2008-2009 Columbia College of P&S Secondary Application Thread

[copingmethods]

I'm almost ready to add myself to the list! One more revision of the "big" essay!

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[seven87]

When you add yourself to the list, add yourself chronologically by submit date. It'll make it easier to read once we get dozens more people.

Sorry!

 

[seven87]

Secondaries

seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[shemarty]

Sorry!

No worries

 

[ar2388]

crap! so now that i know they wanted me to say that i have ponly completed 3 years and i put down 4, what do i do? should i email? arghhhhh

 

[ar2388]

Secondaries

seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[vadd0]

I've finished the application, but I am going to wait until Tuesday.

 

[ar2388]

hey, my passport photo is 2 by 2in but it does not fit into the space provided. my photo is too short and a teeny bit wider.. am i freaking out for nothing? ugh! i just really wanna go to columbia

 

[rowerlauren]

hey, my passport photo is 2 by 2in but it does not fit into the space provided. my photo is too short and a teeny bit wider.. am i freaking out for nothing? ugh! i just really wanna go to columbia

Yeah, I had to cut off the bottom of my photo for Hopkins. I just wish everywhere took photos online like Wash U does, it would make life so much easier.

 

[AspirinPlease]

Hey guys,

Quick Q, for Columbia's secondary for GPA on the first page, is it your AMCAS total and AMCAS BCPM or can you give them your school's GPA and school's science GPA?

Does science exclude math in this case?

Thanks!

 

[rowerlauren]

Well since they will only see AMCAS and not your school transcript directly (until they accept you) you need to put what AMCAS calculated. And science should include Math. Just do it the same way AMCAS does it.

Also AsprinPlease your name makes me sad... they think I have an NSAID allergy and are trying to talk me out of taking them. Oh how I miss Advil.

 

[ar2388]

Hey guys,

Quick Q, for Columbia's secondary for GPA on the first page, is it your AMCAS total and AMCAS BCPM or can you give them your school's GPA and school's science GPA?

Does science exclude math in this case?

Thanks!

it is your amcas overall and science gpas.my amcas isnt verified so i had to recalculate bc i had one A+ which is a 4.3 in my school.

 

[bozz]

Oh man, this is probably the most confusing secondary

1) Are you including any pubs in the collegiate honors/awards section?

2) I worked during the summer but I am confused about the :

About how many hours per week, if any, did you spend in work for which you were recompensed during the college year?

Do I include summer employment here (b/c it says college year)

But the next question says:

What sort of work did you do (include summer employment)? (1100)

I'm confused

 

[Druzie]

Going back to the "Years of coursework completed" question...

I'm a non-traditional applicant. After college I spent a year studying abroad; the credits weren't transferred to an American school, so AMCAS didn't require or verify the transcript. For that reason I counted completed years of coursework as undergrad+postbacc (not including coursework abroad).

Does this make sense?
Would appreciate feedback.

 

[ChemGrad08]

Oh man, this is probably the most confusing secondary

1) Are you including any pubs in the collegiate honors/awards section?

2) I worked during the summer but I am confused about the :

About how many hours per week, if any, did you spend in work for which you were recompensed during the college year?

Do I include summer employment here (b/c it says college year)

But the next question says:

What sort of work did you do (include summer employment)? (1100)

I'm confused

1. I didn't mostly because a pub doesn't really seem like an award.

2. For hrs/wk I just listed school year hrs (number of hours I worked and took classes) and then when they asked to include summer employment I listed what I did over the summers.

 

[bozz]

Will they still look at our Primary activities list... since I'm leaving a lot of stuff out in the secondary

 

[ar2388]

sorry to reask, but a passport sized photo that does not exactly fit that little box is ok?

 

[Myuu]

sorry to reask, but a passport sized photo that does not exactly fit that little box is ok?

I believe the consensus was "cut to fit."

 

[ar2388]

I believe the consensus was "cut to fit."

its not "tall" enough.. it doesnt fit north to south..

 

[oneandonlylo]

For the extracurriculars, does this include our volunteering/shadowing? There is nowhere else to list this information that I see.

 

[Myuu]

its not "tall" enough.. it doesnt fit north to south..

Is it a huge gap? Otherwise, I'd go with it. Or! You could scan it at high resolution and print to fit.

 

[Druzie]

I'm not really sure what would be best, but I like symmetry, so if you can trim the sides so that it at least looks centered... but that might be difficult. Otherwise I like Myuu-chan's idea (scan in hi-res, print to fit).

