**The Official Columbia University Class of 2017 Interview/Acceptance Thread**

NYers: ~35 accepted / ~80 interviewed.
OOS: ~120/ ~220.

Interview too! So I heard Columbia reviews interviewed applicants once each week, would it be advantageous to get the earliest interview date pre-dec 1st? Or does that not matter?

klee0891 said:

Prob doesnt matter. If you fit the type of applicant they like then they will make room for you...it's not like they will say "oh too bad we can't accept him even though he would be perfect here" just because you interviewed later. If you are good enough and fit their personality then you will get accepted. There isnt much luck or random chance involved at this point after getting an interview.

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Yeah true, anyway I'm so stoked to visit and interview at Columbia!

Does anyone have any advice as far as where to fly in to, where to stay, how much time it takes to get from airports/hotels/to the school, how much to expect to pay for taxis etc? I have never been anywhere near NYC and I am unsure of the logistics of this trip. If you read reviews of hotels and stuff near the school they all sound like bad places to stay.

sacapuntas said:

Does anyone have any advice as far as where to fly in to, where to stay, how much time it takes to get from airports/hotels/to the school, how much to expect to pay for taxis etc? I have never been anywhere near NYC and I am unsure of the logistics of this trip. If you read reviews of hotels and stuff near the school they all sound like bad places to stay.

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You can fly into 3 airports:

LaGuardia: Bad if you want to take cheap public transportation, because there really isn't much. A taxi straight from LGA to CUMC or midtown is not that bad though.

JFK: Expensive taxi to anywhere because it is far. Cheap public transportation though. You can take the AirTrain (might be $5) from the JFK to the subway ($2.25 per 1 way trip). That station is for the A train, which is great for getting to midtown and CUMC (it's express much of the trip).

Newark: You can take a taxi to midtown or CUMC, but it can cost a lot depending on the day and time (lots of surcharges). Public transportation is not bad though. Take the AirTrain (free) to the rail station and take the train to Penn St. NY ($12.5 per 1 way). You can then walk to your hotel if it's nearby or taxi. The A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 are nearby and can be taken to a hotel if that works out. A, C, 1 go to CUMC.

There's a hostel relatively close to CUMC/Washington Heights. It's not bad from what I've heard. Otherwise, you'll probably have to stay south of Central Park. There are lots of hotels near Times Square

pmanning19 said:

There's a hostel relatively close to CUMC/Washington Heights. It's not bad from what I've heard. Otherwise, you'll probably have to stay south of Central Park. There are lots of hotels near Times Square

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Went to a conference at Columbia last year. Stayed near the Morningside Heights campus (undergraduate campus) but the conference was at the Mailman School of Public Health (CUMC Campus). You may find something closer, but I had a pretty good experience at Broadway Hotel & Hostel.

It was a quick subway ride on the 1.

It was clean, reasonably priced, and located near some good bars/restaurants.

Thank you guys for the help. For the hostel, do you just show up and see if there is room or is there a reservation procedure?

sacapuntas said:

Thank you guys for the help. For the hostel, do you just show up and see if there is room or is there a reservation procedure?

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Called ahead and made reservations. You want to make sure ahead of time that there is an available room.

scsc7211 said:

I second that, thanks a lot for taking the time to share with us.

Out of curiosity, how many other people were in your hostel room with you? Did you have a secured place to store your suit and belongings?

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Shared a room with one other guy. There was a locker to keep stuff secure and I had a lock on my bag.

Interview on Oct. 12th!

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Interview on Oct. 26th! App was mailed out in the 8th batch.

@Ahcho I mailed my app on 6/22 and was invited for interview on 8/9.

also have an interview oct 26th!

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Greenvneck said:

my Status Defined says "test1" for Columbia, anyone know what that means?

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I had that initially, think it might just be a generic code not specifying anything. Mine has recently changed to invited to interview as I was a couple of weeks ago.

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HOT SAUCE!! Interview for 11/9!! AHHHHHHHH
7th batch
Florida

What can we expect during the interview? Is there any supplemental?

Can you guys give me some advice on ECs? Columbia is my dream school. I want to do anything possible to maximize my chances at Columbia.

You mentioned personality. What exactly is Columbia's personality? What do they look for?

Any tips would be much appreciated guys. Feel free to PM me

Yeah. To get into Columbia you need to build orphanages in Africa and cure AIDS. Columbia only looks for predents interested in OMFS. Make sure to convey that to them that you are only interested in OMFS.

Parklife said:

What exactly is Columbia's personality?

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One of the few reasons that I can think of as to why someone would ask this question is if he/she intended to mold his/her personality to match that of Columbia's. How hollow must someone's life be to want to do this?

