COLUMBIA & LOW MCAT

PittMedicine said:

I was looking at Columbia and noticed it has a high interview rate, but only because not too many people apply in the first place (I'm out of state).

With that said, will I have a chance at an interview with a 7VR, 12PS, 11BS, 4.0 GPA, research, and good extracurr. activities?

Also, will I have a better chance at Columbia or Rochester?

Am I just fooling myself at both of these top tier schools?

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Unless english is not your native language, the 7 in verbal might be a hurdle to getting interviews at the top places (notwithstanding the solid overall MCAT score). Obviously rochester is less competitive than columbia.

haha, your posts are funny. I could have sworn I read the same thing for GW and UPitt.

I think you are competitive. You should apply and see. Admissions is such a crap shoot. No one will be able to give you an exact answer to your question.

PittMedicine said:

I was looking at Columbia and noticed it has a high interview rate, but only because not too many people apply in the first place (I'm out of state).

With that said, will I have a chance at an interview with a 7VR, 12PS, 11BS, 4.0 GPA, research, and good extracurr. activities?

Also, will I have a better chance at Columbia or Rochester?

Am I just fooling myself at both of these top tier schools?

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LOL, you're scared? you should be in my shoes.

my mcat is way lower than yours. plus, i took the mcat 3 times... 3 consecutive times!!!!

i applied to both columbia AND rochester...

but no rejection letter yet....

but no interview invite either....

honestly, i go to school LITERALLY right next to Pitt school of medicine.

i've done a lot of their programs, met a lot of their students,and have met with the dean.

pitt is very numbers oriented. in case ur wondering...

PittMedicine said:

Everyone applies to :
1) backup schools (DO or lower tier MD)
2) middle of the road (where they would like to go)
3) getting higher
4) TOP TIER - BIG GUNS (one can only hope/dream)

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No, not everyone.

PittMedicine said:

would a connection help for an interview?

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what kind of connection?

i doubt its as good as the connectinos the students at my school get..

PittMedicine said:

I was looking at Columbia and noticed it has a high interview rate, but only because not too many people apply in the first place (I'm out of state).

With that said, will I have a chance at an interview with a 7VR, 12PS, 11BS, 4.0 GPA, research, and good extracurr. activities?

Also, will I have a better chance at Columbia or Rochester?

Am I just fooling myself at both of these top tier schools?

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In order to get an interview invite from Columbia the square root of your gpa times 20, added to your MCAT score, divided by the number of C's you have, times the ratio of A's to B's you have needs to be greater than or equal to your age. You don't have any C's, so I guess you're undefined.

It's impossible to know. Your verbal score is going to hurt you very bad. If english is your second language and that 4.0 is from MIT, there's a decent chance.

PittMedicine said:

My institution is a regular one, nothing special.

I am minoring in ENGLIT to make up for my weakeness.

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Are you a junior? Maybe you should retake the MCATs or prove yourself in the lab. A publication will probably score you some points at a research institution such as columbia or u.pitt.

PittMedicine said:

I am doing research in organic chemistry at my undergraduate institution. I'm hoping to break "new chemistry" grounds and maybe publish.

Will this help my chances significantly if I published? Is publishing necessary after research always?

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I think. It would be embarrassing to do "research" for four years without a publication.

Will Ferrell said:

I think. It would be embarrassing to do "research" for four years without a publication.

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That's not necessarily true. Some labs are not as geared towards publishing as others. I know of a few labs that are all about having the Ugrad learn to be a scientist and thus have the ugrad come up with a very original project and all of the protocols and experimental aims on his/her own. This can make it very hard to get publishable material over even 4 years. However, as long as you have something to show for your work (ie an honors thesis or some awesome letters of rec from your PI), I think this is fine.

On the other hand, in some labs, you can get your name on a paper in a month or two just by helping out a grad student or a post-doc. It's not all about publishing.

Honestly I think you might have a hard time getting in given the MCAT. I highly recommend you retake the MCAT and leverage what you have learned in your minor toward improving your verbal score. Prove that you have a good command over verbal reasoning. The MCAT doesn't test how well you understand english; it tests how well you can make logical conclusions about arguments and inferences. All the best of luck to you in your admissions season.

PhotoMD said:

Honestly I think you might have a hard time getting in given the MCAT. I highly recommend you retake the MCAT and leverage what you have learned in your minor toward improving your verbal score. Prove that you have a good command over verbal reasoning. The MCAT doesn't test how well you understand english; it tests how well you can make logical conclusions about arguments and inferences. All the best of luck to you in your admissions season.

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Totally True! I am currently applying and really wanted to go to Columbia. I actually had my eyes set on it in my 2nd year. Wierd, one of those quirky things, I like the name! Anyways, the first time around I got a 7 on my verbal, but the second time around I read around 30 oxford classics, and got a 10. It was worth it because I am interviewing there in two weeks!!!!