I see that everyone who submitted has their MCAT scores already. I'm still waiting for mine, but I'd rather not wait two more weeks to submit my secondary. Should I submit without MCAT scores?

 

[ChemGrad08]

I'm not really sure what would be best, but I like symmetry, so if you can trim the sides so that it at least looks centered... but that might be difficult. Otherwise I like Myuu-chan's idea (scan in hi-res, print to fit).

I see that everyone who submitted has their MCAT scores already. I'm still waiting for mine, but I'd rather not wait two more weeks to submit my secondary. Should I submit without MCAT scores?

I'm waiting out of concern that I bombed the thing I don't want to have wasted that much money, but that's just me.

 

[ar2388]

I'm not really sure what would be best, but I like symmetry, so if you can trim the sides so that it at least looks centered... but that might be difficult. Otherwise I like Myuu-chan's idea (scan in hi-res, print to fit).

I see that everyone who submitted has their MCAT scores already. I'm still waiting for mine, but I'd rather not wait two more weeks to submit my secondary. Should I submit without MCAT scores?

my photo is perfectly symmetric. its exactly 2 in by 2in with rounded corners and looks nice... the box they gave us is stupid! its not for a passport sized phhoto at all!!

 

[Druzie]

I'm waiting out of concern that I bombed the thing I don't want to have wasted that much money, but that's just me.

They won't receive it anyway through AMCAS? I guess I don't quite understand how it works, but I thought if you put a future test date on AMCAS, they will automatically report scores from that test to the schools on your list.... ?

p.s. I also thought the June 13th test was surprisingly different from the practice tests. I feel your pain.

 

[sss403]

Secondaries

sss403: Submitted 6/15, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[ar2388]

alright, so i went a little crazy with my photo dilemma.. i just measured the rectangle on paper and resized a photo to that, bought photo paper, and printed it out on my boyfriends freaking awesome printer. im happy now. i can finally send the photo out tomorrow

 

[Myuu]

alright, so i went a little crazy with my photo dilemma.. i just measured the rectangle on paper and resized a photo to that, bought photo paper, and printed it out on my boyfriends freaking awesome printer. im happy now. i can finally send the photo out tomorrow

Congratulations!

 

[ChemGrad08]

They won't receive it anyway through AMCAS? I guess I don't quite understand how it works, but I thought if you put a future test date on AMCAS, they will automatically report scores from that test to the schools on your list.... ?

p.s. I also thought the June 13th test was surprisingly different from the practice tests. I feel your pain.

I just didn't want to pay the secondary fee without knowing that I had some chance of success, yeah they've presumably already seen my app without the MCAT scores.

 

[Druzie]

alright, so i went a little crazy with my photo dilemma.. i just measured the rectangle on paper and resized a photo to that, bought photo paper, and printed it out on my boyfriends freaking awesome printer. im happy now. i can finally send the photo out tomorrow

Boyfriend with perks. Nice. Congrats.

 

[Druzie]

I just didn't want to pay the secondary fee without knowing that I had some chance of success, yeah they've presumably already seen my app without the MCAT scores.

Hmm, yeah I see your point...

I emailed admissions and will report back here if I get a response... in case anyone else is in a similar situation.

 

[mdmarty]

For the 'What extracurricular activities did you engage?' question, should we just briefly list the names of the experiences without the dates or should we include the dates? It says to separate by commas, but once you start including dates or approx. time spans it gets really ugly...

 

[204090]

How are you guys formatting the title/position/department in the recommendations section? Do you just put, for example, PhD/Biology professor?

 

[bozz]

Does anyone feel like they're not even going to look at your AMCAS... mine had so much more stuff on it.

 

[copingmethods]

Secondaries

sss403: Submitted 6/15, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
copingmethods: Submitted: 6/29, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[ButImLETired]

Does anyone feel like they're not even going to look at your AMCAS... mine had so much more stuff on it.

Yeah, actually, I've been wondering about this as well. My AMCAS was really very complete and I'm not sure whether they'll even read my PS. I really dont think the "big essay" covers the same topics that the PS did...does anyone have an opinion on the matter?

 

[ButImLETired]

Hey,

so I continue to be confused by this whole employment etc debacle.

The first question is : How many hours a week during the school year etc etc.
- The consensus is that this refers to hours when we were taking classes AND working, right? Not summer employment?

Second question: What sort of work did you do (includes summer employment)
- So here we discuss the KIND of work we did both during the school year and summer, right? (like, T.A. from 2005-2007, summer 2006: MCAT teacher blah blah blah).
- Does this include non-recompensed work such as shadowing or a job as a research assistant?

