2012-2013 Columbia University Application Thread
Started by gettheleadout
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
- Status
Yes. all 8000+ applicants receive secondaries.
For in the area emails, did you email the office, or post it to the updates page on the secondary? I'm a little confused on which is right, given their response to my emailed ITA letter.
"If you are a current applicant, please note that all questions and updates should be submitted using the Application Update option under the Status menu in the P&S online application system."
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
Email them apparently is not the right choice, if that was their response.
are the interviews one-on-one and open file? thanks
Yes. One interview, open file, one-on-one, and extremely conversational. The best interview I've had this season. Columbia's a great place!
No, but I think mmmcdowe confirmed that they are not cutting the number of interviews this year on the previous page.
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
They are not.
Any disadvantage for interviewing later here? I know for some schools with non-rolling admissions, they still meet regularly throughout the cycle to decide on acceptances and there are some advantages to interviewing early. At other schools this isn't a factor.
when does columbia let you know whether you've been assigned a student host? is it a few days before the interview?
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
No disadvantage, they don't meet until the end of february.
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
I don't know, but I'd hope fairly early. I seem to hear a couple weeks prior if I am hosting. If you are a guy or a girl who doesn't mind staying with guys you are welcome to stay with us if hosting doesn't work out.
there's only one interview? with a faculty member or adcom?
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
All adcom members are faculty here. Yep, one interview.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
If the committee doesn't meet until febutary, does that mean no decision making on the part of committee or adcom member is made until then?
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
No admissions decisions, but I'm sure the adcom member will have made a decision after your interview. They act as your advocates.
?? What does this mean? How does Columbia go about choosing their students? For instance, just because the adcom member that interviewed you wants to advocate for you, does that mean that you will be in, or is there a more tedious process?
I hear that Harvard has all of these committees that get together every so often and then if selected it goes to another committee and then you have like a final one. I'm sure I explained this wrong, but I'm hoping you understand what I mean: it's a long process. Is it more direct in Columbia? Less committees and less votes?
if the adcom member already made their decision soon after your interview then sending a LOI or a update letter wouldn't be that helpful right?
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
No in fact I think it is very helpful. Just because they are your advocate doesn't mean that their opinion can't change, nor does it mean that other member's opinion doesn't matter.
No, there is a tedious discussion involved, but the purpose of interviews if to obtain a first hand opinion of you. That obviously is going to be heavily weighed in the decision, and thus can play a significant role. As far as I know it is just one large committee that goes student by student in the very end, but honestly I stay out of the admissions decisions and thus don't have any first hand experience.
LOI addressed to who and when would be an optimal time to send one?
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
Doesn't matter. You can send it to the general Adcom or Dr. Nicholas. It will get where it needs to go either way. For post-interview LOIs just send them prior to decisions are made, so maybe in January. It doesn't hurt to interview at your other options first so that you can truly be certain of your desire to come here.
Come March time frame, when I'm accepted, I'm buying you a drink!
any point in sending an loi pre interview? complete since mid august - no interview yet..
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
.
Last edited:
Did anyone have an interview today? The admissions office didn't send any emails out.
I was suppose to have my interview today, but after emailing admissions they said it was canceled. They didn't give any indication as to when they would contact us about rescheduling. My flight home was even canceled as well, so it looks like I'm going to be riding out the storm. I'm hoping I don't have to make another trip out here.
I was suppose to have my interview today, but after emailing admissions they said it was canceled. They didn't give any indication as to when they would contact us about rescheduling. My flight home was even canceled as well, so it looks like I'm going to be riding out the storm. I'm hoping I don't have to make another trip out here.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
United Airways cancelled my flight for monday and tuesday. The UA lady also said that wednesday has a travel advisory warning as well and that wednesday flights may be cancelled too. I had to reschedule both tuesday and wednesday interviews... im hoping to fly in on wednesday but the hurricane is moving slow.
My interview was supposed to be today. They emailed me yesterday saying that they would re-open tomorrow but thats looking less likely... Those of you who flew in and are now stuck, what are you doing to ride out the storm?
Remember that the University is closed tomorrow as well, so I wouldn't count on anyone interviewing tomorrow.
I hunkered down in Brooklyn. I checked Columbia's main page and it looks like they are assessing whether or not to stay closed through tomorrow too. Coming from California, I really hope I don't have to make another trip out here.
I'm going to email admissions and ask if they think they will be able to get us this week, especially the people who are already in New York. If they say probably not, I'm going to have to come back another time.
I'm going to email admissions and ask if they think they will be able to get us this week, especially the people who are already in New York. If they say probably not, I'm going to have to come back another time.
I think Bloomberg has announced that the transit system might be down for a few days. I think that might impact a lot of the decisions.
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
They may or may not. I believe they weren't interviewing anyone at the end of this week, so they potentially have the place to put you, but at the same time they may have had an inflexible reason why they couldn't interview those days.
I honestly don't know how they are going to make decisions come March. had my interview recently, and it was a very nice experience, the interviewer knew my application well so did not ask any questions at all, very conversational...so i guess decisions are going to be based more or less solely on the application
Yeah I've been wondering/thinking the same thing. My interview was also very conversational (or, more accurately, consisted mostly of my interviewer telling me all about the school and how awesome it is and me basically agreeing and throwing in the occasional question). I did hear that schools that do non rolling admissions tend to place less weight on the interview.
If these schools place less emphasis on the interview, why do they interview so many more people per spot than other schools? My state school interviews half the amount that Columbia does for the same number of seats.
My understanding is that it happens for several reasons. 1) Top tier schools with high stats paper applicants want to make sure that applicants have personality and good social skills 2) Top tier schools know that that top applicants are likely to get multiple acceptances, they want to A) sell you on their school and B) determine how likely you are to actually attend 3) Top tier schools tend to have real issues with yield and want to make sure they have enough applicants to wait list etc.
Disclaimer this is only in my understanding from various friends in medical school and my experiences
Yeah, interviewing 1000+ applicants is a little unnecessary for yield reasons, though. I'm sure they have better reasons, and as the student said, they put more weight on the interview at Columbia.
D
deleted127837
Brown somehow manages to pull it off, and they only interview 250~300 people. Mayo's interview number is pretty low too. Is Columbia just in that sweet crunch spot of rankings?
Brown takes a lot of students from its undergrad feeder program while Mayo has a very small class size. Columbia has a relatively large class size as well.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
D
deleted127837
Double-edged sword. Getting to NYC is expensive if I'm in that 2nd group of 500 people 😛
mmmcdowe
Duke of minimal vowels
Staff member
Administrator
Volunteer Staff
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
We do have a good reason:
This is the reason. Columbia prides itself on looking beyond numbers and trying to give students that normally would be screened out at peer institutions a chance to demonstrate excellence in other arenas. Interviews serve to confirm truthfulness of one's EC's, passions within and without of medicine, social skills, etc, etc. You'd be shocked how well a relaxed conversation can tease out these things. I understand why applicants may feel frustrated at the large number of interviews, but ultimately it is done with good intentions.
Besides, the grass is always greener. If we did interview 600 people would wish we interviewed more 😀.
D
deleted127837
Completely unrelated question, how does the subway in NYC work? I've been to Tokyo and Seoul before, with their IC cards you flash over readers when you get on the trains, but...
Just buy a ticket for each subway ride?
Just buy a ticket for each subway ride?
you buy a metro card you keep and you can load money on it. You swipe the card to enter the turnstiles in the subway
Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
- Status
