2013-2014 Columbia University Application Thread

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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mmmcdowe said:
I'm a fourth year student just finishing a year off doing research. Best of luck to all and let me know if I can be of any help.
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How easy was it to take a research year? Why did you choose to (if you don't mind me asking)?
 
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mmmcdowe said:
I'm a fourth year student just finishing a year off doing research. Best of luck to all and let me know if I can be of any help.
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I am not a resident of New York, but I have visited 3 times over the past 10 years. I have close family there and my girlfriend and I want to both go to graduate school there. I know Columbia will give slight preference to people from New York, but do you think what I said would be at least a midway between non-resident and resident of the state? I want to express that I am highly interested in living in NYC when I grow up.

Also, does Columbia prefer a student with a clinical heavy or research heavy background? I have discussed this with admissions here at UCLA and they told me they prefer clinical heavy, while universities such as Duke prefer research heavy. I understand every school wants a well rounded applicant, but if I am taking a year off would Columbia prefer I do clinical research and shadowing or laboratory research?

Thank you so much!
 
Bauman1535 said:
How easy was it to take a research year? Why did you choose to (if you don't mind me asking)?
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Very easy. A large number of students (about 20%) take a year off funded. Some do the major research fellowships, but each department pays to get their students to take a year off on top of the traditional fellowships. I chose for a combination of building research experience and also to take care of some personal stuff.
 
Nans said:
I am not a resident of New York, but I have visited 3 times over the past 10 years. I have close family there and my girlfriend and I want to both go to graduate school there. I know Columbia will give slight preference to people from New York, but do you think what I said would be at least a midway between non-resident and resident of the state? I want to express that I am highly interested in living in NYC when I grow up.

Also, does Columbia prefer a student with a clinical heavy or research heavy background? I have discussed this with admissions here at UCLA and they told me they prefer clinical heavy, while universities such as Duke prefer research heavy. I understand every school wants a well rounded applicant, but if I am taking a year off would Columbia prefer I do clinical research and shadowing or laboratory research?

Thank you so much!
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Columbia doesn't give in state preference, but yes expressing your reasons for wanting to be in the NYC is a good plan. Columbia prefers students with extra-curricular heavy background, but yes they do like to see research as well. The type of research doesn't matter, just the clear involvement.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Columbia doesn't give in state preference, but yes expressing your reasons for wanting to be in the NYC is a good plan. Columbia prefers students with extra-curricular heavy background, but yes they do like to see research as well. The type of research doesn't matter, just the clear involvement.
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Thank you so much for the quick reply! I am assuming the secondary application would be where i would want to express those desires and reasons?
 
mmmcdowe said:
Columbia doesn't give in state preference, but yes expressing your reasons for wanting to be in the NYC is a good plan. Columbia prefers students with extra-curricular heavy background, but yes they do like to see research as well. The type of research doesn't matter, just the clear involvement.
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Thank you for your comments and answers.

When you say EC-heavy, besides research, what are the things does Columbia look for in particular, if any? Or is it fine so long as there is just lots of "something" that an applicant is passionate in?

How many students do you know who conducted research as a MS1? In other words, how easy is it to get involved in research as a MS1?

Can you explicate your clinical experiences as a MS3? To what extent can you involve, as opposed to doing clinically meaningless work?

How were your schedules like for MS1 and 2? Are your afternoons completely open, like the schedules at Case?

What would you have done differently if you could do the whole medical school again?

What were the things you wish you would have known?


Thank you in advance for your time. Your comments will be very helpful in writing secondaries!
 
Nans said:
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I am assuming the secondary application would be where i would want to express those desires and reasons?
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yup


Lya said:
Thank you for your comments and answers.

When you say EC-heavy, besides research, what are the things does Columbia look for in particular, if any? Or is it fine so long as there is just lots of "something" that an applicant is passionate in?

anything is fine, just passion in general
How many students do you know who conducted research as a MS1? In other words, how easy is it to get involved in research as a MS1?
Honestly i've never heard a school say it wasn't easy, but yes it is easy. I started a week in and anyone who was interested had no trouble finding a lab. Remember, academic physicians want you to be interested in their work. If they weren't passionate about it they probably wouldn't take the pay cut to be in academia

Can you explicate your clinical experiences as a MS3? To what extent can you involve, as opposed to doing clinically meaningless work?

