Columbia vs Cornell

[LeylaManka]

Frankly, I’m really excited about both these schools and feeling very torn. Right now my interests lie somewhere between emergency medicine, ob/gyn and surgery - so basically I’m all over the map and frankly very open to having my mind changed over the next four years. I am interested in doing research, but I don’t know in what area quite yet. Both schools are similar in that they are located in NYC with access to amazing hospitals and research facilities, and around 1.5 preclinical years which are P/F (unranked). Here’s my breakdown so far:

Columbia VP&S

Pros: Slightly higher ranked, but I don’t think this is enough to be a significant factor in my decision (thoughts?). Based on the campus tour, the med school’s preclinical facilities (classrooms, lecture halls, anatomy lab) are far better than Cornell’s thanks to the new Vagelos education center. Free clinics like CoSMO and CHHMP seem accessible, well established, and a great opportunity to learn from underserved populations. The P&S clubs also seem well funded and connected to the arts, which is important to me.

Cons: Washington Heights isn’t the most exciting place to live in NYC. I would rather live somewhere more central. I stayed in the student dorms during my interview and was extremely underwhelmed - not even having a shared kitchen on each floor would make cooking (and thus saving on that aspect of budget) difficult. On the other hand, I might be living with my partner who would be working downtown so I wonder if finding a convenient place for both of us to live may be tough.

Weill Cornell

Pros: While not as brand new as Columbia’s, Cornell’s facilities are still very nice. It also has a community clinic and lots of student organizations. I think it has an edge on Columbia in its global health connections. It might be easier to do a rotation abroad, for example, which interests me. I also think the student accommodation they offer is nicer and I believe less expensive. In terms of location, I’d rather be on the UES as long as I was living in Cornell’s housing, for the sake of cost.

Cons: While I don’t have my financial aid packages yet, Cornell is not yet offering debt free tuition including living expenses, as Columbia is. For that reason it may end up being the more expensive option, though I hear rumblings that it may be offered soon? This may be very nebulous, but I wasn’t as impressed with the students I met on interview day and while they have a lot of student groups, I didn’t get the impression that they were as well attended or funded as at Columbia. All my cons here are obviously based on a small sample size and vague impressions though.

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In the end, cost may be my deciding factor here, but in case it’s roughly the same I would love to hear people’s thoughts. Thanks!

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[Avada Cadaver]

I’m a first year at WCMC, but based on your discriptors you seem to prefer Columbia, so I would heavily lean that way. I would not use housing to decide (you only have to live in bard hall for a year, and towers is pretty good).Try to attend second look to get better idea.

Trying to address some of your other points, not sure what you mean by impressive (Everyone is usually doing their thing, we don’t get asked by admissions to go flex on interviewees), but everyone is funded for the summer and our student groups/orgs are pretty well funded; to name a few we have music an medicine, there is an art show put on by the students that has a budget of $50k. Cascades a mentoring org that just started this year received $4 million in fundings.

As for clinics, we have WCC a free clinic run by med students and residents. It’s like 300 feet away from first year housing and there are no shortage in opportunities to get involved. WCCHR- a student run clinic that provides care for survivors of torture asylum seekers. As a medical student in WCCHR, you’d also interview asylum seekers and prepare their medical affadavit. There’s also heart-to-heart and eye-to-eye, mobile heart and eye clinics that serve underserved populations in NYC outside Manhattan.

I will say the Vagelos education center is beautiful af. But our student center/study (for use by only medical students) is also undergoing a $12.5m two story renovation/expansion set to finish this summer.

 

[LeylaManka]

Thanks for all that info! Could you talk about rotations at all? Do you know what percentage of students tend to get honors and/or whether there’s a quota?

 

[Avada Cadaver]

Thanks for all that info! Could you talk about rotations at all? Do you know what percentage of students tend to get honors and/or whether there’s a quota?

I'm an M1 so I couldn't really tell you anything about clerkship but there is no quota on who gets honors.

 

[puahate]

The cheaper one.

 

[lalalallala]

I feel like you are leaning towards Columbia so I would go with that. Columbia's funding can't be beat - both activities wise and tuition. I feel like if you lived with your partner in more central Manhattan then your problem with Columbia would be gone