Columbia MSTP decisions?

[neuro raqs]

At the interview they said decisions would be come out in Feb. Does anyone remember if they got more specific and said when in Feb?

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[SilentLunchbox]

I sent an email to them on Tuesday to ask about sending an update letter, and was told that the committee was going to be meeting on Wednesday (though I wouldn't be surprised if it wound up getting snowed out). Dr. Spitalnik mentioned that they apparently plow through everyone in one meeting, so my guess is if they did meet, decisions should hopefully be out very soon.

Did they ever mention how they contact people about decisions?

 

[StIGMA]

They should send the decisions with the rest of the MD acceptance letters. This should be in about 2 weeks if it is the same as last year (they mailed around the 24th last year, and postal mail can take over a week if you are unlucky).

 

[neuro raqs]

I sent an email to them on Tuesday to ask about sending an update letter, and was told that the committee was going to be meeting on Wednesday (though I wouldn't be surprised if it wound up getting snowed out). Dr. Spitalnik mentioned that they apparently plow through everyone in one meeting, so my guess is if they did meet, decisions should hopefully be out very soon.

Did they ever mention how they contact people about decisions?

This must be the longest meeting...ever. Thanks for the info!

 

[lieberarzt]

Apparently, decisions have been mailed out -- found out via phone call!

 

[SilentLunchbox]

Apparently, decisions have been mailed out -- found out via phone call!

Nice - thanks for checking!

 

[hugoyles]

Or are the accepted people not celebrating on SDN, yet?

I'm in Manhattan, so they should bike messenger me!

 

[SilentLunchbox]

Or are the accepted people not celebrating on SDN, yet?

I'm in Manhattan, so they should bike messenger me!

Haha, glad to know that I'm not the only one wondering about this. Perhaps all of the snow you guys got last week mucked up the mail?

Anyways, I'm in Boston and haven't gotten anything here either. Hopefully we'll all have some good news very soon!

 

[dmblue]

lol..this happens every year. good luck

 

[FPMDPhD]

I was accepted to the MSTP, congrats to others who were as well.....by the way.....there is no waitlist this year. Dr. Patrice Spitalnik emphasized that during my interview day.

 

[Neuronix]

How can there be no waitlist? Does it just mean that you don't hear anything until you're accepted or rejected?

Then that means... If you don't hear anything, you're probably on a waitlist.

 

[FPMDPhD]

It means nothing else than there is no wait list. You either get an acceptance letter or you are rejected. That's the policy Dr. Spitalnik said would be implemented this year. They accepted like 40ish people, they'll presumably come to revisit and that's it.

 

[soundnin]

Then that means... If you don't hear anything, you're probably on a waitlist.

or silent rejection? which seems real douchey to do across the board...

 

[StIGMA]

It means nothing else than there is no wait list. You either get an acceptance letter or you are rejected. That's the policy Dr. Spitalnik said would be implemented this year. They accepted like 40ish people, they'll presumably come to revisit and that's it.

1) This is last years thread. You did not need to resurrect it.

2) The traditional policy is no waitlist. You are accepted or rejected. Last year was the only year in recent history with a waitlist.

3) There are no silent rejections. You know if you are accepted, and you know if you are rejected. Decisions are made after all students are interviewed.

4) Please use this years Columbia thread to continue discussion.

 

[Neuronix]

2) The traditional policy is no waitlist. You are accepted or rejected. Last year was the only year in recent history with a waitlist.

3) There are no silent rejections. You know if you are accepted, and you know if you are rejected. Decisions are made after all students are interviewed

This is the part I don't get. If you send out acceptances at some fixed date after you finish interviewing, you can't send out too many and oversubscribe your class. But some people will hold onto the acceptances until the last possible minute before deciding not to come. This means some people will have to be accepted around the deadline for holding one acceptance only.

So those people who were not in the first batch of acceptances, they were on our traditional concept of a waitlist, right? We're just playing semantics here I imagine?

 

[StIGMA]

All decisions are sent at one time. Before decisions are sent, a master list is made of ~30-40 students, and ALL of them are sent acceptances. No other people receive acceptances. Everyone not on the list receives a rejection. This leads to variation in class size year to year, but it has not seemed to be an issue with the program in regards to funding, etc.

 

[thecrabcooker]

I just received a waitlist letter for the MD/PhD Program with a large heading that says, "REVISED DECISION LETTER."

Very intriguing; we'll see how this plays out.