<p>Were people really talking about Yield Protection? I don’t think Columbia does that. I think they consider themselves in an elite enough sense to be able to have a shot at getting those top students, because they have a niche through being the only top-tier school in NYC.</p>
<p>And I always thought of numbers as qualifiers, not anything that will get you in. I figure if you’ve got a 3.9+ and a 2300+, whatever the numbers are beyond that, they just consider your numbers good and throw you in with the thousands of other people who apply with similar numbers. I got waitlisted at H and S with a 2330 and a 4.0.</p>
<p>Personally, I think what people are underrating at these schools is the supplemental short-answer questions. Columbia had a few–and especially at Stanford, remember that “What do you want to say to your future roommate” question? I think scores are sort of overrated, at least it appears to be this way with the OP.</p>