Columbia bashing...

[jlee9531]

Thats why you're only 19% pure

ewww....

hahaha.

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[gimpMD]

In case you didn't notice, we don't second guess the acceptances of our fellow SDNers. Instead, we support them and cheer them on.

:

Yeah i noticed.

 

[pigpen]

oh, did i fail to mention i slept my way into Columbia..

what does that mean???

i don't care what anyone says, but i agree with gimpMD to a certain extent. bonnie...you and i both know that you were lucky to get into P&S. it's still a great achievement on your part, and i congratulate you. but there are a lot of people on these boards with similar achievements who haven't gotten the nod from P&S or any other prestigious school.

your comment that you slept your way into columbia makes me even more suspicious...

edit: heehee ok i get what she was saying...i interpreted it differently.

 

[Eraserhead]

Thats why you're only 19% pure

There's always room for improvement, right?

 

[Eraserhead]

what does that mean???

i don't care what anyone says, but i agree with gimpMD to a certain extent. bonnie...you and i both know that you were lucky to get into P&S. it's still a great achievement on your part, and i congratulate you. but there are a lot of people on these boards with similar achievements who haven't gotten the nod from P&S or any other prestigious school.

your comment that you slept your way into columbia makes me even more suspicious...

Your lack of humor makes me suspicious about whether or not you are human.

Yay this thread is fun now!

Kill Bill party at my apartment tonight! BYOB!

 

[missbonnie]

Your lack of humor makes me suspicious about whether or not you are human.

Yay this thread is fun now!

Kill Bill party at my apartment tonight! BYOB!

i've been convinced to watch kill bill tonight. stay tuned.

anyone who is in NYC is welcome to join.

b

 

[missbonnie]

what does that mean???

i don't care what anyone says, but i agree with gimpMD to a certain extent. bonnie...you and i both know that you were lucky to get into P&S. it's still a great achievement on your part, and i congratulate you. but there are a lot of people on these boards with similar achievements who haven't gotten the nod from P&S or any other prestigious school.

your comment that you slept your way into columbia makes me even more suspicious...

sorry, i don't believe in luck. my interview went REALLY well. i'll leave it at that.

b

 

[gimpMD]

what does that mean???

i don't care what anyone says, but i agree with gimpMD to a certain extent. bonnie...you and i both know that you were lucky to get into P&S. it's still a great achievement on your part, and i congratulate you. but there are a lot of people on these boards with similar achievements who haven't gotten the nod from P&S or any other prestigious school.

these people with 2million+ posts are part of some secret SDN orgy society who snap at the slightest semblance of anything politically incorrect.

UNLEASH THE DOGS

 

[Eraserhead]

i've been convinced to watch kill bill tonight. stay tuned.

anyone who is in NYC is welcome to join.

b

Two parties. Two coasts. One network.

 

[jlee9531]

Your lack of humor makes me suspicious about whether or not you are human.

Yay this thread is fun now!

Kill Bill party at my apartment tonight! BYOB!

its karma time for you! this post was funny as hell....haha.

 

[periodic]

Hah, this is kinda funny -- I'm going to be watching Kill Bill also (preparing for the 2nd this weekend or whenever it is)...

We all know an acceptance to a school like P&S raises fewer eyebrows if it's accompanied by a high GPA/MCAT -- because that's the trend. But, you're not doing yourself a service by assuming the worst of another person. If you're bitter now, what about when you don't get the residency/house/car/promotion/family/ you want?

 

[Eraserhead]

these people with 2million+ posts are part of some secret SDN orgy society who snap at the slightest semblance of anything politically incorrect.

UNLEASH THE DOGS

Lies! Lies!

 

[missbonnie]

Two parties. Two coasts. One network.

How touching ...

 

[Eraserhead]

How touching ...

kill bill! kill bill! I (heart) Uma

 

[Rendar5]

Kill Eraserhead! Uma's mine!

I tried to sleep my way into Columbia, but got performance anxiety. I blew my wad too soon for P&S's liking. but they thought I was kinda cute anyway, so gave me alternate status. Now I'm trying to get a second date, and I'll be prepared this time with some viagra.

 

[CalBeE]

Wow, I went for a nap for like 3 hours and there are 3 pages of additional messages on this thread already.

Columbia PnS is just like the rest of the med schools...trying to make sense out of the admission process will just frustrate you...

