2020-2021 Columbia VP&S

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blueberryscone said:
thank you so much!! honestly, with COVID delays this cycle is going to be unlike any before. From what I've read online, I don't think any of the standard rules apply (eg not hearing back by thanksgiving to cause worry, and then not hearing back by valentine's to plan ahead). it's going to be a LONG cycle. keep focusing on submitting your very best work!! rooting for you!
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Thank you so so much!! Really means a lot to hear this 🙂
 
I interviewed at Columbia on 10/05 and sent admissions a thank you, but didn't get an acknowledgment. Did other people get an acknowledgement? What did it say? Thanks so much, would appreciate it.
 
AspiringMDoccy said:
I interviewed at Columbia on 10/05 and sent admissions a thank you, but didn't get an acknowledgment. Did other people get an acknowledgement? What did it say? Thanks so much, would appreciate it.
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I got an acknowledgement email the following Monday after sending the thank you. Not that it means much but it was something along the lines of "I appreciate the enthusiasm...we will keep your application in mind...Columbia is a great place, etc lol
 
AspiringMDoccy said:
I interviewed at Columbia on 10/05 and sent admissions a thank you, but didn't get an acknowledgment. Did other people get an acknowledgement? What did it say? Thanks so much, would appreciate it.
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Yeah its very standard if you didn't get it it was probably just a glitch or oversight. don't stress 🙂
 
DeweyW said:
Any specific advice for Columbia’s interview day? Seems pretty standard but I’ve only interviewed at bottom tier schools (and I myself go to a bottom tier undergrad) lmao so I’m def a bit intimidated
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Expect basically all of the other students to go to a super prestigious school lol. I couldn't help but notice that I was the only one at my interview who did undergrad at a non-prestiguous school (medium-sized state school).

But you belong. They wouldn't have given you an interview if you weren't good enough. Just let your personality and passion shine through. Good luck!
 
Until what dates have interview dates been filled up?
 
ahk7 said:
Until what dates have interview dates been filled up?
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I think they're filled up through mid-November based on the date range I was offered (I scheduled manually via email)
 
hey, y'all! did anyone get the interview invite on 10/13 but not hear back about scheduling their interview yet?
 
septembersveryown__ said:
hey, y'all! did anyone get the interview invite on 10/13 but not hear back about scheduling their interview yet?
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You schedule your interview through the secondary portal...or did something hanfe recently? I got my II mid September and scheduled mine through the portal.
 
almostinder said:
You schedule your interview through the secondary portal...or did something hanfe recently? I got my II mid September and scheduled mine through the portal.
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i got an email on 10/13 (i think a couple of others on this thread did, too?) about being invited for an interview but needing to wait a few weeks to be able to schedule it!
 
Does anyone know if Columbia is receptive to interest letters? At this point this school is basically one of my top choices.
 
WhiteMage79 said:
Does anyone know if Columbia is receptive to interest letters? At this point this school is basically one of my top choices.
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At my interview, they mentioned that we should feel free to update them on anything we deem important to us. So I don't think it would hurt - but I don't think it would help, either. Frankly, I'd be shocked if letters of interest carried any weight at any T10 medical school. They know most of us would be thrilled to go there.
 
DeweyW said:
When should we do FAFSA?
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As soon as possible, ideally...but realistically I think before April is fine. Keep in mind though that need-based aid requires FAFSA, so submitting it early could mean receiving aid offers earlier at several schools.
 
