Once Admitted

Admitted students will receive an admissions packet detailing necessary steps (included below) to take before departing for France.

Sciences Po conducts a comprehensive orientation program for new international students at the beginning of each term. A student welcome team, composed of French and international students from Sciences Po, will assist newcomers with the course registration process, and organize social and cultural activities.

Step 1: Campus Director Letter
Your campus director at Sciences Po will be an important resource in coordinating many aspects of your transition to your respective campus. Please read this letter carefully for more information on housing, student visas, and new student orientation.

Step 2: Acceptance Reply Form
In order to secure a place in the program, you must send in the Acceptance Reply Form and a $500 deposit in the form of a U.S. check or money order made payable to Columbia University. You must reply by the date on the letter.

Step 3: Financial Aid Applications (Optional)
For students seeking financial aid, there are two applications, which must be submitted no later than the date specified in your admissions packet. In reviewing applications, need and merit are taken into consideration. Please see the forms included in your admissions packet for details.

Step 4: Review Sciences Po Brochure in Detail
Since the first two years of your academic program will be in France, please review the brochure enclosed with your admissions materials from Sciences Po in detail. Information regarding curriculum and student life is discussed in this overview.

Step 5: Accepted Students Day
You are invited to join us for Accepted Students Day on the Columbia University Morningside Heights Campus in New York City.

Obtaining a Student Visa

It can take anywhere from one week to two months for processing time on a French student visa, and the processing time can vary greatly from city to city. Incoming students to the Dual BA Program should consult the website for their local French consulate for current visa processing times. 

Information on which consulates service various areas of the US can be found by visiting: http://www.info-france-usa.org/. For students outside of the US in need of a student visa, please visit: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france/studying-in-france/.

To begin the visa application process, students must log into their Sciences Po Student Space, and to download the “Certificate of Admission," or Certificat de Scolarité. This Certificate, along with their acceptance letter to the Dual BA Program will allow students to begin the visa application process, which is actually handled through an organization called Campus France, a French government agency that serves the needs of international students within France. Their website is: http://www.campusfrance.org/en. Students will need to apply for the Extended-Stay student visa, with residency permit (VLS-TS), under the “Prepare for your Stay” tab. More information on the visa process can be found by visiting the Immigration portion of the Sciences Po Welcome website, as well. For any questions or concerns that may arise as students navigate the visa process, please feel free to contact your individual campus directly.

Administrative Registration

Administrative registration is a process that all students must complete prior to their arrival on campus, and serves as a pre-requisite to academic registration.  Students are assigned a deadline by which they must complete their academic registration, and are advised that it is important to adhere to this deadline in order to ensure timely processing of their documents.

Administrative registration takes place in four-parts:

1. Updating the Application – In this section, students confirm and update their personal and emergency contact information.
2. Calculate Tuition fees and Related Expenses - For students who are not eligible for sliding-scale tuition, they may check off the box that notes: “I do not declare my revenue and will pay the maximum fees.”
3. Payment - Students may choose immediately whether to pay their full year’s tuition at once using a credit card, or whether they prefer to pay in four installments over the course of the year. For students who wish to pay in installments, they will need a French bank account in order to set up this payment plan. Because the first debit takes place on September 5, they may choose this option BEFORE opening their bank account, and add in their routing information at a upon their arrival in France.
4. Supplementary Information - For students coming from outside of France, there is often confusion with completing the fourth step of the administrative registration process, as this step deals with statistical data required by the French government. For students who have not earned a French Baccalauréat, either within or outside of France, they will not have an INE code or a Baccalauréat Serial Number, so they should leave these two items blank. For the question: “Educational situation last year,” students must choose “Etablissement étranger” if they attended a school other than a French lycée, regardless of location. For the question: “Type of Diploma Last Obtained,” students must choose “Diplôme d’étranger” if they attended a school from which they did not obtain a French Baccalauréat, regardless of location.

When students are prompted to send in their documents showing proof of graduation, they should make sure only to send photocopies of these documents, not the originals.