When you are thinking of the pros and cons of medical schools as far as the clinical years go, I strongly recommend that you focus on two points: diversity of patients and volume of patients. As far as diversity goes, I think you will agree that New York and Columbia offer essentially the widest array of patients around. We are at the heart of enormous amounts of immigration and travel all over the world, and our patient population (and their medical problems) reflects a diverse array of ethnicities, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This patient diversity is coupled by our wide array of hospital affiliates both within the city (Harlem, Saint Luke's-Roosevelt, Bronx VA, Allen Pavilion, etc), as well as in more rural parts of the country such as Indian reservations in the southwest, the Bassett hospital is Cooperstown, and the Stamford Hospital in CT. At the same time, while it is nice to see some of the rarest conditions in medicine, our volume of patients assures us that we will also see all of the bread and butter health problems that are also crucial to one's education during the clinical years.

Columbia has 8 major clinical rotations during clinical year- Medicine x2, surgery, OBGYN, Neurology, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics. You will do no more than two of these outside of the CUMC unless desired, and people with a need to stay on campus are allowed to. We also rotate through many of the smaller specialties such as dermatology, radiology, emergency medicine, and the surgical subspecialties. The reason for this is because they want to expose you to all the possibilities, because how else would you want to know you want to be a urologist, etc? They also require you to learn valuable clinical skills that will make you a better intern such as intubation, placing catheters, etc. This allows you to learn from the masters of each skill.

Each location provides different experiences. For example, your day and your responsibilities at a small hospital without residents vs the main hospital. Columbia has an all volunteer teaching staff, which means they want to be there and are interested in your improvement. You don't really do any scut, but it does depend on your definition I suppose. Some people think that drawing blood on your patients is scut, but I always volunteered to do it when a stat draw was required because its a reasonable skill to have in your back pocket. You won't be doing anything that isn't involved in improving the care of your assigned patients.

How were your schedules like for MS1 and 2? Are your afternoons completely open, like the schedules at Case?

we have a three semester curriculum instead of four. Most days are from about 9-12 or 9-1, with one to three afternoons a week with afternoon classes for about 4 hours depending on the part of curriculum you are in. The first semester consists of 3 major courses: Molecular Mechanisms, which is an umbrella course for essentially all basic medical sciences, Anatomy, and Foundations of Clinical medicine. FCM is on Wednesday mornings instead of MM and is a combination of bioethics and clinical skills. For example, you may have a lecture on how one appropriately ascertains a patient's sexual history and then move on to small groups to discuss and practice this interview with a standardized patient (which is an actor). You then will move onto real patient interviews at an afternoon clerkship on either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. In the clerkship, you are paired with a health care practitioner at a wide variety of sites (such as The Door, Calvary Hospital, Young Mens Clinic, Neurosurgeons, Physical Therapists, offer examples as needed, preferably your own experiences) and get to interview patients in a very diverse array of situations. You do two clerkships in the first semester, and you do have some say in selection when possible. After the first semester you switch over from history taking to physical examinations in the second semester and then finally to how one efficiently conveys information from histories and physicals to an attending during presentations and in the form of write ups.

Anatomy consists of basically two full afternoons, one in the dissection lab and the other in small groups. Small groups consist of four students per cadaver, with 2 groups dissecting the same cadaver on alternative days. Now some of you may be thinking "ah man I want to dissect the whole cadaver myself", but I promise by the second day you will be thinking "I'm so glad it isn't my turn to dissect today." Don't get me wrong, I love to dissect, I still go in on occasion and do so. HOWEVER, dissection itself has a very low benefit to cost ratio and consists mostly of cleaning up things so that you can actually decide what everything is. The reason why we only dissect half is to save everyone time, you still get to see and learn everything. Now, the non-dissecting group consists of osteology- the study of bones-, radiology, and applied clinical skills. For example, guy walks in with knife in arm, what nerve was cut, what finger can't he move? This is great practice because both our exams and the step 1 test anatomy in this format.

Now for some general things about our courses. All classes are recorded, and what is especially nice is the slides are synched to the lectures. So if you fell asleep during slide 33 you can click it and just watch that part of the lectures. This makes it a great study and review tool as well. In addition, we are a pass fail unranked school during the pre-clinical years. The unranked part is the most important part, as a lot of schools say they are pass fail but have an internal system of rankings. Unless everyone who passes is ranked first, then clearly they used grades to determine your grades. Our system is not about slacking off and just breezing by, everyone works hard and the average grades have not changed since before the system was instituted. What it does is take as much of the anxiety out of medical education as possible and gives you the confidence to take advantage of the free time that is naturally built into the pre-clinical curriculum. So you can do volunteering, do fun things, do research, do shadowing, or just figure out what you want to do with yourself after medical school without a nagging voice in the back of your head eating away at you because you are terrified of getting a 99 and not a 100. Pre-clinical grades and rankings are ultimately not highly valued by residency directors, so you aren't losing out on anything when compared to the confidence to build your resume in other ways.

