@asiankid88 Wow, best of luck! I applied to a ridiculous number of schools, all Ivies, Johns Hopkins, 5 of the UC schools, Stanford, NYU, Rice, and 4 in Canada. Now most of those don’t matter anymore after getting in CC 
@anotherdude Oh, I get it, sorry! I’d never heard of M&T before, I just thought that was a typo for MIT! That seems like a really cool program, though! Fingers crossed for you!
@thetsaria Woah!!! ahaha yeah getting into CC basically knocks all of those ones out except probably HYP, Penn or Stanford
Hi everyone! Wanted to congratulate you all on getting likely letters! I have a question for those who received them. Did Columbia offer you guys any money to attend? I didn’t apply to Columbia, but I was curious if I should have because it was ultimately my second choice and I would have attended if I got into it and they were willing to pay me extra to “steal” me away from my first choice school, UChicago, which I was ultimately accepted to and enrolled. They don’t offer money for things other than research right? I just want to make sure for my own sake whether or not that was an option.
@asiankid88 I consider Columbia above Penn, so I’m really just waiting on hearing from HYPS. Even if I got in to HYPS, I don’t know if I could turn down Columbia, I love it and NYC too much!
@jarrett211 I haven’t gotten a financial offer yet. The way (I think) it works is that they first offer you a certain grant based off your calculated financial need. If you are admitted to a different university and are granted a bigger financial aid package from them, you could go to Columbia and ask them to match that. I’m pretty sure they would have been willing to match another financial aid offer but unlikely to offer significantly more. Congratulations on your acceptance to UChicago, if it’s your first choice I’m sure you’ll be very happy there!
@thetsaria Thank you! Actually, I wasn’t offered any financial aid money (literally 0 
) because my parents are like upper-middle class and make just a little over the amount that would allow me to qualify, so Columbia matching that offer actually wouldn’t do anything obviously lol. I just wanted to know like if for example someone got into a comparable university would Columbia offer as much as $10,000 a year to steal someone away. I highly doubt it, but I was just curious. Of course, I doubt I’d get in, but I wanted to know if that was ever possible and whether it would have been worth it to try.
@jarrett211 I also highly doubt they would offer you more money to attend. Undergrad isn’t like law where you can negotiate for more $, haha. I think you made the right decision.
So are you a freshman at UChicago? How has it been so far? Where else did you get in?
@thetsaria Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. 
I am a senior in high school (like the rest of you) who got into UChicago EA in December and enrolled a week later. I was debating whether or not to apply for Columbia RD, but I think deep down I would only go there if they offered me some money, and I know they typically don’t, but I had doubts. Of course, this was all assuming that I got in, which is a completely ridiculous assumption that one should never make. I think I made the right decision too, but I just wanted to make sure that Columbia was not a place that was known for trying to steal people from other schools, just for my own peace of mind.
I was deferred from Penn ED (looking back on it, I don’t know why in the world I applied ED there, as I would put it now behind UChicago and Columbia). Accepted into Northeastern and Mass Amherst as well (but there was no way I would go to either of those places over UChicago). I was also thinking of applying to HYP, Columbia, Duke, UMich, Northwestern, WashU, and NYU RD, if I didn’t get in EA.
@jarrett211 Ah, sorry, when you said enrolled I thought you meant you had already started attending. And I’ve actually never heard of Columbia stealing people from other schools by bribing them with more money, haha. Columbia’s such an awesome school, I wouldn’t think it would need to pay people to go.
I’m curious how you applied early at both UChicago and Penn? I thought you’re only allowed to apply to one school early.
I was one of those awful, ignorant people to think they could apply early to Harvard, with a <2100 SAT. Still only got deferred, but I whipped myself into shape, studied hard and got 33 ACT on first try. I’m hoping for positive decisions from all the schools I haven’t sent my abysmal SAT scores to.
@thetsaria You can apply ED to a school and also non-restrictive EA to another. You just can’t apply SCEA to a school and apply ED to another. Chicago is non-restrictive, so that’s why you can do that. You couldn’t for example apply early to Columbia and SCEA to Harvard, or SCEA to Harvard and EA to Chicago. But you can combine ED with non-restrictive EA.
I wish you luck with the rest of your decisions, but in reality, it would be pretty hard to turn down Columbia in my opinion. It’s a phenomenal school
@jarrett211 You seemed to have really taken advantage of the EA and ED options available - kudos to you! I would’ve done the same if I didn’t need to retake the ACT (which was really worth it - 36 in writing!!!) and also take my 18 hours of state exams in Australia. Here’s to hoping that my higher scores and fuller transcript outweighs the drop in acceptance rate from EA/ED to RA…
@jarrett211 Thanks! Yup, Columbia is pretty incredible. I’m so grateful and super excited
@anotherdude In case you aren’t able to visit, I just discovered a really fantastic and extensive virtual tour on Columbia’s main website. Check it out! 
