What does columbia look for in an applicant

Effective and polished communications skills are a given—as is the expectation that those baseline levels can and will be raised during the Columbia experience. Professional experience. Columbia also maintains a preference for candidates with at least some work experience. Veritas Prep recommends two or more years of work experience for Columbia Business School applicants.

Cultural fit. This newfound focus on culture also helps differentiate current Columbia from the Columbia of old, which had a reputation for sometimes being more cutthroat than collaborative. In particular, Columbia now looks for candidates who will actively contribute to the campus community through extracurricular involvement in clubs, cluster activities, and so forth. Serious about start dates. Call us to discuss your candidacy for top MBA programs, or submit your profile for a free consultation.

At Columbia, your child might study the Western canon in the morning, head to work to research at a cancer laboratory in the afternoon, or intern at the United Nations or on Wall Street in the evenings or on weekends. They might collaborate with musicians and artists at The Juilliard School , conduct research on neurological disorders and the genomes that cause cancer, or explore a career in theater, film, or publishing with the Columbia Arts Experience CAE internship program.

Your child can also spend their summers conducting research or interning outside of New York City. And what about after graduation? Alumni earn prestigious fellowships such as the Rhodes and Fulbright , win Pulitzer prizes for writing and journalism, enter the arts and media world in New York City, and become President of the United States. Your child would join an alumni network that includes CEOs, famous poets, Hollywood actors, Supreme Court Justices, Nobel winners, and world-class journalists.

Columbia is routinely at or near the top of Ivy League rankings :. With a population of 8. Morningside Heights—bustling yet safe—offers its own restaurants, cafes, bookstores, and shops.

Undergrad population: 8, including nontraditional students in the School of General Studies. Suggested reading: Ivy League Acceptance Rates.

Thank you! Your guide is on its way. In the meantime, please let us know how we can help you crack the the college admissions code. You can also learn more about our 1-on-1 college admissions support here. Like other Ivy League schools, Columbia is looking for students who are intellectually curious and ready to leave a mark on the diverse urban campus.

Columbia seeks more than just excellent grades and test scores. Admissions officers expect that your child will have taken advantage of the opportunities that they were afforded. Three to four years of foreign language ancient or modern. Columbia encourages aspiring scientists, physicians, and dentists to take as many courses in math and science as possible.

For applicants to the engineering school, Columbia recommends a rigorous program of math and science that includes four years of math preferably through calculus , four years of lab science including one year of physics and one year of chemistry, four years of English, two to three years of foreign language, and three to four years of social studies and history.

Columbia encourages all students to dive deeper into their interests. A student interested in writing should consider taking a creative writing or journalism elective in addition to four years of English, while a student dedicated to medicine might add an elective course in anatomy. Columbia accepts the Common Application, which means your child will need the following to apply:.

Common App Essay. Teacher recommendations engineering students must submit one letter from a math or science teacher. Your child can apply early to Columbia by November 1 and receive a decision of either accepted, deferred, or denied, by mid-December. Columbia follows the early decision as opposed to early action model, which is binding.

This means that your child must commit to attending Columbia if accepted. If your child is deferred, they will enter into the regular decision pool and hear back by the end of March. They can be accepted, waitlisted or rejected then. If accepted, they are no longer in the early decision binding agreement.

If your child applies early decision to Columbia, they are unable to apply to restrictive or single choice early action programs e. They can, however, apply to non-restrictive early action programs, such as MIT, Caltech, and the University of Chicago.

If they are willing to commit to attending Columbia no matter what the financial aid package is. If they are interested in applying to non-binding early action programs.

If their test scores and grades are strong by the end of junior year. Students who apply early decision, however, tend to be highly prepared, which helps explain why the early decision acceptance rate is higher. Most of these students have thought deeply about why they are an excellent fit for Columbia and have the grades and test scores to prove that they will succeed there. Suggested reading: Early Action vs. Early Decision. In addition to the Common App personal statement, Columbia requires numerous supplemental essays.