Oh and I slept my way to get that interview too, but they won't wanna make it too obvious, so they just put me on waitlist instead

 

[rager1]

oh, did i fail to mention i slept my way into Columbia..

Yeah, same here. It was kinda unavoidable--my interviewer was a urologist...

 

[CalBeE]

Yeah, same here. It was kinda unavoidable--my interviewer was a urologist...

This is turning into a X-rated thread

 

[BigBopper]

My interviewer asked me, "Why do they call you the big bopper?"

Well I had no choice except to show her.

Acceptence letter 2 weeks later

 

[Eraserhead]

My interviewer asked me, "Why do they call you the big bopper?"

Well I had no choice except to show her.

Acceptence letter 2 weeks later

 

[lyragrl]

what does that mean???

i don't care what anyone says, but i agree with gimpMD to a certain extent. bonnie...you and i both know that you were lucky to get into P&S. it's still a great achievement on your part, and i congratulate you. but there are a lot of people on these boards with similar achievements who haven't gotten the nod from P&S or any other prestigious school.

your comment that you slept your way into columbia makes me even more suspicious...

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the people with no sense of humor...

 

[Tezzie]

Columbia gets bashed because of Frantz and his admissions criteria (ivy league obsession, numbers whoring, etc...).

A 3.4 is not a bad GPA. At the same time it doesn't seem to be Columbia "worthy" but the fact that it was from Columbias sister institution helped.

 

[Eraserhead]

Columbia gets bashed because of Frantz and his admissions criteria (ivy league obsession, numbers whoring, etc...).

A 3.4 is not a bad GPA. At the same time it doesn't seem to be Columbia "worthy" but the fact that it was from Columbias sister institution helped.

Tezzie, where have you been?

 

[CalBeE]

So does anyone actually have something Useful to say about Columbia...it seems like the thread so far has been about things NOT totally related to school or on stuff that everyone already knows...

 

[Eraserhead]

So does anyone actually have something Useful to say about Columbia...it seems like the thread so far has been about things NOT totally related to school or on stuff that everyone already knows...

Did you withdraw from the Columbia waitlist? What about the Chicago schools?

 

[CalBeE]

I'm still on it, and still pursuing it. I think hearing the bad things about the school give me more realistic expectations for the school. I mean, Columbia's curriculum and administration's not perfect, but I can say something bad about all the other schools I applied to. I'm also pursuing the Chicago schools too. I got a better and better feeling over time about Pritzker and Northwestern.

 

[JohnHolmes]

dont take this the wrong way...but how the hell did miss bonnie get into PnS? is she super hot? i mean, i understand that she volunteered for soup kitchens n stuff, but how does the adcom expect a 3.4 underachiever to handle the rigors of columbia med? Is this a reasonable argument? If i were a 3.4, i'd be intimidated to attend a top 10. Sorry bonnie, dont take this the wrong way.

I am honestly embarassed for the members of this thread who have posted about Bonnie and the 3.4. To those reading this, not everyone in this forum is as judgmental and full of bull****.

JH

 

[supersunny]

a pns reject probably.

not really

 

[Harps]

Hey exmike,
indianboy was accepted to Columbia last year. He does bring up legitimate concerns about Columbia...I am not going to detail them in this or any post because I certainly don't know much about the school. I can tell you that Indianboy has personal experience with Columbia....so he knows what he's talking about...he's not pulling stuff out of the trashbin.

Oh, gimpwhateve'dude,
get a life, man! I don't like number ******
To missbonnie,
Rock on
On a side-note,
I am surprised to see WashU so highly regarded in the rankings What's the residency directors' score? I am just baffled WashU's rise in the ranking. I have spoken to a few of the docs who select residents, and they don't seem as impressed as USNEWS by WashU...whateve'....

-Harps

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

Wash U is climing up the ranks namely because it IS a TRUE number-*****. The MCAT average at WashU is higher than the MCAT averages at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, UCSF, Duke, etc. WashU will throw away applications of students with sub 3.7 and sub 35 MCAT...it truly is pathetic what the admissions committee of this school will do to increase applications, decrease the acceptance rate, and increase the average GPA and MCATs.

