Is Boston College harder to get into than Columbia for undergraduates?

Yes. For undergraduate admission, Columbia is typically considered much harder to get into than Boston College.

They are both selective schools, but they sit in different tiers of selectivity in most applicants’ minds and in actual admissions outcomes. Columbia is an Ivy League university with an applicant pool that is exceptionally deep across academics, research, writing, and extracurricular distinction, so even very strong students are often denied. Boston College is also highly selective and attracts many accomplished applicants, but it is not usually viewed as being as difficult to access as Columbia overall.

For a student building a list, Columbia belongs in the high-reach category for almost everyone, including applicants with top grades, rigorous coursework, and strong activities. Boston College can still be a reach or at least a very competitive target for many students, especially for popular programs, but it is more realistic than Columbia for a broader range of strong applicants.

So if the question is simply which school is harder to get into in the general undergraduate admissions landscape, the answer is Columbia by a clear margin.