<p>Why is the acceptance rate of Columbia University so low? Is that because of New York City that random applicants just apply causing the acceptance rate to lower? Or is that because of the populated New York City...There are huge number of applicants in the city and they all know about Columbia University and they like to have a shot at it?
I have went through all the RD/ED Decisions of HYPSM and also Columbia. Overall, the students of HYPSM have better stats than students of Columbia, maybe not in terms of SAT scores but in GPA, ECA's and etc.
I understand that Columbia is really a prestigious college but definitely not more than HYPSM. But, it has lower acceptance rate than all of them except Harvard? Why is that?
Can someone please clarify this?</p>
<p>you went through ALL the HYPSM decisions? more like the college confidential threads which are in no way representative of the actual decisions? </p>
<p>look ‘prestige’ is thrown around too much and people often mistake it for being synonymous with ‘name recognition’ or ‘US NEWS ranking’. its all a load of shiat. i dont even wanna get into it. columbia has an extremely strong applicant pool and the admissions committee is looking for a specific fit that matches the character of the school. and i know a bunch of kids here who turned down HYPSM to come here - i would’ve done the same. enough with this spazzing out over ‘prestige’ blah blah blah</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> This again. </p>
<p>THE STUDENT WHO APPLIES TO EVERY IVY: I’ll apply to Columbia</p>
<p>THE STUDENT WHO WANTS AN ENGINEERING DEGREE: I’ll apply to Columbia</p>
<p>THE STUDENT WHO THINKS HIMSELF COMPETITIVE FOR NYU, THEIR GOAL: I’ll take a shot and apply to Columbia too. It’s in Manhattan too.</p>
<p>THE STUDENT WHO THINKS HERSELF COMPETITIVE FOR BARNARD, HER GOAL: I’ll take a shot and apply to Columbia too.</p>
<p>THE STUDENT FROM LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS THAT WANTS TO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD: I’ll apply to every college in New York!</p>
<p>THE STUDENT WHO WATCHES GOSSIP GIRL OR SEX AND THE CITY: See above.</p>
<p>Etc, etc, etc…</p>
<p>Columbia just happens to be situated (literally and figuratively) where students from every demographic breakdown wants in, regardless of the reason, whereas someone won’t “risk” Dartmouth because zomg it’s their dream to live in Ithaca or wherever the hell Dartmouth is. Location, location, location. Ivy reputation, media popularity, etc. I’m already sick of writing.</p>
<p>Why do you care? Focus on your application and make sure, if that is your choice, that you’re part of the class of 2014 and not just a statistic.</p>
<p>Remember, too, that a lot of folks choose NOT to apply to Columbia for the simple reason that it is in New York City.</p>
<p>“But, it has lower acceptance rate than all of them except Harvard[.]”</p>
<p>Where’d you get your facts from?</p>
<p>LionHeaded…Your reply was great.Now,I understood the reasons.I am an international student.Can you tell me how popular is Columbia University among the international students?
And, how many international students the university enroll each year?
And, what is acceptance rate of international students? Like MIT has overall acceptance rate of 11% but for international students its only 4%.For Harvard, it has 7% overall but for internationals its only 5%.
And, how strong is the applicant pool?</p>
<p>The following is a survey report on 15000 students and parents done by Princeton Review</p>
<p>Students’ Top 10 Dream Colleges:
1/ Stanford University
2/ Harvard College
3/ Columbia University
4/ Princeton University
5/ New York University
6/ Yale University
7/ University of California–Los Angeles
8/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9/ University of Southern California
10/ University of California–Berkeley</p>
<p>Parents’ Top 10 Dream Colleges for their children:
1/ Harvard College
2/ Stanford University
3/ Princeton University
4/ University of Notre Dame
5/ Yale University
6/ New York University
7/ University of California–Los Angeles,
8/ Duke University
9/ University of Southern California
10/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology</p>
<p>Columbia is No.3 in Student’s list but in parent’s list its not even in top 10.
