The Growing Cult of
Paul Auster ’69

Bill Condon ’76:
Outsider on the
Inside

Young Lions of
Cinema

Alumni Corner

Around the Quads

Bookshelf

    · Featured Book
      by Ira
      Katznelson ’66

First Person:
Robert Polner ’82

Letters to the Editor

Obituaries

· Dr. Herbert
Mark ’42

· Henry S.
Coleman ’46

Within the Family

Steven Bargonetti ’78

AROUND THE QUADS

Applications for Class of 2010 Set Record

Dean Austin Quigley

The College received 17,061 applications for the Class of 2010, an increase of 8.4 percent from a year ago. This continues a trend that has seen nearly a doubling in the number of applicants since 1995, when 8,714 students applied.

“When you add this to the staggering increases over the last 10–15 years, even I was stunned,” Dean Austin Quigley said of the latest wave of applications. These increases have come without the use of a common application form or a move from early decision to the less-restrictive early action, two changes some peer institutions have adopted that can cause spikes in the application numbers.

Applicants to the SEAS Class of 2010 increased 14.7 percent to 2,675, bringing the total number of undergraduate applicants to a record 19,736, of which only about 1,500 will be enrolled. The College and SEAS also enjoyed increases in early decision applicants — students who have made Columbia their first choice and commit to attend if accepted. Early decision applicants will make up about 44 percent of the College Class of 2010.

Regionally, the greatest increase in applications, 12 percent, came from the Midwest. The Northeast, Southwest and West also showed a jump in applications. Additionally, there was a significant surge in global student applications, with the number of non-U.S. citizen or permanent resident applicants rising by 23 percent. Applicants from Asia represented the highest increase of international students, up 26.3 percent from a year ago.

“This larger applicant pool continues to represent the academic strength and diversity of background, experience, interest and thought that we seek at Columbia,” Jessica Marinaccio, director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, told Spectator.

In an e-mail to the Columbia community in late January, President Lee C. Bollinger noted the rise in applicants and attributed it to “the strength of our faculty and our academic offerings, the talent and diversity of our student body and our overall reputation and tradition of excellence.”

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