2010-2011 Columbia Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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Do we answer the Columbia Basset Question even if we're not applying for the program?
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Just to clarify, if I did not work during the school year, but worked over the summers, do I answer #5? If I do, should I just talk about last summer's work since #4 apparently pertains to only the last year of college or cover what I did each summer?

thanks
 
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ColeOnTheRoll said:
I would just use your AMCAS GPA. I think that'd be strange for your AMCAS GPA to be one number and your GPA on the secondary to be another.
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agreed. and i called them and they said amcas gpa as well.
 
nyy said:
For the first essay (satisfactions of being a physician), was anyone able to make multiple paragraphs? When I print it in HTML format, it combines all my paragraphs into one long paragraph even though when it was typed it had a line in between the paragraphs. Did anyone else have this problem? Thanks!
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I also had this problem. Though, the paragraphs are separate in the PDF version.
 
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Has anyone applying for MD/PhD finished the essay yet? How long was yours? There's no length requirement ... do you think we should just write to 2475 like for the MD essay, or are you going longer?
 
nyy said:
For the first essay (satisfactions of being a physician), was anyone able to make multiple paragraphs? When I print it in HTML format, it combines all my paragraphs into one long paragraph even though when it was typed it had a line in between the paragraphs. Did anyone else have this problem? Thanks!
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That's normal.
 
anyone who's submitted and gotten an interview invite?
 
thebillsfan said:
anyone who's submitted and gotten an interview invite?
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Doubt they would do it this quickly. Relax! If I remember correctly, according to last year's thread P&S took til mid-August to start reviewing applications.
 
thebillsfan said:
anyone who's submitted and gotten an interview invite?
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The admissions office is still processing students from last cycle, no invites yet :). As far as I know they haven't begun reading yet, though I believe that they are downloading applications and beginning their mega piles... When I stop by next week to give a tour I'll see what's up.
 
What satisfactions do you expect to receive from your activities as a physician?

Any idea of what they're looking for/what you are going to say? I know what I want to say, but I feel like it will just be a repeat of my personal statement.....
 
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this thread is bumpin... guess everyone loves the columbia



terrible news for me! :laugh:
 
PreMedHead said:
What satisfactions do you expect to receive from your activities as a physician?

Any idea of what they're looking for/what you are going to say? I know what I want to say, but I feel like it will just be a repeat of my personal statement.....
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I mean, they want you to answer the question :). There are no buzz words per se that you should include. A well thought out, passionate, and truthful answer will take you much further than some generic answer tailored to the perceived interests of P&S. Keep in mind that Columbia does not filter, every application is reviewed and every essay is read (even when that application is attached to a 17J MCAT score). Because of this, they have even more experience with essay content than most adcoms (which is very large at even the most interview stingy school). When I wrote this essay (wow, two years???) I got specific. I can't claim to know that this is better, but like you I felt like I had hit the general stuff in my PS. Honestly, much of what I wrote was what I couldn't fit in my PS and so saved for secondaries.
 
How much detail do they want when filling out activities and work? I already described this stuff in detail in the primary and it seems they are just looking for a list of activity and job titles without descriptions.

Is that right?
 
pbelur said:
How much detail do they want when filling out activities and work? I already described this stuff in detail in the primary and it seems they are just looking for a list of activity and job titles without descriptions.

Is that right?
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Yeah, that's what I did. Seemed really pointless though...
 
they really were careless on this secondary.

under the "recommendations" tab they ask "Have you requested your College Premedical Committee, Advisor or Letter Service to send us a recommendation?"

now i did, through amcas, (and they are asking through amcas because they also say "All letters of recommendation must be submitted through AMCAS.") so i obviously choose "yes"

the problem is that by choosing "yes", they force me to fill the next box which asks "Name of your advisor (ONLY IF THEY ARE SENDING A LETTER ON YOUR BEHALF)"
now this would be no problem as my advisor did send a letter, but right before this "name of advisor" box they warn "If your letters are being sent by any of these services DO NOT LIST THE NAMES BELOW. Only if you are having individual letters sent, or are an MD/PhD applicant, should you list the names below."

im assuming that "these services" mean the "College Premedical Committee, Advisor or Letter Service" that they mention before.

