Columbia P&S - Advice... please?!?

swf · May 2, 2005

So heres my dilemma (yes, thats definitely said with more than a touch of sarcasm as I obviously have no complaints about the situation Im in right now) I was just accepted off the P&S waitlist this past Friday (April 29th) and am very happy and excited about that. BUT I really dont feel as if I know too much about P&S, especially seeing as I missed going to 2nd look etc. So basically Im just trying to get some thoughts etc. on the school either from current students or prospective 09ers who attended second look and thus are probably more in the know than I am.
Anyone want to share?!? Feel free to talk about whatever; Id be interested specifically in hearing a little more about:

Students happy? Competitive?

Clinical exposure/ experience? (a) in yrs. 1 and 2: I know about the preceptorship deal: how good/useful/hands-on is it? (b) yrs. 3 (and 4): hows the clinical training/ teaching?

Materials in addition to lecture ie. is there a transcript service/ on-line stuff/ lecture hand-outs etc?

Bard Hall Players anyone involved in this or know much about it? Sounds like a great opportunity to me seeing as I love theatre and dance (if I wasnt doing the whole medicine thing, Id most likely be doing the whole starving actress thing)

Is it realistically possible to take a course or two at the undergrad. campus?

Gym/ exercise facilities can we use the undergrad. ones as well as the Bard Hall place? How are they?

Oops, wrote more than I intended. Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks so much!

MiaFLSurf · May 2, 2005

I am really high on PS.

I probably wont be attending there next Fall, but when I went to second look, it was a damn good time, and the students were really fun and friendly.

You really cant go wrong there, good luck.

SarahGM · May 2, 2005

I wrote a whole long thing for the students at my undergrad about P&S, which I posted in the Columbia vs. Cornell thread, if you do a search.

I'm in Bard Hall Players right now. You should come see our show! May 12-14... here's the website, and we should have a trailer posted soon 😉
http://www.columbia.edu/~djr2102/index.htm

swf said:
So heres my dilemma (yes, thats definitely said with more than a touch of sarcasm as I obviously have no complaints about the situation Im in right now) I was just accepted off the P&S waitlist this past Friday (April 29th) and am very happy and excited about that. BUT I really dont feel as if I know too much about P&S, especially seeing as I missed going to 2nd look etc. So basically Im just trying to get some thoughts etc. on the school either from current students or prospective 09ers who attended second look and thus are probably more in the know than I am.
Anyone want to share?!? Feel free to talk about whatever; Id be interested specifically in hearing a little more about:

Students happy? Competitive?

Clinical exposure/ experience? (a) in yrs. 1 and 2: I know about the preceptorship deal: how good/useful/hands-on is it? (b) yrs. 3 (and 4): hows the clinical training/ teaching?

Materials in addition to lecture ie. is there a transcript service/ on-line stuff/ lecture hand-outs etc?

Bard Hall Players anyone involved in this or know much about it? Sounds like a great opportunity to me seeing as I love theatre and dance (if I wasnt doing the whole medicine thing, Id most likely be doing the whole starving actress thing)

Is it realistically possible to take a course or two at the undergrad. campus?

Gym/ exercise facilities can we use the undergrad. ones as well as the Bard Hall place? How are they?

Oops, wrote more than I intended. Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks so much!

sven · May 2, 2005

swf,

how long were you given to make your decision?

lulubean · May 2, 2005

hi! congrats on your acceptance to P&S. while i will not be attending in the fall, i was really impressed with several things:

- great clinical training
- solid curriculum, i've heard the first two years prepare you very well for medicine
- lots of extracurriculars and student activities
- in nyc (contrary to popular belief, it is NOT in a bad neighborhood, its actually in a very affordable and convenient part of the city)

somethings to think about:
- my personal experience when i met with students and was at second look weekend is that p&s is a great place for future specialists and surgeons - not so great if you are interested in primary care
- class tends to be pretty young, not much out of school experience (a concern of mine simply because i am a nontraditional student)

hope some of this was helpful!