My favorite part of the university feel of P&S is that we are allowed to take up to 2 free classes per semester at an school or department at Columbia (other than Law). Given the low stress environment, it is definitely possible to do so and many people take advantage of it. In fact, there is an optional narrative medicine class during pre-clinicals that students can waive if they have a class that they would prefer to take.



What would you have done differently if you could do the whole medical school again?

Nothing, I've been quite happy with my experience
What were the things you wish you would have known?
Well, I discovered this during interviews for med school but I'm glad to have realized that the 3rd and 4th year experience are more important than the pre-clinicals, in terms of assessing a school IMO. Also, go somewhere that makes you happy. You don't get a coupon after residency to relive your life.

Thank you in advance for your time. Your comments will be very helpful in writing secondaries!
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Thank you so much for your thorough response. There are many things that I realized I didn't know before! =)
 
Really interesting info, thanks so much! Would love to attend Columbia P&S!
 
@mmmcdowe,

I've read your response several times and have follow-up questions. (Since it is not time for secondaries yet, you don't have to reply right away. But thank you for your prompt responses. Your answers are so much more helpful and specific than generic descriptions provided online by Columbia.)

For clinical rotations, you said "[students] will do no more than two of these outside of the CUMC unless desired." From what I know, away rotations should be treated like an interview and your performance in those rotations will be crucial for residency applications for that program. Do you consider this as a bad policy that you are not recommended to do away rotations more than two? Or does it not matter much? I am not exactly sure how this works.

Are there certain expectations or unofficial goals that you want to reach during your rotations? For example, after a month of MS3 rotations, you should be able to know how to draw blood. After a half way through MS3, you should be able to know how to do [blank]. I know it depends on schools and programs, but I was wondering if there are certain procedures and techniques you are expected to know how to do throughout your MS3 and MS4.

It seems also clear that you should be able to present the patient's history and physicals to the doctors and also write them in a certain manner by the end of MS1. Or should it be a half way through MS2, instead of the end of MS1?

It is great that step 1 anatomy is similar to the class exams. Is this pattern also applicable to other areas like patho and etc.?

Are there other schools you know of that have similar P/F with no internal ranking?

About the two free classes (I thought it was very nice, similar to Yale System), can you also take them P/F even if you are taking it in a different department/school? Can you get "credits" or "class hours" for doing research, like what we have in undergrads? If so, does that count also as one of two free classes?

What are the things that you wish Columbia could improve in? Or is it all just perfect?
 
I'm not the illustrious mmmmmmmmmmcdowe, but -

Lya said:
@mmmcdowe,

I've read your response several times and have follow-up questions. (Since it is not time for secondaries yet, you don't have to reply right away. But thank you for your prompt responses. Your answers are so much more helpful and specific than generic descriptions provided online by Columbia.)

For clinical rotations, you said "[students] will do no more than two of these outside of the CUMC unless desired." From what I know, away rotations should be treated like an interview and your performance in those rotations will be crucial for residency applications for that program. Do you consider this as a bad policy that you are not recommended to do away rotations more than two? Or does it not matter much? I am not exactly sure how this works.

The away rotations you are thinking of are done in the 4th year (or in our case the last 1.5 year), after MCY. The rotations you do during MCY are core rotations where you're exposed to these fields for the first time. You'll find that all schools (that I know of) will send people to different hospitals for a variety of exposures and we're no different. I think you may have misinterpreted the 2 away requirement - you're not recommended to do more nor are you dissuaded from doing so. It's your choice. It really doesn't matter much in the larger sense

Are there certain expectations or unofficial goals that you want to reach during your rotations? For example, after a month of MS3 rotations, you should be able to know how to draw blood. After a half way through MS3, you should be able to know how to do [blank]. I know it depends on schools and programs, but I was wondering if there are certain procedures and techniques you are expected to know how to do throughout your MS3 and MS4.

There are no concrete checklists. I'd imagine that's the case pretty much anywhere. Each rotation will have a set of skills they expect you to learn in that span, often overlapping. For example, inserting Foleys is a skill they expect you to at least get introduced to during surgery as well as urology. Don't sweat this stuff too much yet

It seems also clear that you should be able to present the patient's history and physicals to the doctors and also write them in a certain manner by the end of MS1. Or should it be a half way through MS2, instead of the end of MS1?

