How do Carnegie Mellon and Columbia compare in overall admissions selectivity?

Columbia is more selective overall than Carnegie Mellon. Columbia receives an exceptionally large, self-selecting applicant pool across its undergraduate schools and admits only a very small fraction of applicants university-wide. Carnegie Mellon is also highly selective, but its overall admission landscape is less uniformly restrictive because selectivity differs sharply by college and major.

Carnegie Mellon may be comparatively more attainable for applicants to some of its humanities, sciences, and arts programs, though no CMU program should be treated as easy admission. Its most sought-after options, particularly the School of Computer Science and certain design, drama, and engineering programs, can be as selective as Columbia or even tougher in practice for applicants with that specific academic focus.

For a general, university-wide comparison, place Columbia in the more extreme reach category. For an applicant targeting computer science, technical fields, or specialized creative programs, Carnegie Mellon’s program-level selectivity matters far more than its overall rate, and the gap between the two schools may narrow substantially.