Are you trying to decide if you should apply to Columbia given this question? Like if they tell you that a stepparent’s income is strongly considered, you won’t bother to apply because you won’t get aid?
I know it’s hard to “fly blind” financially, I was in a similar situation with my kids, one of whom looked at Columbia. I did the NPC but the advice to just “add the two biological or adoptive parent’s costs together to arrive at general idea of your total estimated cost.” wasn’t very helpful. She didn’t wind up applying to we never found out, but of the schools she chose from in the end, there was significant variation in their family contribution calculation, even among the ones that promised to meet full need.