2019-2020 Columbia VP&S

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medschoolthrowaway2020 said:
Whats with the student activity questionnaire? It says it’s not received but I can’t actually find a form to fill out and send them.
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I emailed and they said it would be available in a week or so
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Members don't see this ad :)
Anyone know when financial aid offers are emailed?
 
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If anyone on this thread has had success with aid negotiations can you please DM me? I'm trying to hear the experiences of as many people as i can.
 
does anyone know the breakdown of need or where to find it? like what "brackets" of income/help there are and how much aid they give to each
 
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aid package received. i've never been so happy looking at a spreadsheet. thank you lords of VP&S.
 
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I'm waitlisted, does anyone know if you get to see your financial aid if you get off the waitlist? (before you decide to accept the spot) I'm pretty happy with the school I'm going to now but if Columbia made it rain I'd be tempted to go.
 
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Does anyone know if a letter of intent is necessary to come off the wait list? I Would love to attend Columbia but unfortunately I can't make a blind commitment without knowing aid as I have a very generous scholarship at a different school.
 
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Student189045 said:
Does anyone know if a letter of intent is necessary to come off the wait list? I Would love to attend Columbia but unfortunately I can't make a blind commitment without knowing aid as I have a very generous scholarship at a different school.
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I don’t know much about letters of intent but the aid at Columbia is hella generous. Both need based and merit. It might be worth reaching out to the aid office.
 
mass-premed66 said:
I don’t know much about letters of intent but the aid at Columbia is hella generous. Both need based and merit. It might be worth reaching out to the aid office.
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But you can keep yourself on the waitlist until June or July and accept the other offer.
 
Just withdrew! Hope the spot does some good for someone!
 
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Withdrew. So sad to let this school go! Hope my spot goes to someone. Best of luck guys :)
 
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Hi guys, I'm currently on the waitlist, and I'm wondering if anyone is willing to share what financial aid at VP&S is looking like? How do they calculate their "100% of financial need," and do you find it to be accurate in terms of your needs?

I'm just asking to gauge how to feel about my other dream school's offer on the tinyyy chance I get accepted here later on.
 
stressed0-0 said:
Hi guys, I'm currently on the waitlist, and I'm wondering if anyone is willing to share what financial aid at VP&S is looking like? How do they calculate their "100% of financial need," and do you find it to be accurate in terms of your needs?

I'm just asking to gauge how to feel about my other dream school's offer on the tinyyy chance I get accepted here later on.
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They do two calculations, one based on parent income and one based on assets. If your parents make less than $125,000, they do not expect a contribution to tuition based on income. However, they can still calculate one based on assets.

That’s all that is included regarding their calculations on the award letter. They also do match merit aid but I assume that goes through a dif process. Good luck!!
 
mass-premed66 said:
They do two calculations, one based on parent income and one based on assets. If your parents make less than $125,000, they do not expect a contribution to tuition based on income. However, they can still calculate one based on assets.

That’s all that is included regarding their calculations on the award letter. They also do match merit aid but I assume that goes through a dif process. Good luck!!
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woah the merit aid match is huge news for me. Do you have any other details on whether that’s just for special circumstances or if they always match?

I have a substantial scholarship from another school that was preventing me from writing a letter of intent to Columbia because I didn’t want to commit to paying a huge amount more should they actually take me off the waitlist (I know the chance is low anyway)
 
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MDapplicant578124 said:
woah the merit aid match is huge news for me. Do you have any other details on whether that’s just for special circumstances or if they always match?

I have a substantial scholarship from another school that was preventing me from writing a letter of intent to Columbia because I didn’t want to commit to paying a huge amount more should they actually take me off the waitlist (I know the chance is low anyway)
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PM me! Don’t think I can start a conversation with you
 
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If anyone gets a WL acceptance call, please let the rest of us anxious folks know! (So we can grow even more anxious lol)
 
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Accepted off the waitlist! Call came in at 10am, pacific time!
 
