Columbia Early Decision - a guide less than 4 weeks out

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>Hi CCers and those that frequent the Columbia board - </p>

<p>I wanted to start this thread to develop a space for folks planning to apply to the class of 2015 ED at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering to ask questions and have questions answered. I will start off with some basic questions and feel free to chime in. A lot of these have been answered before this cycle, previous cycles, but they continue to be asked, so perhaps organizing them like this will be helpful.</p>

<p>Who should apply early decision?</p>

<p>If Columbia is without question your first choice school, that is if you do not think you would rather attend another school or if you are stuck between attending Columbia or another school. Why does this matter? If your heart isn't set on Columbia it will show on the application because an added component in early decision is not just how great a candidate you are, but even more so than regular decision students have got to clearly demonstrate Columbia is their preferred school through the way they talk about the university (this means bluffs like using your essay for Yale are not good ways to start out).</p>

<p>It is also appropriate for individuals who do not have significant financial questions. If you want to compare financial aid packages and perhaps even try and appeal financial aid package, early decision may not be for you. Best way to know this is to read up on Columbia's financial aid policies, ask your family about your finances and possibly use a financial aid calculator like the one you can find on the collegeboard or Princeton has a really good one that will show you something reasonably close to Columbia's (Princeton</a> University | Princeton Financial Aid Estimator). </p>

<p>Is it easier to be admitted to Columbia early?</p>

<p>Admission to Columbia is hard, early or regular. A few myths are propagated though that say admission is easy for a slurry of reasons that are not true. </p>

<p>Here is what you should know: Columbia and the Ivies because they do not offer athletic scholarships like to admit the majority of their athletes early to 'lock them in' to attending their university. Further, a lot of legacies and development cases are given preference early because if you get admitted in December to the school, perhaps your friends will forget about that in April when admitting a kid who is not as strong really stings. Lastly there is the question of just raw numbers, Columbia likes to admit about 44% of its class through early, and to get that number when you only got about 3k early applicants means the admit rate will hover around 20%. </p>

<p>So there are two ways to read this - first because the population of students is smaller that apply it is easier to stand out, especially if you do a good job showing that you understand Columbia and know it to be your preferred choice. The smaller population allows students with perhaps lower test scores, maybe mixed grades to get a chance at admission. Second, however, is the knowledge that spots open to non-legacy/athlete admits are going to be limited so it is not as if this is open season. The spots for joe-schmo are not plentiful so in the end a lot of very very smart and accomplished students get deferred or denied early. So the things to know is that even though it is easier to stand out early you still need to stand out.</p>

<p>So then why should I apply early?</p>

<p>This is coming from a student who applied regular and I have had some mixed emotions about the question of applying early since; ultimately I believe it is a good thing, and particularly it can be an advantage if you are a low income student that qualifies for the very generous financial aid columbia offers to those making less than 60k. Though I tried to at least make some expectations realistic with the answer to question 2, I think ultimately it is easier to stand out - doesn't mean your percentage chance is better, but it means that the adcoms (and they admit it) have more time to read your application, more time to go back and say you know what I like this kid let's take him, and from some experience working as a student, interviewing and just overall knowledge of admissions, the same insane standard that is required to be admitted regular does not exist for early (you can be a bit more human).</p>

<p>But the real reason I feel is the 9 or so months you have to fall in love with the school more and more and not have to go through the cattle call that is April. The students I know that were admitted early were far calmer about their decision and often loved Columbia more than the regular folks (this is kind of intuitive). The month of April if you get into multiple schools is extraordinarily stressful and you always feel like you made in some capacity a wrong choice, by applying early and being admitted early you get to avoid that confusion. I think it is better for the psyche and its why despite Princeton and Harvard I think being admitted early is good for the morale of the student and ultimately for the class. As school spirit has livened over the past few years at Columbia a lot has to do with the crop of early kids that take their perhaps better than average pride and use it to influence which students during days on campus choose to attend Columbia over other schools and ultimately improve school spirit when everyone is on campus. I'd even say even folks that perhaps were not 100% sold on Columbia but knew they preferred it over other schools, being admitted early let them develop an appreciation for their future school unfettered. Which in the end is a good thing, sometimes competition makes something more complicated than it should be.</p>

