2009-2010 Columbia University Application Thread

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yeah, i mean... i've been out of school for a couple of years, so i don't have grades or ECs to update them on. i just talked a bit about what i'm doing at work. i didn't have any mind-blowing updates but i tried to frame my experiences in terms of what columbia might see as important. whatevs, i'm just excited that i get to visit. go WaHi!
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dw2158 said:
yeah, i mean... i've been out of school for a couple of years, so i don't have grades or ECs to update them on. i just talked a bit about what i'm doing at work. i didn't have any mind-blowing updates but i tried to frame my experiences in terms of what columbia might see as important. whatevs, i'm just excited that i get to visit. go WaHi!
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Congrats on the invite and :thumbup: to WaHi love! :laugh:
 
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madskillz99 said:
I would also like the answer to this question.
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There is no status update online. Invitations are primarily by email...but there were a few people who got snail mail invites last year later in the season if you check the 2008-2009 thread.
 
mdeast said:
There is no status update online. Invitations are primarily by email...but there were a few people who got snail mail invites last year later in the season if you check the 2008-2009 thread.
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Thanks for the reply. Also, does Columbia reject applicants on a rolling basis? Or it a silent rejection until March? I was complete 12/11 and I am starting to get worried I was passed over (since some people have received invites with later completion dates).
 
dw2158 said:
yeah, i mean... i've been out of school for a couple of years, so i don't have grades or ECs to update them on. i just talked a bit about what i'm doing at work. i didn't have any mind-blowing updates but i tried to frame my experiences in terms of what columbia might see as important. whatevs, i'm just excited that i get to visit. go WaHi!
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Congrats on the invite!! :thumbup: I bet it'll be nice to only have about a month to wait for the final decision!

I was accepted to the Bassett program awhile back, still pretty stoked about it, especially since I applied so late. I sent a post-interview update/letter of intent, and I think that really helped.
 
marele86 said:
Congrats on the invite!! :thumbup: I bet it'll be nice to only have about a month to wait for the final decision!

I was accepted to the Bassett program awhile back, still pretty stoked about it, especially since I applied so late. I sent a post-interview update/letter of intent, and I think that really helped.
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Do you plan to come to 2nd look just for giggles, or are you going to save the cash and wait in anticipation until August?

Just to emphasize to everyone else, Columbia definitely likes letters of intent and interest. A lot of folk have asked me in private about financial aid. I would say that most people and adcoms accept financial aid as a good reason to back out of a letter of intent as long as you tell the school you wrote the LOI to that you would rather go there but the difference in aid is to great (I have heard that sometimes schools will try to lessen the disparity). I personally feel that a letter of intent should be binding, but then again I'm not on the adcom and I had already decided that financial aid was not going to factor into going into my top choice if I got in.


Applicants are not rejected on a rolling basis. All secisions are sent out in March, and I think that includes pre-interview rejections.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Do you plan to come to 2nd look just for giggles, or are you going to save the cash and wait in anticipation until August?

Just to emphasize to everyone else, Columbia definitely likes letters of intent and interest. A lot of folk have asked me in private about financial aid. I would say that most people and adcoms accept financial aid as a good reason to back out of a letter of intent as long as you tell the school you wrote the LOI to that you would rather go there but the difference in aid is to great (I have heard that sometimes schools will try to lessen the disparity). I personally feel that a letter of intent should be binding, but then again I'm not on the adcom and I had already decided that financial aid was not going to factor into going into my top choice if I got in.


Applicants are not rejected on a rolling basis. All secisions are sent out in March, and I think that includes pre-interview rejections.
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thanks (again) for the info. but re: the bolded... lots of applicants (even interviewees) must have been "rejected" waaaay before february/march. they just don't get the letters 'til then.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Do you plan to come to 2nd look just for giggles, or are you going to save the cash and wait in anticipation until August?
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Tough to say. I'm leaning towards saving the money, but I might change my mind in March after seeing the schedule, especially if I can get a flight under $200.
 
futuremed8 said:
Should we email an LOI to [email protected] or snail mail it in?
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I personally prefer personalizing my stuff, which requires snail mail. Ultimately, one way or another it will be printed out and put in your file.

dw2158 said:
thanks (again) for the info. but re: the bolded... lots of applicants (even interviewees) must have been "rejected" waaaay before february/march. they just don't get the letters 'til then.
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All files are still open, updates are encouraged. ;)
 
mmmcdowe,

could you share some thoughts on the new integrated curriculum and additional electives? i'm also interested in the housing options. the web site a little less detailed than I am looking for.
 
