Is the University of Michigan harder to get into than Columbia University?

No. Columbia is substantially harder to get into than the University of Michigan for most applicants, and that is the clearest way to think about general selectivity here. Columbia is one of the most selective private universities in the country, while Michigan, though very selective and highly respected, admits a noticeably larger share of applicants overall. The public-versus-private difference also matters because Michigan’s admissions landscape changes a lot based on residency.

The biggest differentiator is the applicant pool each school is evaluating. Columbia draws a very concentrated pool of applicants aiming for a small first-year class, so even extremely strong students are often denied. Michigan also attracts many high-achieving applicants, but its scale is much larger, which makes it less selective in the broad, overall sense.

Another important difference is how residency affects Michigan. As a public flagship, Michigan tends to be more accessible to in-state students than to out-of-state applicants, even though both groups face strong competition. Columbia does not have that public mission or in-state preference, so its level of selectivity is intense across the board.

The last useful distinction is what people mean by “harder.” If you mean prestige-driven, national selectivity across essentially all applicant groups, Columbia is the tougher admit. If you are an out-of-state applicant looking at a very competitive Michigan school or program, Michigan can still feel difficult in a practical sense, but that does not make it more selective overall than Columbia.