their time in our program: Earn satisfactory grades in the four core courses (CHEN E4010 MATH METHODS IN CHEMICAL ENGIN, CHEN E4110 MECHANISMS OF TRANSPORT, CHEN E4330 ADVANCED CHEMICAL KINETICS, CHEN E4130 ADV CHEM ENGI THERMODYNAMICS/CHAP E4120 STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND COMP METHODS);
  • pass a Qualifying Examination;
  • pass a Proposal Examination within 12 months of passing the Qualifying Examination;
  • pass a Dissertation Defense; and
  • satisfy course requirements beyond the four core courses.

Requirements

• Application Requirements

  Mandatory requirements:

  • Online application form
  • MS and BS degrees from accredited institutions in engineering or a related science discipline, such as earth, climate, environmental science, chemistry, biology, physics, or hydrology.
  • Transcripts from every post-secondary institution attended
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Resumé or CV
  • Personal statement
  • $85 non-refundable application fee
  • International applicants, or applicants whose undergraduate and/or master’s degree was received in a country in which English is not the official spoken language, must submit:
    • Results of an English language test. Accepted tests include the Test of English as a Foreign Language iBT (TOEFL) - including TOEFL iBT Home Edition, International English Language Testing System Academic (IELTS), Pearson Test of English (PTE Academic), or Duolingo English Test (DET). The ETS School Code for the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is 2111.
    • Translation of the official transcript(s) and degree/diploma certificate(s) if the institution(s) attended does not issue transcripts in English. The translation must be conducted by a reputable service provider. 

  Optional Requirements

  • Any publications that you have written. Whilst this is not mandatory research, this experience is valued.
  • Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test Scores (School Code: 2111)
  • You may be invited to an interview
• Degree Requirements

  To earn your PhD, you must:

  • Complete 60 credits, with up to 30 credits transferable from previous graduate coursework
  • Pass a qualifying examination
  • Successfully defend your research proposal