75 Comments
Welcome home 2015!
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has just released the admissions statistics for the Class of 2015! The takeaway: shitloads of people applied to Columbia. The overall admission’s rate for this year was 6.9 percent, compared with last year’s 9.2%. We suspect this has a lot to do with the switch to the Common App, but regardless, congratulations are in order for next year’s freshpeople!
Jessica Marinaccio, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, made the following statement:
The Undergraduate Admissions staff and I take great pride in admitting the Class of 2015 to Columbia College and Columbia Engineering. Chosen from among 34,929 applicants in our most selective admissions cycle ever, admitted students hail from 73 countries and all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. We admitted 6.4% of students who applied to Columbia College and 9.9% of those who applied to Columbia Engineering, for an overall admit rate of 6.9%.
By virtue of our continued commitment to outreach and access, an increasing global awareness of Columbia’s reputation, and our new membership with The Common Application, we anticipated and were prepared for an increase in applications. Despite the volume of applications we received, we remained committed to a holistic, committee-based admissions process.
The applicant pool was not only the largest but also the most geographically, socioeconomically, and ethnically diverse in Columbia’s history. Applicants were academically talented in every respect and demonstrated remarkable skills and achievement in countless areas. And while we were unfortunately not able to offer admission to many exceptional students—undoubtedly the most difficult aspect of our job—we are thrilled to extend offers of admission to an incredibly diverse group of leaders, innovators, scientists, engineers, artists, and humanists who clearly articulated their fit with Columbia and New York City.
The Admissions Office is excited to welcome these future Columbians and their families to campus for our admitted student events in April, and to witness the remarkable contributions the Class of 2015 will make to our campus community.
Columbia College
- Total number of applicants: 29,393
- Total number of students admitted: 1,869
- The overall admit rate for Columbia College was 6.4%
The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Total number of applicants: 5,536
- Total number of students admitted: 550
- The overall admit rate for Columbia Engineering was 9.9%
Combined Schools – Class of 2015:
- Total number of applicants: 34,929 (increase of 33% over previous year)
- Total number of students admitted: 2,419
- The overall admit rate for both schools was 6.9%
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75 Comments
@GS NO MOAR, K? This thread should be about saying “congrats!” to CC and SEAS ’15 and marveling at the ridiculousness of 6.4% OMGWTFBBQ. Why do we have to devolve into GS arguments in threads that are barely tangentially related?
Congrats ’15-ers!
@GS'12 Yeah, you’re totally right. I was just marveling at my luck in attending such a great school (and doing well I might add) without having to go through what I can only imagine was a nerve wracking experience in order to get accepted.
@Anonymous Speaking as someone who was admitted to CC early admission but ended up at GS because of career choices, I would say there is little difference between the schools…except that most GS students have jobs and/or families to deal with in addition to their education. I think that deserves a little respect!
@GS'12 Man. Am I glad I dropped outta high school, never took SATs, and waltzed in through the back door of this place…
@... Y’ALL BAKERS TOASTIN’ IN A ROLL BREAD!
@Anonymous don’t forget that Columbia’s SAT range is given a big boost by SEAS kids… ;)
@Anonymous ….perhaps in the math section ;-)
@Anonymous SEAS here with 800s in verbal and writing…
@Anonymous CC here with 800 in math. The SATs really weren’t that hard, nothing to be that proud of.
@Anonymous CC here with 720 in math and who now cannot for the life of me remember how to divide
@Anon CC here with 740 math from public school where we used our teeth to count. nobody ever got past 15 without a calculator.
@Yeah. And combined plan kids get to transfer into SEAS automatically…not sure how i feel about that. It seems unfair.
@Anonymous ha, i have a bunch of classes with combined kids, and they all destroy us and the curve…i too wish they weren’t here, but not for prestige reasons
@i have the opposite feeling. they make me look good.
@Alum They’re only admitted if they take all the prerequisites and meet a GPA requirement at their liberal-arts college.
@back in my day The ED admit rate to SEAS was 48%. Btw, my day is SEAS ’10.
