<p>Also, anecdotally, it seems that likely letters have gone to URMs, internationals, and athletes for the most part.</p>
<p>^ not all of them.</p>
<p>I know three home schooled people, including myself, who aren’t URMs, international or athletes (afaik) who got them. I think Columbia sends out quite a few, but not as much as Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I forgot to include homeschooled people in that list. Them too.</p>
<p>I am not an URM, homeschooled student, international, or any of the other listed qualifications, so I don’t know if your logic is accurate.</p>
<p>Why would home schooled people be targeted for likely letters? :P</p>
<p>i said “anecdotally” and “for the most part”. i’m sure others also get likely letters. but when you learn about the people here who got them, most of them seem to fall under one of the 4 categories i said.</p>
<p>i recall from past years that fu tends to send out more likelies and that the college is not as…generous (i don’t know the breakdown of the 42 kids on CC who got likelies). but in any event, it does seem that the college sent out more this year than in previous years.</p>
<p>I got a likely, I’m not homeschooled, a URM, recruited athlete, or international…I’d really like to know how many people got likelies…</p>
<p>only a few more days!! x.x!!</p>
<p>I’m an athlete, but not that great of one, so no recruitment, but still a likely. Also not at all a URM or international, and basically no hooks that I can think of. </p>
<p>Also really impatient for real news</p>
<p>^^^^^haha I consider a likely real news</p>
<p>still, I’m super impatient to feel that admissions packet in my hands</p>
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<p>no it isn’t too many, as hcvops pointed out they do have to make decisions, and the top 400 acceptees is the top 15-20% of people they accept these are far from marginal and would get into columbia in any year. if 42 people on this forum have received likelys, then 300-400 is a proper estimate, or are you saying that 25-50% of the college bound world is on college confidential? think about it</p>
<p>From a self interested perspective, Columbia loses nothing by sending 500 instead of 200 likelies, but they have a lot to gain in so doing. The admissions pool is very competitive but not homogeneous nor close overall. That’s what they tell you to help you sleep at night when you get rejected. </p>
<p>I’ve evaluated and interviewed people for jobs at Columbia and I’ve interviewed against columbia kids for internships, the pool is competitive but the variation is huge; the very good blow you away, and the bad are simply mediocre. You cannot witness this discrepancy in the numbers, but reading people’s essays, recs, interview evals, and EC involvement makes most admissions decisions clear.</p>
<p>An admissions officer will never admit to this, because he/she would become unpopular very quickly. More likelies is probably not what you want to hear either, because a) it devalues the significance of a likely and b) for those who haven’t gotten one, that leaves ~1100 remaining spots for ~22000 applicants who haven’t heard back, but it is what it is - 5%.</p>
<p>^^^reading that they DO care about more than just elite money costing numbers and rely heavily on the personal stuff/goals/commitments makes me feel better lol</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a likely letter, and I’m Native American. Hmmm…</p>
<p>^ good job!!</p>
<p>Turns out I was actually recruited for athletics… had no idea. Disregard my previous posts.</p>
<p>^ lols. how did you not know?</p>
<p>^^^LOL jesus</p>
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[QUOTE=confidentialcoll]
An admissions officer will never admit to this, because he/she would become unpopular very quickly. More likelies is probably not what you want to hear either, because a) it devalues the significance of a likely and b) for those who haven’t gotten one, that leaves ~1100 remaining spots for ~22000 applicants who haven’t heard back, but it is what it is - 5%.
[/QUOTE]
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<p>Well my thoughts are entirely speculation, but I do have the feeling that colleges sent out much more likelies than in previous years. Being an international, I have never known of any likely being sent out to my seniors in the past ten years or so, no matter how brilliant they are (those who later got into a whole bunch of top schools). But this year, I alone received three out of the 4 i applied to during RD round, and know two people who also received likelies from top schools & top LACs. I’m not so conceited to believe that I am in any way superior to my seniors or my peers, but this knowledge/feeling (that a likely is no longer a scarce thing for the “special few”) does bum me out a little… Lol </p>
<p>But so far i haven’t heard of any fellow countrymen with a LL from Columbia, so i’d like to fool myself into thinking that it’s at least somewhat special. Idk… I’m a realist but i don’t mind living in a bubble (which has burst haha) for a few weeks.</p>
<p>In all honesty, though, I think colleges shouldn’t send out too many likelies… It should be reserved for the special FEW (i’d put a cap at 50). It’s supposed to make the recipient feel special, and i don’t think it does this year, so it defeats the purpose. It also causes unnecessary anxiety to the rest of the applicants –> i.e. the “omg so many people have received LL already? I’m doomed!” mentality that so many people on CC have nowadays.</p>
<p>^ I was recently on the phone with Amherst’s Dean of Admissions and he said that only a “very small number of applicants” receive early writes. I’m not sure we can really compare Columbia to LACs, though.</p>
<p>well maybe they just know that this is a crazy year so they’re just trying to be more aggressive in recruiting</p>