Is Columbia more selective than WashU overall?

Yes. In an overall, non-year-specific sense, Columbia is typically viewed as more selective than Washington University in St. Louis. Columbia sits in the Ivy League tier of admissions and draws an enormous global applicant pool, while WashU is also highly selective but usually a step below that level in raw admissions difficulty. If you are comparing them broadly, Columbia is the tougher admit for most applicants.

That said, the practical difference depends on the kind of student you are. Columbia tends to be especially hard for students aiming at a dense, urban, internationally recognized research university with strong appeal across humanities, social sciences, engineering, and preprofessional paths. Its location in New York City, the Core Curriculum, and its broad name recognition create a very wide range of applicants, which adds to the intensity.

WashU is still an extremely competitive school, and for some applicants it can feel just as hard. Students interested in pre-med, biomedical fields, architecture, design, or a collaborative residential-campus environment often target WashU very seriously. In those lanes, especially if your profile matches what WashU values, it is not a casual or easy alternative at all.

So the clearest way to think about it is this: Columbia is more selective overall in the national admissions landscape, but WashU remains firmly in the highly selective category and can be comparably tough for applicants who are a strong thematic fit for it.