Regarding Columbia's admission rate, they may be able to tell you if you call them up
Personally, I don't know, but the best indicator I have is simply Columbia's position in USNews. However, there would need to be a major adjustment since their tuition is much more costly, making them less selective relative to similarly-ranked public universities which have relatively low tuition costs. For example, according to Edulix, Columbia and Cornell's M.Eng. program are considered
"moderate to ambitious" with Texas A&M actually being more ambitious because of Texas A&M's relatively low cost of tuition and living expenses.
Yale certainly seems to have the lowest acceptance rate for graduate CS admissions based on old, questionable data from 2003 or earlier:
Though USNews does not have provide admissions rates for computer science, often a corresponding figure is the admissions rate for engineering. Unfortunately, a USNews subscription is required to get such admission rates. The information about tuition and class size is free though:
Columbia University (Fu Foundation) - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - USNews
Yale University - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - USNews
Cornell University - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - USNews
Also, I think the tuition at Cornell already went down to $21k:
http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/86300-dean-power-partial-scholarship-cornell-tuition-reduction-plan.html (The Dean Power Partial Scholarship: Cornell Tuition Reduction Plan)
BTW:
http://www.urch.com/forums/admission...lumbia-ms.html (Help me choose between Cornell Meng & Columbia Ms)
http://www.urch.com/forums/admission...niversity.html (Columbia University!)