The Wash U ugrad admissions committee deliberately sends out TONS of application packets to high schools juniors and seniors across the country begging them to apply to Wash U. This is why WUSTL stands for We Usually Send Thousands of Letters instead of Washington University of St. Louis. Why would they do that? Practically EVERYONE in the top 25% of the graduating class from my high school got a letter from WUSTL asking us to apply. They do this to artificially DECREASE their acceptance rate by increasing the number of applicants and holding the number of acceptances constant. The only reason they do this is to climb HIGHER in the US News&World Report College Rankings.

I imagine that the WUSTL Med School adcom is following the pathetic example set by the WUSTL undergrad adcom and is trying to find ways to increase it ranking any way they can. One of the ways to increase the ranking of your med school is to increase the average stats of accepted and matriculating students.

Also, notice how WUSTL really has NO representation at all in the graduate school rankings? It's pretty hard trying to find this school in the rankings of graduate programs like economics, molecular biology, political science, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, etc. I'd imagine tha the grad school adcoms for WUSTL will be employing other pathetic tactics to increase their grad school rankings.

 

[jjmack]

Duke's average MCAT score is also pretty high. Are they now becoming the southersn MCAT *****?

Wash U is climing up the ranks namely because it IS a TRUE number-*****. The MCAT average at WashU is higher than the MCAT averages at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, UCSF, Duke, etc. WashU will throw away applications of students with sub 3.7 and sub 35 MCAT...it truly is pathetic what the admissions committee of this school will do to increase applications, decrease the acceptance rate, and increase the average GPA and MCATs.

I agree this is suiper annoying and makes the school look very poorly. Myself as well as others at the school have talked to people on the undergrad admissions committee about this. Actually, during my med school interview there we spoke about the massive amounts of crap wash u sends to prespective undergrads. We both thoight it was WAY over kill. The director of admissions said that they were doing it because "they aren't there yet." They are just trying to get known. I agree that this is a vaild point. However, I think sending one short letter and a new, better designed application book would work better than tons of cheesy looking stuff.

The Wash U ugrad admissions committee deliberately sends out TONS of application packets to high schools juniors and seniors across the country begging them to apply to Wash U. This is why WUSTL stands for We Usually Send Thousands of Letters instead of Washington University of St. Louis. Why would they do that? Practically EVERYONE in the top 25% of the graduating class from my high school got a letter from WUSTL asking us to apply. They do this to artificially DECREASE their acceptance rate by increasing the number of applicants and holding the number of acceptances constant. The only reason they do this is to climb HIGHER in the US News&World Report College Rankings.

I imagine that the WUSTL Med School adcom is following the pathetic example set by the WUSTL undergrad adcom and is trying to find ways to increase it ranking any way they can. One of the ways to increase the ranking of your med school is to increase the average stats of accepted and matriculating students.

That is not true at all. THe general biology program is considered top 10. The genetics and neuroscience are considered top 5 or 7. I'm not sure what you are looking at. Wash U would not be one of the main players in the human genome project if their genetics department was garbage. Wash U's plant biology program is also very strong and holds many very important patents in the genetically modified plant field. The anthroplogy program is also storng. Wash U's social work school is also ranked number 2 in the nation. Have you ever heard about PT and OT? Check the US news rankings on those. I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up.

Also, notice how WUSTL really has NO representation at all in the graduate school rankings? It's pretty hard trying to find this school in the rankings of graduate programs like economics, molecular biology, political science, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, etc. I'd imagine tha the grad school adcoms for WUSTL will be employing other pathetic tactics to increase their grad school rankings.

On a side note. I have spent time at both Wash U and colunbia. I think they are both great schools. I do think that the colunbia admissions process seems very unfair. Some people who have friends tell me that columbia does have a few problems though and leaves too much up to it's name recognition. Good luck everyone on the columbia waitlist.

 

[PsychoLulu]

OK, I haven't read through the entire thread & will probably get flamed for repeating something that's mentioned on the 5th page (preemptive apologies!), but I'm going to respond anyways because the topic sorta hit a nerve.

The recurring complaint (and my main concern) is that Columbia is an old-guard institution: resistant to change with an administration skilled in rhetoric but weak in following up on its promises to act on feedback (of which, I hear there is a great deal). For those who have seen Dead Poet's Society, the appropriate analogy likens Columbia's academic atmosphere and curriculum to the attitude and work of the older faculty in that film's fictional prep school: A stifling rite of passage that has withstood the test of time. Some have said that in the interests of appearing fair and open-minded, superficial measures are taken at Columbia to listen to the complaints of students in the manner a patient parent provides time for a child's tantrum to subside. The tradition of the old system, which may or may not have worked at one time (or which never got in the way of the success of its students), is now so hallowed and revered that suggesting reasonable change is an affront to those with an unreasonable faith in its merits.