scapermoya said:
mmmcdowe,

could you share some thoughts on the new integrated curriculum and additional electives? i'm also interested in the housing options. the web site a little less detailed than I am looking for.
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Housing first. The three basic options on campus you have are living in Bard Hall, the Bard Towers, and the Georgian apartments. Bard hall in a dormitory (single bedroom w/ sink 10x13. A few have their own bathrooms and other variations, and the price varies a little based on such considerations). There are two kitchens in Bard, but everyone who cooks uses the top one because it is nicer. It has quite a few appliances, so I personally haven't ever had to wait or anything when I cook up there. I do most of my cooking in my room with a hotplate and a George Foreman grill, which is technically illegal but overlooked as a matter of policy as long as no one sets off the fire alarm a bunch of times. About 80% of first years live there first semester with a smattering of students from other years and programs. Some first years choose to move off 2nd semester when they have found roommates. I'd like to point out that you are NOT required to live in Bard Hall if dorm life sounds atrocious to you. You can move off campus into the neighborhood or upper west side, or you can move into apartments. As a first year, unless you are married or find a group of students already living in Bard Towers, you will probably be assigned to the Georgian Apartments. The Towers are definitely the nicer of the two, and living in Bard Hall gives you priority to move into the towers your second year. There are a variety of floor plans in both ranging from studios to 4 bedrooms.

Living in Bard hall is nice, especially if you don't know anyone that you are comfortable moving in with before medical school. It is convenient and a lot of the P&S club revolves around Bard Hall. You are not isolated if you don't live in Bard Hall, which some interviewees have expressed concern about, you'll just have to walk further to meet for various activities (the usual meeting place is the lobby of Bard Hall). Heating is provided by radiators, air conditioning units can be purchased from the 2nd years for about 50 dollars, give or take. Maintenance installs them for free. No electric or water bills, basic cable included. Bard Hall has a gym that is open to all students. It has a full basketball court, a pretty decent pool, a sauna (I think, never verified), three squash courts, a yoga room with mirrors (no ballet barre sadly :( ), 8-9 treadmills, a bunch of other cardio equipment, and a variety of excercise machines. There is also some basic free weight equipment as well and one of those little boxing bags you always see in the old movies that looks like an upside down balloon. Hours are pretty reasonable and its free. There is a 24 hour free weight club that costs about 80 a year with all of the heavy workout stuff that people who really like to lift need. There is also some cardio stuff too. I personally am not a big lifter, but I like to run at weird hours of the night, so I am considering joining. Other than not being able to run at 2AM, I have found the free gym to be adequate and not too crowded.

Bard Hall also has a dining hall. Meal plan is currently three nights a week and is OPTIONAL. It is open to all schools and classes so its a great way to meet other denizens of the CUMC as well as talk up the older students. I find the food to be pretty good. It is catered by the Columbia Catering service and they have been very receptive to people's complaints (weren't enough veggie options at first). Tomorrow is the first night of this semester's meal plan and I can tell you right now that I've been starving without it :laugh:.

As far as the curriculum goes, I've typed myself out for the moment but I admit that I was worried coming in that it would be too fast or too shallow an overview because of time constraints. I'm happy to say that neither appears to be the case. I've look at old exams all the way back to 1999, played around with some Step 1 problems to see if I could do them, and have talked to kids from other NYC schools. Things seem to still be on the up and up. What I do like about Columbia's curriculum is the fact that they don't try to shove a specific type of learning down your throat. Almost everything that doesn't involve a patient is non-mandatory. All lectures (except for psychiatry due to the fact that we watch patient videos every class) are recorded and easily accessed online. All labs except for microbiology have been non-mandatory (Mic is also technically skipable in the sense that they aren't going to be calling you up if you don't attend, but there are quizzes that kind of force you to go. Fortunately, it is like an infectious disease version of House so its actually the most fun small group I have had). So, the bottom line is if you don't like lecture, don't go. If small group doesn't work for you, don't go. It lets you study the way that works best for you rather than struggling to learn a new way of studying. I personally pick and choose what small groups I want to go to and always attend lecture. It is still systems based and another cool thing is that you get a free class per semester in any school or department and Columbia. So, if you want to take a public health class or something that interests you it is free.
 
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thanks a lot for the thorough answer, it's what i was looking for!
 
Flying out tomorrow to interview on Wednesday, very excited. Hopefully I get some sleep and aren't all slow and pensive due to lack of sleep. :sleep:
 
For the folks already accepted -

When is the 2nd look weekend? I haven't been accepted but have an interview mid Feb. I am trying to plan a trip out of the country for APril/May and would like to try to plan around it if possible.

Thanks!
 
rockydog said:
For the folks already accepted -

When is the 2nd look weekend? I haven't been accepted but have an interview mid Feb. I am trying to plan a trip out of the country for APril/May and would like to try to plan around it if possible.

