<p>Bwog reports that 3,229 people applied to Columbia's early decision program (a roughly 8% increase over the number who applied last year), of which 632 were accepted and 696 were deferred, resulting in an acceptance rate of 19.57% and a deferral rate of 21.55%. For you liberal arts majors, that's a rejection rate of 58.88%.</p>
<p>whoa, thanks for the data!</p>
<p>Yay I feel more special now.</p>
<p>The high rejection rate startled me though. Probably because of the Common App?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s the Common App; Columbia just doesn’t defer that many students. And that’s probably a good thing, considering that the majority of deferred students are not admitted in the RD round. Would you rather defer 5,000 students and have 100 of those be admitted or defer 15,000 and have 100 of those be admitted?</p>
<p>so out of those ~700 deferred… how many would be admitted come RD?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>in the deferral letter they said that the acceptance rate for deferred applicants is “roughly comparable to the overall admit rate,” which is pretty vague. i’m not sure if they meant comparable to the admit rate that includes both ED and RD acceptances (that 9% number), or the even more intimidating RD admit rate (about 7% last year, probably significantly lower this year). if they meant the former, that would imply that deferred applicants are at a slight advantage over regular applicants, which kind of makes sense to me and kind of not. regardless, the numbers aren’t particularly encouraging. using the numbers from last year i estimate that about 50-63 of us will be admitted. which is sad.</p>
<p>Alright so which is the official percentage increase in applications?</p>
<p>7.2% (Bwog, Columbia Spectator) or 8.25% (NYTimes’ The Choice)?</p>
<p>EDIT: It should be from 2983 to 3229 (not 3217), therefore yielding a 8.25% increase.</p>
<p>hey ya’ll,
not to spoil the fun or anything, but i think if you get deferred, you actually have less chance of getting in RD (definitely check me up on this one, ask admissiongeek or something to make sure if ure really interested lol) cuz most of the time, its easier to get in ED:</p>
<p>1) poorer applicants don’t apply (they do RD, so they can compare packages)</p>
<p>2) super strong applicants don’t want to bind, so they either just wait until RD, or do lots of EA (just look at yale or stanford EA lol…it was pretty intimidating) </p>
<p>3) usually if someone doesn’t stand out in the ED pool, they will look even weaker in the RD pool</p>
<p>so my guess is for deferrals, the admit rate is significantly lower and chances are maybe a bit below average. but i mean, theres definitely a shot though, seeing as how 2/5 of my friends who got deferred last year got in at the end (although both of them won a big national award after ED – Siemanns regional finalist or something like that)</p>
<p>i think there is the info columbia tells us (that their admit rate is about the same) and there is of course some skepticism.</p>
<p>but after meeting tons of deferred-admits, i kind of believe them. but when you note that columbia is admitting about 1800 students regular and of those maybe 50 are deferred admits, it makes sense why it is not quite as large a number.</p>
<p>i know it seems hard to look at the figures, but most students columbia deferred because they wanted to admit, but need more information - full semester grades, for you to maybe have won that award, or a stunning letter of continued interest that lets them push away your weaker why columbia in regular. columbia hopes it could take a lot of deferred kids regular, but they do at times defer students precisely because they want to see how they stack up against the regular pool. if that 4.0 2350SAT pres of student council really is all that impressive, or maybe there is a 4.5 2400SAT pres of some statewide body also from the same school or region. </p>
<p>being deferred is not quite the second place it seems. and the good thing about columbia is that columbia puts the gun to its own head on deferred students saying it wont waitlist a deferred student (wont give them purgatory again), which means they may be more inclined to take a student they really liked knowing that the only other option is denial.</p>
<p>@admissionsgeek</p>
<p>Columbia never waitlists deferred students??? That’s quite interesting.</p>
<p>deferees STILL have a chance, but not if they just sit around and do squat. they should probably send a letter into the office of admissions stating that columbia is still your top choice + how much you love it etc. around january. they should also send a list of accomplishments theyve made since their deferral. SHOW that you care!</p>
<p>^ I agree, but I also don’t think it may be too wise for deferrals to flood admission officers, since they’re probably getting tons of angry/aggressive emails/phone calls haha. A short list, a short follow up phone call, or a short note would do</p>
<p>yay we’re on college confidential on christmas eve!!! hahah</p>
<p>happy holidays everyone</p>
<p>If nothing changes between now and April–no major awards, upward GPA trend, or higher SATs–deferred applicants probably don’t have too much of a chance. The good thing about Columbia is that they defer so few that it probably was That Lne Flaw on your application that kept you out. Those deferred at someplace like Yale, by contrast, can’t be confident that winning an award or getting a 4.0 first semester will earn them serious reconsideration in the RD round.</p>