@thetsaria I was an art history major at Columbia. There is literally no better place to study art history. The professors are wonderful, the classes are many, and some of the greatest art in the world is visible for you to see in NYC. You can even get permission to see paintings and sculptures that aren’t on public view – the professors know all the curators. Columbia doesn’t have minors, it has concentrations. A lot of students do a major and a concentration – it’s hard to do two majors in part because of the core (which is wonderful). Congrats to you and all the other Columbia admits – it is a great school!
Jarret211- You can pretty much put those thoughts to rest- about Columbia putting up money to steal you away.
Columbia only offers need based aid- no academic or athletic or talent scholarships.
I thought UPenn was your first choice?
It seems like you have some buyers remorse with committing to UChicago which is a pretty common occurrence I think for students who commit so early. Also, do I detect a lingering feeling that you really want to be at an Ivy? I think that that is normal too for someone who was vying for a spot at an Ivy.
Have you visited UChicago yet? That might really help settle your nagging doubts however small they may be. But to be honest, I think that’s why you might be posting.
Per chance does anyone know if the opposite is true- that UChicago might offer merit to someone to entice them to come?
@thetsaria Oh that’s great! Thanks for letting me know. I’ll check it out ASAP. I also went through the Columbia Blue website, and they have some decent photos and videos too. Nothing matches actually visiting the campus in person though. So fingers crossed that they agree to fund my travel there. hahaha
@LionsMum That just makes me even more excited about attending I wouldn’t be able to do a major in art history since I want to go into the sciences, but I’m hoping to do a concentration in it. I love art and I think it’s fascinating. Thanks for the insight!
@anotherdude The virtual tour has some great 360 pictures of the dorm rooms and dining halls. Though of course an in-person trip is better I really hope you get to come visit!
@goingnutsmom Here’s the complete truth. I never really had a first true choice until I got into UChicago. I had 3 top choices: Columbia, Penn, and Chicago. I wanted to do what gave me the best opportunity to attend one of my top 3. Penn was the easiest of the 3 to get into, and I also have legacy at Penn (my father attended Wharton as an undergrad), which historically put my chances around 40-45% of getting ED, which is way higher than either Columbia or Chicago. I believe I may have convinced myself (wrongly) that I truly wanted to go to Penn when in reality I just wanted to get into one of those 3 schools, and Penn offered me the best opportunity to do that. However, after I got deferred from Penn, I never expected to get into Chicago, but somehow I did, which made me go back and look through everything and reconsider what my actual priorities were, and Chicago seemed like the best fit, and of the 3 Penn seemed like the worst of the three.
I am not at all a prestige seeker. The Ivy League is an athletic conference, and that is honestly that. Of course a majority of the schools that make them up are really good academically, but I didn’t apply to them just for being an Ivy League school. I mean, UChicago is ranked higher than Penn, and it’s tied with Columbia, so it really wouldn’t make sense for me to do that. I want to craft the best undergraduate experience possible. You don’t get a second chance at this. My future prospects at any of the three schools are great, and the differences are negligible (though Columbia and Penn have greater grade inflation, which worries me a little bit at UChicago, but hey, what can you do right?)
I did visit UChicago, and I loved it, just as I loved Columbia and Penn when I visited. I visited all 3 before applying as well.
I committed to UChicago early first and foremost because I wanted my pick of housing and the earlier you commit the better prioritized your housing choice is, but I did a detailed side-by-side-by-side comparison of the 3 schools based on many different criteria — academic options and fit, classes, location, housing, amenities, resources, and most importantly, fit with the student body and types of students, and I determined that if I ever got into all of those schools, I would choose Chicago for reasons that are too long to list out here.
The only thing I have a little remorse about is that I am going to graduating with debt (not a ridiculous amount, but it is significant), and I made the gamble that neither of those schools would be willing to pay me to try and take me away from Chicago, and I didn’t want to test Chicago, or even put myself in a circumstance in which I wouldn’t attend my #1 school just to save money. After all, you only get to craft your undergraduate experience once.
That is what may be coming across as my buyers remorse. I am not at all a prestige seeker. My dad had suggested to me that I could potentially negotiate with these schools if I ever got into all 3, and I doubted that from the beginning because they get so many qualified people, most of which would be more qualified than me anyways.
So I think I made the right choice, but I wanted to make sure.