<p>Anybody knows if Columbia University pre-med advising has a good reputation? From what I’ve heard they are very selective, but I would like to hear what you guys know.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the process at all, although I’m sure Shraf will have something to say.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “selective”? Do you mean that not all Columbia premeds are allowed to apply? If that’s true, that would severely harm their reputation!</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it is, but I say of John Hopkins, has their medical school advising committee really hurt their reputation?</p>
<p>Among the members of this board - which is how I interpreted Eniten’s question - absolutely.</p>
<p>By selective I meant that it doesn’t really matter if you complete all the requirements of pre-med program; if you don’t have the 3.0 GPA in BCOM they won’t give you the recomandation letter. (Even if your major GPA is 4.0 it doesn’t matter to them.). Not only that, for that damn letter you are taken into interviews and you have to show to them all your voluntere work, recomandation letters and so on. And from what I have read here, all this sounds very much like the second interview with medical schools…</p>
<p>This is what made me confused…
Any thoughts?</p>
<p>First, I want to say that I think their response is a little bit extreme. And by a little bit, I mean very. To refuse to give you a recommendation at all is a major restriction on your choices.</p>
<p>A few, smaller points:
(1) You have to understand that medical schools don’t care about your major GPA, and so it’s therefore appropriate for your premed advisor to ignore that as well. I don’t mean that they should refuse to write you a letter, I mean only that IF they’re going to refuse to write people letters, it makes sense for them to use the BCPM GPA as the cutoff.</p>
<p>(2) You also have to understand that an applicant with less than a 3.0 BCPM is not going to be admitted to medical school. There are exceptions, but not many of them. While it should be the student’s choice, and not Columbia’s, I have to say that there are some students for whom Columbia is saving a great deal of pain down the line. Let me reemphasize: I think Columbia’s policy is wrong. I am merely pointing out one of its benefits.</p>
<p>(3) Duke also, actually, asks for an interview, an application summary, and your faculty letters of recommendation before they write your committee letter, for the simple reason that more information can help them write a better letter. Duke, however, is not restrictive about its letters, nor will it sabotage you.</p>
<p>Yes, this sounds very much like a medical school admissions process. That’s a good thing! The interview helps give your officer more information as well as prepare you for real medical school interviews!</p>
<p>There is only one round of interviews with each medical school, by the way. I don’t know what you mean by the “second interview”.</p>
<p>What is UCLA’s reputation with regards of pre-med? Is it a good place to pursue it, how is the advising system, research opportunities, other resources? What is the academic quality of their program? And how does it all compare to other UCs (e.g., UCB & UCSD) and private schools like Cornell?</p>
<p>hey gadler, I’m a ucla premed, so I can try to answer your questions.</p>
<p>We don’t have much of an advising system (not one specifically for premed). As far as I know, you would have to get information yourself from the internet, etc.</p>
<p>There are lots of research opportunities here… and we even have a new biomedical research minor if you’re that interested in research. Personally, I believe UCLA is the best place to go for pre-med out of all the UCs. I can’t say compared to other privates though.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, ookla. Can you please elaborate a little bit about what you like about the program, and what its shortcomings are? Do you find it difficult to navigate without the support of a dedicated advising staff? What % of the classes are taught by professors, and how accessible & competent are they? Do they show a genuine interest in teaching or are they mostly immersed in research?
Same questions about Cal, if anyone seeing this wouldn’t mind providing feedback.</p>
<p>The main shortcoming is just that there are so many people enrolled here…large class sizes and it might be hard to get the ideal schedule that you want unless you have early enrollment times.</p>
<p>Otherwise, there are a lot of pre-meds here and so there are lots of extracurricular activities available geared towards that.</p>
<p>I’ve had a little trouble figuring out what to do (in terms of classes) without pre-med advising but I’ve been fine so far. Just had to do a little research on my own. I really don’t know what pre-med advising at other schools entails, but it doesn’t seem to be all that necessary.</p>
<p>I’ve had some “ok” professors and some really awesome ones. Most of my professors have been good teachers… I haven’t met any that seem to be too immersed in their research to care about students yet. Overall, I think UCLA is a fine place to go for premed.</p>
<p>Thanks, ookla. I’ve also heard (and this not being specific to premed), that because of the difficulty of getting in the right class at the right time, a good percentage of undergrads need an extra year to graduate. Is that true? If so, is it as common in the honors program?</p>
<p>I don’t have any real statistics to give you, but I haven’t heard of anybody here having to take an extra year because of this… for me, it’s more of an inconvenience rather than an actual delay (many times you would just go ahead and attend the class if you weren’t enrolled and ask the professor in the first week to let you in once people start dropping). Honors program will give you priority enrollment, but even that can fail you (only a certain number of spots in each class are reserved for Honors students).</p>
<p>It’s not a huge problem, just an annoying one.</p>
<p>My D is pre-med at Cal, though she was not certain of that when she began, she just did what she liked. She is not thrilled with the advising there because in her case, she is following a less traditional path- not doing MCB with the perfect little schedule as designed by the school and that bugs some of the people she has had as advisors.</p>
<p>Some were very critical of her taking the time to do study abroad; that said, she is on track to finish in four years, has all but one of her “required” for med school classes done and has been having a great time, Greek, sports, etc.</p>
<p>The study abroad meant she would take the MCAT later than usual to go directly into med school after UG, but that is her plan anyway, so no problem.</p>
<p>I am more impressed with the info I get on CC than what she gets. If she were not so strong willed and if I were not on CC, she might get lost in the crowd or lost in the process, but she is doing what needs to be done and doing well.</p>
<p>I guess the proof (or not) will come next year!</p>
<p>Hi again, just wanted to let you know, after my DD called with a complaint yesterday about her advisor giving her very negative advice; she already ran into an administrative person who told her where to go, who to talk to and the right “words” to use (which were the same as I already told her based on info here;)) to get an advisor open to her unusual path to med school.</p>
<p>So, in just a few short hours she found some one (not even looking) who could give her direction.</p>
<p>We had the same experience at another UC, when you are gutsy enough and willing to ask, the non-faculty long-time admin staff really know and understand the system and can give you some excellent advice as to how to make the system work for you.</p>
<p>But there is no hand holding, you have to seek and ask</p>