From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Columbia revised several of its undergraduate application supplemental questions for the 2025-26 admissions cycle, according to the Common Application made available in August, removing language about diversity, equity, and inclusion from an existing prompt and adding a new question about learning from disagreement. The changes come amid federal scrutiny of Columbia’s undergraduate admissions process following the University’s $221 million July deal with President Donald Trump’s administration. The deal prohibits the University from using “personal statements, diversity narratives, or any applicant reference to racial identity as a means to introduce or justify discrimination” in hiring or admissions.
During the 2024-25 application cycle, the University asked first-year applicants to Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to describe how they would “learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community,” according to an old version of the application accessed via the Internet Archive. For applicants to the class of 2030, the question asks about “Columbia’s multidimensional and collaborative environment.”
One sentence from the prompt has been removed entirely: “A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives.”
“The University’s application questions are periodically updated to reflect a variety of factors,” a representative for Undergraduate Admissions wrote in a statement to Spectator. “In keeping with our longstanding policy and out of respect for the tens of thousands of students who apply each year and are actively going through the process, we do not discuss specific details of our application procedures. The University has consistently complied with the law and all applicable agreements and will continue to do so.” ...
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