Other Information

http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/degree_programs/phd/index.html

The sustainability of development presents some of the most important policy challenges concerning the future of our planet.  None of these central issues can be understood from the sole perspective of a traditional discipline, whether in the social, natural, engineering or health sciences.  The Ph.D. in Sustainable Development combines a traditional graduate education in the social sciences, particularly economics, with study in the natural sciences and engineering, to prepare scholars who are uniquely situated to undertake serious research and policy assessments in furthering the goal of sustainable development.  The program includes a set of rigorous core requirements in the social and natural sciences designed to provide a deep understanding of the interaction between natural and social systems, and provides students with the flexibility to pursue in-depth research in a broad variety of critical policy areas.  No other doctoral program produces graduates with the unique combination of diverse skills and deep insight into the most challenging problems of future human welfare.  Together with experts and faculty at Columbia, students in the program conduct research in a wide variety of areas including climate change and its social consequences, causes and solutions to extreme poverty, energy systems, agricultural transitions, water resources, infectious disease, global demographic change, ecosystems, disasters and conflict.  Students also benefit from being part of the Earth Institute's research and practice programs that focus on sustainable development.

Many graduates will pursue academic careers in interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs with a focus on policy and the environment as well as in the more traditional social science disciplines.  Others will choose nonacademic positions, taking leadership roles in government ministries in the United States and throughout the world, working on environmental and sustainable development policy for NGOs; in international institutions such as the IMG and the World Bank; or in private firms engaged in environmental and development projects.

In 2008 the Ph.D. in Sustainable Development achieved two milestones.  In spring 2008, it graduated its first Ph.D. and in falll 2008 it matriculated its fifth entering class.  As of fall 2009, the program has 30 students, representing 17 countries.

Housed at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), the Ph.D. program continues Columbia's recent initiatives in multidisciplinary doctoral education and also reflects SIPA's longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary graduate social science education for policymakers and analysts.

In just six years our Ph.D. program, with its unique emphasis on rigorous scholarship and research at the boundary between social and natural sciences, has become the most sought after advanced degree of its kind in the world.

In addition to the requirements listed below, all students must submit 1 official transcript showing courses and grades per school attended, a Statement of Academic Purpose and 3 letters of evaluation, at least two of which are from academic sources. All international students whose native language is not English or whose undergraduate degree is from an institution in a country whose official language is not English, must submit scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or IELTS. For more information, refer to our Admissions Information and Frequently Asked Questions pages.

The following are also required:

(1) Transcripts of all previous post-secondary education.
(2) A summary sheet listing courses taken in Calculus and Economics, with grades (as appearing on transcripts).

Serious work in the natural and social sciences at a graduate level requires that students have some experience in mathematics and the natural sciences, as well as the social sciences and economics, before embarking on the Ph.D. program. For this reason (and in order to fulfill prerequisites for the required natural science course sequences) applicants should have outstanding undergraduate records. Generally, requirements include four semesters of college-level social science, including two semesters of economics, and six semesters of college-level math and science. Specifically, all applicants must have completed two semesters of college-level calculus and demonstrate competence in multivariate calculus and linear algebra.