@Anonymous Things have changed a lot
@guys this really isn’t fun to talk about anymore
@Anonymous seriously! I’m tired of those community college alumns…
@Anonymous Tran$fer out then, n00b. QQ moar.
@Inigo Montoya They keep letting in more and more effing students and do the open up more housing?! no. they open 8 doubles above symposium… CU administration sucks at math
@h@XX0rZ It’s because they’re greedy FUCKS. Why else do freshmen have to get ripoff mealplans for the SHIT food here?
@1uck$h0t Columbia isn’t any harder to get into than in the past. The common app only means more retards will apply, because you know the people who actually want to get in would have applied either way. The common app only means that fuckers who are like, whatever, ill take a chance apply and those dumbasses aren’t going to get in anyway.
On the plus side we can say that Columbia is more selective and that we’re smarter even though that’s wrong.
@hmmm the same thing could be said for the really smart kids that wouldn’t have applied because they didn’t want to fill out Columbia’s application. Not every smart kid applies to every great school. For every 14 less intelligent kids that applied because of the addition of the common app, columbia probably attracted at least 1 “worthy” applicant
@also you also have to consider that many apps are for people using Columbia as a “safety”
As depressing as it is to consider, most people who apply H/Y/P/Stanford will use other Ivies as fall-backs. The inverse is not necessarily true.
There is also possibility of eventual-NYU-bound strivers, who want to take a reach on Columbia, figuring that NYC is the goal, why not aim high.
Number of apps is driven by so many factors, that selectivity is a bogus tool in terms of ranking quality and applicant perception. That said, it’s great for Columbia because it will boost US News ranking, which can help build career prospects, and alumni giving…
Here’s the caveat, though. The perception of Columbia by the world at large (i.e. “University of Havana North”) won’t change if the admitted students continue to behave the way they have since 1968…
For whatever reason, H/Y/P/Stanford don’t have this same stigma…
@international student I have never met anyone outside of America who thinks of Columbia as University of Havana North.
@true Columbia’s international reputation is probably better than its domestic reputation. Same for NYC, as a whole.
@CC '14 I don’t really understand why more people are applying now that it’s common app. I very much enjoyed the fact that Columbia was not on the common app–I sent my common app essay and naturally ended up going to the school whose application I spent the least time on. Seriously, NYU was my safety school and that app was more time consuming than Columbia’s.
@Ari The real question will be what’s the capture rate…
@did anyone else think of pokemon just now?
@Anonymous Harvard College: 6.2 %
Columbia College: 6.4%
@Anonymous Also, if it matters:
Yale College: 7.4%
Princeton: 8.4%
@elitist oh…it matters.
@Pardon me but uh FUCK PRINCETON
That is all
@truth why vote him down? his point is that we’re in second place!!!
@Anonymous as has been pointed out many times previously, these comparisons are incorrect just for the fact that there are engineers in harvard college, yale college, princeton undergrad etc.
@Anonymous OK, but even if you take Columbia Engineering into account, that’s still 6.9%
@SEAS senior If they had maintained the average class size of recent years (~350), then our admission rate would have been just as low as CC’s, and we could stop hearing people talk about how it’s easier to get into SEAS (sorry, CE) than CC.
Oh well, at least our admission rate isn’t over 10%….how embarrassing would THAT be?
@CC 11 Oh, you mean like it was when you got in?
(my recaptcha had a phi in it. wtf?)
@Oh no! Gashed are my hopes that, in 25 or so years, my kids will attend here too! The admit rate then will probably be negative by then :(
@Anonymous But your kids will be legacy so they’ll get it (as will mine)
@lets make babies right now. call me./
@omgz lets do dis.
@Anonymous better marry an alum just to be sure
@Getting bigger? 2,419? Is this a larger class than the rest or am I mistaken?
@Anonymous They’re not all going to matriculate.
@Anonymous i wonder if the SATs and stuff went up? or did they keep with the tradition of picking interesting smarties instead of lame super-geniuses? there’s only so many circus performers…
@ban frats on campus! but then where would all the legacy and sports money go?
@read a fucking book, please.
but seriously
@ehh Wish I didn’t get in. CU sort of sucks
@c1!p Tran$fer out then, n00b. QQ moar.
