Is UVA or Columbia harder to get into overall?

Columbia is harder to get into overall. It is one of the most selective private universities in the country, and in a broad admissions sense it is a clear step above UVA in raw selectivity.

For a student building a list, Columbia should be treated as a very high-reach school for almost everyone. Even applicants with top grades, rigorous coursework, and strong activities are competing in an extremely compressed pool where many students look academically qualified on paper. The review also places a lot of weight on how distinctive and compelling the full application is.

UVA is still difficult, but the picture is more varied depending on residency. Virginia residents usually have a meaningfully different admissions landscape than out-of-state students, since UVA is a public flagship with obligations to enroll many in-state students.

If you are out of state, UVA can still be a reach, sometimes a very serious one, but Columbia remains the tougher admit in overall terms. If you are in state for UVA, the gap is even wider. So for list-building, it makes sense to classify Columbia as the more selective school across the board, while UVA belongs in a category where your residency and academic profile matter much more to how realistic it is.