Housing

Eligibility

Doctoral students in the Arts and Sciences are eligible for five consecutive academic years of guaranteed student housing, starting with their first semester of registration if 1) they apply for housing by the deadline specified in the acceptance letter; 2) they remain registered and in good academic standing in their program and good administrative standing in the Graduate School.

Application

To apply for housing, complete the application on the Columbia Residential website. For your Columbia UNI and PID number, please refer to your acceptance letter.

Request for Extension

Registered doctoral students in good standing may request through the Columbia Residential portal an additional year at the end of their fifth and sixth years, for a maximum of seven consecutive academic years in Columbia Residential housing. GSAS reviews and makes final decisions on all application and extension requests.

End of Eligibility

The standard housing lease ends at the end of the academic year, on May 31. Doctoral students in their first seven years are no longer eligible for housing upon completing the dissertation defense, regardless of the outcome; doctoral candidates are required by Columbia Residential to vacate campus housing within 60 days of the defense.

If a doctoral student does not apply for housing; declines an initial offer of housing; or chooses to leave his or her housing assignment before the five-year period ends, any subsequent request for Columbia housing may not be granted.

For more information about university housing, see the Columbia Residential website.

Incoming master's students in programs listed below are normally limited to two consecutive semesters of housing and up to one additional year based on the completion of the academic department’s timeline for full-time study. Master’s students must register full-time (1 Residence Unit or Extended Residence) to be eligible for campus housing.

Master’s housing is allocated through a housing lottery. Decisions about housing for incoming master's students will be made from April through June; eligible students will be either approved or placed on the housing waitlist. Those who are moved to the waitlist will be able to search for units from July through mid-September.

To apply for housing, complete the application on the Columbia Residential website. For your Columbia UNI and PID number, please refer to your acceptance letter.

For more information about university housing, see the Columbia Residential website.

List of Programs

Master's students in the programs below are eligible to apply for Columbia Residential housing.

• African-American Studies
• American Studies
• Anthropology
• Art History and Archaeology
• Biotechnology
• Classical Studies
• Classics
• Climate and Society
• Conservation Biology
• Earth and Environmental Science Journalism
• East Asia: Regional Studies
• East Asian Languages and Cultures
• Economics
• English and Comparative Literature
• European History, Politics and Society
• French and Romance Philology
• Germanic Languages
• Global Thought
• Hispanic Cultural Studies
• Human Rights Studies
• International and World History (MA/MSc with London School of Economics)
• Islamic Studies
• Italian
• Jewish Studies
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Regional Studies
• Mathematics with a Specialization in the Mathematics of Finance
• Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
• Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies
• Museum Anthropology
• Oral History
• Philosophical Foundations of Physics
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences
• Religion
• Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe: Regional Studies
• Russian Translation
• Slavic Cultures
• Slavic Languages
• Sociology
• South Asian Studies
• Statistics

Columbia Residential  

Columbia Residential manages housing for students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Consult the Columbia Residential website for information about eligibility, available accommodations, and policies governing student housing.

Off-Campus Housing Assistance (OCHA)

Columbia's Off-Campus Housing Assistance (OCHA) office assists Columbia students and affiliates in their search for rental housing in the metropolitan area.

OCHA manages housing listings, which includes available rooms and apartments in non-Columbia-owned buildings and sublets of units in Columbia-managed housing.  Prospective roommates can also post and search profiles on this site.

In addition, OCHA offers housing search counseling and is supported in these efforts by relationships with two New York City real estate/relocation agencies.

Subletting University Housing

Students living in Columbia Residential housing may apply for permission to sublet their housing unit. For more information, see the Subletting page for tenants and subtenants.