2013-2014 Columbia University Application Thread

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Can any current students comment on Columbia's focus on community service? Is medical service to Washington Heights, etc. heavily emphasized? What kind of programming is available and how frequently is it actually taken advantage of by students?

Washington Heights is certainly a prime place to be in terms of diversity of patients and conditions, but I am wondering how much Columbia emphasizes service to this community in practice.

Thank you!
 
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fhg said:
Can any current Columbia's focus on community service? Is medical service to Washington Heights, etc. heavily emphasized? What kind of programming is available and how frequently is it actually taken advantage of by students?

Washington Heights is certainly a prime place to be in terms of diversity of patients and conditions, but I am wondering how much Columbia emphasizes service to this community in practice.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

+1 great question.
 
fhg said:
Can any current students comment on Columbia's focus on community service? Is medical service to Washington Heights, etc. heavily emphasized? What kind of programming is available and how frequently is it actually taken advantage of by students?

Washington Heights is certainly a prime place to be in terms of diversity of patients and conditions, but I am wondering how much Columbia emphasizes service to this community in practice.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

We have student groups that run a free clinic and other service projects. Not sure exactly the number of students involved but the opportunity is absolutely there for you to pursue!! 👍
 
Does anyone have experience/insights about P&S and in-area emails? Also, which days are interviews conducted? THanks!
 
fhg said:
Can any current students comment on Columbia's focus on community service? Is medical service to Washington Heights, etc. heavily emphasized? What kind of programming is available and how frequently is it actually taken advantage of by students?

Washington Heights is certainly a prime place to be in terms of diversity of patients and conditions, but I am wondering how much Columbia emphasizes service to this community in practice.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

There are many official and unofficial avenues of community service, of which I am frankly not an expert. There are 2 major student run clinics, one pretty much right on campus serving washington heights, and another located in harlem. They are well staffed and are taken advantage of by any who wish to. Keep in mind many of us do not, as there are other competing interests for your time.

The real service to the local community is driven by the hospital itself, of which you will be an integral part in the clinical year and beyond. This is why IMO if you are serious about serving the underserved you should go to a medical school that sits right in a disadvantaged neighborhood. While the Columbia name will attract the rich and the famous (and make no mistake, we do), the majority of our patients are actually medicaid/medicare/uninsured patients from our neighborhood. I think an administrator told me our mix is about 60-70% public and 30-40% private, which is quite tilted towards the poor. It's an incredible experience, one I recommend, even if not at Columbia, to all those who are interested in "real" medicine.
 
kntsu said:
Does anyone have experience/insights about P&S and in-area emails? Also, which days are interviews conducted? THanks!
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all day err'day, if you are really in the area just let them know.
 
Thank you so much Dingo Mango and RogueUnicorn!
 
kntsu said:
Does anyone have experience/insights about P&S and in-area emails? Also, which days are interviews conducted? THanks!
Click to expand...

Interviews are conducted Monday through Thursday.

I sent an in the area email early August and received an interview invitation on the first day of IIs. I think I've read elsewhere they are fairly receptive to them.
 
Is there a lot of patient exposure during the first year? In a typical MS1 week how often would you interact with real and/or standardized patients?
 
WorfoSAUR said:
Interviews are conducted Monday through Thursday.

I sent an in the area email early August and received an interview invitation on the first day of IIs. I think I've read elsewhere they are fairly receptive to them.
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Good to know theyre receptive to in the area emails!
 
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This is a really general question, but when you guys say your application is "complete", did you get an email from Columbia saying that, or it just when you submitted the secondary/LoR's?
 
jusanothapremed said:
This is a really general question, but when you guys say your application is "complete", did you get an email from Columbia saying that, or it just when you submitted the secondary/LoR's?
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I got an email a day or two after my app/ LORs were received
 
Just to confirm, for those in the first batch of IIs, the latest dates available were the first week of October, right?
 
fhg said:
Just to confirm, for those in the first batch of IIs, the latest dates available were the first week of October, right?
Click to expand...

