Columbia University is a famed Ivy League university in the heart of New York City. Columbia has had a rocky few years as far as keeping calm on campus, but so have many big name universities in the United States with passionate and engaged student bodies. Columbia remains an outstanding educational institution that opens doors for students from around the world, launching them into top-tier careers, professional programs, and graduate-level study. There are about 9,000 undergraduates between Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, and the School of General Studies, an alternative undergraduate pathway for non-traditional students, like military veterans, and 35,000 students overall. Accepted students are between the arts and humanities, engineering, mathematics and natural sciences, and social sciences. They receive applications for first-year admission, and the acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was .
Both Columbia College and Columbia Engineering are for first-year applicants. This new policy was put in place after a comprehensive review of student outcomes following the short-term test-optional policy used during the height of the COVID pandemic. As Columbia did not see an adverse outcome for students who hadn’t submitted scores, they decided to make the test-optional policy permanent. We do not, however, encourage our students to make use of this policy unless absolutely necessary. In recent years, of accepted and enrolled first years submitted the SAT or ACT as part of their application. If you can get a high score, then, we suggest sending it in. For the SAT this would mean a composite of 1540+ and for the ACT you should be aiming for a 35 or 36.
In this post, we’ll be digging into the qualitative piece of your Columbia application: . The supplement is a crucial way of differentiating yourself as an applicant. You have the grades and the scores, and look impressive on paper — but how you talk about what you do matters, deeply. Here we’ll break down how to approach each supplement for your strongest chance of admission.
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The Columbia supplement is the same whether you are applying to the Fu School of Engineering or Columbia College, and it is quite short. There are a number of questions, but they don’t give you much space to work with. This means that you need to be efficient, clear, and impactful each step of the way. This can be particularly difficult, though, when addressing “The List.”
THE 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)
Yes, they are asking you for a list. But before you try to think of clever ways to morph this into something unique and narrative while still answering the prompt, take a look at the additional instructions that Columbia provides:
“Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:
- 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.”
The first test of a successful response to this supplement prompt is following the instructions — completely. Yes, this means that most of what you include is actually not all that useful. They aren’t going to look up the titles of books to read about them, read essays, or review presentations. So, what is the point of this? Well, it’s sort of like a literacy test. Do you consume media and art outside of the standard and expected items on a high school curriculum? If every book you list is something that gets assigned sometime between sophomore and senior year, that’s a red flag. It’s as much of a red flag, though, if you include every fancy newspaper and publication, every museum within a 50 mile radius of your hometown, and a bunch of other things that may come up on the web if you were to search, “advanced literary readings.”
Coming off as inauthentic or like your list is contrived is as bad as not exploring beyond your syllabi, so it’s all about shooting for the middle. If there is something you have loved that was taught in school, include it, but also look beyond. And if you can’t think of anything, get out to more shows, open more books, and listen to more podcasts before submitting. This, at least, is an easy one to augment before the application deadline.
THE WRITTEN RESPONSES
Next come the written responses. These are four short questions that allow for quite short answers. This doesn’t mean that you should fly through them, though. Even short supplements require thoughtful drafting and editing before hitting submit.
Tell us about an aspect of your life so far or your lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia's multidimensional and collaborative environment. (150 words or fewer)
This is Columbia’s “tell us things we can’t ask about explicitly,” question, i.e., the race question. We advise all of our students, regardless of race, to look beyond that single filter, though. You only have 150 words, or one long paragraph (or a few short ones), but there is enough space here to tell a compelling story. And it doesn’t need to be a bad story — this isn’t a hardship contest. Many students defer to brainstorming a list of struggles or difficulties in their life, but that actually isn’t what Columbia is asking about. If you have overcome a major hurdle, this may be the place to write about it. But it could also be the spot to share how fencing shaped your perspective on communication, how moving frequently formed your beliefs around community, or how having a bunch of siblings impacted your ideas around collaboration.
That paragraph, for the record, is 146 words.
Once you have your topic, it’s important to write the response as a story first and an explanation after. Show, don’t tell, the lesson by inviting the reader into your world.