@Troll alert Forget it guys, fucking troll doesn’t even go to columbia, he doesn’t have a crown next to his name meaning he’s not on a columbia ip. He’s prolly at home crying, having just been rejected.
@wow! so that’s what that means!
@CC '13 6.4%? Holy crap. There’s no way I would have gotten in.
@... admission rates mean nothing, especially in the era of the common application. the number you’re after is called the yield.
@Anonymous eh to some extent. yield is helpful when combined with admission percentage because some of the highest yield places are also random religious colleges
@Anonymous feels good to have “snuck” in before it got this hard to get in
@Anonymous Congrats class of 2015!
Sorry we won’t be here to welcome you :)
Love,
CC’2011
@omfg i got in i got in i got in!!!
@Anonymous Oh…to be young and excited to be at Columbia…instead of the self-deprecation that the undergrads are known for…
Just wait a few months, kid.
@OOOOOOrrrrrrr, Just don’t be a self-important douchebag undergrad who thinks the entire world is always and immediately owed to him/her. Seriously, if you take one minute out of every day you’re here to think about what you are blessed with, you will never become a bitter asshole. Promise.
-CC ’11
@Dammmmn Ninnnnja
@Yo-landi deez ninjas who undastandz dis be zef to def
@Holy fucking shit. 6.4% for Columbia College? Damn!
@Anonymous So no, Barnard is NOT Columbia College. You do NOT go to Columbia.
@CC '11 hasn’t this gotten old yet? clearly CC is different from CU (and in case that doesn’t make sense, the letter “C” is different from the letter “U”). CC is not the whole of CU, and if that’s what you thought, then get over it and yourself.
@Anonymous “We admitted 6.4% of students who applied to Columbia College and 9.9% of those who applied to Columbia Engineering, for an OVERALL ADMIT RATE of 6.9%.”
i’m pretty sure that barnard isn’t included in that overall admit rate. no offense to barnard, it just statistically isn’t included.
@SEAS2014 Columbia College, Barnard College, School of Engineering and Applied Science = Columbia University… GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON. What you should really be questioning is that GS population that walks proudly with a Columbia degree.
@CC senior girl Barnard students are, on the whole, a valuable part of our undergraduate community and while the admit rates are in fact different, it’s not like Barnard isn’t still a highly selective school . .. More selective than Vassar, Northwestern, and plenty of other awesome schools.
And really once you get into the %20 rate, you’re still talking highly achieved and talented and intelligent students — perhaps just not as strictly academic and beefy-resume’d as the Columbia crowd. But also let’s not pretend that being lucky enough to make the cut at CC or SEAS necessarily means that we were either the most or only deserving applicants.
Barnard’s existence pretty much only increases the kinds of resources and clubs and classes and events and such that we can all take part in, so on the whole I’d say it’s a plus to every Columbia student in every aspect except possibly heterosexual women’s romantic “chances.” Oh well. We’ll survive.
Basically the biggest issue I see that remains is that Barnard ultimately makes the Columbia University undergraduate experience more accessible for women than men. Which in 2011 is kind of silly and more than a little unfair. Yes, this allows Columbia to keep our gender percentages even in CC and SEAS combined, and yes more women tend to be applying to top schools anyway, but I’m not sure those are good enough reasons to justify Barnard’s all-women’s existence.
@Anonymous I’m more proud of all the GS students who have to work day jobs and still can come to classes because they still have the fortitude to continue to go to school at their age. You clearly have no clue what you’re talking about.
@Anonymous You are an idiot. GS students have about the same GPAs at Columbia than rest of us (many of them are better) and they appreciate their education more than most of the people our age. Columbia is their school just as much as it is mine and yours and everyone else’s so just get over it. You are obviously a 18 year old immature kid who has a whole lot to learn … Assbag!!
@cc you obviously go to GS. not saying that’s a bad thing, but your comment is so contrived
@2011 DAMN I’M OLD!
@FUCK YEAH
@Calculus When the denominator goes to infinity, the acceptance rate goes to 0%