2012-2013 Columbia University Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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accmd said:
Same here. Especially if you read it on your iphone and all you see is that part of the subject and that its from P&S. So cruel....
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Wonder if the admissions office gets a kick out of trolling us... 😛
 
accmd said:
Same here. Especially if you read it on your iphone and all you see is that part of the subject and that its from P&S. So cruel....
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haha so true....so did anyone figure out if this si something they send to everyone?
 
NCPremed said:
TROLL SUCCESSFUL! 🙁 For about 10 seconds, I fully believed I had been invited to interview at Columbia...
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anyone scheduled to interview the 3rd? Only one week!!!
Will report back since Columbia is my top choice.
 
Argh. I got trolled. My heart won't stop racing now.
 
OMG, just got the invitation too!





Invitation to apply to Bassett 🙁
 
Everyone, apply to the Bassett program in spite!

Kidding.
 
carramrod06 said:
thank you guys. sdn win here. checked sdn first. didnt get trolled.
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That's what we're here for dude!

success_baby.jpg
 
mirimonster said:
That was so mean! I was already planning how to tell my parents before I read the rest of the subject line.
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hahaha same! I was thinking about whether to call my mom or dad first. so many thoughts in that split second
 
Hahah PreMedOrDead...i want to be your friend 🙂
 
Hi Everyone. This is my first post on SDN.
I totally felt the same way when I got the Columbia-Bassett email. That was cruel. Considering that it only has 10 seats per year why would they send it to everyone? Just wondering...
 
CoogiBear said:
Hi Everyone. This is my first post on SDN.
I totally felt the same way when I got the Columbia-Bassett email. That was cruel. Considering that it only has 10 seats per year why would they send it to everyone? Just wondering...
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So that they can tell people that it's such a competitive program, that they only take 10 people out of 1,000 applications.
 
CoogiBear said:
Anybody actually applying to Bassett program? haha
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Haha, for a moment I almost started doing it. But then I realized how burned out I am on secondaries, and that I didn't want to spend hours working on the application for a what, 1% chance of getting into this program?
 
NCPremed said:
Haha, for a moment I almost started doing it. But then I realized how burned out I am on secondaries, and that I didn't want to spend hours working on the application for a what, 1% chance of getting into this program?
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Same here. I am so tired of secondaries at this point. I still have 2 more to finish :/
 
I guessed I missed out the the heart-skip, got the actual II, then invite to Basset...surprised they're still pushing it
 
DrMario13 said:
I guessed I missed out the the heart-skip, got the actual II, then invite to Basset...surprised they're still pushing it
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Nice. I somehow knew something was off when I saw the Basset email; I never had my heart-skip either, but no interview invite.
 
I am interviewing here soon, and just to clarify, is there anything we need to do before the interview other than fill out the lunch survey?

do they tell us whether we have a morning or afternoon interview when we get there?

and where do we start the day? at the admissions office on 630 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032 at 8am?

I am not sure whether other people received a reminder email with this info, but I do not seem to have a lot of info regarding my interview! 😕
 
Irish Football said:
The program can't be THAT good if they're reminding people to apply like this.
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or maybe since it's a relatively new opportunity they want to make sure anyone who might be interested in it doesn't find out belatedly. just a thought.
 
med144 said:
I am interviewing here soon, and just to clarify, is there anything we need to do before the interview other than fill out the lunch survey?

do they tell us whether we have a morning or afternoon interview when we get there?

and where do we start the day? at the admissions office on 630 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032 at 8am?

I am not sure whether other people received a reminder email with this info, but I do not seem to have a lot of info regarding my interview! 😕
Click to expand...
No, yes but you could confirm if important, yes any time between 8-9am I believe.
 
I was just looking at the sheet we got at the end of the interview. It says "If you send a thank you directly to your interviewer, we request that you submit a copy through the online application system."

That's a little weird, but OK. I don't see anything on the online application system for submitting copies of thank you notes, though! Does anyone know how we're supposed to do that?
 