The Columbia-specific application questions are a crucial way that your child can provide a window into their character, passions, and creativity. Questions 1—3: For the three list questions that follow, please refer to the below guidance when answering these questions:. Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons. Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order. It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications.

Columbia's low acceptance rate is part of why it's such a prestigious school. If it was easy to get in, it wouldn't carry so much academic and social clout! Reported rates vary from year to year, but you can be that the acceptance rate in a given year will be 6 percent or lower.

For the class of , Columbia reported an acceptance rate of 3. Because Columbia considers applications holistically, every part of the application matters. Good standardized test scores and an excellent grade point average are essential, but don't make the mistake of assuming your chance of acceptance is based entirely on those two factors. Positive study habits and test preparation are a must. That said, don't despair if your grades don't quite match up with Columbia's expectations.

Again, they consider applications holistically; if you can explain your grades, demonstrate growth, and impress with extracurriculars, you still have a chance. Think of admissions to Columbia as a race. Some people may have worked on theoretical racing so much that they have little experience in actually running. Other racers have lots of experience in running, but lack the finesse of runners who've been coached by professionals. Any of those runners could conceivably win, but those with a mixture of both experience and theoretical knowledge will have an advantage.

Essentially, don't be afraid that poor grades in your sophomore year have ruined your chances forever. If you can prove that Columbia is truly the school for you, you still have a chance The average SAT score for Columbia students is between and , making the college extremely competitive. Remember, this is an average—it's not the only score you can have, as students who score about that will have a little extra boost, and students who score below that will have to demonstrate how well they'll succeed elsewhere in the application.

This is why it's important to get started on SAT prep early. If your first score misses the mark, you can always try again. Spending some time prepping for the SAT will help you get closer to your score goal, and therefore closer to holding that coveted acceptance letter in your hand. If you want good scores, you'll have to study hard. Columbia is similarly selective with ACT scores.

Columbia reports their scores as between 34 and 35, so while you might have a little bit of wiggle room, a higher score is always better. As with SAT scores, it's important to get started on preparing early. Don't wait until junior or senior year to start thinking about your scores if you plan to attend Columbia —you're up against some of the brightest minds in the world, so you need to lock in a good score through lots of studying and practice.

Your best bet is to study like a perfect score is the only one that'll get you in, but know that your test scores aren't the only factor in your acceptance. Columbia's average GPA is a whopping 4. What this means is that you'll need to be taking heavier weighted courses, typically AP or honors courses, to be competitive with other prospective Columbia students.

Again, it's not impossible to get in if you don't have a GPA above 4. Study hard in your first couple years of high school to ensure that you're prepared for the advanced courses you'll need to push your GPA to a Columbia-approved level.

Remember, your school may weight AP courses more, so a B in an AP course might mean more than an A in a standard course. Don't despair if your grades aren't perfect in AP courses, but do always strive for the best, and set yourself up for success. You simply can't earn a 4. Don't take that to mean that being in the top 10 percent is enough—remember, 95 percent of the students you're competing with are also in that same demographic.

You need to excel and stand out. Because Columbia is holistic, everything counts. But one Ivy League college admissions officer has revealed a little secret— everything counts, but the most important thing to not do poorly on is your GPA. This is general advice for Ivy Leagues, not specifically Columbia, but don't discount your GPA as a vital factor in getting accepted to Columbia.

Having a distinct skill—like doing VR while riding a bike—sets you apart from other applicants. Your competition is not necessarily every single student who applies to Columbia. Your competition is every student like you—students who have your GPA, your SAT score, your diversity of extracurriculars. So find a way to stand out from the pack; what areas do you excel in? And if you don't excel now, what can you do to target your application to be less of a Renaissance applicant and more of a specialist?

Consider the "spike" approach to applying to college. A variety of skills is great, but most applicants will also have good grades, test scores, and multiple extracurriculars. To stand out, you want something memorable—a spike in your well-roundedness. If you have an interest spike, an area where you particularly excel or that emphasizes your dedication to a certain field, you can tie much of your application to that spike and make your application more memorable.