I can't see the available dates any longer, but the first day available was September 11th or 12th. Can't remember for sure.
 
Right now, the latest date is 10/7. But I just talked to someone in Admissions, and she said it's fine to sit on your II and watch the calendar until later dates open up!

I'm still trying to decide whether doing my 3 NY interviews back-to-back is a good/bad idea. I'm only a 4 hour bus ride from NYC, but the trip is still annoying. Any thoughts?
 
strugglebus said:
Right now, the latest date is 10/7. But I just talked to someone in Admissions, and she said it's fine to sit on your II and watch the calendar until later dates open up!

I'm still trying to decide whether doing my 3 NY interviews back-to-back is a good/bad idea. I'm only a 4 hour bus ride from NYC, but the trip is still annoying. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Super helpful, thank you!
 
Got II, latest date I see is Oct-2 (no others in October).

strugglebus said:
Right now, the latest date is 10/7. But I just talked to someone in Admissions, and she said it's fine to sit on your II and watch the calendar until later dates open up!

I'm still trying to decide whether doing my 3 NY interviews back-to-back is a good/bad idea. I'm only a 4 hour bus ride from NYC, but the trip is still annoying. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think this depends on your threshold and comfort with interviews. I tend to be pretty comfortable with them, and wouldn't mind doing them back to back to back if there was minimal travel involved. You can learn from things in each one and apply it to the next as well while it's still fresh.
 
Innocuous said:
Is there a lot of patient exposure during the first year? In a typical MS1 week how often would you interact with real and/or standardized patients?
Click to expand...

There is definitely patient exposure first year. We have "patient as professor" sessions where patients come and talk about their experiences in a large lecture setting and soon our first year clerkships will start up and we go out and follow various medical professionals about once a week. We will also start working with standardized patients this year not sure exactly when. We start learning history taking and other talking-to-patients skills in "Foundations of Clinical Medicine" and have a little exam practice interview thing by the end of first semester to get feedback on how we are doing with that. 🙂
 
Innocuous said:
Is there a lot of patient exposure during the first year? In a typical MS1 week how often would you interact with real and/or standardized patients?
Click to expand...

1-2 times a week once the year gets rolling for real, ramping up to 2-4 times as the clinical year approaches. as a general rule i wouldn't put a lot of stock in patient exposure in the first year regardless of what school you are considering.
 
"In what collegiate extracurriculars did you engage?"

is this really a 300 character limit??
 
I received an email from the admissions office yesterday, although it went to my spam folder. I was scheduled for an October 1st interview, but the email said they weren't interviewing anymore between September 26th and October 1st. Had to reschedule for a later date. I'd recommend checking your spam folder if you're scheduled for those dates.
 
fhg said:
Can any current students comment on Columbia's focus on community service? Is medical service to Washington Heights, etc. heavily emphasized? What kind of programming is available and how frequently is it actually taken advantage of by students?

Washington Heights is certainly a prime place to be in terms of diversity of patients and conditions, but I am wondering how much Columbia emphasizes service to this community in practice.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

We also have three student clinics known as CoSMO, “cure on” and “champ”. CoSMO focuses on the uninsured while CHHMP focuses on the homeless. CHURON focuses on high risk individuals that are IV drug users, HIV +, in domestic violence situations, setc. Cosmo and CHURON is whenever you want to sign up where as CHHMP is a steady commitment for all four years with the same patient set. This allows you a more longitudinal look at health care than one can usually get in medical school. There is a fourth psuedo-clinic that provides histories and physicals for patients seeking asylum on the grounds of torture, but it isn't student run. It's part of Amnesty Health or some similar organization.
 
sstackhouse said:
does columbia send rejections?
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As far as I understand, as a non-rolling school, it doesn't send rejections until mid-March. I will consider myself rejected if I don't hear from them by the end of the year, as the probability of getting an interview in January-February is vanishingly small.
 