For those of you who sent in the area emails, did you send it to their email address directly or go through the online communications page? I sent an email to their email address and got an automated reply saying current applicants should send in questions through the website, but the only place I can see to send messages is through the application update page.
 
I am deciding whether to send an in-area letter.
Are they receptive to it? And has anyone this year had success
Receiving an interview?.
 
icecold101 said:
I am deciding whether to send an in-area letter.
Are they receptive to it? And has anyone this year had success
Receiving an interview?.
Click to expand...
.

I'm pretty sure it worked for someone already this year. The applicant posted it in this thread if you want to look for who it was.
 
Hello,
I just applied to Columbia and am having trouble answering the following essay:

What challenges do you expect to arise from living and working in a complex urban environment? How will you meet them? 300 words.

What are they looking for in this essay? I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, and now live in Spokane, WA. I have never experienced living/working in a big city like New York... I thought about writing that the culture and lifestyle of a place like New York will be much different than what I am acclimated too.... Does this sound like a good idea?? Any feedback or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
so I know that columbia interviews ~1000 and the class size is about ~160, but how many of the 1000 are accepted?
 
For those of you who got a recent invite: is the earliest interview date in January already?!! I'm not sure if all the December dates got filled up in the past two days, or if there's just a glitch in the system...

Thanks!!
 
Um. I just checked my page, and it doesn't say anything about an interview. That little lock thing is gone.
PZbl6.png


Am I rejected?
 
I was wondering if any current students could talk about the financial aid at Columbia? I have an II there soon. I love Columbia and NYC but am worried about the cost (almost 80,000 a year!! O_O) and the financial aid (my family qualifies for the AMCAS fee assistance program).

For low-income students, does Columbia provide significant financial aid (numbers would be nice!)?
 
minwoo123 said:
I was wondering if any current students could talk about the financial aid at Columbia? I have an II there soon. I love Columbia and NYC but am worried about the cost (almost 80,000 a year!! O_O) and the financial aid (my family qualifies for the AMCAS fee assistance program).

For low-income students, does Columbia provide significant financial aid (numbers would be nice!)?
Click to expand...

Yes, they have excellent need based aid. Fraid I don't have numbers, and if I did they would only be averages.
 
minwoo123 said:
I was wondering if any current students could talk about the financial aid at Columbia? I have an II there soon. I love Columbia and NYC but am worried about the cost (almost 80,000 a year!! O_O) and the financial aid (my family qualifies for the AMCAS fee assistance program).

For low-income students, does Columbia provide significant financial aid (numbers would be nice!)?
Click to expand...

Not a current student but during the financial aid talk, they told us that once you're accepted they can take a look at your family's assets and give you a very good estimate of what you'd get. Apparently it's very competitive.
 
Well, if you look at the average indebtedness, it's super low compared to other schools. I believe that it is lower than the SUNY schools that have half the tuition: approx. $125000. Therefore, they have to give out great packages. I know that the admissions is need-blind, so it's not like they admit a bunch of people that come from money in order to keep the indebtedness down but rather they give out good packages; which makes sense when you look at their endowment--> They have plenty of money to give out...
 
Sorry for the late reply - I was traveling today.

The Columbia day starts earlier than many places I interviewed, and there's a considerable chance your interview might not be till the afternoon. They weirdly don't tell you ahead of time. Columbia has only 1 interview, which I found a little unusual. So you might arrive by 8 am and have nothing to do until 11:30, when the dean comes in and talks to you, if you have an afternoon interview. Kind of stinks, but most of the ~12 people interviewing on my day were morning interviews.

The university is amazing. The hospital facilites, the education building, the bustle of the area... loved it. The students all seemed very relaxed; one of my top criteria for a school is "students that look and talk like normal people." They all spoke highly of Columbia even when they were away from the office and didn't have to.

