questions about columbia's secondary

[sweatybrain]

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I have a few questions about the Columbia supplementary application.

1) Do we use the AMCAS's definition to calculate the "science" GPA? In my specific case, the grades from my engineering classes were not used in my AMCAS BCPM GPA calculation. What about comp sci classes?

2) I took a class at a nearby college in high school. Do I need to send in a transcript from that college? Or is it sufficient to include just the undergraduate and graduate transcripts? From reading the instruction, it seems that they want only college transcripts...(Do we need to send in a copy? since they will have a copy from the AMCAS?)

3) The following quote is on the application home page:

"Once you have submitted your secondary application you must forward a photo, passport size, along with your letters of recommendation."

Am I correct in inferring that I should collect my letters and send them to P&S?* Or should the recommender send the letter to Columbia directly?

good luck to everyone!

 

[pjm]

For all of your questions, just call the admissions office and ask.

Regarding the science GPA, for most schools this is BCPM. CS and engineering don't count.

For any school, your letters should be sent by your recommenders or by a letter service. Given the number of recommendations you'll probably be sending, use a service so that the only thing your recommenders need to do is send a letter once. Ask your school's premed office for details.

 

[LRmed2003]

I have a few questions about the Columbia supplementary application.

1) Do we use the AMCAS's definition to calculate the "science" GPA? In my specific case, the grades from my engineering classes were not used in my AMCAS BCPM GPA calculation. What about comp sci classes?

2) I took a class at a nearby college in high school. Do I need to send in a transcript from that college? Or is it sufficient to include just the undergraduate and graduate transcripts? From reading the instruction, it seems that they want only college transcripts...(Do we need to send in a copy? since they will have a copy from the AMCAS?)

3) The following quote is on the application home page:

"Once you have submitted your secondary application you must forward a photo, passport size, along with your letters of recommendation."

Am I correct in inferring that I should collect my letters and send them to P&S?* Or should the recommender send the letter to Columbia directly?

good luck to everyone!

These are my responses to your ??
1) for you BCPM, do not use comp sci.. BCPM is only bio, chem, physics, and math courses, as these are the pre-med requirements..if i were you..i would enter the same BCPM GPA that AMCAS has on your app...you don't want them to think that you are trying to inflate your GPA. try to stay consistent with AMCAS...
2) i also don't think you need to submit the transcript from the class you took in high school. if your undergrad school accepted the credit, it will be on your transcript
3) the recommender should always send the letters themselves...otherwise you may have had the opportunity to "doctor" the letter yourself.. sooo..send the photo yourself with any other supporting documents you may want to submit, i.e. resume, etc.


hope this helps..

~~~LR

 

[pjm]

These are my responses to your ??
2) i also don't think you need to submit the transcript from the class you took in high school. if your undergrad school accepted the credit, it will be on your transcript

Individual schools probably do not care about your college class, but AMCAS definitely does. AMCAS demands transcripts from every college you ever got a grade at. High school classes are marked as "HS" in the status area (instead of FR/SO/GR/etc.)

"List every post-secondary institution where you have enrolled for at least one course, even if credits have
been transferred, no credits were earned, or you withdrew."
http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2004instructionbook.pdf

This policy generally boosts your overall GPA, assuming you did well in your pre-college college. Many colleges do not give a letter grade for classes that you get credit for, just a line item saying "X credits granted." This doesn't figure into the GPA. The pre-college transcript gets just as much weight as your college transcripts.

If you leave it off, you might raise questions from people (AMCAS or adcoms) who wonder where those extra credits came from.

 

[Scubadoc]

how about where to put AP credits on the Columbia application? It has a place for 1st yr, 2nd yr etc but nowhere for high school classes that gave us college credit. I also didn't have enough room to put my Post bacc classes and had to upload a document. Anyone else have these issues?

 

[UDbiochem]

did you guys get "invited" to fill out a secondary already? I haven't heard anything... just wondering... sorry if this is a paranoid question.

 

[UCLAstudent]

did you guys get "invited" to fill out a secondary already? I haven't heard anything... just wondering... sorry if this is a paranoid question.

I was wondering the same thing, lol. 🙂

 

[calstudent]

hey, for those looking for columbia's secondary, just go to their website and you can start filling it out, its been available for a couple weeks. i dont think anyone's been specifically invited on it...

also, there are a few other threads on secondaries already out, so you may want to search for those.

 

[pjm]

The secondary this year was the entire application last year. (Columbia didn't use AMCAS in 2003.)

It's a lousy form for people with lots of postbacc/AP/grad credit. Just do the best you can to shoehorn your app in the blanks, and upload a one page Word doc that has the rest of your classes and grades in a nice table, with some explanatory text. Keep in mind that they will have your AMCAS app as well; I imagine you could even write something like "please see my AMCAS application for a full listing of my postbacc classes."

 

[UCLAstudent]

This secondary is really bad ... I feel like I am filling out AMCAS again.

 

[LRmed2003]

how about where to put AP credits on the Columbia application? It has a place for 1st yr, 2nd yr etc but nowhere for high school classes that gave us college credit. I also didn't have enough room to put my Post bacc classes and had to upload a document. Anyone else have these issues?

scuba doc, i think there is a place at the end of the app. where you can upload documents in support of your grades.. i uploaded a copy of my transcript that I had. i would upload your HS/AP grades in that section. make a word file or something.. if nothing else, find the grades and mail them in as well... you're better safe than sorry. better to have more in support of your app than less.