so what do i do?
do i select no for the first question? (but i did request a letter from my premed committee)
if i select "yes" then i must fill out the next box of the name of my advisor- but im not supposed to fill that box because my letters are being sent by the premed committee "service"

can someone help?
 
frackrack said:
so what do i do?
do i select no for the first question? (but i did request a letter from my premed committee)
if i select "yes" then i must fill out the next box of the name of my advisor- but im not supposed to fill that box because my letters are being sent by the premed committee "service"

can someone help?
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I clicked yes and then just put the name of pre-med committee figurehead dude. I feel like it's up to them to play the guessing game if their secondary has kinks. The whole "how many years have you completed before 2009 (2010)" thing was annoying, as was the fact that they asked you if your parent was an MD in 2 separate places.

Also, if anyone is having the copy/paste prob Cole had, I couldn't C/P in Google Chrome, but had no problem in Explorer. Hopefully it's only a matter of browsers.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Well, when I sent my letters to AMCAS I wrote the "primary author" as being the person responsible for sending them and the secondary authors as being the actually letter writers. I don't recall if Columbia was a AMCAS letter school when I applied, but I believe that I wrote out the names of the letters that I wanted them to read, as I believe there is a max number. I would just give them the info they want and write, if you have space, that it was AMCAS sent.
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i would think to advise the opposite, they are warning you not to enter the names if they are being sent by a "service"- this sounds like thee application might be held until they get these non-existent "other" letters.
The safe side would probably be to not enter the names- those that amcas sends will get to them anyway.
 
Hey guys, new here but i've been lurkin a bit.

I'm still waiting for verification of my primary app (submitted it on the 26th). There's a few things on the columbia secondary (since they email it after you hit submit anyway) that requires some info from the primary like science gpa and cumulative gpa.

Should i wait for verification and this info before submitting the secondary?

And also, is it the consensus that when we list activities and awards we don't write duration of membership/dates? I don't really have much in the awards category and some space left over for activities since im just heavily invested in a handful.

thanks in advance
 
You can likely calculate your GPA within .01 of what AMCAS will give to you. Just look at how they convert grades and use the scale they use.

For the awards I included the year that I received the award, but I didn't do that for my activities. I don't think it'll matter all that much either way.
 
frackrack said:
i would think to advise the opposite, they are warning you not to enter the names if they are being sent by a "service"- this sounds like thee application might be held until they get these non-existent "other" letters.
The safe side would probably be to not enter the names- those that amcas sends will get to them anyway.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I think I may have been sleepy when I read that post, or just confused by the format. I'm going to delete it and respond in this post instead. Are you able to specify one AMCAS which letters to send to each school? If so, then yes there is no need to include the names of the people in the secondary because the primary will automatically download with them. If, however, it just downloads all the letters then you are left with a problem. It's been a long time since I read our secondary but I believe someone implied that there was a letter limit. I had six letters when I applied, but if Columbia wants three then they may not read all six just because they have to download all six. In that case, I would want to tell them specifically which three that I wanted them to read instead of picking them at random or by alphabet. That's the only case that I can see where you would defy the instructions. I agree though, if you don't list them names it won't be a problem. That is more for people who are sending letters directly and, for most cases, that is now an artifact of past application cycles with the rise of the AMCAS application letter sending service (because now there really is only one letter sending service as far as Columbia is concerned). If you do choose to list the writer just simply say "AMCAS- Dr. so and so" if you can.

I'm not in town so I can't drop by, but I'll email the office and ask them what they would prefer. Ultimately, it really probably won't matter and I would at the very least write the name of the person (if any) who sent your letters to AMCAS or your advisor that you worked through.
 
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I called Columbia today and they said it's too soon to give status updates... the lady was kind of rude too!

anyways... gl people!!
 
bleargh said:
this thread is bumpin... guess everyone loves the columbia



terrible news for me! :laugh:
Click to expand...

LOL, I just noticed that this thread has almost caught up with the "legendary" Case Western thread in number of posts!
 
thebillsfan said:
anyone who's submitted and gotten an interview invite?
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SamuelTesla said:
I called Columbia today and they said it's too soon to give status updates... the lady was kind of rude too!

anyways... gl people!!
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Columbia always sends a "your secondary has been completed" email first. Interview invites typically come a month or two later after that.

