Committee Support

Eligibility | Letters | Forms | Deferred Application | Ineligible Students | Reapplicants to Medical School

Most medical schools expect applicants will have support of the institution where they completed their premedical preparation. At GS, support is provided by the Premedical Committee made up of the advising deans of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program.

Beyond the minimum academic eligibility, the Committee's support is determined by evidence of the student's superior academic preparation, fitness for a career in medicine, fulfillment of the clinical experience requirement, and recommendations provided by Columbia faculty members, instructors at previous schools, and employers and volunteer supervisors.

Students seeking support should heed to the advice of the Premedical Committee, including that of their assigned advisor, about how best to prepare and strengthen their records. The Premedical Committee reserves the absolute privilege to deny its support to any student.

Eligibility
The Premedical Committee provides individualized, institutional letters of support recommending students who are applying for studies at medical, dental, veterinary, and other allied health schools. To be eligible for a committee letter, students must meet the following standards:

• Enrollment within the School of General Studies for a minimum of two semesters.


• Completion of a minimum of 15 credits of mathematics and science coursework within the prescribed curriculum, which includes concurrent enrollment in the organic chemistry and the biology sequences (the “orgo-bio year”) or approved advanced level courses.


• A minimum 3.0 grade point average in math and science courses by the end of spring semester prior to the application year taken as part of the premedical sciences GS curriculum. (Two consecutive semesters of a term or cumulative GPA less than 3.0 disqualify students from eligibility.)


• No letter grades below a C (2.0).


• Completion of a minimum of 120 hours of volunteer or paid clinical healthcare work with a letter verifying these hours.


• Submission of all materials required for committee evaluation and support by the specified deadlines (published in the GS Academic Calendar), including at least two letters of recommendation from Columbia science faculty members.


• An interview with the Committee.


• Completion of premedical coursework at Columbia. (Students who start their premedical coursework at Columbia but complete it elsewhere are ineligible for committee support.)


• Completion of the program in good standing.

Letters
With the exception of letters for linkage candidates, letters are prepared in the summer after the Premedical Committee has reviewed all the student applications for committee support received by the end of June. Students whose applications to the Committee are not complete, or who have not met the eligibility requirements by the stated deadline, may apply for a letter in the next application cycle.

Back to Top

Forms
Committee forms are for current students and are password protected.
Application Guidelines are for current students and are password protected.

Back to Top

Deferred Application
For students who defer their application to medical school beyond their last year in the program, the Committee will write a letter of support within three years of completion of the program, provided that all other eligibility requirements have been met and the internal deadlines for a committee letter are observed. Students who postpone application to medical school after completing the postbac program are advised to keep active in a health-related field in order to be considered serious candidates for medical school.

Ineligible Students
Students who do not meet eligibility requirements for a committee letter are advised to be in contact with the preprofessional staff of their undergraduate institutions who may be able to provide an institutional letter of support. Alternatively, students may use the dossier service of Columbia's Center for Career Education, which will collect, collate, and send out letters of recommendation from faculty members and other evaluators.

Back to Top

Reapplicants to Medical School
The number of applicants to American medical schools continues to rise from year to year, while the increases in incoming class seats have been slow and modest. Consequently, every year there are qualified applicants who may be denied admission to medical school.

To apply to medical school and be denied admission can be a great disappointment to premeds after all the effort they have devoted to their academic studies and fieldwork, not to mention to the application process itself.

Reapplicant Toolkit
The Reapplicant Toolkit is designed to guide prospective reapplicants through a comprehensive and fair assessment of themselves as applicants and thereby prepare them to submit strong and compelling reapplications, should they choose to do so. Well-prepared, thoughtful premeds who submit their reapplications in a timely way have reasonable success in gaining admission to medical school.

Back to Top