Does applying Early Decision to Columbia significantly improve your chances of admission?

Applying Early Decision to Columbia probably does provide a real advantage, but not as much as the raw ED acceptance rate makes it seem.

For an unhooked applicant, ED is best understood as a meaningful but not dramatic boost. It can help because Columbia knows you will enroll if admitted, and that matters.

That said, ED does not turn a borderline applicant into a likely admit at a school as selective as Columbia. If your academics, course rigor, activities, and writing are not already at a very high level, applying ED will not overcome that.

In practice, ED tends to help most when you are already a strong Columbia-level candidate and Columbia is clearly your first choice. If your application will be fully polished by November, ED can be worth it. If your profile would benefit a lot from senior fall grades, a higher test score, stronger essays, or more time to develop your activities, Regular Decision may be the better move.