sample admission essay

“The best things of the moment were outside the rectangle of Columbia; the best things of all human history and thought were inside the rectangle.”

You might consider this description of famed writer Herman Wouk of his alma mater, Columbia University in the City of New York , very arrogant. It may indeed be but it’s not without right or reason. In fact there are just about 21,000 aspiring Columbians who try to get in that rectangle every year.

Now over 250 years old, Columbia University is basically a result of rivalry between the Anglicans and Presbyterians. It was established initially as “The King’s College” by the Church of England in to compete against the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University ) put up by the Presbyterians.

Philosopher and clergyman Samuel Johnson was the institution’s first and lone faculty member when it began its classes in July 1754 with only eight students who later became key government officials. Now with 20 schools and four affiliated institutions, Columbia University has over 4,000 faculty members and 23,000 students.

It’s not a sin to bloat with pride if you’re a Columbian. How humble can you get if you know that you’re schooled in the same institution that educated brilliant minds such as Franz Boas, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Paul Lazarsfeld, and former US presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt?

This is not to mention that 73 of the university’s alumni and faculty have been Nobel Prize awardees. That it is the first worldwide in the field of journalism and is the institution that administers the famous and highly esteemed Pulitzer Prize Award annually.

Many of its schools are ranked mostly within the top ten worldwide by the US News and World Report and in the Academic ranking of World Universities. Newsweek ranked Columbia as top ten among “global universities.” Columbia also pioneered in genetics, FM radio technology, and the fields of anthropology, political science, and historic reservation in the academe.

With these achievements, it is no wonder that Columbia is very selective when it comes to admission of students. It has an overall admission rate of 10.6 percent only for the class of 2011. Its student records show that most of the successful applicants belong to the top 10 percent of their classes.

Its students and faculty hailing from 150 countries, the university however is not discriminating when it comes to one school grades and background. As long as you are “up to the challenge of a Columbia education,” you may apply. One’s application will undergo the Admission Committee’s evaluation and could include assessment of one’s academic as well as personal background and interests.

The university accepts freshmen, tranferee, and visiting student applicants. It recommends online application for freshman applicants. You may inquire online through Columbia’s website or through this link .

For a peek and taste of its students’ academic and not-so-academic life, you may see their undergraduate student magazine The Blue and White and explore its students blogsite.

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