I'm hoping to figure out to what extent all of this is true, and the extent to which Columbia met the expectations of excited acceptees other than those who would be happy anywhere.

--Rager

I completely agree - Columbia has it's problems, as I'm sure all medical schools do, but the reason for worry comes from the administration's complete lack of interest in improvement. (Can't help but mention the irony in the university's recent "Improvement & Expansion" program - guess which half they actually bothered to implement? Hint: the part that brought them more students, aka more $$$. But I digress...)

While I am not currently at P&S, I feel my expreiences with both the university overall and specifically the medical school and campus/affiliates give me certain insight to the situation. I went to Barnard for undergrad and as one of the board members of the student government, had a lot of first hand experience with the lack of respect the administration gives to student complaints (both ones that originate from Columbia College as well as from affliates such as Barnard or Teachers College....). I cannot tell you the number of times we got the "let the tantrum run it's course" routine.

Upon graduation, I got a job in the lab of a Columbia associate prof of clinical psychiatry at the medical campus. While there are exceptions (like my boss, who is argueably the nicest man on the planet ), I was yet again mystified by the complete apathy of those with power in the university to the needs of the members of the medical school community (including the professors, medical students, residents, research scientists, etc - everyone that contributes to the P*S environment).

IMO, Columbia's administration is so tangled in red tape it can't tell it's, uh, cephalad from it's caudad.... (And yes, the concentration of brillant but pompous individuals here is amazingly high!) If an organization is that incompetant at the top, then you can only expect chaos or apathy in the subdivisions, which only translates to unhappy employees and students. True, this does not apply to everyone, and if you enter P&S in agreement with their policies and teaching methods, then you may be very happy here. However, if you don't like what you see, then run like heck because don't expect the good ol' boys to be changing anything on your behalf any time soon.


P.S. Just had to comment - a 3.4 from the Barnard Pre-Med track is v. good, especially given the "Poindexter Hurdle"!

 

[missbonnie]

hey guys

i just got back from the revisit weekend and had a fan-tabulous time. It really reinforced that P&S is for me. And I just wanted to say, that a lot of the speculation just doesn't appear to be true. The students that we met (and not just first yrs) really love it here and all really wanted to come here. I was really impressed with a lot of things. It's definitely not perfect by any means, but nowhere is. If you really want an amazing, diverse, student body, then you can't beat P&S. Last night they had current students come and do coffeehouse - pianists, stand up comedy, singing, poetry, etc. Anyway, I'm sure more peeps will write when they all get back from revisit.

P.S. I met 2 of the folks who got off the waitlist. Both had 2nd interviews.

b

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

Duke's average MCAT score is also pretty high. Are they now becoming the southersn MCAT *****?



I agree this is suiper annoying and makes the school look very poorly. Myself as well as others at the school have talked to people on the undergrad admissions committee about this. Actually, during my med school interview there we spoke about the massive amounts of crap wash u sends to prespective undergrads. We both thoight it was WAY over kill. The director of admissions said that they were doing it because "they aren't there yet." They are just trying to get known. I agree that this is a vaild point. However, I think sending one short letter and a new, better designed application book would work better than tons of cheesy looking stuff.



That is not true at all. THe general biology program is considered top 10. The genetics and neuroscience are considered top 5 or 7. I'm not sure what you are looking at. Wash U would not be one of the main players in the human genome project if their genetics department was garbage. Wash U's plant biology program is also very strong and holds many very important patents in the genetically modified plant field. The anthroplogy program is also storng. Wash U's social work school is also ranked number 2 in the nation. Have you ever heard about PT and OT? Check the US news rankings on those. I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up.




On a side note. I have spent time at both Wash U and colunbia. I think they are both great schools. I do think that the colunbia admissions process seems very unfair. Some people who have friends tell me that columbia does have a few problems though and leaves too much up to it's name recognition. Good luck everyone on the columbia waitlist.