Again, this is a granular thing you don't need to get worked up over. The expectations will be made clear to you and you will progress at the expected pace. I'd say you keep learning during MCY to write and present at a high level.

It is great that step 1 anatomy is similar to the class exams. Is this pattern also applicable to other areas like patho and etc.?

Yes

Are there other schools you know of that have similar P/F with no internal ranking?

Personally I think P/F with internal ranking is mostly urban legend - I never encountered a school that actually does that

About the two free classes (I thought it was very nice, similar to Yale System), can you also take them P/F even if you are taking it in a different department/school? Can you get "credits" or "class hours" for doing research, like what we have in undergrads? If so, does that count also as one of two free classes?

You are in fact encouraged to do P/F, if not just as an audit to take even more stress off. I don't know what the incentive would be in getting credits for research, why do you ask?

What are the things that you wish Columbia could improve in? Or is it all just perfect?

It's as perfect as a school can be
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Both of my parents attended Columbia for medical school. Does Columbia give any preference to legacy students?
 
Lya said:
For clinical rotations, you said "[students] will do no more than two of these outside of the CUMC unless desired." From what I know, away rotations should be treated like an interview and your performance in those rotations will be crucial for residency applications for that program. Do you consider this as a bad policy that you are not recommended to do away rotations more than two? Or does it not matter much? I am not exactly sure how this works.
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The P&S affiliated hospitals are: Allen Pavillion (Manhattan), Bassett Health Care (Cooperstown, NY), Harlem Hospital (Manhattan), Helen Hayes Hospital (West Haverstraw, NY), Milstein Hospital (CUMC), Roosevelt Hospital (Manhattan), St. Luke's Hospital (Manhattan), Stamford Hospital (Connecticut), and of course New York Presbyterian. So away just means away from New York Presbyterian at one of these other sites. And then you can go do the residency "audition" thing later during Differentiation/Integration part of curriculum after Major Clinical Year. :)

Lya said:
What are the things that you wish Columbia could improve in? Or is it all just perfect?
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I don't start until August, but YES IT'S PERFECT!!! :love:
 
Dingo Mango said:
The P&S affiliated hospitals are: Allen Pavillion (Manhattan), Bassett Health Care (Cooperstown, NY), Harlem Hospital (Manhattan), Helen Hayes Hospital (West Haverstraw, NY), Milstein Hospital (CUMC), Roosevelt Hospital (Manhattan), St. Luke's Hospital (Manhattan), Stamford Hospital (Connecticut), and of course New York Presbyterian. So away just means away from New York Presbyterian at one of these other sites. And then you can go do the residency "audition" thing later during Differentiation/Integration part of curriculum after Major Clinical Year. :)



I don't start until August, but YES IT'S PERFECT!!! :love:
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Also, MCY rotations can be had Creedmore Psychiatric Institute, Bronx VA, and the Indian Health Services hospitals in Whiteriver AZ, and a couple in NM too. I think there is something is Hartford for family medicine as well.
 
And how about extracurricular involvement? I've heard about the P&S club, is there really time for stuff like that? Do you have the time to become involved?
 
hvairline said:
And how about extracurricular involvement? I've heard about the P&S club, is there really time for stuff like that? Do you have the time to become involved?
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I would definitely say people have more time in medical school than what people make it out to be.One of the nice things about the p/f unranked curriculum is that it gives you confidence to take advantage of it. It's all about what is important to you and how you want to spend it. Pretty much everyone does at least one of the clubs, even if it is just Bacchus or another of the social clubs.
 
Hi
I was wondering how Columbia considers multiple MCAT scores.
I wrote the MCAT few times (in order to meet the Canadian cutoff). Eventually, I was able to achieve a decent score (+35) , but I am afraid how badly this would reflect upon my application to Columbia.

Also, when writing secondary application, do you have any recommendations for emphasizing particular qualities (research/leadership/community involvements) ?
 
sugarmouse said:
Hi
I was wondering how Columbia considers multiple MCAT scores.
I wrote the MCAT few times (in order to meet the Canadian cutoff). Eventually, I was able to achieve a decent score (+35) , but I am afraid how badly this would reflect upon my application to Columbia.

Also, when writing secondary application, do you have any recommendations for emphasizing particular qualities (research/leadership/community involvements) ?
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You're fine, go for it.

