Is USC or Columbia harder to get into?

Columbia is harder to get into than USC. In overall selectivity, Columbia sits in the very top tier of U.S. admissions, while USC is also highly selective but not at quite the same level.

One concrete difference is the level of competition within the pool. Columbia attracts a very large share of applicants who are not just strong students, but students with near-perfect grades, the most demanding coursework available, and national or international-level accomplishments. USC also draws many outstanding applicants, but Columbia’s pool is typically even more compressed at the top, which makes admission harder on average.

Another differentiator is institutional positioning. Columbia is an Ivy League university with a smaller undergraduate population than USC, so there are fewer seats relative to the number of students who want them.

A third point is that USC’s selectivity can vary more by school or program. Highly sought-after areas like cinematic arts, business, or certain merit scholarship tracks can feel extraordinarily competitive, sometimes rivaling the toughest places anywhere. But if you mean simple overall admit difficulty across the university, Columbia is the tougher admit.