"I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up." Actually, I'M not the one making stuff up...YOU ARE. You said that the general biology program is ranked in the top 10...um...sorry...wrong. These are the top 10 schools with the strongest programs in the biological sciences (in general) as ranked by the US News&World Report 2004 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools. ****drumroll****
1st: Stanford University
2nd (3 way tie): -UC Berkeley
-Harvard University
-MIT
5th (3 way tie): -Caltech
-Johns Hopkins University
-UCSF
8th: Rockefeller University
9th (3 way tie): -Princeton University
-Scripps Research Institute
-Yale University
12th (2 way tie): Duke University
-Univ. of Wisconsin Madison
Washington University is nowhere in the top 10. Sorry to break it to ya. You can check the rankings yourself to confirm this. You stated that it has a "top 5 or 7" ranking in genetics...umm...as ranked by who? Genetics is NOT EVEN RANKED by the US News&World Report researchers. Again...I didn't make anything up...apparently, YOU did.

You are correct in that Wash U has a top 7 program in neuroscience. However, there are no rankings for anthropology so we can't even confirm whether that program is "strong" or not.

 

[jjmack]

well last time i checked general bio they were around top ten or 12. Genetics may not be ranked, but how can you say it is not a good program if they were one of the top three human genome centers in the world for the human genome project? What about occupational and physical theaphy? Social work? Whether or not their general bio program is not in the top ten does not mean that their graduate programs are bad. You are just being dishonest. I agree wash u has flaws, but painting it with such broad strokes like you did is work. Honesly, I'm shocked that berkeley is so high...I have never read a single paper from anyone from berkely...what area of biology are they big in? I know they have an amazing chem and physics programs so I guess it's speciallized in those areas.

"I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up." Actually, I'M not the one making stuff up...YOU ARE. You said that the general biology program is ranked in the top 10...um...sorry...wrong. These are the top 10 schools with the strongest programs in the biological sciences (in general) as ranked by the US News&World Report 2004 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools. ****drumroll****
1st: Stanford University
2nd (3 way tie): -UC Berkeley
-Harvard University
-MIT
5th (3 way tie): -Caltech
-Johns Hopkins University
-UCSF
8th: Rockefeller University
9th (3 way tie): -Princeton University
-Scripps Research Institute
-Yale University
12th (2 way tie): Duke University
-Univ. of Wisconsin Madison
Washington University is nowhere in the top 10. Sorry to break it to ya. You can check the rankings yourself to confirm this. You stated that it has a "top 5 or 7" ranking in genetics...umm...as ranked by who? Genetics is NOT EVEN RANKED by the US News&World Report researchers. Again...I didn't make anything up...apparently, YOU did.

You are correct in that Wash U has a top 7 program in neuroscience. However, there are no rankings for anthropology so we can't even confirm whether that program is "strong" or not.

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

well last time i checked general bio they were around top ten or 12. Genetics may not be ranked, but how can you say it is not a good program if they were one of the top three human genome centers in the world for the human genome project? What about occupational and physical theaphy? Social work? Whether or not their general bio program is not in the top ten does not mean that their graduate programs are bad. You are just being dishonest. I agree wash u has flaws, but painting it with such broad strokes like you did is work. Honesly, I'm shocked that berkeley is so high...I have never read a single paper from anyone from berkely...what area of biology are they big in? I know they have an amazing chem and physics programs so I guess it's speciallized in those areas.

"You are just being dishonest." Ummm....sorry...YOU lied in here and I proved it by posting the actual rankings from the 2004 edition of the US News&World Report rankings. I didn't make anything up...sorry...I proved you wrong...whether you want to admit it or not. I already ceded above that you were correct in that Wash U does have a top 7 program in neuroscience. I didn't even bother to refute your comments about "OT and PT" because I didn't even know what those stood for...but Wash U is #3 for occupational therapy and #1 for physical therapy. Wash U is also #2 for social work. However, we can't even compare Wash U to many other schools in this case because not ALL universities have a medical school ...notable exceptions include Princeton University, UC Berkeley, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University..thus, the aformentioned schools can't even be ranked in "health disciplines."

As for Berkeley's ranking in biology...it can be explained by the rankings within the biological subdisciplines. Berkeley is ranked #4 in biochemistry, #8 in cell biology, and #4 in molecular biology. Washington University is ranked substantially lower in these 3 subdisciplines except for cell bio where it comes in at #10. Overall, Wash U ranks 14th in the biological sciences...and it shares that spot with Cornell, Columbia, UCSD, UM-Ann Arbor, and UT Southwestern Medical Center-Dallas.