Emphasize whatever you are passionate about. :)
 
It looks like Columbia will be my "reach" school this cycle! CA resident, 3.8/36
 
ziggyguy23 said:
Why is it a reach school when their averages are right around your stats?

http://ps.columbia.edu/education/admissions/faqs
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Because it's an ivy league school, highly prestigious and selective. It was the first medical school in the country, right? I don't think Columbia is a "match" or a "safety" for very many applicants. :confused:

My numbers are nothing extraordinary at schools of this caliber. They have no shortage of 3.9/37+ applicants, and plenty of 4.0/40 too. My numbers qualify me for the program but don't guarantee an interview (let alone acceptance) :) I just hope something in my application stands out.

EDIT: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1012026
 
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Entadus said:
Because it's an ivy league school, highly prestigious and selective. It was the first medical school in the country, right? I don't think Columbia is a "match" or a "safety" for very many applicants. :confused:

My numbers are nothing extraordinary at schools of this caliber. They have no shortage of 3.9/37+ applicants, and plenty of 4.0/40 too. My numbers qualify me for the program but don't guarantee an interview (let alone acceptance) :) I just hope something in my application stands out.

EDIT: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1012026
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I understand what you're saying but almost all med schools have acceptance rates of 5% or less. I think every school is a reach school then. Not trying to be annoying and I see your point. I think any top 20 school is a reach school to everyone.

Best of luck!
 
mmmcdowe said:
Columbia was the first US medical school to offer the md degree*, but there were a couple med schools in existance prior
*Contested by Penn, take my tour and Ill tell you why.
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I actually thought Penn was first and Columbia was second. Stupid Wikipedia. +pissed+
 
Yeah but I think that first batch of Columbia kids graduated before the Penn kids so we still win. ;)
 
Not sure how I'd fare living in NYC (just started getting used to Boston size city-ness :oops:), but Columbia seems fantastic! Does it help my chances at all if my uncle, aunt and both their kids went there for undergrad and I've visited frequently?? :smuggrin:
 
Thinking of applying with a 34 MCAT and mid-3.7s cGPA and sGPA. Worth it, or do I fall under the cut?
 
For LORs, on the website it says 3 are required - two science and one non-science. Would a letter from a PI fulfill the science requirement? I'm have two other non-PI science letters, but they aren't as strong, so I'm trying to only use those when it is explicitly stated "science professors who have taught you"
 
jeghaber said:
Not sure how I'd fare living in NYC (just started getting used to Boston size city-ness :oops:), but Columbia seems fantastic! Does it help my chances at all if my uncle, aunt and both their kids went there for undergrad and I've visited frequently?? :smuggrin:
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Not really.
 
Bauman1535 said:
For LORs, on the website it says 3 are required - two science and one non-science. Would a letter from a PI fulfill the science requirement? I'm have two other non-PI science letters, but they aren't as strong, so I'm trying to only use those when it is explicitly stated "science professors who have taught you"
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I think they mean science professor but you probably can get away with it.
 
Columbia is my pie in the sky super duper mega ultra hyper omega reach school. I haven't taken the MCAT yet, and I'm currently in a GPA enhancement postbac, but I still like to believe that Columbia is a bit more "holistic" in its reviewing of applicants. Who knows what may happen.
 
SilentSoldier said:
Columbia is my pie in the sky super duper mega ultra hyper omega reach school. I haven't taken the MCAT yet, and I'm currently in a GPA enhancement postbac, but I still like to believe that Columbia is a bit more "holistic" in its reviewing of applicants. Who knows what may happen.
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It was my pie in the sky super duper mega ultra hyper omega reach school too and now I'm matriculating! sooo you never know until you put yourself out there!! :)
 
Dingo Mango said:
It was my pie in the sky super duper mega ultra hyper omega reach school too and now I'm matriculating! sooo you never know until you put yourself out there!! :)
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That's really awesome!! Did your MCAT match their average?

I ask because I'm still trying to figure out which reach schools would actually not be a waste of money to apply to; my app was submitted on the 10th but I really have no true reach schools on my list other than Mayo and am contemplating applying to a few more, just to see what might happen.
 
Yeah I think my mcat is around their average. but whatever, I think it is important to find things about schools that you are really passionate about or think you would really mesh well with so you can focus your secondary on that! So you have something to say other than, "I wanna go to this reach school cause it is real fancy and purty." Figure out why you fit in and show them!!
 
