This is what it says:
Columbia may soon leave Yale in the dust as the third most selective university in the Ivy League. Applications have doubled in the past 10 years for one simple reason: Manhattan trumps New Haven, Providence, Ithaca, and every other Ivy League city, with the possible exception of Boston. The heart of Columbia is still the core. Though students entering Columbia will, of course, expect the rigorous academic program they’ll encounter at this Ivy League school, there’s no room here in the heart of Manhattan for the bookish nerd. Students must be streetwise, urbane, and together enough to handle one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Columbia lets its students experience life in the Big Apple, but serves as a refuge when it becomes necessary to escape from New York; ideally, Columbians can easily be part of the “real world” while simultaneously immersing themselves in the best academia has to offer. “I am challenged and pushed every day and I love it,” says one student. “I get to enjoy an amazing city and the company of tremendously fascinating and different people.”