So if there is a "walk on" program that Obama could have attended, it makes sense. He could still claim he went to Columbia, be tutored (or more) by Ayer's contacts and move on to Harvard Law based on affirmative action and payoffs by powerful and rich Arab money men.
No wonder the "smartest man in the US" doesn't want to release his records. I mean all one has to do is listen to him off the teleprompter or watch his actions. The man has no historical grasp of things, no context in which to base his "philosophy" constantly misuses words and is clearly not all that smart. I'm not saying he's dumb but clearly is not the intellectual powerhouse that he's made out to be.
The trick is to put together these courses and matriculate as a student of the U, so you can get a real diploma. You can even sign up for and be accepted into the U's best classes. If you do it right, you get a genuine degree, like Obama's. Those "Executive Courses" are something like it.
So Obama really did go to Columbia. However, it is a real stretch for him to claim he is an honest to God "Columbia Man," i.e., one of the high SAT guys who gets into the real Columbia College for four years of Ivy League education at its best, complete with crew, pretty coeds, and football.
Of course, we will never see his SAT scores, his LSAT scores (if he ever took it), or any of his academic records. If he had high SATs, IMHO, he would have been snapped up as an AAA by a far more prestigious operation than dear old Oxy. His fancy prep school, Punahou, is a really good "push" for the Ivy League, so odds are (IMHO) he was an indifferent student with average or below grades.