AFAIK, Columbia is still using the old system in which the admissions dean personally reviews the applications in the order that they were submitted, so I wouldn't expect any invites to come out until at least a month or so from now. Like mmmcdowe has said, the important part that you guys have control over (getting your secondary submitted ASAP) is done now. The date of your interview doesn't matter much since Coulmbia is non-rolling and reviews all of the interviewed applicants together in late February.
 
FrazzleSnazzle said:
LOL, I just noticed that this thread has almost caught up with the "legendary" Case Western thread in number of posts!
Click to expand...

At this moment we are now one post ahead of CWR :D.

SamuelTesla said:
I called Columbia today and they said it's too soon to give status updates... the lady was kind of rude too!

anyways... gl people!!
Click to expand...

Rude, or from Brooklyn? ;). The admissions office is generally a really nice group of people and I'm sorry if they put you off. At this point, they are not reviewing this cycle yet as they are still dealing with the remnants of last cycle.



Anyways, so I got a reply already. It seems that they are in the process of fixing these issues through the secondary application building service that they and some other medical schools use. I'll let you know if I hear more.
 
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i called about the recommendation names.
lady was pretty nice.
just select yes o the first question, and fill the name of your advisor as "packet" (because they make you fill out that field- they obviously know about this problem).
then just leave the rest of the names blank and you'll be fine
 
This was pretty strange, did it happen to anyone else? I've submitted my secondary and paid the fee, but the application still says it's not submitted. :wtf: I can submit the whole thing again and pay the fee... again.

I called the Columbia office and they said they had received it, but I can still submit it. What a screwy application.

IMO the staff I talked to were nice.
 
actually... you're right... the staff medical schools are usually really nice (especially Jefferson!).. for some reason I got a bad vibe from columbia...

oh well... my odds of going to that school are less than 0 anyways...
 
for the extracurricular activities, should i include volunteering or shadowing? is there anywhere we put this information because it seems to be asking only for extracurriculars and work
 
kjb19 said:
for the extracurricular activities, should i include volunteering or shadowing? is there anywhere we put this information because it seems to be asking only for extracurriculars and work
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I thought extracurricular included clubs and sports and stuff. There should be a separate section for volunteering/shadowing...
 
When it asks, "Have your recommendation letters been sent?" will it let you submit if you answer no? My school hasn't sent out its letter packet yet but I really want to get this secondary in. Or, I could answer "yes", and say it was an honest mistake since I turned in my letters and didn't know whether my committee has sent them yet... Or would that make them start looking for letters that aren't there? That would be bad...
 
dbeast said:
When it asks, "Have your recommendation letters been sent?" will it let you submit if you answer no? My school hasn't sent out its letter packet yet but I really want to get this secondary in. Or, I could answer "yes", and say it was an honest mistake since I turned in my letters and didn't know whether my committee has sent them yet... Or would that make them start looking for letters that aren't there? That would be bad...
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I'm in the same situation and I just answered yes.
 
Is anyone else considering applying to the Bassett program?

I'm really interested in it. The only thing holding me back is how much I'm interested in the regular M.D. program at Columbia, too. In the email it made it sounds like if you were interested in both, you would only get considered for the regular M.D. program if you didn't get an interview from Bassett. Does anyone know if you can apply to both programs at the same time, not one after rejection from the other? I would hate to be ruled out for the regular M.D. program because I got an interview at Bassett and then not get into Bassett (because it's pretty darn competative) and then not be in the running for the other program.

Ahhhhh indecision is killing me. Anyone else having some of the same thoughts?
 
leftcoastegg said:
Is anyone else considering applying to the Bassett program?

I'm really interested in it. The only thing holding me back is how much I'm interested in the regular M.D. program at Columbia, too. In the email it made it sounds like if you were interested in both, you would only get considered for the regular M.D. program if you didn't get an interview from Bassett. Does anyone know if you can apply to both programs at the same time, not one after rejection from the other? I would hate to be ruled out for the regular M.D. program because I got an interview at Bassett and then not get into Bassett (because it's pretty darn competative) and then not be in the running for the other program.