I didn't make anything up...you did...I proved my points with the actual evidence from US News. As for my comments about Wash U being pretty low in the grad school rankings...this comment was RIGHT ON TARGET. We have to look at grad schools as a WHOLE...not just the medical school rankings and rankings in biology or "health disciplines." Why don't we look at other grad programs like english, economics, political science, public policy, engineering, computer science, physics and math?

For english, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 25 spots listed.
For economics, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 25 spots listed.
For political science, Wash U is tied at #18 with IU-Bloomington out of the 23 spots available.
For public policy (called public affairs in the rankings), Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 46 schools listed.
For engineering, Wash U is at the #35 spot out of the 50 spots in the list.
For computer science, Wash U is tied at the #35 spot out of the 35 spots in the list.
For math, Wash U is tied at the #37 spot out of the 37 spots in the list.
For physics, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 38 spots listed.

Does that show you how poorly Wash U does in the grad school rankings or would you like me to list off more graduate fields that Wash U does poorly in? I would be glad to list off the additional fields (chemistry, history, pyschology, sociology, etc). It looks like my comment about Wash U having poor grad programs is indeed supported by the evidence out there. Don't believe me...take a look at the 2004 US News rankings of graduate schools. Well...have a nice day.

 

[jjmack]

your being misleading again. This is a pre-med forum so looking at the english and other rankings is pointless. You also don't know anything about sociology. Wash U had one of the best programs in the mid 60's and 70's, but the program was totally disbanded after their faculity left becuase they got in trouble for publishing a contrioversal study. I agree the engineering does blow. It would actually make wash u a "better" usnews school if they totally destroyied the eng school, but I don't see that happening in the future. In terms of medically revelant research wash u is a top school. Isn't the point of this post about columiba bashing? So if wash u it tied with columbia in the general bio rankings does that mean that columbia sucks? No, each school even the "Best" have their strengths and weaknesses.

"You are just being dishonest." Ummm....sorry...YOU lied in here and I proved it by posting the actual rankings from the 2004 edition of the US News&World Report rankings. I didn't make anything up...sorry...I proved you wrong...whether you want to admit it or not. I already ceded above that you were correct in that Wash U does have a top 7 program in neuroscience. I didn't even bother to refute your comments about "OT and PT" because I didn't even know what those stood for...but Wash U is #3 for occupational therapy and #1 for physical therapy. Wash U is also #2 for social work. However, we can't even compare Wash U to many other schools in this case because not ALL universities have a medical school ...notable exceptions include Princeton University, UC Berkeley, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University..thus, the aformentioned schools can't even be ranked in "health disciplines."

As for Berkeley's ranking in biology...it can be explained by the rankings within the biological subdisciplines. Berkeley is ranked #4 in biochemistry, #8 in cell biology, and #4 in molecular biology. Washington University is ranked substantially lower in these 3 subdisciplines except for cell bio where it comes in at #10. Overall, Wash U ranks 14th in the biological sciences...and it shares that spot with Cornell, Columbia, UCSD, UM-Ann Arbor, and UT Southwestern Medical Center-Dallas.

I didn't make anything up...you did...I proved my points with the actual evidence from US News. As for my comments about Wash U being pretty low in the grad school rankings...this comment was RIGHT ON TARGET. We have to look at grad schools as a WHOLE...not just the medical school rankings and rankings in biology or "health disciplines." Why don't we look at other grad programs like english, economics, political science, public policy, engineering, computer science, physics and math?

For english, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 25 spots listed.
For economics, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 25 spots listed.
For political science, Wash U is tied at #18 with IU-Bloomington out of the 23 spots available.
For public policy (called public affairs in the rankings), Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 46 schools listed.
For engineering, Wash U is at the #35 spot out of the 50 spots in the list.
For computer science, Wash U is tied at the #35 spot out of the 35 spots in the list.
For math, Wash U is tied at the #37 spot out of the 37 spots in the list.
For physics, Wash U is nowhere to be found in the top 38 spots listed.

Does that show you how poorly Wash U does in the grad school rankings or would you like me to list off more graduate fields that Wash U does poorly in? I would be glad to list off the additional fields (chemistry, history, pyschology, sociology, etc). It looks like my comment about Wash U having poor grad programs is indeed supported by the evidence out there. Don't believe me...take a look at the 2004 US News rankings of graduate schools. Well...have a nice day.