Stacker said:

The only reason I can think of as to why someone would ask this question is if he/she intended to mold his/her personality to match that of Columbia's. How hollow must someone's life be to want to do this?

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+1

Stacker said:

One of the few reasons that I can think of as to why someone would ask this question is if he/she intended to mold his/her personality to match that of Columbia's. How hollow must someone's life be to want to do this?

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The individual could be a money-grubbing scrub. Essentially the pre-health equivalent of Mitt Romney.

Stacker said:

One of the few reasons that I can think of as to why someone would ask this question is if he/she intended to mold his/her personality to match that of Columbia's. How hollow must someone's life be to want to do this?

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Oh please. Putting on a guise for a 20 minute interview to help your chances if you otherwise wouldn't make the cut is far from the worst thing anyone has done to get into dental school. What's hollow is the fact that there are dentists out there overcharging for unnecessary procedures because all they care about is their own paychecks. You think they expressed those plans during their interviews?

wcombs said:

Oh please. Putting on a guise for a 20 minute interview to help your chances if you otherwise wouldn't make the cut is far from the worst thing anyone has done to get into dental school. What's hollow is the fact that there are dentists out there overcharging for unnecessary procedures because all they care about is their own paychecks. You think they expressed those plans during their interviews?

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i agree with u wcombs, but i think people have a problem with parklife's belief that he can just make negative, disparaging comments towards anyone who disagrees with him..look at his post history and you will see what i mean

Stacker said:

One of the few reasons that I can think of as to why someone would ask this question is if he/she intended to mold his/her personality to match that of Columbia's. How hollow must someone's life be to want to do this?

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It's called playing the admission game; people have been doing it for years.

My status defined changed from test 1 to application received and now is under review. Has anyone else had this change?

Same here, interesting, does it mean anything?

My school decisions page was still in Test1 when I received an interview from Columbia. They communicate via email so that's the source to keep a tab on.

Mine says, "Application has been received and will be reviewed."

I hope it's not rejected.

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I applied near end of June with High DAT, gpa and good extracurricular, have interviewed at upenn already but haven't heard from Columbia. Any idea how that could be?

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scsc7211 said:

Does anybody have stats/an educated guess regarding the percantage of interviewees that receive acceptances to Columbia? The data is not listed in Doc's spreadsheet or any threads I found using the search.

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I got the ADEA official guide. in state they interview 78 and accept 33.
OOS they interview 222 and accept 124
overall estimate: interview 318, accept 80

jpark1800 said:

Yeah. To get into Columbia you need to build orphanages in Africa and cure AIDS. Columbia only looks for predents interested in OMFS. Make sure to convey that to them that you are only interested in OMFS.

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^^^ this couldn't be any more wrong/incorrect.

colombianDDS said:

^^^ this couldn't be any more wrong/incorrect.

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Pretty sure he was just making a joke.

Any updates on interview invites? Does anyone know if pre-Dec interview has been filled?

If I leave plenty of time, like an hour and a half before the interview day begins, is that enough time to get to the school in a taxi from times square? I was looking at the subway too talking the 1 or A, but just want to be safe in case of delays, etc.

duke2121 said:

If I leave plenty of time, like an hour and a half before the interview day begins, is that enough time to get to the school in a taxi from times square? I was looking at the subway too talking the 1 or A, but just want to be safe in case of delays, etc.

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It's only about half an hour taking the A from Time Square to the school. Subway runs every 10 min I believe so it's perfectly fine!

What can we expect during the interview? Is there any supplemental?

My AADSAS got sent out and was received on 9/14 but haven't heard anything from them since the one that said they've received it...

for those who's been contacted by the schools for interviews or anything, how long did it take to hear from them?

27days---application completed and all components received 8/03/2012... interview invite 8/30/2012

hpark10 said:

My AADSAS got sent out and was received on 9/14 but haven't heard anything from them since the one that said they've received it...

for those who's been contacted by the schools for interviews or anything, how long did it take to hear from them?

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Columbia sends out interviews in waves. Look in last year's interviews thread and you can see that they send 2 rounds of interviews about every month.

My invite came at least 5-6 weeks after my application was submitted. At this point, I don't think they have any more pre-Dec interviews left.

sirrenda said:

What can we expect during the interview? Is there any supplemental?

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You can expect an excellent interview experience and one of the best lunches at an interview. No supplemental.

Zbtb7 said:

Columbia sends out interviews in waves. Look in last year's interviews thread and you can see that they send a round of interviews about every month.

My invite came at least 5-6 weeks after my application was submitted. At this point, I don't think they have any more pre-Dec interviews left.

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Hey how do you know there are no more pre-december interviews?