Tuition for the 2025 Lede Program will be offered at a full rate of $12,000, plus a $20 application fee.
Please note that scholarship aid is available to all applicants, read below for more details.
Columbia Journalism School offers need- and merit-based aid to students in the Lede Program. To apply, please submit the Scholarship Aid Application along with your application for admission.
This application is available from the same application portal as the admissions application.
In 2023, 100% of students who applied for aid received assistance. We understand the difficulties of taking on additional financial burdens, especially for many of our international participants, and try to make the program as accessible as possible.
Note that scholarship aid only covers tuition for the program, not living expenses.
Beyond aid offered by the Journlaism School, we strongly recommending exploring educational funding from journalism-related grant-giving foundations. For students outside of the United States, there may also be grants offered by organizations affiliated with your home country's government.
Tuition is due in full on May 24, and is payable via credit card or bank transfer.
A payment plan is available upon request. The payment plan has no additional fees, and the schedule is below:
Here are several examples of payment plans, based on different levels of scholarship:
| Tuition (after scholarship) | $12,000 | $6,000 | $3,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| First payment | $6,000 | $3,000 | $1,500 |
| Second payment | $3,000 | $1,500 | $750 |
| Third payment | $3,000 | $1,500 | $750 |
You can find more details on the Finances section of the FAQs page, or feel free to email us at jrncomputation@columbia.edu.