 

[Tezzie]

Why whenever there is a thread about bashing, there seems to be a trend that WashU should be included?

Who cares if WashU ranked higher than Hopkins this year. It means jack sh$t. You are comparing things that are not supposed to be compared in such a way anyway. There is never a best medical school. There is always "best medical school for me".

A lot of people talk about WashU without even seeing the school itself. Barnes Hospital is one of the most incredible hospitals in the country (absolutely breathtaking). The medical school is phenomenal on so many different levels.

Trying to compare Harvard, Hopkins, WashU, Penn, etc is a lost cause. There is no need to. They are all excellent. All of them have flaws in one way or another. The final decision comes to each student and what vibe they got from the school. Do you really believe that a medical student at Harvard gets a better education than a medical student at Hopkins?

Last but not least , every top 10 school is a numbers *****. Average MCATs/GPAs aside, when was the last time you heard of a 28 3.2 non-URM getting accepted to Harvard. Does it really matter if one school has an MCAT avg of 36 and another of 34.5? Does it mean anything for each individual applicant?

After interviewing at many top schools, you will notice that most of them share the exact same students. Same people, with similar backrounds, from similar universities, with similar MCATs/GPAs. Nothing is different.

The P&S bashing that happened here is because of Columbias admissions tactics which seem even WORSE than WashU.

Just chill.

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

Ummm...you have no clue what you're talking about...your ORIGINAL refutation of my post concerned my comments about the GRADUATE PROGRAM RANKINGS and how Wash U does VERY poorly in them. My original comments had NOTHING to do with "medical relevant" research. I was only concerned with how poorly Wash U performed in the graduate school rankings. I scrolled up and copied and pasted here...

My comment
Quote:
Originally Posted by BerkeleyPremed
Also, notice how WUSTL really has NO representation at all in the graduate school rankings? It's pretty hard trying to find this school in the rankings of graduate programs like economics, molecular biology, political science, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, etc. I'd imagine tha the grad school adcoms for WUSTL will be employing other pathetic tactics to increase their grad school rankings.

Your refuting argument:
"That is not true at all. THe general biology program is considered top 10. The genetics and neuroscience are considered top 5 or 7. I'm not sure what you are looking at. Wash U would not be one of the main players in the human genome project if their genetics department was garbage. Wash U's plant biology program is also very strong and holds many very important patents in the genetically modified plant field. The anthroplogy program is also storng. Wash U's social work school is also ranked number 2 in the nation. Have you ever heard about PT and OT? Check the US news rankings on those. I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up.

Sorry, trying to limit this down to just "medically relevant" research doesn't really help your cause here because many schools (some that don't even have medical schools..like Berkeley for instance) outrank Wash U in the biological sciences. Wash U is also nowhere to be in found in the top 10 spots listed for public health...however, schools that don't even have medical schools (like Berkeley) rank higher in this field. Isn't public health a "medically relevant" area of research?

My original comments about Wash U were about how the GRADUATE programs rank poorly (which they do)...not about how the PROFESSIONAL programs rank (medical school is a professional school..not a graduate program).

 

[jjmack]

I already stated that I was wrong about the general bio rankings. This is a MEDICAL forum what does grad programs have to do with anything? Your orginal point about grad programs was a bloody red herring and has nothing to do with wash u med school. I'm finished with this.

Ummm...you have no clue what you're talking about...your ORIGINAL refutation of my post concerned my comments about the GRADUATE PROGRAM RANKINGS and how Wash U does VERY poorly in them. My original comments had NOTHING to do with "medical relevant" research. I was only concerned with how poorly Wash U performed in the graduate school rankings. I scrolled up and copied and pasted here...

My comment
Quote:
Originally Posted by BerkeleyPremed
Also, notice how WUSTL really has NO representation at all in the graduate school rankings? It's pretty hard trying to find this school in the rankings of graduate programs like economics, molecular biology, political science, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, etc. I'd imagine tha the grad school adcoms for WUSTL will be employing other pathetic tactics to increase their grad school rankings.

Your refuting argument:
"That is not true at all. THe general biology program is considered top 10. The genetics and neuroscience are considered top 5 or 7. I'm not sure what you are looking at. Wash U would not be one of the main players in the human genome project if their genetics department was garbage. Wash U's plant biology program is also very strong and holds many very important patents in the genetically modified plant field. The anthroplogy program is also storng. Wash U's social work school is also ranked number 2 in the nation. Have you ever heard about PT and OT? Check the US news rankings on those. I agree wash u does have problems with it's admissions, but don't make stuff up.