Columbia University tops Princeton, Yale & MIT. Why is that? Its certainly not for academics or prestige. There is something in Columbia University which makes it more demanding to students but not to parents.</p>
<p>TLDR, thanks for wasting 1minute of my life on this thread. Really, **** off.</p>
<p>I don’t think the question is why isn’t Columbia in the parents’ list, but rather why is Duke in the parents’ list.</p>
<p>As for why it’s 10%, it’s because of the large number of applicants. Nothing more.</p>
<p>You are asking a stupid question. </p>
<p>Why is the acceptance rate low? BECAUSE A TON OF PEOPLE APPLY. simple. Why is it an excuse that Columbia is in New York? Why isn’t that a legitimate attraction? New York shapes the Columbia education in many ways. </p>
<p>No one “deserves” a low or high acceptance rate depending on average number… Schools build a profile that attracts interest. </p>
<p>Also, remember Columbia isn’t on the Common App. So a couple clicks, copy/paste, and $70 isn’t going fill out an app like it would for so many other schools.</p>
<p>ALSO, Columbia might just be on the level of HYPMS. You’ll have to depart from your obsession with USNWR rankings to understand that concept, but I think it’s worth trying.</p>
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<p>Factual inaccuracy, and a big one, HYS all have lower acceptance rates than Columbia. We beat MIT and Princeton after waitlist activity. This really makes me disregard your claim that:</p>
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<p>Your tiny sample (if you did collect one) is dwarfed by actual statistics of enrolled students. Columbia has a higher percentage of students in the top 10% than stanford (yeah, think gpa). Our sat scores are higher than MIT’s and Stanford’s. We had a lower acceptance rate than Princeton and MIT. It’s really not like we’re getting worse applicants or an enrolling class. Columbia is also easily more undergrad focused than harvard, with smaller classes, a core curriculum (which costs the university a lot of money). Harvard suspended discussions on implementing a core curriculum last year because of funding difficulties after their endowment tanked.</p>
<p>Columbia faculty overall is easily at the same level of prestige as any of those schools. Testament to this, is Columbia has more nobel prize affiliations than any other university on the planet. The only broad university-wide factor HYPS have on Columbia are better endowments. Columbia has every reason to have an acceptance rate as low as 10%. Outside of college confidential no-one has heard of the hypsm acronym, and honestly no-one gives a ■■■ about it. Once you actually come to college and talk to people to get a job or get into a grad school you’ll realize how contrived this distinction and the us news rankings are.</p>
<p>Why are you all being so sensitive?</p>
<p>If he’s ■■■■■■■■, then don’t humor him. If he’s genuinely misinformed and curious, you don’t have to bite his head off.</p>
<p>Confidential College, that is the biggest BS I’ve ever read. Columbia’s stats are no better than Dartmouth (worse SAT scores), Penn (worse top 10% scores), etc. Brown’s acceptance rate is only .8 behind it. Columbia’s selectivity is mid-pack among the Ivies and in the last few years its not very much ahead of the other non-HYP Ivies in acceptance rate (10% Columbia, 10.8% Brown, 12% Dartmouth) and objectively its acg profile stats are lower than at least Dartmouth and Penn. Your skewing of the data is so biased and manipulative, its almost disgusting. Get over thinking Columbia is Harvard. Its not. Not even close.</p>
<p>According to 3 different selectivity rankings for the past 10 years, Columbia - despite its acceptance rate - belongs in the same category as Penn, Dartmouth and Brown.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that it isn’t an elite school - it obviously is - but there are undeniable gradations within the so-called “elite,” and they are almost universally perceived as:</p>
<p>1) Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/MIT/Caltech (and Wharton)
2) Columbia/Penn/Dartmouth/Brown</p>
<p>Those are really the “elite” that share most if not all of the top applicants. After that, there are:
3) Duke/UChicago, Cornell, Hopkins, etc.</p>
<p>Do I have sources for this? Why, yes, as a matter of fact. See: The Atlantic’s selectivity rankings, the Princeton Review’s 10 toughest schools to get into, and of course US News’s selectivity index.</p>
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<p>strongly worded arguments for an uncommon opinion is not sensitivity. It annoys me that people flock to generalizations based on CC (which is not even representative of high school students) and to us news, which frankly, if you ask someone hiring or in grad school admissions, they’ll have no clue what the actual ordering of schools is.</p>
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<p>wrong, Columbia’s are better, check collegeboard. I never said Columbia was significantly more selective than brown, penn or dartmouth. I was arguing that Columbia selectivity is not significantly less than hypsm, and actually neither is brown/dartmouth or penn’s. there’s little difference between a 8% and a 12% acceptance rate. There’s also little difference between 90% being in the top 10% and 99% being in the top 10% (penn has clearly pandered to us news here), average sat of 2200 vs. 2250 as well. Harvard has much more name recognition than Columbia, and better law school placement, but the students aren’t very different in terms of ability, opportunities at Columbia too are not much worse, and undergrad focus at Columbia is higher. I’m not saying Columbia is Harvard (they have much more money which makes a difference), I’m saying it deserves to have an acceptance rate that is comparable.</p>
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<p>the atlantic’s data is for the early 2000s, and Columbia was less selective, both absolutely and relatively back then. Both Princeton Review and US NEWS put Columbia ahead of Stanford in terms of selectivity. Do I think Columbia is more selective than Stanford? No- because sat scores and % of high school students in the top 10% of high school class cannot encompass all that defines selectivity. Columbia, despite a comparatively lesser a focus on scores and grades, manages to beat MIT on sat scores and acceptance rate. You cannot really argue that MIT is more selective. Even if you can, it’s insignificant. HYPSM all have more name recognition, but to the people who matter - employers and grad schools (These are people who make decisions at the stage in life when your degree matters the most). Ask an investment banker or trader whether MIT students make better bankers and traders than Columbia students (they’ll likely tell you the opposite is true). Ask a law school admissions officer if stanford or Columbia kids make better lawyers. Ask chicago econ, if they’d prefer a harvard econ major over a Columbia econ major. The reason for this is because these places have witnessed that Columbia brings in kids who are just as qualified and educates them very well. </p>
<p>Every year Columbia kids in large numbers get into the very best phd programs, investment banks, consulting firms, law schools, tech firms. Meaning that you are not relatively disadvantaged in any way by going to Columbia. The same is true of Dart and Penn (wall street loves brown slightly less).</p>
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<p>they’re “universally perceived” because you spend all your time on college confidential.</p>
<p>You guys are arguing for no good reason. This is the answer:
Columbia is the smallest College among all the Ivies. They have what 1300 or less spots for college?</p>
<p>So small number of seats for a huge number of students means a smaller acceptance rate. Right? Even if their applicant numbers are a bit lower than Yale or Harvard.
Why do a lot of people apply to Columbia. Well the campus I hear is good. It is in nyc. etc etc. I needed to get out of New York!!</p>
<p>You can check and verify what i said. Columbia has fewer seats because it is the smallest of all the Ivies.</p>
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<p>Wrong! 10% is for Columbia College and SEAS, the two undergrad schools, this is 1050+315 = 1365 students, princeton, yale and dartmouth are all smaller.</p>