Columbia's Butler Library (via djwerdna's flickr).

Whether it was because of the allure of an Ivy League education, the possibility of buying drugs from Ivy League frat guys, incestuous Ivy League professors, embezzling staffers, or the fact you could now apply with the common app, we'll never know for sure, but Columbia University this year saw its applications skyrocket 32 percent from last year to 34,587. The only Ivy with more applications this year was Harvard—which also happened to be a major character in some movie this year about computer networks. The fact that Columbia is now accepting the Common App, which usually brings a bump in applications but usually in the 15%-20% range, certainly didn't hurt.

For its part, the school attributes the growth to the Common App as well as the school's "commitment to communication and outreach to communities which have been historically underserved or under-resourced educationally, an increase in global awareness of Columbia's reputation [and] the continued desirability of New York City."

Meanwhile Columbia's nemesis downtown NYU—which has certainly taken advantage of the desirability of the city in the past decade—saw its freshman applications grow by a measly 11% over last year.