I'm in contact with a professor at Columbia going to support me. Also I have a friend in columbia. with which professor are you corresponding?
However, I'm at US right now. one suggestion, if I were you I definteley picked stanford without support, with load or any other sources. I'm sharif graduate and one of my friends at sharif with GPA:18.8 BS and 19.3 MS with a huge amount of conference papers got rejected from stanford. (of course he got admitted for MIT). don't loose stanford.