Columbia University is one of the best universities in the world located in what is inarguably one of the best cities in the world — New York City. Columbia stands out in the Ivy League as having the tightest and most time-consuming distribution requirements, which they call the CORE Curriculum. The Columbia CORE is rooted in the tradition of a liberal arts education, and demands that students graduate with deep expertise alongside broad knowledge — you even need to take a swim test to graduate! In addition to the normal type of distribution requirements at most colleges where you pick language, science, math, and humanities classes from a long list of options, there are a few courses that every single student needs to take to graduate, such as Music Hum, a music theory course, and Art Hum, an art history course that requires significant flash card skills. This academic structure is ideal for high-performing students committed to the liberal arts methodology, and who want a well-rounded education at a top-tier university. The acceptance rate is just under 4%.
Columbia is test optional for the 2023-2024 application cycle for students applying to Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering, Columbia’s undergraduate engineering college. They have a lot to say about how they have a holistic review process, but how they read your application isn’t actually significantly different from any other top-tier college. They take everything into consideration — including your test scores if you send them. If you don’t send them, they don’t hold it against you. This means you should only send your scores if they are awesome. It also means that your essays are enormously important whether or not you send your scores.
If Columbia is on your list, send us an email. We know what it takes to go Ivy.
Whether you are applying to Columbia College or Columbia Engineering, 95% of the supplement is exactly the same — so we’ll dig into what is shared first. Then, after we go through the shared questions, we’ll break down the questions (or rather, question) that are different.
First, because it’s become a hallmark of the Columbia supplement, the reading list.
List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums, and other content that you enjoy. (100 words or fewer)
If feels like every year Columbia gives a bit more guidance as to what they want from you for this list — which suggests that they have gotten a lot of responses that they weren’t super into. Treat these guidelines as laws as you start to brainstorm:
“- 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.
- No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.”
They haven’t left anything to be guessed at when it comes to formatting, but it’s still up to you to figure out what to put on this list. Intimidating much?
First and foremost, you need to be honest. If you list the Economist, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal it is unlikely that readers will believe you and even less likely that they’ll want to have a conversation with you. You’re a teenager, so maybe you read the Wall Street Journal on the weekends, but you should sandwich it on the list with an album you love, a museum you visit, or a podcast you listen to religiously.
One of the good things about this prompt, though, is that you can augment your honest answer by genuinely broadening your horizons before pressing submit. If you’re not impressed by your initial list — challenge yourself! Read something new. Go to a show. Listen to a podcast. Try something that takes you out of your comfort zone, and include it if you like it. If you don’t, leave it off and try something else. This should be representative of you, not a “you” who you wish you were — and that’s a good thing.
A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer)
This prompt is asking for a piece of your culture or upbringing in a compact, 150-word response. This is super fun, and everyone has something meaningful to share here whether it’s a tradition, a belief system, or even a recipe. But remember, they want three things: the story, the lesson, and your future (and related) contribution to Columbia. That’s a lot to fit into 150 words — this explanation is already at 80, or over 50% of the way through.
To fit a lot into this small space, we recommend going “en media res,” or the technique of immediately plunging the reader into a story without first providing scene setting or context. This will immerse them from the get-to and save space for your lesson later, which will naturally provide the context they do need to have at some point. Finally, you need to spend some time going through the Columbia website, and especially the campus life section. This will help you find one or two specific links between the experience you’re sharing and what you’ll engage with on campus. This may be a club, a tradition, or an event. Finish your supplement with this to put a nice “bow” on your supplement.
In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant's ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills, or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)
This prompt is deceptively difficult because 99.9% of student has the same immediate — and entirely incorrect — reaction: they start digging for trauma. All humans face struggles, and some have much harder roads than others, but this prompt is not a hardship test where the applicant with the toughest life wins admission. Writing about the worst thing that has ever happened to you will not markedly help your application, because they aren’t asking for what the most difficult challenge you’ve faced is. If you go back to the second sentence of the prompt, you’ll see they specifically want to know how you “navigate through adversity.” It’s how you react to challenges that they’re most interested in. This is critically important to digest and understand. It’s about you, not about what’s happened to you or around you.