Anyone knows or has a feeling of how far along they are on these IIs? waiting/hoping for that II 🙁. Columbia is awesomee!!! I'm an undergrad here and it's just such a unique place
 
EdgeTrimmer said:
How is it unique?
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obv I'm biased bcs it's my school, but what I love is that Columbia has so many community clinics associated with the med school all over the city to help underserved communities get more equitable access to care. Also NYC is a pretty unique place to be at, there's communities from all around the world, and you engage with NYC's diverse patient population on the daily as a doctor which I think is really cool 🙂
but again, I'm biased so:shrug:
 
nycccpremed said:
obv I'm biased bcs it's my school, but what I love is that Columbia has so many community clinics associated with the med school all over the city to help underserved communities get more equitable access to care. Also NYC is a pretty unique place to be at, there's communities from all around the world, and you engage with NYC's diverse patient population on the daily as a doctor which I think is really cool 🙂
but again, I'm biased so:shrug:
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This is true for most medical schools lmao. Literally every medical school has community clinics. Most are in urban areas with fairly diverse populations. I imagine DO schools have more homogenous patient populations but only bc they are typically in such rural places
 
DeweyW said:
This is true for most medical schools lmao. Literally every medical school has community clinics. Most are in urban areas with fairly diverse populations. I imagine DO schools have more homogenous patient populations but only bc they are typically in such rural places
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I guess what really makes it unique for me tho is the international aspect. I am a medical interpreter and at Columbia's hospitals and clinics, you interact with patients from literally all around the world and you can interpret a loootttt of different languages and build a really strong cultural competency. That's really not the case of most medical schools in smaller urban settings with smaller immigrant communities than NYC.
 
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nycccpremed said:
I guess what really makes it unique for me tho is the international aspect. I am a medical interpreter and at Columbia's hospital, you interact with patients from literally all around the world and you can interpret a loootttt of different languages. That's really not the case of most medical schools in smaller urban settings with smaller immigrant communities than NYC.
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That’s pretty cool ngl if you’re like a polyglot or something. I really liked my interview here tbh but they pretty much said the same stuff as all my other interviewing schools. The prestige is really the distinguishing factor imo
 
DeweyW said:
That’s pretty cool ngl if you’re like a polyglot or something. I really liked my interview here tbh but they pretty much said the same stuff as all my other interviewing schools. The prestige is really the distinguishing factor imo
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yeah I guess it's bcs I love languages that Columbia/NYC is just super unique.
 
kattycat213 said:
At my interview, they mentioned that we should feel free to update them on anything we deem important to us. So I don't think it would hurt - but I don't think it would help, either. Frankly, I'd be shocked if letters of interest carried any weight at any T10 medical school. They know most of us would be thrilled to go there.
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That's about the gist of what I remember hearing as well - nothing quite about interest/intent letters.
 
Also just genuinely curious - what happens to those of us who interviewed early on? Do we get a composite score that's kept in our file that's then compared to everyone once the cycle is over? Are we given preliminary tags or anything? If anyone has any thoughts on this it'd be interesting to hear. If I was the committee I also wouldn't remember me by March LOL.
 
WhiteMage79 said:
Also just genuinely curious - what happens to those of us who interviewed early on? Do we get a composite score that's kept in our file that's then compared to everyone once the cycle is over? Are we given preliminary tags or anything? If anyone has any thoughts on this it'd be interesting to hear. If I was the committee I also wouldn't remember me by March LOL.
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This is such a good question, I'm also curious lol
 
almostinder said:
This is such a good question, I'm also curious lol
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I have been wondering this too! I feel like it would add so much work and stress to the committee to wait until the cycle is over, they interview sooo many applicants. I always assumed that they already decided and just wait to disclose until March, but then again I know nothing lol
 
WhiteMage79 said:
Also just genuinely curious - what happens to those of us who interviewed early on? Do we get a composite score that's kept in our file that's then compared to everyone once the cycle is over? Are we given preliminary tags or anything? If anyone has any thoughts on this it'd be interesting to hear. If I was the committee I also wouldn't remember me by March LOL.
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So I haven't interviewed at Columbia, but I did interview at another school that doesn't do rolling admissions, and they sent me an email informing me that the committee reviewed my interview and assigned my application a committee score that will be taken into account for acceptances later on in the cycle. Based on this, I think it's possible that Columbia probably meets to discuss your application and assign a score that's used later on before granting acceptances in March. This would make sense to me logically since their memories of your interview is fresher now than later in the spring.
 
