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Virtual Visit Opportunities

Virtual events from late January through April are now available.  Review the chronological list below to browse available virtual opportunities.  Virtual programming is not available the week of Monday, March 11, during Columbia's spring break, and some additional dates are unavailable pending campus events.  English-language auto-generated closed captioning is available for all of our virtual events. All times Eastern.    

   Virtual Information Sessions  are offered weekly on Monday at 4:00 p.m. through February. Starting in March, Virtual Information Sessions are offered weekly on Monday at 4:00 p.m. and on Friday at 9:00 a.m. Virtual Information Sessions are additionally available at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, and Saturday, March 8.  

Four  Virtual Financial Aid Information Sessions are offered through April. These sessions are available in English at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 17, Wednesday, February 7, and Wednesday, March 6. There is a Spanish-language session at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, February 5.  

Virtual Student Q&A Chats  on a wide variety of topics are offered on Fridays at 5:30 p.m. through mid-March.   

   We encourage prospective students and their families to explore Columbia through our robust video and self-guided visit programming as well. Our interactive virtual tour covers Columbia academics and student life through 360° photos of campus facilities, embedded media to explore topics further and immersive video featuring current students and faculty. Visit Columbia Undergraduate Admissions on YouTube for recordings of Student Instagram Takeovers , a video campus tour led by a current student , or our Blue View playlist that covers the basics of Columbia University and the admissions process.     

• Virtual Information Session Monday, April 22 at 4:00 PM
• Virtual Information Session Friday, April 26 at 9:00 AM
• Virtual Student Q&A Chat: Columbia 101 Friday, April 26 at 5:30 PM

Alfred Lerner Hall

Butler Library

Casa Italiana

Fayerweather

Shapiro Center

International Affairs Building

Jerome Greene Hall

Low Memorial Library

Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center

Mathematics

Schermerhorn

Social Work

St. Paul's Chapel

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Campus Tour Registration Now Available

Campus tour registration is currently available for prospective students. Refer to our Campus Visit Opportunities calendar for available dates and events. Please note that campus tours aren't available during some periods, including University holidays, commencement, New Student Orientation Program and the winter and spring breaks.

Undergraduate Admissions welcomes prospective students and their guests to Morningside Heights for campus tours. Both general campus tours and engineering tours, led by current students in the Recruitment Committees, are available. These one-hour walking tours share a student perspective on life at Columbia and cover information about academics, New York City, research, internships, support resources and campus community. More information is available on the Campus Visits page .

Groups of prospective undergraduate students, such as from a high school or community-based organization, looking to visit Columbia should submit a request for a group tour or a college access tour . Other visitors to Columbia, such as general tourists and prospective graduate students, should refer to the Visitors Center for historical tour registration .

Weekend Rundown: Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

Columbia University president grilled about campus antisemitism at congressional hearing

Columbia University’s president strongly denounced antisemitism during a congressional hearing Wednesday, saying that after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, “the world changed, and so did my focus.”

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik told the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “Israel was brutally attacked by Hamas terrorists and very soon it became clear that these horrific events would ignite fear and anguish across our campus.”

Shafik faced questions about her handling of antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 attack alongside two members of Columbia's Board of Trustees and the head of the university's antisemitism task force. She faced particular scrutiny for how the university handled faculty members who made comments about Hamas that were perceived as antisemitic.

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., grilled Shafik about Joseph Massad, a tenured professor in Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department who published comments in October calling Hamas' attack a “ stunning victory .”

“I do condemn his statement. I am appalled by what he said,” Shafik responded. “He has been spoken to.”

The hearing became particularly heated when Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., pressed Shafik about why Massad is still listed on Columbia’s website as the chair of the academic review committee.

Stefanik asked Shafik for her commitment that Massad would be removed as chair, and Shafik said she would get back to her.

Stefanik also questioned Shafik about Mohamed Abdou, a visiting professor at the Middle East Institute at Columbia. She referred to an Oct. 11 post on Facebook in which Abdou wrote, “Yes, I’m with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad but up to a point.”

When asked about consequences, Shafik said Abdou “will never work at Columbia again.”

Her appearance in Congress came after she declined to testify at a hearing in December, citing scheduling conflicts.

That hearing included testimonies from the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who all drew intense scrutiny for their responses to questions regarding antisemitism and hate speech on campus. Penn and Harvard 's presidents have since resigned.

When Shafik and her colleagues were asked by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people violates Columbia’s rules — the same question posed to Harvard, MIT and Penn’s presidents — all answered “yes.” Bonamici also asked Shafik about the chants “by any means necessary” and “intifada,” which Shafik said were distressing.

Noa Fay, a Jewish student at Columbia who attended the hearing, told NBC News that she was "underwhelmed" by Shafik's testimony. Fay added that last semester it was “nearly impossible for me to get through academically and mentally” because of antisemitism she said she experienced on campus.

“I’m an RA, and last semester, all my bulletin boards that I post up in our halls were vandalized, written with ‘stop supporting genocide, cease-fire, free Palestine, from the river to the sea,’ all of these things,” Fay said. “It has consumed every aspect of our student life.”

Ahead of her hearing, Shafik published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about what she planned to say in her testimony to Congress.

"Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, I have spent the most of my time addressing its aftershocks," Shafik wrote. "It is hard to describe how difficult this has been, especially on a large, diverse urban campus with students from all over the world and a long tradition of political activism."

