<p>How much does it affect admission at Columbia? Does it cause reverse discrimination? Is it's presence in admissions justified? What are your personal views on it? How far can being a minority get you in admissions? What exactly does AA do to your application in the eyes of the AD coms?</p>
<p>bump, bump, bump</p>
<p>It helps more than a 1600 supposedly, but prevents you from ever knowing if you were really qualified or not.</p>
<p>Jekyl, I don't think it helps very much if you can't distinguish yourself from the rest of the applicant. From what I have learnt about Columbia since I started reading CC, it places more emphasis on what you will bring to the columbia community not only in terms of race but also in terms of diversity in other aspects e.g.:thought and intellectual curiosity. Being a minority will probably get the adcoms to take a closer look at your application, but you have to show that you can contribute something other than skin color. Columbia University is a very serious intellectual community( I know it is kind of cliche), as such they have to make sure that all the students admitted can survive.</p>