So um, sounds silly I know. At the end of one of my essays, I accidentally deleted a period before submitting secondary. I just saw it...

Is it ok to make one small grammar error? Idk if they will look at it and go "wow this person doesn't pay any attention to detail, how are we going to trust them with someone's life?"
 
TotalDomination said:
So um, sounds silly I know. At the end of one of my essays, I accidentally deleted a period before submitting secondary. I just saw it...

Is it ok to make one small grammar error? Idk if they will look at it and go "wow this person doesn't pay any attention to detail, how are we going to trust them with someone's life?"
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you're worrying way too much. that's not going to be a deciding factor in whether you get an interview or not.
 
TotalDomination said:
So um, sounds silly I know. At the end of one of my essays, I accidentally deleted a period before submitting secondary. I just saw it...

Is it ok to make one small grammar error? Idk if they will look at it and go "wow this person doesn't pay any attention to detail, how are we going to trust them with someone's life?"
Click to expand...

im sorry but....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:meanie::meanie::laugh::laugh::meanie::meanie:

I feel your pain man. This process brings out the neuroticism in all of us. If you get rejected (and I certainly hope you don't!), I guarantee it won't be because of that lmao. You're fine dude. 😎
 
TotalDomination said:
So um, sounds silly I know. At the end of one of my essays, I accidentally deleted a period before submitting secondary. I just saw it...

Is it ok to make one small grammar error? Idk if they will look at it and go "wow this person doesn't pay any attention to detail, how are we going to trust them with someone's life?"
Click to expand...

I can beat that - Not only did I accidentally delete an entire word from my Tulane application, it was supposed to be the second word of my essay. So instead of saying, "As my interests lie in..." I wrote "As interests lie in...", which is just a trainwreck of a phrase. I ended up with a pre-interview rejection, and while I doubt that's what did me in, who knows. I guess I could call and ask - "Hey, give it to me straight, Doc. Was it the typo?" :laugh:
 
Brown secondary: "Majoring in English major..."

Clearly I learned a lot "As an English major" or "Majoring in English."
 
Trayshawn said:
im sorry but....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:meanie::meanie::laugh::laugh::meanie::meanie:

I feel your pain man. This process brings out the neuroticism in all of us. If you get rejected (and I certainly hope you don't!), I guarantee it won't be because of that lmao. You're fine dude. 😎
Click to expand...

Lol it's funny now...but at 3 am last night I was feeling like death was near. haha
 
Dingo Mango said:
There is definitely patient exposure first year. We have "patient as professor" sessions where patients come and talk about their experiences in a large lecture setting and soon our first year clerkships will start up and we go out and follow various medical professionals about once a week. We will also start working with standardized patients this year not sure exactly when. We start learning history taking and other talking-to-patients skills in "Foundations of Clinical Medicine" and have a little exam practice interview thing by the end of first semester to get feedback on how we are doing with that. 🙂
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks for the feedback! The "patient as professors" sessions sound awesome!




RogueUnicorn said:
1-2 times a week once the year gets rolling for real, ramping up to 2-4 times as the clinical year approaches. as a general rule i wouldn't put a lot of stock in patient exposure in the first year regardless of what school you are considering.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand it is a rarity but first year clerkships and student run clinics seem like a great way to at least whet your appetite haha. Thanks!!
 
just out of curiosity, how many people are filling out the "what else would you like us to know" section and if you dont mind, what general things are you mentioning? Im pretty sure they have heard plenty of how applicants believe they are really hard working and whatnot, so I am not sure if including something like that is better than leaving it blank. Just want some insight, thanks in advance
 
Amygdarya said:
As far as I understand, as a non-rolling school, it doesn't send rejections until mid-March. I will consider myself rejected if I don't hear from them by the end of the year, as the probability of getting an interview in January-February is vanishingly small.
Click to expand...

You can still definitely get an interview in Jan/Feb. 🙂 but you are right nothing comes out until the beginning of March (1st acceptances came out on March 1st last year)
 
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