Ahhhhh indecision is killing me. Anyone else having some of the same thoughts?
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I am not interested in rural medicine (rural nothing for that matter), so..no. If I wanted that setting, I would be applying to Oklahoma, Kansas or Utah.....but, a school in Manhattan?
 
Hey guys! I'm almost ready to submit, and I'm reviewing my application with the .pdf doc -- is anyone else's really screwy? As in the second page is the same as the first page, and not all their MCAT scores are showing up? (I took 2, and my first and lowest one is the only one shown...of course this is not awesome. lol.)

I know that I entered both scores in the online application, and it might just be typical pre-med neuroticism. But I just wanted to double check before I submitted :p
 
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leftcoastegg said:
Is anyone else considering applying to the Bassett program?

I'm really interested in it. The only thing holding me back is how much I'm interested in the regular M.D. program at Columbia, too. In the email it made it sounds like if you were interested in both, you would only get considered for the regular M.D. program if you didn't get an interview from Bassett. Does anyone know if you can apply to both programs at the same time, not one after rejection from the other? I would hate to be ruled out for the regular M.D. program because I got an interview at Bassett and then not get into Bassett (because it's pretty darn competative) and then not be in the running for the other program.

Ahhhhh indecision is killing me. Anyone else having some of the same thoughts?
Click to expand...

No worries - if you apply to the Basset program and aren't selected for a Bassett interview, your app will still receive the same consideration for a straight MD interview. And if you get a Bassett interview and realize afterwards that you would prefer the straight MD program, you can let them know and be considered for the regular program only (I believe at least 1 person did this successfully, so it certainly can work out).

Also, Bassett certainly isn't just for people interested in rural health. (But since the clinical years are in a rural location, of course, it's natural that it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.)

From the www.columbia-bassett.org website:
"A person considering future practice in a rural setting will be strongly advantaged by attending Columbia-Bassett. But, while the experience will give insight into high quality rural practice, and will likely open students' eyes to the enjoyments of rural life, Columbia-Bassett is not designed exclusively to train future rural physicians. It is more for people who want to have a grasp of how health systems might ideally work, and perhaps see themselves as future leaders of evolving the American health system to a better place. "
 
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Anyone get a complete email yet saying they received our picture or anything like that?
 
Does anyone know if Columbia cares about the general "get your secondaries done within 2 weeks" rule/recommendation?
 
Kip said:
Anyone get a complete email yet saying they received our picture or anything like that?
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Submitted and sent my pic 6/17 and still no complete email or anything.
 
ciruelo said:
Does anyone know if Columbia cares about the general "get your secondaries done within 2 weeks" rule/recommendation?
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Not to my knowledge, but it is in your best interest to submit rapidly. All applications are reviewed in the order of submission.
 
marele86 said:
No worries - if you apply to the Basset program and aren't selected for a Bassett interview, your app will still receive the same consideration for a straight MD interview. And if you get a Bassett interview and realize afterwards that you would prefer the straight MD program, you can let them know and be considered for the regular program only (I believe at least 1 person did this successfully, so it certainly can work out).
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Thanks for the info, marele. It's reassuring to hear that it's possible to switch if one has a change of heart and that it could potentially be successful. I was a little worried that it might seem like I wasn't truely committed to the school if switched from Bassett instead of applying outright.
 
As a warning though the Bassett program is as or more competitive than the normal MD program, so I wouldn't apply thinking its the easier way to get in so that you can drop out of the program and just be normal program.
 
Does Columbia screen for secondaries? I just got my AMCAS verified yesterday... and I haven't heard from Columbia.
 
I'm sure it's been asked, but for the question " In what collegiate extracurricular activities did you engage?" should you include research and medical volunteer activities, or only college clubs and organizations?

Also, for "About how many hours per week, if any, did you spend in work for which you were recompensed during the college year?" should I include summer jobs that were not continued during the school year? I wouldn't, but the next question is..."What sort of work did you do (include summer employment)?" which makes me think they might want you to discuss summer jobs in both questions.

Thanks for any help!
 
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