At Columbia, students representing a wide range of perspectives are invited to live and learn together. In such a community, questions and debates naturally arise. Please describe a time when you did not agree with someone and discuss how you engaged with them and what you took away from the interaction. (150 words or fewer)
Like many schools, Columbia has added a ‘civil discourse’ question to their supplement. This is especially pertinent given the student-led events on campus that upended community live for months on end. They like engagement, they are no stranger to protest, but they really don’t want to deal with students occupying buildings again. This question, then, is a bit of a litmus test. They want to see if you can tackle hard questions and have difficult conversations in civil ways that create growth and learning for all parties.
The way to answer this question, then, is not to say something akin to, “look! I met a person who disagrees with me, and we didn’t bite each other!” You have to go deeper than that — but still without the biting. Your response should be focused, clear, and story-forward. It can be about a conversation with someone you care about deeply, a new friend, or a near stranger. It could be a one-time talk, or an ongoing process of listening and learning. And neither of you has to be right. You can both be in a process of learning. In fact, that is often best.
In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not anticipate. Please describe a situation in which you have navigated through adversity and discuss how you changed as a result. (150 words or fewer)
This question is another way of asking you to share a tough situation, but it doesn’t have to be something massive. We often have students who don’t want to make a mountain out of what other people may experience as a molehill. They don’t want to seem like they think something relatively small is an enormous struggle. On the other side, we have students who have faced extreme adversity and don’t want to have their whole application seem to be centered on hardship.
This is one reason why we don’t like college essays that put hardship front and center. Supplements like this are a great place to spotlight struggle, whereas the college essay does more for you through other approaches (we can help with that, by the way).
With that clear, let’s talk about what you should do. The key is to think small, even if what you are writing about is objectively big. Whether what you want to write about is a learning difference, illness, family issues, or what feels like an inability to master something math-y, you need to make sure not to blame anyone else. This supplement will not help your application, and will actually hurt your application to Columbia, if the reader comes away from this supplement feeling like you are not taking ownership of your life — even with things that aren’t technically your fault. Blaming a teacher, administration, doctor, or anyone else does not play well.
Instead of spending time blaming anyone else, focus on how the adversity has impacted your perspective on life and what you want for the future. Speak with optimism and excitement for the future, and what will come next for you.
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)
Before you answer this supplement, please note that the supplement below is always a “why us.” For this one, though, you should not be writing about your prospective area of study. Instead, it’s all about the bigger picture of “Columbia” as a place, a community, and an idea. What at Columbia attracts you to the school beyond your favorite subject in school?
Dig into the Core Curriculum, the residential communities, the student clubs and groups, and find what excites you most. Do not, however, focus much, if any, of this supplement on the joys of being in New York City. They know that NYC is great, and they know that there are a bunch of strong universities in NYC that you could go to and experience the city in much the same way. So, writing about the city doesn’t actually say anything to them about Columbia in particular.
What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)
Ok, so this is the real academic “why us.” Before you write a response to this prompt, you need to do some research. Find the official name of the major or program you want to pursue, a professor you’d love to study under, and a class or two that you are super excited to take. You should also find a program, like a study abroad program, and a student group related to the area of study. Once you have all of this research together, it’s time to write the supplement.
Don’t just jump into “I want to study X…,” though. You need to start with a story that spotlights why you want to study what you want to study, and possibly and interdisciplinary learning moment. For example, for a prospective engineer it could be a moment at a robotics competition where you brought in something you learned in a totally different subject to inform a successful performance.
Keep this story to less than 50 words (tight, we know), before pivoting to what you want to pursue at Columbia and why you are excited about it.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Columbia applicants to submit additional material that can help add more color and context to your application. This evidence of academic research, like an abstract, a creative portfolio, or Schoolhouse.world certifications. There are also a bunch of things they absolutely do not want to receive, like CDs, binders, or folders full of certificates and awards. Those types of submissions are not appreciated and will fundamentally hurt your application. Remember, you are applying to college, and they want to be able to envision you as a positive member of the community. That includes being able to listen to, and follow, instructions. So, follow them.
The Columbia supplement isn’t painful, but it is super important. With such a low acceptance rate, the supplement is where well-qualified students can make the case for themselves as positive additions to the Columbia community. Give yourself plenty of time, then, for drafting and editing to tell your strongest story.
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