Sorry, trying to limit this down to just "medically relevant" research doesn't really help your cause here because many schools (some that don't even have medical schools..like Berkeley for instance) outrank Wash U in the biological sciences. Wash U is also nowhere to be in found in the top 10 spots listed for public health...however, schools that don't even have medical schools (like Berkeley) rank higher in this field. Isn't public health a "medically relevant" area of research?

My original comments about Wash U were about how the GRADUATE programs rank poorly (which they do)...not about how the PROFESSIONAL programs rank (medical school is a professional school..not a graduate program).

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

I already stated that I was wrong about the general bio rankings. This is a MEDICAL forum what does grad programs have to do with anything? Your orginal point about grad programs was a bloody red herring and has nothing to do with wash u med school. I'm finished with this.

You're right about one thing...you are finished. I proved you wrong..it's over..move on with your life.

 

[CalBeE]

This thread simply turned into something that's irrelevant to Columbia....why am I not surprised anymore??

 

[jjmack]

Your point was still misleading and had nothing to do with wash u med school. I already admitted about being wrong about wash u's general bio. You are just a us news *****. Why does anyone care about their nonmedically revelant grad departments when we are talking about medical schools? You are the poster child of why I hung out with art students when I was an undergrad. I was trying to be gracious and finish our argument and you had to be an F...ing dick about it.

You're right about one thing...you are finished. I proved you wrong..it's over..move on with your life.

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

Your point was still misleading and had nothing to do with wash u med school. I already admitted about being wrong about wash u's general bio. You are just a us news *****. Why does anyone care about their nonmedically revelant grad departments when we are talking about medical schools? You are the poster child of why I hung out with art students when I was an undergrad.

Bashing me won't really help you out. As for me being a "US News *****"...why don't we STOP looking at the US News rankings and look at rankings by other sources...the National Research Council conducts a comprehensive survey of America's graduate schools and ranks them based on faculty quality (measured by the # of times the faculty at the school are cited in academic journals), academic reputation (measured by peer assessment survey), and the quality of research put out by a university (measured by the # of awards awarded to a university/faculty at the university for their research). Want to see how poorly Washington University does in practically all grad programs as ranked by NRC? Go see for yourself.

Here's the link to the NRC graduate school rankings: http://stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41indiv.html

 

[JohnHolmes]

hey guys

If you really want an amazing, diverse, student body, then you can't beat P&S.

b

Absolutely true. I stayed with bonnie, and I can say this is a fantastic school-it was great to meet Rager, Rendar, .... who else was there? I don't remember the names...

I was totally impressed and if I go here next year, I'm gonna be playin rugby. I've spent way too much time in the gym and gettin fat to let it go to waste

Coops

 

[rager1]

Absolutely true. I stayed with bonnie, and I can say this is a fantastic school-it was great to meet Rager, Rendar, .... who else was there? I don't remember the names...

I was totally impressed and if I go here next year, I'm gonna be playin rugby. I've spent way too much time in the gym and gettin fat to let it go to waste

Coops

Yeah, it was nice meeting everybody. Hey Coops, you'll be playing rugby with my brother next year if you go to Columbia. Good to meet Miss Bonnie, medskooler, JulianCrane, and Coops. Don't think I met Rendar...

A lot of people seem to have an escape-from-medical-school activity, if not more than one. Lots of music too. I want to start a jazz combo. As for the Columbia bashing concern that started this thread...I'll write more on that later...right now I just need to get over this awful head cold. My partying abilities don't measure up to you East Coast people...I am weak but I will learn...

-Rager

 

[JohnHolmes]

Yeah, it was nice meeting everybody. Hey Coops, you'll be playing rugby with my brother next year if you go to Columbia. Good to meet Miss Bonnie, medskooler, JulianCrane, and Coops. Don't think I met Rendar...

A lot of people seem to have an escape-from-medical-school activity, if not more than one. Lots of music too. I want to start a jazz combo. As for the Columbia bashing concern that started this thread...I'll write more on that later...right now I just need to get over this awful head cold. My partying abilities don't measure up to you East Coast people...I am weak but I will learn...

-Rager

You're brother goes here too? Cool.

Coops