Columbia is being sued by five Jewish students and two student organizations after it suspended the student groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in November. In March, Shafik confirmed that a "number" of Columbia students were suspended after allegedly participating in an unauthorized panel called "Resistance 101" that featured speakers who supported Hamas.

Emi Tuyetnhi Tran is an intern for NBC News Digital.

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Columbia's president rebuts claims she has allowed the university to become a hotbed of antisemitism

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

President of Columbia University Nemat Shafik testifies before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on "Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University's Response to Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Columbia University’s president took a firm stance against antisemitism in a congressional hearing on Wednesday, but she faced bruising criticism from Republicans who say her actions haven’t supported her words, especially when it comes to disciplining faculty and students accused of bias.

Nemat Shafik's visit to Capitol Hill was a reprise of a December hearing that led to the resignations of presidents at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. It's part of a Republican campaign to investigate antisemitism at America's most prestigious universities since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel .

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After the other Ivy League presidents’ equivocation led to weeks of backlash, Shafik focused her message on fighting antisemitism rather than protecting free speech.

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” Shafik said in her opening comments.

On key questions, she took a more decisive stance than her Ivy League colleagues, who gave lawyerly answers when asked if calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies. Asked the same question, Shafik and three other Columbia leaders responded definitively: yes.

But Shafik hedged on whether certain phrases invoked by some supporters of the Palestinians rise to harassment.

Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, asked her if phrases such as “ from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free ” or “long live intifada” are antisemitic.

“I hear them as such, some people don't,” Shafik said.

McClain posed the same question to David Schizer, who leads an antisemitism task force at Columbia. He said those phrases are antisemitic.

It was a shaky moment for an Ivy League president who otherwise dodged the gotcha questions that turned the previous hearing into a frenzy for Republicans, who cast elite schools as hotbeds of hatred toward Jews.

Unlike in December, much of the questioning on Wednesday focused on Columbia's handling of faculty who are accused of antisemitism. Given the protections offered by university tenure, disciplining faculty is a thorny question for universities whose professors are weighing in on the Israel-Hamas war.

Shafik was hammered on the issue by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and a driving force behind the hearings.

Stefanik asked about Mohamed Abdou, a visiting Arab studies professor who expressed support for Hamas on social media after Oct. 7. Shafik said she shared Stefanik's “repugnance” over Abdou’s comments, adding that he had been terminated.

“He is grading his students’ papers and will never teach at Columbia again,” she said.

“Mr. Abdou is not grading papers right now,” Stefanik later countered. She said she heard Abdou attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia Wednesday morning, in apparent violation of the school’s new rules limiting protests to certain hours and locations.

Shafik was also grilled over Columbia's handling of Joseph Massad, a professor of modern Arab politics, accused of calling the Oct. 7 attacks “awesome,” “astonishing,” “astounding” and “incredible.”

Shafik said Massad had been reprimanded and removed as chair of an academic review committee. When Stefanik revealed that a Columbia website still listed Massad as the committee chair, she demanded Shafik's commitment to remove him from the post.

“I think that would be — I think I would — yes,” Shafik said.

Massad is a tenured professor, which generally brings added protection against firing, including for expressing controversial opinions. When asked if Massad could lose his job, Shafik wouldn't give a clear answer.

“There are some very complex issues around tenure,” she said.

In a comment to the Associated Press, Massad denied being reprimanded. He said members of Congress distorted his comments, and he disputed praising the killing of 1,200 Jews. Massad said he was not removed as chair of the academic review committee and that his term ends in the coming weeks.

Columbia professor Marcel Agüeros, a leader at the college's chapter of the American Association of University presidents, expressed dismay at how much Shafik conceded to Republicans on faculty discipline.

“The university has processes, and those processes are intended to protect academic freedom,” he said. “Faculty whose speech is not necessarily what I would say myself, they have a right to that speech.”

Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have been on the rise at the New York campus of 35,000 students, prompting the school to adopt new limits on demonstrations. Protests can be held only on weekdays at certain times and locations, with advance notice to school officials.

Some civil rights groups, students and faculty say the policy curbs free expression. But Shafik cited it as evidence that the school is serious about protecting students, saying 15 students have been suspended and six are on probation for breaches.

"I promise you, from the messages I’m hearing from students, they are getting the message that violations will have consequences,” she said.

Her vision clashes with one presented by Republicans in Congress and some Jewish students who say antisemitism goes unchecked at Columbia, citing a Jewish student who was beaten on campus while putting up posters of Israeli hostages, and protesters who chanted phrases that some consider a call for the genocide of Jews.

“The problem is, action on campus doesn’t match your rhetoric today,” said Rep. Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican. “Your students, their message is quite different. Their message is one of fear.”

Some Columbia students who support Palestinians were frustrated they were not allowed into the hearing.

“This is not an honest conversation that we are having today in this committee,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota who is Muslim, after speaking with the students.

The December hearing featured the Harvard and Penn presidents, as well as the leader of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During heated questioning, Stefanik asked them whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct.

Liz Magill, then-president of Penn, and Claudine Gay, then-president of Harvard, both said it would depend on the situation. MIT president Sally Kornbluth said she had not heard of anyone calling for the genocide of Jews on campus, and that speech “targeted at individuals, not making public statements,” would be considered harassment.

Almost immediately, the careful responses from the university presidents drew criticism from donors, alumni and politicians. Magill resigned soon after the hearing and Gay stepped down in January following accusations of plagiarism.

Binkley reported from Los Angeles

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Moscow Metro Tour

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Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

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