<hr>

<p>Here are as I said preliminary thoughts, take them with a grain of salt as always, but hopefully they spark some thinking and some other questions.</p>

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<p>Thank you for that. My daughter will be one of the Ed hopefuls. Keep the info coming!</p>

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<p>thanks so much for this post. i’m already confident about applying early, in fact my ED agreement has already been submitted and everything. this just assured me all the more. something i didn’t think was possible.</p>

<p>but quick question. what are the chances of someone like me, who has an absolute undying love for columbia and the capacity to be competitive with other people who are applying have of getting in? is it just pure luck or do they really pick out the people who honest to god love the school and have the stats to be able to keep up in such an environment?</p>

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<p>As usual, admissionsgeek’s contributions are most appreciated.</p>

<p>To add my two bits (ignoring financial aid considerations, about which I know little):</p>

<p>Only those who are 100% dead certain that Columbia is the top choice, of all the colleges and universities in the world, should apply ED. Sometimes you get what you want; if you’re admitted, you must attend. You cannot then apply to, and you then must withdraw from, your “prestige” dream school. (I knew my younger son had made the right decision to apply to Columbia ED when he gleefully canceled his Harvard interview the day after he was accepted to Columbia.)</p>

<p>In our house, I tested his Columbia resolve by playing the “hypothetical” game with him during the fall of his high school senior year. He would sit down at the kitchen table, close his eyes, and imagine holding two acceptance letters in his hand–one from Columbia, and one from Brown. Which would he accept? Then, assume Columbia and Harvard? Then, Columbia and Yale? And so on. Each time, he would smile and say “Columbia.” We did this several times during that fall two years ago. Each time, the answers were the same. If your answer is not the same every time, or you feel like you’re cheating in your answer, don’t apply ED to Columbia.</p>

<p>Is there an admissions boost through ED? I suspect that no one really knows. admissionsgeek is absolutely correct that every college wants to accept candidates who it expects will accept an offer of admission. This fact is why ED exists. This is also why, all things being equal, the college can assume the ED applicant has made that college his or her first choice; otherwise, why would the applicant bind him- or herself to the contract? Essentially, the college can assume that an ED acceptance will result in matriculation.</p>

<p>This is also why ED is such an effective tool in athletic recruiting and in testing the commitment of a legacy or development applicant. Recruited athletes don’t want to wait until April to find out where they’ll be playing next year (and many need the admissions boost, which may not be available during RD), and coaches don’t want to rely on RD to fill out their teams. A committed legacy or development applicant doesn’t look too committed if he or she waits to apply RD, which implies an intent to “see where else I can get in.” One relatively famous former Ivy League admissions officer has stated that 25% of an Ivy League class is comprised of recruited athletes, legacy or development admits and URMs. Discounting URMs, who I assume receive “preference” during both ED and RD rounds, there remains a significant number of “hooked” applicants who are admitted during the ED round. For the unhooked applicant, is ED admission therefore more or less difficult than RD admission? As I said, I suspect no one really knows.</p>

<p>Where admissionsgeek really hits the mark, in my opinion, is his or her observation regarding the love brought to campus by the ED admits. None of them were rejected by any other college or university in the world, not “HYPSM” or anywhere else. My son is a devoted club athlete and frat boy who loves Columbia. A large part of his early infatuation (THE CITY!) remains important, although he has little time to spend there given his devotion to his college community. The other part of his early infatuation (THE CORE!) has grown in significance. In any event, he has no regret.</p>

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<p>does a physical disability count as a hook?</p>

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<p>wombat - i don’t know much about you so i can’t say specifics, but in the end you gotta stand out academically and extracurricularly to be admitted. the added part of early is that you also have to have a good reason to apply early, they will screen for kids that just wanted to apply early to a school without knowing much about that school.</p>

