How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
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How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
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How did you prepare for the interview?
You use to be able to get into columbia's site through a back entrance and avoid all the application/generic stuff....however, since about april they have been tightening security and many of these sites now have access denied. I also had dinner with a second year which helped so much! She recommended you go in with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and if it is your first choice tell them! If you can really talk to a student, they give a much different perspective (more positive) than what was on the web site.
What impressed you positively?
My interviewer was amazing! The admissions office staff is also incredible, they told me a little about my interviewer before my interviewer (he wrote an opera, swims a couple miles each morning, invovled extensively with the P&S club, gets musical performance tickets for the students on a regular basis) later I found out he has been teacher of the year numerous times, the students love him, alumnus of the school etc...and also an amazing person to talk to and alumnus of the school. We also interviewed in a kitchenette, this may sound corny but I liked it...to me it really encompassed what I liked about columbia, the we get down and dirty no matter what the surroundings are, their reputation comes from the amazing people who are there not the frills that the school throws you...Columbia is a place where you work hard and learn even more where it encourages you to maintain medicine as your primary focus and also explore fields outside of it!
What impressed you negatively?
The other people in the room. I had heard that these interviews were like pressure cookers. I have to admit the only thing I found stressful were the other applicants! (which is what raised my interview from a 3 to a 7) They just dropped little details about how great they were and what inteviews they had, had and one even mentioned that this was his back up school!@#$@ You sit in this room and people are called out one by one (so don't bother to show up too early!) my interviewer was over an hour late so I just sat their getting more nervous! People would come out of their interviews and say that was the most stressful interview they had ever had! I don't know if they were trying to play head games with you or what? Fortunately, I did not see them at revisit weekend.....I had also heard that
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
Actually 2 of us in my interview group got in, so statistically it is more than 1 ;) Couples housing is extremely easy to qualify for (and doesn't include financial information of your partner, unlike other schools)-which qualifies for a subsidized apartment inthe towers which are beautiful! That you don't have to be supper human to get in or have the spotless record. I was shocked to get invited for an interview...if you get an interview you are on just as equal ground as everyone else in the room! That you get the opportunity to rotate through every specialty and many sub-specialties (much more extensive than most schools), without having to wait until fourth year to try it as an elective!
What are your general comments?
After talking to others about their interview experience, they vary drastically. Some had intense interviews, some had 10 minute interviews some had an hour and a half. Go in be yourself and try to express: what you will add to the class. Many people say that the head admissions dean hand picks a class, some may consider it a negative (and I can pretty much say that I have proof that he relies heavily on the itnerviewers and their opinions) but on the other side of the coin, it means that they pick a more diverse class than the 43+ and 4.0...
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
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