Columbia College Chicago warmly welcomes interest from prospective international students. In 2009 alone, the College received inquiries from over 150 countries outside of the United States, from the United Kingdom to India to the Netherlands to Uruguay.

According to The College Board, "the United States is the number one destination for international students seeking higher education abroad.” However, attending college at Columbia, America’s largest and most diverse private arts school, provides international students the prestigious opportunity to learn directly from the most respected working professionals in the visual, performing, media, and communication arts. Our writing faculty are best-selling authors, top-tier media columnists, and award winners. Our visual arts faculty are celebrated fellows, grant recipients, and have work in museum collections around the world. Our performing arts faculty are Jeff, Academy, and Grammy winners and nominees.

The foundation of a Columbia education features small class sizes that ensure close interaction with a faculty of these working professionals, plentiful internship opportunities with major employers in the Chicago and national marketplaces, and outstanding facilities that encourage learning by doing. Students are required to complete a core program of Liberal Arts and Sciences classes that provide a broad and enriching academic foundation, and elective credit hours allow students to investigate a wide variety of different disciplines throughout the college.

Student Life and Campus Support

Columbia College students are immersed in a creative environment that extends and encourages learning in and out of the classroom. Visiting Artists, lecture series, and workshops engage and expose students to new and different ways of thinking and creating. Students are actively involved the College’s award-winning student newspaper, radio station, electronic newsletter, two student magazines, cable television productions, three theaters, dance center, photography and art museums, and film and video screenings.

Gallery/café spaces around campus provide students with inspiring places to relax or study between classes. These centers feature a variety of activities, including art exhibits, film screenings, lectures, and live performance of music, comedy, readings, or dance.

Our English as a Second Language (ESL) program provides resources for students with home/heritage lanugages other than English and the faculty who work with them.

Office of International Student Affairs

Considered by international students as the most beloved organization on campus, the Office of International Student Affairs (OISA) provides a nurturing and supportive environment for Columbia’s international student community. From assisting in procuring health insurance to aiding with job employment to setting up holiday celebrations, the OISA is dedicated to helping our international students find their place at Columbia.

Student Organizations

With nearly 100 student organizations, Columbia College Chicago offers students myriad opportunities to independently organize events, clubs, and initiatives that give voice to their passions, politics, and creative interests. Whether you have a passion for writing (Fictionary Magazine) or anime (Japanese Anime and Manga) or softball (Columbia Renegades), each one of the clubs, groups, and organizations on our campus is proudly student-created, student-run, and student-promoted. We happily give you the venues and the resources you need to organize and execute.

Our multicultural organizations include:

Asian Student Organization
Black Student Union
Common Ground (LGBTQ)
International Student Organization
Latino Alliance

About Chicago

Columbia’s campus is close to major theaters, museums, concert halls, restaurants, clubs, parks, galleries, recreational facilities, and beautiful Lake Michigan. Columbia’s on-campus housing is situated in the heart of the “South Loop Education Corridor” of Chicago, among the safest neighborhoods in the third largest city in the United States with nearby access to mass transit.

Known as one of the most culturally-diverse cities in America, Chicago prides itself on the thousands of ethnicities that call Chicago home. From Italian to German to Thai to Brazilian, ethnic grocers with shelves of familiar goods and restaurants with dishes as mouthwatering as those made at home are available block after block throughout the city. A short walk or brief trip on mass transit will take you directly to the cultural neighborhood of your choice.