I had a morning interview, and I have to say I did not come away with the greatest impression. I don't know if that was me not connecting well or just a bad fit, but I felt like I never really got to anything meaningful during my 45-minute or so interview. The interviewer, a retired faculty member, knew my application and had jotted down some notes, but they were mostly superficial. After that kind of interview, I really don't expect to get admitted, to be honest.

The downsides, as I saw them, were the first-year dorm - it's kind of a hazing process, living in a run-down dormitory before you get to move to really nice digs second year and beyond - and the distance from Manhattan. I suppose the distance could be a double-edged sword, and the A train runs an express right to downtown, but I feel like I'd suffer from occasional NYC envy being stuck up in Washington Heights.

By far, the highlight of my interview day was the 35 minutes or so before lunch that the admissions dean, Dean Nicholas, spent with us. He pulled up a chair, we sat in a circle, and he just made all of us feel so at ease. We went around the circle and each of us introduced ourselves. He asked us to talk about some things that we did to relax - as he put it, "how we find our bliss." What was most impressive was that he had a detailed, hand-written chart with each applicant on it, and followed up everything each person said with a personal detail. For example, one person mentioned his love for classical music and the dean remarked about the difference between two classical composers. I'm a classical music *****, but it sounded pretty knowledgeable to me!

That was just such a nice touch to me. It made me feel like the people making the call on whether or not to admit me actually took the time to go through my application and knew me.

Columbia is certainly a top choice for me, bad interview notwithstanding. Sucks to have to wait till March!
 
stevecoral155 said:
Sorry for the late reply - I was traveling today.

The Columbia day starts earlier than many places I interviewed, and there's a considerable chance your interview might not be till the afternoon. They weirdly don't tell you ahead of time. Columbia has only 1 interview, which I found a little unusual. So you might arrive by 8 am and have nothing to do until 11:30, when the dean comes in and talks to you, if you have an afternoon interview. Kind of stinks, but most of the ~12 people interviewing on my day were morning interviews.

The university is amazing. The hospital facilites, the education building, the bustle of the area... loved it. The students all seemed very relaxed; one of my top criteria for a school is "students that look and talk like normal people." They all spoke highly of Columbia even when they were away from the office and didn't have to.

I had a morning interview, and I have to say I did not come away with the greatest impression. I don't know if that was me not connecting well or just a bad fit, but I felt like I never really got to anything meaningful during my 45-minute or so interview. The interviewer, a retired faculty member, knew my application and had jotted down some notes, but they were mostly superficial. After that kind of interview, I really don't expect to get admitted, to be honest.

The downsides, as I saw them, were the first-year dorm - it's kind of a hazing process, living in a run-down dormitory before you get to move to really nice digs second year and beyond - and the distance from Manhattan. I suppose the distance could be a double-edged sword, and the A train runs an express right to downtown, but I feel like I'd suffer from occasional NYC envy being stuck up in Washington Heights.

By far, the highlight of my interview day was the 35 minutes or so before lunch that the admissions dean, Dean Nicholas, spent with us. He pulled up a chair, we sat in a circle, and he just made all of us feel so at ease. We went around the circle and each of us introduced ourselves. He asked us to talk about some things that we did to relax - as he put it, "how we find our bliss." What was most impressive was that he had a detailed, hand-written chart with each applicant on it, and followed up everything each person said with a personal detail. For example, one person mentioned his love for classical music and the dean remarked about the difference between two classical composers. I'm a classical music *****, but it sounded pretty knowledgeable to me!

That was just such a nice touch to me. It made me feel like the people making the call on whether or not to admit me actually took the time to go through my application and knew me.

Columbia is certainly a top choice for me, bad interview notwithstanding. Sucks to have to wait till March!
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, you were on the island of Manhattan. I guess you meant that you wish you were closer to, what we call, the "city", which is basically the southern part of Manhattan. NYC is all the boroughs and Columbia, in Washington Heights, is really in a prime location; NYC envy doesn't make sense since you will be in NYC. Nice write up though.👍
 
Columbia is on 168th and Broadway.
 
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