Early Decision

Barnard College's early application numbers continued to shoot upward this year, increasing by almost 20 percent from last year's total. Barnard received 425 early decision applications, 84 more than last year.

The large increase in early applicants comes just three months after Barnard plummeted 10 spots in the popular U.S. News & World Report college rankings, prompting an outcry by administrators about the magazine's methodology. But prospective students were undeterred by the rankings, which listed Barnard as 38th among liberal arts colleges.

This year's increase in early applicants is a continuation of a recent trend of accelerating applications at Barnard. Just four years ago, Barnard received barely more than 200 applications under its early decision program. Nowadays, with each successive class growing more selective than the last, administrators talk openly about competing on a level with Ivy League universities.

Columbia College received a final total of 1,690 applications, down from 1,801 last year.

Regular Decision

More students than ever before received rejection letters from Columbia this year. Out of 17,255 applicants to Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, only 2,214 were accepted.

Acceptance rate for the College came out to about 10.5 percent. Last year, it was 10.8 percent.

This will be Eric Furda's last year as the executive director of admissions. Marinaccio is now head of the office, and she said she hopes to continue the trend established under Furda.

Barnard College also saw a substantial jump in applications and a corresponding dip in its acceptance rate this year. Out of a record-high 4,380 applicants, 1,163 were accepted for a rate of 26.5 percent. That number is a significant drop from last year's rate of 30 percent.

For students accepted to the College, the middle 50 percent SAT is 1370-1520. At Barnard, the median SAT score for this year's accepted students is 1390.