Hey Guys and Gals. I was just obsessively making a list of application deadlines and interview dates and noticed that Columbia's CAS deadline is Sept 1st. Does anyone know if this is their real deadline or is it a typo on SFMatch? A prof had told me that the first batch out of SFMatch may not even make that deadline. This concerns me since I am doing ophtho related activities all summer, and may not have my LORs ready by the very beginning of August- even with the 4th LOR exception.

Hey Guys and Gals. I was just obsessively making a list of application deadlines and interview dates and noticed that Columbia's CAS deadline is Sept 1st. Does anyone know if this is their real deadline or is it a typo on SFMatch? A prof had told me that the first batch out of SFMatch may not even make that deadline. This concerns me since I am doing ophtho related activities all summer, and may not have my LORs ready by the very beginning of August- even with the 4th LOR exception.


I didn't apply to columbia last year, but I doubt it is a typo, as several other programs I looked at had very early deadlines (colorado, Pitt, and UW had deadlines Sept 9th last year, and UAB's was Sept 15th. I would just call them. Some have deadlines, but will still accept apps afterwards. Just get your CAS in ASAP. good luck!

I didn't apply to columbia last year, but I doubt it is a typo, as several other programs I looked at had very early deadlines (colorado, Pitt, and UW had deadlines Sept 9th last year, and UAB's was Sept 15th. I would just call them. Some have deadlines, but will still accept apps afterwards. Just get your CAS in ASAP. good luck!


That deadline is in fact correct as I ran into the same question last year. I called the department secretary and my understanding was that they wanted the application submitted to SFmatch by that deadline, i.e. not processed and sent to Columbia by SFmatch by that date (which can take up to three weeks after you mail it in to SF). But I was not offered an interview by Columbia and although I doubt the September 1st date had anything to do with that, I'll never know.

If you meet the SFmatch target date, you will be ok for >98% of programs.