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<p>Your suggestion on how to distribute one’s applications would be too modest for many students. The unpredictability of admissions at highly competitive colleges makes casting a wide net a meaningful contributor to an increased chance of getting into any of the competitive colleges to which one applies.</p>
<p>The tough decisions on the pros and cons of each school should come after one has his or her acceptances. The marginal benefit of sending an additional application is the potential opportunity to attend that school if accepted; the only cost is the application fee and the usually brief additional essays. I don’t see a problem with applying to many Ivy League schools, or even all of them; the high student intelligence and motivation at these schools can be a major attraction. A student may not be a good fit for some of them, but he or she can discover this later. Applying to too many schools is a regret of former applicants much less than applying to too few.</p>
<p>With that said, the pressure some of the above posters have placed on the OP to justify his or her interest in Columbia is helpful for writing the “Why Columbia” essay.</p>