I copied & pasted one of your previous posts for the sake of clarity. You’ve expressed a few times concern over not passing the initial screening (for both Columbia & Northwestern) by the admissions committee, which is indeed warranted.
So you’d be applying for Operations Research & not Financial Economics at Columbia? Also, you mention that your ECs & co-authored paper “really stick”? What does this mean? Is a professor at Columbia somehow involved in one of your ECs or in your current research?
There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. You are targeting colleges, specifically T20, based on overall reputation. As a full-pay applicant, you could have an slight admissions advantage at the need-aware schools. But remember that applicants with perfect scores get rejected every admissions cycle, especially at T20 schools. And also applicants with “C+” grades.
I would discourage you from doing this. Apply only if you are interested in attending.