swf · May 3, 2005

Thanks for all the replies, guys 🙂
Lulubean - Yes, those were definitely helpful comments, thanks! Any particular reason why you don't think you'll be attending P&S? (If you don't mind sharing, of course)
MiaFLSurf - Glad to hear that you were such a fan of P&S. That's always good 🙂 Again, if you don't mind saying, any reason(s) why you think you won't be going?
SarahGM - I'll try and find that post you made. I've actually come across quite a few posts from you when searching for Columbia on the forums, and they've always been good/useful ones 👍 Break a leg at your show! I seriously might actually turn up for one of the nights (I'm living in manhattan right now anyways).
Sven - I'm not really sure re: decision time. Dean Frantz didn't say anything specific. Seeing as May 15 is right around the corner though, I'm assuming that's my deadline.
Any other comments also more than welcome 🙂

pjm · May 3, 2005

lulubean said:
- class tends to be pretty young, not much out of school experience (a concern of mine simply because i am a nontraditional student)

swf - Sarah's comments are great, please read them. Also, we are full Columbia students, so we enjoy total access to the Morningside campus facilities. I'm pretty content with the gym facilities in Bard, however.

lulubean - I usually tell people the opposite regarding nontrads -- myself and a good many of my classmates have significant "real world" experience outside of medicine. It's a tremendously eclectic mix that really adds to the school. My personal estimate is 25%, but I haven't really counted.

We all are young at heart, of course -- this may be why you got the impression that the class is "pretty young." 🙂

chyulu · May 3, 2005

I'm pretty set on P&S, though I'm still in love with Cornell, too.
I want to know why Miami Boy has decided against P&S.
The only negatives I would give it are 1) a dingy hospital and 2)a very inconvenient neighborhood. The subways downtown are fine, but when you are coming home from the lower east side at 4am after a night out, you are looking at a hefty cab fare.
On the other hand, I think P&S has the best spirit of any of the 13 med schools I visited for interviews--students love it!

lulubean · May 3, 2005

swf said:
Lulubean - Yes, those were definitely helpful comments, thanks! Any particular reason why you don't think you'll be attending P&S? (If you don't mind sharing, of course)

main reasons were because of cost (my financial aid package was painful) and my strong interest in primary care.

good luck with your decision!

Click to expand...

MiaFLSurf · May 3, 2005

chyulu said:
I'm pretty set on P&S, though I'm still in love with Cornell, too.
I want to know why Miami Boy has decided against P&S.
The only negatives I would give it are 1) a dingy hospital and 2)a very inconvenient neighborhood. The subways downtown are fine, but when you are coming home from the lower east side at 4am after a night out, you are looking at a hefty cab fare.
On the other hand, I think P&S has the best spirit of any of the 13 med schools I visited for interviews--students love it!

I got a buttload of scholarship financial aid from another great school that I really enjoyed this last weekend.

My descision isnt definite in any way, I really feel like I am going to take until May 14th to get it down......

Did I meet you at revisit? (I hae a feeling I know who you are). Shoot me a PM.

SarahGM · May 3, 2005

illini said:
"columbia definitely does NOT have the most interesting and diverse student body. they are on probation (LCME accreditation) and one of the reasons for this probation is LACK OF DIVERSITY. i couldn't understand how this could be true until i visited two days ago for the revisit. totally a frat-boy/country club kind of atmosphere (which was also the sense i got during interviews). it *is* completely ivy like everyone talks about."

What is this COLUMBIA ON PROBATION deal? It's certainly caused me to have second thoughts about the whole process. I don't want to have to say that my alma mater wasn't accredited when I received my degree. Any other thoughts?

Even w/o considering the location, P&S was one of the least diverse schools I visited. Still, that can't be enough to deserve probation. There have to be other reasons for the probation as well. Does anyone know them? Undoubtedly this has something to do with Columbia's drop to 10th in USNews - the biggest drop for a top tier school.

Let me know what you guys think.

Illini, what is your beef? I will post this for a third time: Columbia is NOT on probation. The LCME presented P&S with a few issues with which they thought there was room for improvement... and many of the issues don't have anything to do with a present situation, but have more to do with addressing the situation in the future. For instance, when listing this concern, the LCME wasn't saying that Columbia isn't diverse enough. They asked, "What are you doing to MAINTAIN student diversity in the years to come?" They wanted a more concrete plan than the one they were given.

In regards to Columbia's US News "drop" to #10... the US News and World Report rankings are using different criteria to rate schools this year, mainly including a category on amount of spending for research.

Busting all false rumors and accusations one at a time,
SarahGM

Jalby · May 3, 2005

illini said:
"columbia definitely does NOT have the most interesting and diverse student body. they are on probation (LCME accreditation) and one of the reasons for this probation is LACK OF DIVERSITY. i couldn't understand how this could be true until i visited two days ago for the revisit. totally a frat-boy/country club kind of atmosphere (which was also the sense i got during interviews). it *is* completely ivy like everyone talks about."

