Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons Admission
Columbia University, College of Physicians and
Surgeons Undergraduate Program
Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons Application

The Facts

Columbia University is a rather large, private institution located in New York City, New York, and has a combined graduate and undergraduate population of over 23,810 students. The university's College of Physicians and Surgeons, however, is significantly smaller, and is home to about 633 graduate medical students. The average age of enrollment is around 24, and it is fairly rare for any of the students to enter the school directly from their undergraduate education. The school is perhaps best known for its outstanding reputation within the medical community, as well as for its rather untraditional, integrated curriculum, with its distinctive focus on ethics. The school offers the basic MD degrees, as well as several joint degrees in the MD/MPH, the MD/MBA, and the MD/PhD in the areas of anatomy, biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, pathology, pharmacology, as well as physiology.

Admission to Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons is extremely competitive among the many students who apply; last year, over 2,544 students applied for admission and approximately 280 of those students were accepted. Eventually however, only about 150 of the admitted students actually enrolled for the coming semester. The admitted students had average MCAT scores of 12.0 in Biology, 12.2 in Physics, and an 11.2 in Verbal, as well as an average undergraduate GPA of about a 3.7. Students are notified of their admissions status by mid-February, and are able to take advantage of the school's early application program if they so choose.

Graduates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons are often accepted to some of the most competitive and prestigious residency programs in the country. Students often specialize in the areas of academic medical practices, medical research, as well as primary care and pediatrics.

Clinical Programs

Students at the College of Physicians and Surgeons complete a rigorous and diverse clinical training which includes rotations of 10 weeks in general medicine, 5 weeks in surgery, 5 weeks of primary care, 5 weeks of psychiatry, 5 weeks of neurology, 2 weeks of anesthesiology and dermatology, 2 weeks of orthopedics, 2 weeks of urology, 1 weeks of otolaryngology, as well as 1 week of ophthalmology. The fourth year focuses on various one and two month electives. Students are also required to take a "back-to-basic" science elective, including one months seminars in pathophysiology, clinical pharmacology, or clinical pathology. Students complete their clinical training at various affiliated hospitals and research facilities including the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the Harlem Hospital Center, Roosevelt Hospital, as well as St. Luke's Hospital.

What's Good

"You get so much hands on experience which makes you feel a lot more comfortable about your residency."

"The faculty here obviously loves to teach, and they've also had a huge amount of collective professional experience."

"People here are actually very supportive and friendly, not competitive. We help each other through it all."

What's Bad

"Tuition is ridiculous here. Expect to have loads and loads of debt by the time you graduate."

"New York City is simply a very expensive place in which to live. Don't expect to have much time to do anything either."

"There is never enough on campus graduate housing, and finding an affordable apartment in this city is certainly an oddessy."

Get assistance with your Medical School application.

• View our services
• Send a request now
• Read articles about applying to college