Thanks!
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If you took the time to read the thread or read up on Columbia's application process, you should know that nobody has been accepted yet. Decisions do not come out until March.
 
Has there been anybody who sent an in the area, received the "your app is still under review, well contact you later," and then went on to receive an invite? Thanks :)
 
rockydog said:
For the folks already accepted -

When is the 2nd look weekend? I haven't been accepted but have an interview mid Feb. I am trying to plan a trip out of the country for APril/May and would like to try to plan around it if possible.

Thanks!
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Actually, I don't know - the Bassett acceptance letter was short and sweet. The acceptance packet in March (which Bassett people will get along with non-Bassett acceptances) is supposed to have more detailed information.
 
Had a great time interviewing at P&S today. All the students I met were awesome and really friendly, and also I guess so were the postdocs on the 17th floor. We kind of wandered into someone's lab.

mmmcdowe, were you the 4th year who got wrangled into talking to the interviewees for a half hour in the interview-room around 11?
 
great to hear, reggie. i just confirmed my interview for 2/8. mad excited.
 
Reggieray2k said:
Had a great time interviewing at P&S today. All the students I met were awesome and really friendly, and also I guess so were the postdocs on the 17th floor. We kind of wandered into someone's lab.

mmmcdowe, were you the 4th year who got wrangled into talking to the interviewees for a half hour in the interview-room around 11?
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Nope, I was the 1st year wrangled into giving the tour half way through ;)
 
so do we know when exactly in march decisions come out? and will they come by email or snail mail or phone call?
 
mmmcdowe said:
Nope, I was the 1st year wrangled into giving the tour half way through ;)
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I should have made that connection after getting your email and seeing your user-name. Don't tell the Ad-com my deductive skills are so lacking.
 
So i still haven't heard anything from Columbia and I applied in July... Do they send rejection letters on a rolling basis or is it all on one day? I still haven't heard back from Harvard, JHU, Columbia, and UPenn and from what it seems like, I'm guessing I'll just get four rejection letters within a period of a week sometime in late February...

And to those who have interview invites, could you post some of your stats and major accomplishments so I can get a feel for what it takes?
 
i get the feeling that columbia is a little less focused on raw stats than other schools, but here goes:

3.75 in v. difficult program/36

years of astronomy research, continuing
years of maize genetics research, continuing
years of cardiac research in high school, ended
study abroad to denmark

more important than any of that though (i think for columbia) is that i have a very wide range of interests outside of school. politics, cooking, mountaineering, record collecting, computer programming, whatever.

no update on the penn website for you? or the dreaded deferral most of us got?
 
kzhan11 said:
So i still haven't heard anything from Columbia and I applied in July... Do they send rejection letters on a rolling basis or is it all on one day? I still haven't heard back from Harvard, JHU, Columbia, and UPenn and from what it seems like, I'm guessing I'll just get four rejection letters within a period of a week sometime in late February...

And to those who have interview invites, could you post some of your stats and major accomplishments so I can get a feel for what it takes?
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You can search MDapplicants.com for people who got Columbia interviews and acceptances. Average GPA for my class was about a 3.8 and MCAT was about a 35.8
 
Reggieray2k said:
I should have made that connection after getting your email and seeing your user-name. Don't tell the Ad-com my deductive skills are so lacking.
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As long as you don't tell them how disheveled I looked you've got yourself a deal. Grant writing is taking its toll :D
 
chickensandwich said:
Has there been anybody who sent an in the area, received the "your app is still under review, well contact you later," and then went on to receive an invite? Thanks :)
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Yes, but about a month later. Just got my invite today. woohoo! anyone know if they are interviewing for actual class slots or waitlist slots by this point??? I got offered Feb 2nd-19th.

complete in i think december (? i thought they lost my file for the longest time)
36R
sGPA:3.7 in honors program
overall: 3.8
won a science grant, not much else
going on 2 years of research in neuro
ordinary ECs in terms of volunteering, some leadership stuff
lots of art-related ECs, gallery exhibits etc.

pretty ordinary for a columbia app. don't give up!!!
 
Last edited:
anfleisch said:
Luck mostly
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yeah that is more important.

runawayclock said:
Yes, but about a month later. Just got my invite today. woohoo! anyone know if they are interviewing for actual class slots or waitlist slots by this point??? I got offered Feb 2nd-19th.

complete in i think december (? i thought they lost my file for the longest time)
36R
sGPA:3.7 in honors program
overall: 3.8
won a science grant, not much else
going on 2 years of research in neuro
ordinary ECs in terms of volunteering, some leadership stuff
lots of art-related ECs, gallery exhibits etc.

pretty ordinary for a columbia app. don't give up!!!
Click to expand...

read up on the application process. no decisions have been made public as of yet (aside from the basset program). also, current students have reported that some classmates interviewed on the last day possible in the past.

i think we are definitely being considered equally.
 
