stats for Columbia interview

[drzing]

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Taken from the Interview thread (from smmypants)--I'm also curious about this.

"For those of you who got invited to Columbia, do you mind sharing your stats?

I'm a bit nervous that because I don't go to a top tier med school I won't have a shot at Columbia. Does anyone know if they tend to favor students at top med schools?"

 

[typhoonegator]

Taken from the Interview thread (from smmypants)--I'm also curious about this.

"For those of you who got invited to Columbia, do you mind sharing your stats?

I'm a bit nervous that because I don't go to a top tier med school I won't have a shot at Columbia. Does anyone know if they tend to favor students at top med schools?"

Essentially everybody favors students at top schools, that's just reality. They've been vetted and most of those top schools are well known for a reason. But remember that there just aren't that many people from each medical school class that go into neurology. Even if there are 8 people from HMS that want to go into neuro this year (and there are rarely that many), it's not like they are all going to want to go to Columbia.

It's pretty easy for programs to make arbitrary cutoffs for step 1 or 2 scores. It's a lot more involved to tell the residency coordinator to make a list of applicants from a specific list of schools that the PD decides are "good enough". And most PDs are not like that anyway. Some PDs have good relationships and good experiences with specific schools, but that doesn't close the deal by itself.

People have all sorts of reasons for going to specific medical schools, and the best students at each school tend to be relatively similar to each other. Not everyone at HMS gets a 260 on their boards, and not everyone at Hollywood Upstairs Medical College gets a 170. Also, some "well known" medical schools have small or nonexistent neurology departments, and people can get less good letters and poor advice and bad exposure from those places.

 

[Elipsis]

I'm willing to volunteer this info though I'm not sure if you'll find it helpful or not. I have a high step 1, all clinical honors except surgery, made AOA. However I am not from a top school and have no significant research experience. I have a mentor in the private practice world who trained at Columbia and sent a note up there for me. Honestly I felt very lucky to get this interview as their website specifically mentions the importance of research experience. This will be a tough interview for me; my interest is in academic NCC so this is obviously my dream program.

 

[typhoonegator]

I'm willing to volunteer this info though I'm not sure if you'll find it helpful or not. I have a high step 1, all clinical honors except surgery, made AOA. However I am not from a top school and have no significant research experience. I have a mentor in the private practice world who trained at Columbia and sent a note up there for me. Honestly I felt very lucky to get this interview as their website specifically mentions the importance of research experience. This will be a tough interview for me; my interest is in academic NCC so this is obviously my dream program.

Obviously?

 

[Elipsis]

Every faculty member I've ever mentioned my interests to said something along the lines of "go to Columbia, work with Stephan Mayer." Which is not to say that I wouldn't be pumped to interview at certain other elite institutions in the northeast; I just kind of assumed MGH was reserved for people with superpowers who came out of the womb wielding queen square hammers.

 

[Thama]

people with superpowers who came out of the womb wielding queen square hammers.

I've always wanted to get a Tromner hammer and name/engrave it "Mjolnir".

Well, maybe not always. But still...

 

[typhoonegator]

Mayer is great. However, he is not the only person around who is worth training and working with. There are several institutions with outstanding faculty in NCC. But more importantly, you are not interviewing for an NCC position. You are interviewing for a neurology residency position, and the two are not superimposable. Not everyone in the Columbia NCC fellowship trained at Columbia, just like not everyone in the WashU, Columbia, Duke, Yale, JHU, Maryland Shock/Trauma, or Mayo NCC programs trained at those institutions. Any faculty member who would say there is only one real place to train in NCC is overwhelmingly misinformed.

And my opinion has nothing to do with MGH.