What is this COLUMBIA ON PROBATION deal? It's certainly caused me to have second thoughts about the whole process. I don't want to have to say that my alma mater wasn't accredited when I received my degree. Any other thoughts?

Even w/o considering the location, P&S was one of the least diverse schools I visited. Still, that can't be enough to deserve probation. There have to be other reasons for the probation as well. Does anyone know them? Undoubtedly this has something to do with Columbia's drop to 10th in USNews - the biggest drop for a top tier school.

Let me know what you guys think.

Hmmm. Somebody got waitlisted at Columbia on 4/17 from Illinois. 2 weeks later they start posting all kinds of crap about Columbia, of course warning other people that maybe they shouldn't go there. Posts this three times. Now, doesn't one person at Columbia really deicide if you get off the waitlist (I forget his name). I'm not sure it would be very smart to try to scare people away especially since he could probably easily find out who from illinois was waitlisted about 4/17.

MikeS 78 · May 3, 2005

illini said:
"columbia definitely does NOT have the most interesting and diverse student body. they are on probation (LCME accreditation) and one of the reasons for this probation is LACK OF DIVERSITY. i couldn't understand how this could be true until i visited two days ago for the revisit. totally a frat-boy/country club kind of atmosphere (which was also the sense i got during interviews). it *is* completely ivy like everyone talks about."

What is this COLUMBIA ON PROBATION deal? It's certainly caused me to have second thoughts about the whole process. I don't want to have to say that my alma mater wasn't accredited when I received my degree. Any other thoughts?

Even w/o considering the location, P&S was one of the least diverse schools I visited. Still, that can't be enough to deserve probation. There have to be other reasons for the probation as well. Does anyone know them? Undoubtedly this has something to do with Columbia's drop to 10th in USNews - the biggest drop for a top tier school.

Let me know what you guys think.

Listen I highly doubt Columbia will get put on any sort of probation or is in real risk of losing accredidation....the concerns were relatively minor (bad library hours) and are far outweighed by the fact that Columbia is one of the best schools in the US....

as well Illini, you will find that no one (program directors students, residents etc) gives a rats ass about whether you went to #1 vs #10.......in fact when i interviewed being from Columbia conferred a huge advantage even compared to other top tier schools

SarahGM · May 3, 2005

Also, just wanted to point out that to address the library hours/study space issues... the libary will have new, extended hours (from 11pm till 2am!) and a whole FLOOR cleared out for more study space beginning NEXT SEMESTER. I have found Columbia to be really responsive to the issues brought up by the LCME (case in point).

The Remix · May 3, 2005

illini said:
Even w/o considering the location, P&S was one of the least diverse schools I visited.

It's seriously time to get the cataracts removed and open your eyes. Columbia's diversity is tops in the ivies.

missbonnie · May 3, 2005

hey everyone. sarahgm is a classmate of mine (and friend) and we both love it here. I was in BHP for the musical last fall. Great experience - but does take up a lot of time.

In my class, nearly half the class has been out of school for at least 1 yr. Oldest student is 34. Quite a few ppl in their mid 20's. We have at least 3 married couples, quite a few more engaged. 2 with babies (1 born this yr!). We are quite social in general, so it may appear we are young 🙂.

It is totally doable to take classes at the ugrad campus. In fact, I would have to say you have an abundance of free time first year because of our block system. Not something I'm proud to advertise, but one can slack for weeks at a time and still pass quite comfortably (pass/fail first yr, then H/P/F afterwards).

Feel free to PM me. You should definitely come up if you are in Manhattan. I'm sure someone would be happy to show you around.

P.S. I'm running orientation for your class.

Bonnie

EDIt: didn't address lecture material and clinicals. Everything is online. You def. need a computer here. All slides, transcripts (student run), grades, etc are online. i'm not on the wards yet but we are def. very strong clinically. Just going to med school in NYC exposes you to all kinds of stuff. We are particularly good at psych & neuro (we get a bit of overkill here actually), and surgery driven. Def. not a primary care school....

Columbia P&S - Advice... please?!?

swf

Junior Member

MiaFLSurf

Senior Member

SarahGM

Senior Member

sven

Senior Member

lulubean

Senior Member

swf

Junior Member

pjm

Senior Member

chyulu

Junior Member

lulubean

Senior Member

MiaFLSurf

Senior Member

SarahGM

Senior Member

Jalby

I fight crime at day when Batman are sleeping.

MikeS 78

Senior Member

SarahGM

Senior Member

The Remix

Liberal by necessity

missbonnie

floating

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