Does Columbia respond to "in the area" e-mails? I sent one yesterday but need to know relatively soon to coordinate my travel schedule. If I don't hear within a week or so is it worth it to call the admissions office? I'm dreading the "Oh, actually we don't want to interview you" conversation.
 
PeppPreMed said:
Does Columbia respond to "in the area" e-mails? I sent one yesterday but need to know relatively soon to coordinate my travel schedule. If I don't hear within a week or so is it worth it to call the admissions office? I'm dreading the "Oh, actually we don't want to interview you" conversation.
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they do, though they took about 1.5 weeks with me to respond. got a nice "we're still reviewing you, we'll let you know if we wanna talk to you later"
 
PeppPreMed said:
Does Columbia respond to "in the area" e-mails? I sent one yesterday but need to know relatively soon to coordinate my travel schedule. If I don't hear within a week or so is it worth it to call the admissions office? I'm dreading the "Oh, actually we don't want to interview you" conversation.
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I actually never got a reply to my in the area email, but I received an interview invite after a while.
 
mmcdowe - i tried to send you a private message, but i am having weird forum difficulties... can you pm me so I can reply with my inquiry?

Thanks!
 
PeppPreMed- I've heard that Columbia does sometimes reply to "in the area" e-mails, but be patient, the admissions office is very busy. Don't be discouraged if you don't hear back. Good luck! :) Many of my classmates got in by showing additional interest. It matters a lot to them.

NNuikibw77- What's your concern? I'd be happy to answer any questions that other Columbia "students" on this forum might claim to be able to. You are welcome to send me a PM as well.
 
Hey! Does anyone know when the mstp decisions come out and how they are sent (email, phome call, or snail mail)? I thought they said Feb 1st, but I'm learning that I have selective/hear what I want hearing, so I'm hoping someone know when it actually is :)
 
Born2Gun said:
PeppPreMed- I've heard that Columbia does sometimes reply to "in the area" e-mails, but be patient, the admissions office is very busy. Don't be discouraged if you don't hear back. Good luck! :) Many of my classmates got in by showing additional interest. It matters a lot to them.

NNuikibw77- What's your concern? I'd be happy to answer any questions that other Columbia "students" on this forum might claim to be able to. You are welcome to send me a PM as well.
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:laugh: why is this in quotes? do you doubt mmmcdowe's credentials? he's just about the most helpful current med student on SDN.

i'm heading up to my interview in just a couple of hours! excited.
 
mmmcdowe said:
I'd just like to emphasize that jujubee and I are both first years at Columbia with a passion for helping out applicants, but we have no say in the process.
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ha - someone PM'd you and asked for an acceptance?
to be fair, given how much time you spend here, I would have assumed you were an admissions officer as well
 
dw2158 said:
:laugh: why is this in quotes? do you doubt mmmcdowe's credentials? he's just about the most helpful current med student on SDN.

i'm heading up to my interview in just a couple of hours! excited.
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good luck dw!

i'm there in a week!
 
Have fun guys, hopefully the weather's gotten better. Hiking around the Bronx on Friday was a bad decision.
 
scapermoya said:
good luck dw!

i'm there in a week!
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you're gonna love it. great place.

Reggieray2k said:
Have fun guys, hopefully the weather's gotten better. Hiking around the Bronx on Friday was a bad decision.
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haha friday was the coldest day i can remember. and i grew up in massachusetts. my nose and eyes were running like faucets on the way to work that morning. it was terrible.
 
SwineSue said:
ha - someone PM'd you and asked for an acceptance?
to be fair, given how much time you spend here, I would have assumed you were an admissions officer as well
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Lol, no I welcome all pms, but I was mostly just addressing anything that might have been ambiguous about my status due to the "students" comment.

dw- there's a extremely high chance that you and I met today, or at the very least you heard me rambling before and during lunch (I was the one wearing glasses today that tagged along with the MD/PhD lunch guides).
 
mmmcdowe said:
Lol, no I welcome all pms, but I was mostly just addressing anything that might have been ambiguous about my status due to the "students" comment.

dw- there's a extremely high chance that you and I met today, or at the very least you heard me rambling before and during lunch (I was wearing glasses today).
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we totally met-- i figured it was you when you said your name :) i was sitting right near you at lunch. i was the super short girl with brown hair in the blue shirt. great talking with you!
 
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