<p>jelecrois - i don’t like the word hook because it misrepresents what admissions is really about. students that are admitted with ‘hooks’ even athletes and legacies usually have to demonstrate something that they will add to campus life, if there is no upside to the admission then the student probably wont be admitted. that being said - schools like columbia are a) aware of ADA and anti-discrimination laws, b) cognizant that succeeding in high school is hard especially with a physical disability and will certainly try to contexualize the student as much as possible. it means then that they will try their best to support and admit students that can match and especially those that do far better than their able-bodied peers. but as i wrote above - it still doesn’t mean you don’t have to stand out among the lot of your peers.</p>

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<p>[here’s</a> a little bit more about me](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/991421-i-know-you-all-get-tired-these-chances-thread.html]here’s”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/991421-i-know-you-all-get-tired-these-chances-thread.html)</p>

<p>i’m just really anxious to know, as anyone would be. i don’t have a laundry list of EC’s, but i do have a decent amount that i’ve been dedicated to for most of, if not all of my high school career. so i’m wondering if it’s more about commitment than quantity, or the opposite.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1011610-chance-me-pleasee-columbia-ed-will-chance-back-gladly.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1011610-chance-me-pleasee-columbia-ed-will-chance-back-gladly.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>would you chance me? thanks so much for this post…it helped me discard a few assumptions that have been skirting around in my head!</p>

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<p>Hi folks, unfortunately I don’t believe in chancing because i am not an admissions officer so i can only take a guess - i don’t know who is applying this year, i don’t know how many, and as much as you think you’re telling me on here there are tons and tons of factors that i feel go into admissions. i certainly have been privy to a lot of information that i share here, or have paid enough attention to be able to repeat what they say, but unless you’re in the room, it is hard to know what things will be like. when i used to read applications for this scholarship you realize that so much about what matters is context of who else is applying and what else they have to say - a bad application stands out if the other applications are worse.</p>

<p>that being said - most important thing to know about early decision is that it really depends not just on having the numbers or the activities to get in, but being able to sell the entire story of yourself, and you ought to think about it that way. good luck on applying, if you have other more general questions about ED, let me know.</p>

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<p>“I don’t believe in chancing because i am not an admissions officer so i can only take a guess”</p>

<p>Hey, that’s all chancing is, taking an educated guess. But reach/match/safety is about all we can do anyway.</p>

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<p>Advice from the Columbia Admissions website, reposted here:</p>

<p>APPLYING EARLY DECISION</p>

<p>Whether to apply Early Decision is an important choice, one that should be made after careful consideration of many schools and hopefully a visit to our campus. The choice to apply Early Decision should be one driven by a true passion for Columbia and a certainty that should you be admitted, you would attend. We hope you resist external pressures to apply early, and instead make an educated and informed choice that applying early is right for you.</p>

<p>If Columbia University is your first choice – and you are willing to make a binding commitment to attend if admitted – please do consider applying Early Decision. You must submit your Common Application, Columbia Supplement to The Common Application, and all supporting credentials by November 1 and have all standardized testing completed by the November test date. Please have your scores reported directly to Columbia by the testing agency (and do not ‘rush’ scores).</p>

<p>Students who apply for need-based financial aid will receive an estimated financial aid package once admitted. If admitted, you must withdraw all other applications and accept our offer of admission. Only students who, after consultation with the Office of Financial Aid, cite financial reasons for not attending will be released from the Early Decision agreement. Need-based financial aid and Columbia’s commitment to meeting 100% of every admitted first-year student’s demonstrated need (who applies for aid) allows Columbia to enroll students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>

<p>Please visit the Financial Aid website for more information on our extensive need-based financial aid program and the First-Year Admission webpage for more information on applying Early Decision.</p>

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<p>Admissionsgeek,
The early decision guide was so helpful but now that it is over at 11:59 tonight you need to start another guide. Maybe about how to stay sane until December 15th.</p>

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<p>^ AGREED! haha</p>

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<p>“The smaller population allows students with perhaps lower test scores, maybe mixed grades to get a chance at admission”</p>

<p>“…it can be an advantage if you are a low income student that qualifies for the very generous financial aid Columbia offers to those making less than 60k.”</p>

<p><3 This gives me hope.</p>