I got deferred by my dream school today 
Are there any current Columbia students out there who were deferred in the ED round and later accepted? I know that first semester grades are now super important, but I’m worried that I won’t be able to add anything else to strenghten my application. Did you achieve any siginificant extracurricular feats or ask for more letters of recommendation?
Thank you.
I’m a student at Columbia, got in RD, so I can’t exactly comment on how to improve your odds at Columbia. But i think generally just providing an update with any new extracurricular accomplishments is sufficient. However, I think more importantly, you should not get caught up on any one school.
I know 2 people who were deferred from Columbia. One is now at MIT, the other at Princeton. College admissions is a crapshoot and you should focus now on optimizing your RD apps instead of putting your eggs in one basket.