Pre-Orientation Training

Welcome to Columbia!

Every student who is new to a degree program at Columbia must complete University Life’s Pre-Orientation training which introduces important University policies, valuable student resources, ways to get involved at Columbia, and tips to explore New York City. This training conveys values that are foundational to membership in the Columbia University community and provides skills and resources to help support you to excel during your time here. It must be completed before your arrival on campus. The training will take about an hour and a half to complete in one sitting, but can be completed across multiple days.

This training has been entirely revamped as of July 2025, so if you are a new student you must complete Pre-Orientation, even if you have previously done so while attending another school within Columbia University.

The training is accessible to anyone with an activated UNI at the following website: preorientation.universitylife.columbia.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions

All students will be able to access the training at any point, so long as their UNI has been fully activated after enrollment. If you are unable to log into the training for some reason, you can contact us at [email protected] for support.

The Pre-Orientation training will  save your progress as you complete each section. If you close the training without finishing, you will be brought back to your last point so that you may continue from where you left off.

You will see a checkmark next to each completed section of the training. Once you have checkmarks next to all sections, you will have completed the training and your school will be notified the next business day.

We ask that students complete the tutorials before their school orientation.

You might be trying to access an old version of the training! Please make sure to use this link: preorientation.universitylife.columbia.edu to access the training. If you’re still unable to log in, you can reach us at [email protected].

This message appears if you have not fully completed Pre-Orientation. The message will deactivate the morning following completion of the training. Please log into the Pre-Orientation site above to verify what you're missing. You can click the "Continue" button at the bottom of the screen to proceed past this message and onto your original destination.

Students who have not fully completed Pre-Orientation by a certain deadline will be locked out of all of their Columbia-based accounts until they complete the training. Please follow the guidance on the message you’re seeing to complete the training to then be able to access your accounts. You can also access the training at preorientation.universitylife.columbia.edu.