Looking for thoughts/info on Columbia

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lyragrl

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Okay, so I'm starting a Columbia thread, which I know is annoying. But I'm trying to get as much information as possible about the school.

I'm particularly interested in the following:
Are the faculty accessible and into teaching?

How is the clinical training in the third and fourth years? Is it competitive or supportive? How is it graded?

I haven't been given any way of contacting current students when I have questions. Has anybody been in touch with current students?

Are there good study support services? Tutoring? Study groups? Some sort of technology learning center?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!!

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Hey lyragrl



I got a call from a current first year welcoming me to P & S. I'm friends a current 4th yr, so I can direct you to him for questions if u want. Hmm, maybe I can talk him to signing up for SDN to answer Qs for us :)

bonnie
 
It would be great to talk with your friend. I'll pm you my email address.
 
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I'm bumpin' this for the after class/after work crowd... Still looking for input.
 
Try your post in the allopathic thread instead of the pre-med one... I think current students will give you *better*answers than applicants.

Also, try a search on "Columbia" in allopathic-

Good luck!
 
I did both those things. Response in allo was limited. Sometimes more folks troll the pre-allo site, so I decided to try my luck here.
 
Hey Lyragrl,

I am also looking for more info on Columbia. I'm sure you already looked at the old Class of 2007 thread but they had the first year schedule link on it and I thought it was interesting to actually look at the schedule of a typical day at P&S. When exams are, how much clinical time there is, how long are lectures, ect. Here's the link in case you or anyone else is interested: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/ps/affairs/yr1schedule01.pdf
 
Hello everyone,

I am a first year at Columbia. So far I can't really answer about the clinical atmosphere, because I am still in classes, but from what I have picked up it seems to be very supportive.

About the first year. Professors are very accessible and for the most part truly amazing. For instance, Dr. Eric Kandel (Nobel Prize winner) is one of our lecturers in the Neuroscience class along with other all star faculty. I was surprised to find them so personable and so interested in student questions. The course directors even organize these periodic lunches with the class to assess our opinion of how things are going and whether we would like anything changed. This is true of all of our courses, and here you really see changes after you complete evaluations and all, professors are really receptive to student input.

First year here is also pass/ fail, which adds to the sense of cooperativity that I find in my class. We all collaborate with each other extensively and live in very close proximity (in Bard Hall), so there is a lot of space for study groups, asking of questions and late night company in the study lounge or in the library.

That being said, Columbia also has a super fun side. The P&S club is the largest organization of extra curriculars of any medical school in the country. P&S encourages its students to pursue interests outside of medicine, in fact, in the second year we are actually required to take a class in the humanities or arts (anything that doesn't relate to medicine at all) so that we don't lose that side.

I will be happy to answer any other questions that you have. What helped me last year was to play around in the internet and visit websites. Look at the pictures, the posts, it is interesting how much you learn about how things work at this place and what the students are like just from looking at their websites.

Good luck in your decision,
IntlMD07

PS: If you decide to visit again, let me know, I would be happy to take you around... I really love it here!


That is
 
Originally posted by IntlMD07
school in the country. P&S encourages its students to pursue interests outside of medicine, in fact, in the second year we are actually required to take a class in the humanities or arts (anything that doesn't relate to medicine at all) so that we don't lose that side.

That's really interesting. How are those classes organized? Do you go down to the main campus to take "regular" undergrad and graduate classes or are they organized by the medical school?

I'm also curious to hear to what extent people take advantage of the Morningside Heights campus. Do people ever take classes down there or otherwise use that campus's resources? For example: voice lessons, learning a language, extracirruculars outside the P&S club.... I figure it's quite a trek when there's so much to do within the med school.

Speaking of which, what's the quality of these extracirruculars at P&S? When I see the lists of all those clubs, I can't help but wonder how so few could students could sustain all those activities. I'm tempted to think there's no way all or even a majority of those organizations have heavy participation and high quality, but then again it seems P&S is a pretty extraordinary place in that respect.

Thanks for your advice!
 
Well, the answer to your question is both. We can take any class in any Columbia school (law, business, Barnard, College etc...) at any time in our education for free. I took a class in the School of Public Health last semester and am planning to take one in the Nutrition program in the fall. For the second year requirement you can either take any class at morningside or take one of the ones offered up here (they have photography and a few other things).

We do take advantage of Morningside quite a lot. I love the library down there and try to go as much as possible on pretty days. It is only a few subway stops away and there is a free shuttle that runs between the two campuses every day and on weekends until pretty late at night. A lot of people live down there because they like the atmosphere better and come up every morning by train - it is only a 10 minute ride or even less when you are actually in the train.

About the quality of the clubs, you'd be impressed. The plays are really good and fun and the musical mondays are really amazing. Aside from the arts, the other clubs (interest clubs, etc) bring speakers every once in a while and offer food in the meetings (by the way, you don't have to pay for a membership to most of these, with the exception of the Society of Bacchus, the wine tasting club). For Bacchus, they have tastings once a month or so where they will bring a lecturer, wine and some food - Bacchus is everyone's favorite, they are a lot of fun!
 
IntlMD,

Thanks for telling us all about the P&S clubs, you just made waitlistees like myself feel that we're missing out sooo much *sigh* waiting...waiting... ;)
 
Intlmed,

what nutrition course are you planning on taking? i went to the Institute of Human Nutrition at P&S for a M.S. curious to hear what nutrition course you are taking b/c some were good while others were horrible.

pm me if you want any advice on which to take.

best of luck.
 
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