Third question: Extracurriculars
- So this seems rather self-explanatory, but I guess my question depends on the answer to the previous question (is that confusing? Probably. Sorry.) If we volunteered/shadowed/did research for which we weren't paid, does is count as an "extracurricular" if it doesn't count as "sort of work we did"?
Or are those non-recompensed work things simply NOT in the application at all? I realize that they have the AMCAS, but since they're making us re-enter pretty much everything, you'd think they'd also want that information...and I have mostly volunteer type stuff on my application, far more so than paid work.

Thoughts?

 

[bozz]

Hey,

so I continue to be confused by this whole employment etc debacle.

The first question is : How many hours a week during the school year etc etc.
- The consensus is that this refers to hours when we were taking classes AND working, right? Not summer employment?

Second question: What sort of work did you do (includes summer employment)
- So here we discuss the KIND of work we did both during the school year and summer, right? (like, T.A. from 2005-2007, summer 2006: MCAT teacher blah blah blah).
- Does this include non-recompensed work such as shadowing or a job as a research assistant?

Third question: Extracurriculars
- So this seems rather self-explanatory, but I guess my question depends on the answer to the previous question (is that confusing? Probably. Sorry.) If we volunteered/shadowed/did research for which we weren't paid, does is count as an "extracurricular" if it doesn't count as "sort of work we did"?
Or are those non-recompensed work things simply NOT in the application at all? I realize that they have the AMCAS, but since they're making us re-enter pretty much everything, you'd think they'd also want that information...and I have mostly volunteer type stuff on my application, far more so than paid work.

Thoughts?

Makes no sense how the first question excludes summer employment

and the second question says: Explain your work (include summer employment) lol what

 

[bozz]

Lol I just noticed that most people here are girls... no guys applying to Columbia?

It'd be amazing if I got an interview here... #1 dream school. Also, my girlfriend of many many years is there right now, and it'd be awesome if I got in :/

 

[copingmethods]

Lol I just noticed that most people here are girls... no guys applying to Columbia?

It'd be amazing if I got an interview here... #1 dream school. Also, my girlfriend of many many years is there right now, and it'd be awesome if I got in :/

I'm a guy too!

 

[chad5871]

I'm a guy too!

Me too.

 

[Druzie]

Hmm, yeah I see your point...

I emailed admissions and will report back here if I get a response... in case anyone else is in a similar situation.

In case anyone was wondering, you can submit the secondary without MCAT scores. Heard from the admissions office earlier today.

I'm kind of glad this secondary is extensive. I feel like I left a lot off of my AMCAS, again because I'm a post-bacc and didn't know when to talk about undergrad and when to talk about what has happened since.

 

[Druzie]

Secondaries

sss403: Submitted 6/15, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
copingmethods: Submitted: 6/29, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Druzie: Submitted: 07/01, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[vadd0]

Secondaries

sss403: Submitted 6/15, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
copingmethods: Submitted: 6/29, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Vadd0: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[Isis24]

Secondaries

sss403: Submitted 6/15, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
seven87: Submitted 6/18, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Shemarty: Submitted: 6/19, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
ar2388: Submitted: 6/24, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Waterlilly: Submitted: 6/27, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
copingmethods: Submitted: 6/29, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Vadd0: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??
Isis24: Submitted: 7/2, Letters rec'd: ??, Complete: ??

 

[chad5871]

Wow, I better hurry up - you guys are leaving me in the dust! I'm going to work on it this weekend - this secondary seems like it's going to take a lot of work.

 

[rowerlauren]

Wow, I better hurry up - you guys are leaving me in the dust! I'm going to work on it this weekend - this secondary seems like it's going to take a lot of work.

Yeah me too! I have spent too much time pondering what is the right thing for the "big" essay. I should just write it and see how it turns out.

 

[dancermd07]

For the last question (education has been interrupted), this means taking time off after graduation and before med school, correct?

 

[iduwanna]

For the last question (education has been interrupted), this means taking time off after graduation and before med school, correct?

I think it means taking a semester or more off before graduation.

For the "If you have additional info... that does not fit into the application form..." do they mean the primary also or just the secondary? I explained some stuff in the primary that needed explaining -- should I explain it again here?

 

[happygirl]

so does "collegiate extracurricular activities" only mean organized activities that are affiliated/sponsored/part of a college institution? in which case volunteering/shadowing/personal hobbies would be included under "what work did you do?" (but that doesn't seem right....) Or are they being general and simply asking what extracurricular activities you did in college?