<p>"Come grad school applications, a Columbia undergrad degree, in most cases, would be more impressive than a Stanford degree."</p>
<p>"Quoted for truth."</p>
<p>Foreman, why are you attacking gimmiestanford
you are doing the same thing he is doing</p>
<p>^i wholeheartedly agree :)</p>
<p>Applicants vote with their feet. 80% of those who get into both choose Stanford.</p>
<p>The</a> New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices</p>
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<p>My favorite part by far. Funny how others have to provide proof to counter an opinion that has nothing to back it up.</p>
<p>^^ Yeah that one stuck with me too.</p>
<p>Stop flexing your ivory tower muscles, guys. Face it, Columbia and Stanford are both terrific schools, and that 1% or 2% or whatever the hell the difference in admissions rates is isn't that significant when Columbia accepts 8% of its RD pool and Stanford accepts 6%. They're still hard to get into. So, Gimmestanford, stop acting like you've got something to prove and don't take people on this board so seriously. Your initial post was inaccurate and drew some mockery from confidentialcoll. You didn't need to go nuclear.</p>
<p>As for whoever said a Columbia degree is viewed more favourably by grad schools than a stanford degree, that's utter BS: what matters is the GPA and what you've done during your 4 years. It's COLUMBIA vs. STANFORD, man. It's not PODUNK vs. STANFORD. You people are making a mountain of that extra bit of edge stanford (whatever that might be--selectivity, sports, the engineering school, blah blah blah) has over columbia, and I'm saying this even though I'm a Columbia alum</p>
<p>God, it just hit me how ridiculously childish this thread is.</p>
<p>i'm right everyone else is wrong i'm the smartest</p>
<p>This is the silliest thread of all time. You guys might as well drop trou' right now and get down to the core of the matter.</p>
<p>stanford is more "prestigious." that's why there is the acronym (HYPS). but meh, that means nothing.</p>
<p>^^Nobody knows the HYPS acronym outside of CC. </p>
<p>They both have equal prestige. Why argue over it?</p>
<p>I don't care about any of this. I'm trying to get into Stansbury (you know what they say, Stansbury is the Harvard of the West).</p>
<p>Columbia has higher SAT scores and students in the top 10% of class according to multiple sources. Admissions ratings are within 1%. Columbia is also rated as more selective according to USNews.</p>
<p>The OP did not ask which school had a lower acceptance rate; he asked whether it was easier to get into Columbia than Stanford. My answer to this question would be “it depends”. It depends on a lot of things, not least the applicant and the rest of the applicant pool. Without seeing your stats and knowing the general makeup of the respective applicant pools of each school, there is no way to answer your question. I can make a general statement that there are some things Columbia seems to favor more than Stanford and vice-versa and thus predict which you are more likely to be admitted to based on your “student profile” but even that is merely a generalization. Nonetheless, I personally believe that I had absolutely no chance of admissions to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford, while I had a good shot at Columbia. It is not that the former are necessarily “harder to get into” or “more competitive” (though it is true the average SAT score is higher); it’s just that they’re looking for different things. </p>
<p>(The following is my self-analysis of how I believe I presented myself to Columbia and why I think they accepted me. Although it may seem like self-aggrandizement, I do not intend it to be. I just want to show why I’d appeal to Columbia but not Stanford. Feel free to skip it if you’re not interested.)</p>
<p>With Columbia, I was able to present myself as a creative, somewhat offbeat intellectual who loves New York, loves Columbia and the Core, and has a passion for medicine that I have pursued with a volunteer opportunity that turned into an internship at a major Manhattan hospital. My teacher recs and the book/movie/publication lists probably confirmed what I believe is my slightly offbeat and ironic but deeply insightful intellectual curiosity. My SAT score (twin 800’s in CR and W, only 710 in M) further showed that my academic strength was analyzing literature and writing, not doing physics problem sets! My essay, which focused on my interest in medicine and hospital internship, combined with a glowing letter of recommendation from my boss, showed how I was pursuing my passion. My “Why Columbia?” showed that I was knowledgeable about the school and valued it for “the right reasons”, while my community service, all of which took place in Manhattan, showed how much I loved the city and wanted to give back. All this must have appealed to the admissions committee, and caused them to de-emphasize my relatively low GPA of 3.72 (unweighted). Even so, I was pleasantly surprised by the acceptance.</p>
<p>Would any of this have appealed to Stanford? Probably not. What do they care if I’m deeply attached to New York? Even if I gave reasons why I like Stanford, I think they (like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) expect higher GPA and SATs from their admitted applicants and would be less willing to cut me slack based on my passion for medicine, experiences in New York, and intellectual nature, while Columbia has a reputation for valuing creative and effective writing ability and intellectualism over raw GPA and standardized test scores.</p>
<p>This is just a REALLY long way of saying that the relative “ease” of a school depends on you. Even if one school has a higher acceptance rate, it’s not necessarily an “easier” school to get into. That’s why it makes more sense to apply to a school that’s a good fit, than a school that is objectively considered better or even easier to get into.</p>
<p>First and foremost, I’m not sure why difficulty of admission is relevant on any level.</p>
<p>Second, although I understand why a single candidate like pwoods would be admitted (congrats, pwoods!), I don’t think one should extrapolate from his/her experience. Most of those admitted to Columbia have no connection with New York City or medicine.</p>
<p>Where I live, thousands of miles from New York, other factors “seem” to count. My views are purely anecdotal (as are those of most other posters on this website), but I have a very clear picture of Stanford’s admissions profile, based on the six Stanford admits this year and last from my kids’ wealthy suburban high school: all six were legacy (or double legacy) and/or development admits (with major contributing family foundations); none were top of the class. Both of the Columbia admits were top of the class, but without legacy or family foundations. My son’s class, who are now first-years in college, includes kids at Harvard, Yale and MIT who were rejected at Stanford, and who were top of the class. (Both of the Columbia kids, including my son, applied ED.) The current scuttlebutt in my community (grossly unfair and incorrect, I’m sure) is that one can’t get admitted to Stanford unless one is a legacy/development cheerleader/recruited athlete. The view of Columbia (also unfair and incorrect, I’m sure) is that one must be a well-rounded, ED/sports-laden, academic champion to be admitted.</p>
<p>Although neither of my two children have ever had any interest in Stanford (despite my love for sun and eucalyptus), I admit I am somewhat jaded by Stanford’s seemingly arbitrary and capricious admissions policies. Many top, and good-but-less-than-top, students in my community want to go to Stanford. Almost universally, the top students get rejected, but the second tier has an impressive success rate. If the second tier had “something going on,” I would understand. Usually, however, the compass points to legacy/development.</p>
<p>Having said all that (a mouthful for me), I admit that Stanford seems to be doing something right. It seems to garner a lot of praise.</p>
<p>Why do people keep saying Stanford has higher SAT scores? Not that there is a huge difference here, but Columbia’s is actually higher…</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=781[/url]”>https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=781</a></p>
<p><a href=“https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=399[/url]”>https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=399</a></p>