Applying to Columbia - Should I choose the engineering path?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

I’m a rising senior and I’m currently in the process of filling out the 20 applications on the common app. I know that some Ivy schools (Columbia, UPenn, Cornell) have separate admissions policies for students applying for engineering. I am not sure as to whether or not I should try to apply through this specialized engineering path or just try the usual route.

On the subject of the engineering application, I heard that the officers value grades, scores, and research more than the standard application. I think I am a strong student (I’ll list my numbers below), but I did not get anything published for the research I conducted (which took place during my sophomore to junior year summer). I’m also East Asian, and I know that these schools definitely have more than enough Asian engineers. If anyone has experience with the engineering application for these schools, would you be willing to offer your advice on whether or not I should apply through the specialized engineering process?

Numbers for you (I know you all love numbers):
Rank: 6 out of 438
Weighted GPA: 5.522 (4.0 scale, APs count as 6.0 and pre-APs count as 5.0 at my wack school)
Unweighted GPA: 3.98 (I think this is including some high school courses I took in middle school, but it’s pretty accurate nonetheless)
SAT: 1580 780/800 with 6/6/6 essay
ACT: 36 36/36/36/34 with an 8
APs/Subject Tests - I’ve currently taken 11 total AP tests and 3 subject tests, but I won’t be receiving my scores for the junior year APs and all 3 subject tests until another week or two. But nonetheless:
Human Geo: 5
Physics 1: 5
Calc AB: 5
Compsci A: 4
World History: 4

If there’s anything else you wanna know about me (besides my social security number, which I don’t even remember lol) I’ll drop it later.

2

If you want to be an engineer then apply to the engineering schools.

3

Columbia College takes the Core Curriculum very seriously. Having a solid foundation in the primarily Western humanities canon is an expectation of Columbia grads, for better or worse. Engineers in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences only take about half of the Core and the admission rate is very slightly higher than the College. The best way to signal you aren’t seriously interested in Columbia is to tell an interviewer that you don’t know about the Core or that you don’t like it. So you should ask yourself how important is it to you to participate in “the cornerstone of a Columbia education” in addition to whether you want to be an engineer.