Have you heard this about Columbia?

Question

I had a friend say if you do not apply within the first round, it is not even worth applying. Is that true?

kidderek · Answer

I think your friend is referring to Early Decision. It has been discussed beyond extensively. 

Welcome.

mNeo · Answer

That is wrong. Columbia has rolling admission. So the late you go in the application process, more difficult it will be to get an admit. So someone applying at the start of the regular round (middle Oct) will have a much much better chance of getting selected than one applying at the end of the same round (In March).

mediamindy · Answer

Ok so what about a mid-november applicant?

aviroop · Answer

mid-november is actually a bad time to submit applications. The reason being - Thanksgiving

Most of the ad-coms will be out on holidays and especially with CBS, if Linda, their executive admissions officer is not on campus, no admission decisions are made (courtesy of BW forum). So the application will sit for a while until Thanksgiving is over, after which it will be put in a bundle with the December beginning applicaions and processed.

Either apply beginning of November or beginning of December.

My 2 cents.

dosa_don · Answer

While I am not sure of exact logistics, arent the RD applications processed from Jan 9th? That probably means that no one is going to do anything with them until then as all the apps are online, they should be able to see when they were submitted anyways. Oh well it is all speculation, so does not matter in the end.

mNeo · Answer

The associate director (I hope I remember his position correctly) said the same to me. If Linda ain't on campus, no admission decisions are made.

ps. As far as I know, an application A submitted prior to application B will always be processed before application B.

aviroop · Answer

mNeo, is it always that. Seems there are a few BW forum members who submitted their applications very early and got calls very late while others got in and out in 2-3 weeks.

Jan 9th is the deadline but its rolling admissions so guess its better to apply first

one a side note - mNeo how is the interview prep going?

mNeo · Answer

Well .. what I understood was that the application A always gets reviewed before application B. But then, the application A can be left in limbo for a while, and application B can be directly called in for an interview. So application A stays in a kind of a waitlist stage for a while (Whereas application B turns out to be a clearer "Yes" or "No"). This is assuming that the two applications didn't have many weeks between them. Application Z (Couple of months late), on the other hand, will always get reviewed and called for interview after a decision is made to A and B. I know as much about the admission process as you guys do. So take my comments with a bit of salt please

I am not doing anything for the interview. I came back from the east-coast trip last evening. So I have a lot of catching up to do at work. Hopefully I'll just revise my application once tonight. I don't want to sound like a record when I go there. I'll stay natural and see how the interview goes. All you guys did pray to your Gods for my admit, right?

aviroop · Answer

My god is a 2 wheeled red machine called Ducati 749. I will do a couple of burnouts tonight - that is aking to ringing the temple bells for your admit prayers.

mNeo · Answer

Do you own a 749? Cool! I am planning to get rid of my car and buy a ZZR 600 when I get an admit (Can't afford anything costlier than that .. with all the money that I am going to lose in the next few years).

aviroop · Answer

I got 3 bikes - no cars

03 Yamaha R1 (mow its my brother's)

05 Ducati 749

07 MV Agusta F4R1000

So guess I have to do a lot of burnouts tonight. That should awaken all my gods.

pelihu · Answer

This isn't true, although it is a good idea to apply early if you are sure Columbia is your first choice. I have read speculation that in the ED round, Columbia's selectivity is in line with many elite schools. In the RD round, it's among the toughest of the ultra-elites, perhaps in line with H & S. It's admit rate and yield kind of bear this out.

gmatclb · Answer

The only thing rolling admissions means is that students are notified on a rolling basis.

Now whether or not they read your application before the other application that came after you doesn't really matter because they can read your application and then go on to read the other application that came in 4 weeks after yours and decide to put you on hold while they accept the later applicant.

The only school that I know of that properly uses rolling admissions is Texas McCombs School. They only have 1 round. And I hear in 10-12 weeks you know whether you're in or not.

kidderek · Answer

Rolling admission doesn't mean you will be notified on a first come first served basis. If someone is an all star, they will accept the all star before the mediocre applicant. Rolling admission doesn't really mean much.

mNeo · Answer

Yes. The "notification" is not rolling. The "reading of applications" is all that's rolling. And that may mean nothing for applications submitted within a few weeks. That does mean a bit, IMHO, for applications with a gap of a few months, though.

kidderek · Answer

I would even refine that to "initial reading." I think if CBS picks up a mediocre application, they will just throw it in a pile and sit on it. The bad ones they'll throw in the ding pile and notify at their discretion.

riverripper · Answer

I think the speed of a acceptance or a ding depends on the strength of your application. If you are a stellar candidate and they know you will go there then it will be a pretty quick acceptance. If you are not even close to getting in then it wont be tough to ding you. The more towards the boundary you are the longer it will take because the more they have to think over your application. 

ED is probably quicker and easier because they know (believe) they are your top choice and will show up next fall if they accept you. Where as a strong candidate in the normal round may choose another school over them, thus hurting their enrolling rate which they don't like.

kryzak · Answer

Haha, I want to see you do burnouts next time!

Have you heard this about Columbia?

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