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Y’all I got the call!!!! I can’t believe it! Don’t know anything about financial aid yet but still so hype
 
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Would someone be down to talk to be about their financial aid package and about how parental assets affect the calculation?
 
RockyMtDr said:
Would someone be down to talk to be about their financial aid package and about how parental assets affect the calculation?
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To the best of my understanding, it is 6% per year of parental assets excluding primary home and retirement funds. Plus a sliding percent of parental income from 0-45%.

This calculator works decently as an EFC estimate:
www.tamingthehighcostofcollege.com

Financial Aid & Student Aid Index (SAI/EFC) Calculator - 2024-25

Financial Aid & Student Aid Index (SAI/EFC) Calculator - 2024-25
www.tamingthehighcostofcollege.com www.tamingthehighcostofcollege.com
 
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Congrats to everyone who got off the WL! Is there a chance to get off the WL if you sent a letter of interest and not a letter of intent? Has it happened in the past?

I think Columbia is a relatively high yield school so the little WL movement they have might be for people who sent intents.
 
bluejay2019 said:
Congrats to everyone who got off the WL! Is there a chance to get off the WL if you sent a letter of interest and not a letter of intent? Has it happened in the past?

I think Columbia is a relatively high yield school so the little WL movement they have might be for people who sent intents.
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I know of a couple people who sent letters of interest and got in recently
 
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to the people who have gotten in off the waitlist - how long do they give you to decide? and do they let you get a financial aid package before deciding?
 
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filthy_premed said:
to the people who have gotten in off the waitlist - how long do they give you to decide? and do they let you get a financial aid package before deciding?
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Think you should have at least 5 biz days to respond right now according to the AAMC traffic rules. I’ll let someone else chime in regarding the financial aid award letter but their office seems to be very responsive, for what it’s worth!
 
relax1234 said:
Think you should have at least 5 biz days to respond right now according to the AAMC traffic rules. I’ll let someone else chime in regarding the financial aid award letter but their office seems to be very responsive, for what it’s worth!
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Correct.
 
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relax1234 said:
Think you should have at least 5 biz days to respond right now according to the AAMC traffic rules. I’ll let someone else chime in regarding the financial aid award letter but their office seems to be very responsive, for what it’s worth!
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proudofmykids said:
Correct.
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is this 5 days to accept the acceptance in the portal or 5 days to PTE (or CTE) and withdraw your other acceptance (or both)?
 
Wondering if any current students on here could speak to how closely the cost of attendance budget matches their experience? From what I calculated, $67,405 of the $93,064 total CoA goes to tuition and required fees. That leaves $25,659 for rent, food, and other living expenses. Is this do-able in Washington Heights? Could I get away with budgeting a little less -- say, $22k, if I plan on spending about $1,000 in rent? About how much do students find they are spending on rent, and then on living expenses other than rent? Any insight would be much appreciated!!
 
femmebot said:
Wondering if any current students on here could speak to how closely the cost of attendance budget matches their experience? From what I calculated, $67,405 of the $93,064 total CoA goes to tuition and required fees. That leaves $25,659 for rent, food, and other living expenses. Is this do-able in Washington Heights? Could I get away with budgeting a little less -- say, $22k, if I plan on spending about $1,000 in rent? About how much do students find they are spending on rent, and then on living expenses other than rent? Any insight would be much appreciated!!
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If you have your own health insurance already, you can remove that expensive line item from the Columbia estimate and get to your number.
 
proudofmykids said:
If you have your own health insurance already, you can remove that expensive line item from the Columbia estimate and get to your number.
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Thanks, and I already didn't include the insurance in my numbers above.
 
30 people have joined the groupme in the last week.. so there’s definitely more movement than has been posted here!
 
mass-premed66 said:
30 people have joined the groupme in the last week.. so there’s definitely more movement than has been posted here!
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I think some of the people that joined the groupme were already accepted but just late to join lol. But ya looking at the facebook group I think about 20 people were added in the past few days.
 
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For anyone that participated In the virtual second look:
Does anyone have the class of 2024 academic calendar for VP&S?
Also, is move-in day the day of Orientation, or before?
 
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