Dingo Mango said:
Yeah I think my mcat is around their average. but whatever, I think it is important to find things about schools that you are really passionate about or think you would really mesh well with so you can focus your secondary on that! So you have something to say other than, "I wanna go to this reach school cause it is real fancy and purty." Figure out why you fit in and show them!!
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I'm inclined to discuss in all my essays how their curriculum fits my learning style and meets my needs, and how opportunities similar to my past experiences exist at those schools and that I would want to continue these there. Is that kind of along the lines of "fit"?
 
YankeeBean said:
I'm inclined to discuss in all my essays how their curriculum fits my learning style and meets my needs, and how opportunities similar to my past experiences exist at those schools and that I would want to continue these there. Is that kind of along the lines of "fit"?
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Sure that is a reasonable take.

If you are concerned about your stats just look at the MSAR data. If you fall within the range of scores I think it is reasonable to feel like you aren't throwing your money away.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Sure that is a reasonable take.

If you are concerned about your stats just look at the MSAR data. If you fall within the range of scores I think it is reasonable to feel like you aren't throwing your money away.
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well that's the thing - applying as very nontrad, so the stats are meaningless in my case I am told - I was told I was competitive at Northwestern and WashU and my mind was BLOWN because the numbers aren't even close:

sGPA 3.3, cGPA 3.3, MCAT 8V/10P/11B, gradGPA 3.85, lots of full time work experience, lots of volunteering, leadership, research, EC's.....so I was blown away and really don't know what to expect this year.
 
Just to add to this, according to one of the Adcom's for Columbia, the lowest MCAT score that has been accepted in the last ~20 years has been a 28. I think she also said that the GPA was high and they had other things going for them, but I wouldn't count a school out of your league just because of one piece of the puzzle. It's all very subjective.
 
Sophocles said:
Just to add to this, according to one of the Adcom's for Columbia, the lowest MCAT score that has been accepted in the last ~20 years has been a 28. I think she also said that the GPA was high and they had other things going for them, but I wouldn't count a school out of your league just because of one piece of the puzzle. It's all very subjective.
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I am made to understand that the GPA/MCAT are the biggest pieces of the puzzle though haha
 
YankeeBean said:
I am made to understand that the GPA/MCAT are the biggest pieces of the puzzle though haha
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Yeah, I don't want to tell you otherwise. Every school looks at numbers first and if you don't meet the min. then they won't even look at you.

My point is that the min. for some of the top schools are lower than what is advertised on SDN. I think this is because they have so many 40+ MCAT applicants to choose from that they can afford to take someone with a 30 if they really are intrigued with their story and feel that they would be a great addition to the incoming class.

Edit: I think that some of the mid tier schools or those trying to break into the "top" schools status are more worried about making sure that they have exceptional applicants and matriculants since the USNWR takes the numbers into account when ranking schools. For instance, (anecdote) I head that Sinai is more geared towards numbers because they are trying to break into the top 10, and with their new endowment, it looks like it could happen in the near future. I also heard the same thing from the Dean of Admissions of Ohio State when I interviewed there. He said that they were trying to break into the top 20 schools and for that reason chose more competitive applicants and are trying to get more funding per professor at the institution.

These are my personal experiences. I'm sure many might disagree, but this is what I have been exposed to throughout the process.
 
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Bauman1535 said:
For LORs, on the website it says 3 are required - two science and one non-science. Would a letter from a PI fulfill the science requirement? I'm have two other non-PI science letters, but they aren't as strong, so I'm trying to only use those when it is explicitly stated "science professors who have taught you"
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For my 2nd science LOR I used a grad student. Now I'm a 4th year. Go for it.
 
3.7 cGPA and a 32 MCAT with strong research (award for best senior thesis, 3+ years in same lab) -- worth a shot or nah? Basically standard, decent EC's otherwise. If no, suggestions on other big research schools that may be more receptive to low-ish MCAT?
 
dcc23 said:
3.7 cGPA and a 32 MCAT with strong research (award for best senior thesis, 3+ years in same lab) -- worth a shot or nah? Basically standard, decent EC's otherwise. If no, suggestions on other big research schools that may be more receptive to low-ish MCAT?
Click to expand...

I, too, would like to know the answer to this question .. 3.7, 34
 
dcc23 said:
3.7 cgpa and a 32 mcat with strong research (award for best senior thesis, 3+ years in same lab) -- worth a shot or nah? Basically standard, decent ec's otherwise. If no, suggestions on other big research schools that may be more receptive to low-ish mcat?
Click to expand...

+1
 
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