We recommend using a magnifying glass for this supplement, purposefully thinking small and zooming in tight on something in your life that was a genuine hurdle. If possible, also try to focus on something that is personal and not academic — so it could be something that caused you to struggle academically, like a learning difference, but not that a mean teacher gave you a B- in Physics freshman year and it’s haunted you ever since.
The other reason you shouldn’t write about a bad grade, or a mean teacher is that you need to take responsibility. This supplement should not be about someone else causing trouble for you, because it’s really easy to slide into blame-game territory and that’s a horrible place to be.
Once you’ve landed on something to write about, remember that they want you to share how you grew from the experience, so it’s important to devote at least 1/3 (if not more) of the supplement to what came after you faced down a proverbial dragon.
One last thought on this one: Many colleges are adding questions like this, so you may even be able to use some parts of this supplement for other schools — but you should never copy-and-paste. Reusing supplements whole hog is never a good approach, because colleges want to feel that your work is oriented specifically to them whether that’s through overt references to the school or a more subtle approach like echoing terms or concepts they emphasize. As you write this one, try to include a mention, either overt or subtextual, connecting your growth from your challenging experience to what Columbia can offer.
Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)
This is the last of the “shared” supplements that are the same for Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, and it’s also the “Why us?” prompt for Columbia. While it’s the fourth supplement listed on the Common App, we encourage students to start here when applying to Columbia as how you answer this question can help guide you towards answers for all the other supplements.
Normally, “why us” essays are academically focused, but Columbia has another supplement for that, which may leave you asking… “so what do I write about?” Good question. You write about everything about Columbia that excites you that isn’t your major program. For example, as we already mentioned they love their core curriculum, so writing about that is a safe bet — emphasis on safe. Try either looking beyond the core, or go deep into it by pinpointing an aspect of the core that you’re especially excited about.
That said, Columbia is so much more than the core! Spend some time going through the website, especially the academics and research sections, to find inspiration. If something sparks your curiosity, dig deeper into it so you can include details.
Columbia College-Specific Question: What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College? (150 words or fewer)
Now you’ve reached the Columbia College-specific question! Congrats! If you are applying to Columbia Engineering, this does not apply to you — so skip ahead, please. If this one is for you, the first step is to identify your intended major. Not sure what you’ll major in? Too bad. For the purpose of this application, you are absolutely sure what you want to study. Don’t worry, you won’t be held to it when it comes time to declare a major and Columbia knows many students change their minds, but they also want to see confidence and clarity at this stage and “undecided” doesn’t communicate either of those traits.
Once you have your major selected, you’ll need to identify at least one class within the major you’d like to take and a professor you want to study under, providing details of the program along the way to show that you really know your stuff. You should also share a potential minor, which is a lot to fit into only 150 words. If that doesn’t should like a challenge already, you’ll need to start the supplement with a brief story that connects your academic passion to what Columbia offers you that you’re particularly drawn to. It’s a big ask, but you’ve got this.
Columbia Engineering: What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)
This is the Columbia Engineering-specific question, and if you read the one above first by mistake it’ll sound familiar because it’s the exact same except for one word. Overall, the approach to this one will be the same as the approach to the Columbia College-specific prompt, with one nuanced difference. Because you are applying to a specialized school where you won’t be able to easily change your entire course of study, it’s critical that you make it really clear that you know the Columbia Engineering program extremely well. You need to be focused, and you need to use specifics to make it 100% clear that Columbia Engineering is the place for you to study.
Columbia University is one of the best universities in the world, and getting in is a massive accomplishment that requires a commensurate amount of effort when it comes to your application. Start your supplement early to give yourself plenty of time for drafting, editing, and adjusting before you press submit.
If you’re excited about Columbia but not excited about the application, send us an email. We help make it easy.