rep_the_don said:
So I haven't interviewed at Columbia, but I did interview at another school that doesn't do rolling admissions, and they sent me an email informing me that the committee reviewed my interview and assigned my application a committee score that will be taken into account for acceptances later on in the cycle. Based on this, I think it's possible that Columbia probably meets to discuss your application and assign a score that's used later on before granting acceptances in March. This would make sense to me logically since their memories of your interview is fresher now than later in the spring.
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That's what I've heard at a different school that does not do rolling admissions as well. But at the same time that confuses me as well if they aim to build a diverse class? Like what if the top scorers all come from a specific background? Anyway no way for us to really know I guess haha just speculation.
 
WhiteMage79 said:
That's what I've heard at a different school that does not do rolling admissions as well. But at the same time that confuses me as well if they aim to build a diverse class? Like what if the top scorers all come from a specific background? Anyway no way for us to really know I guess haha just speculation.
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That's fair, and we're not really going to know the details from our end unfortunately. I do think though that they can still find a way to diversify the class because they're not offering acceptances immediately after the interview. If they scored your interview and decided to give acceptances a few weeks after one's interview, I would argue that they would have a more difficult time to create a diverse medical school class; people from different backgrounds may interview later in the cycle and be competing for fewer spots. By not doing rolling admissions and waiting until closer to March to make final decisions on who they'll offer acceptances to, I believe they can look at the committee score and take into account what type of class they'd like to build. This is my opinion of course since I don't know how the committees use a "committee score" to grant acceptances. I would be surprised if they solely used a score and score cutoff to grant acceptances though.
 
nycccpremed said:
yeah I guess it's bcs I love languages that Columbia/NYC is just super unique.
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I hope you're Canadian. Sadly, Columbia favors only Canadians as international students. MSAR confirms it. Since 2016 only US and Canadians have been admitted. No other nationalities.*and Israelis occasionally
 
kljlkjd said:
I hope you're Canadian. Sadly, Columbia favors only Canadians as international students. MSAR confirms it. Since 2016 only US and Canadians have been admitted. No other nationalities.*and Israelis occasionally
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Unfortunately I’m not Canadian 🙁 I know, the numbers for non-Canadian intl students at most schools are really depressing but thought I’d shoot my shot since it’s my alma mater.
 
You’re given a score and ranked against all other people who your specific interviewer interviews. They use that list as a guide for the committee to accept but it’s not cut and dry because they do take into account creating a diverse class.
 
WhiteMage79 said:
That's what I've heard at a different school that does not do rolling admissions as well. But at the same time that confuses me as well if they aim to build a diverse class? Like what if the top scorers all come from a specific background? Anyway no way for us to really know I guess haha just speculation.
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Yeah, I mean I guess that's assuming that they only take the top scorers or that they don't weigh diversity into the score (I'd assume they would since they spend so much time talking about it lol)
 
mass-premed66 said:
You’re given a score and ranked against all other people who your specific interviewer interviews. They use that list as a guide for the committee to accept but it’s not cut and dry because they do take into account creating a diverse class.
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Oh very interesting! Well I'm glad to know that because I think I had my best interviews all cycle here!
 
nycccpremed said:
Unfortunately I’m not Canadian 🙁 I know, the numbers for non-Canadian intl students at most schools are really depressing but thought I’d shoot my shot since it’s my alma mater.
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I feel like it being your alma mater definitely puts you in a very different position than most other international applicants!
 
kljlkjd said:
I hope you're Canadian. Sadly, Columbia favors only Canadians as international students. MSAR confirms it. Since 2016 only US and Canadians have been admitted. No other nationalities.*and Israelis occasionally
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As a non-Canadian international student rip me.
 
DeweyW said:
they are receptive since they explicitly mentioned you can upload them to your portal on interview day. having said that I refuse to send any schools thank you letters lol
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Where did they say we can upload them? I thought they said there would be a place under the interview tab, but I don't see anything.
 
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