Accepted Columbia ETP applicants (and current students: some advice). get-together?

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:welcome: Hi everyone! I thought it might be a good idea to get our own separate thread for those accepted to Columbia ETP! Sure we have a lot to discuss!

I would also like to invite current students to this topic to share your experiences and answer some questions.:idea:

Here is one question that is really bothering me.

I have been working and studying simultaneously for the past 4 years, and to tell the truth I am really tired. Will financial help from Columbia (both scholarship and loans) allow me to only study? In particular, how much money do they give every month for living expenses? If you feel uncomfortable writing about it in public, personal messages are welcome too

Aside from this, - congrats to all those accepted and really looking forward to meeting you! :balloons:

Oh, by the way, I am Women's Health! What about you?;)

Specializes in L&D.

Hello all, just wanted to try to keep this thread active. I'm excited and nervous to start. Has everyone signed up for their columbia.edu e-mail account?

I'm trying to gather of list of things that I might need. I have a PDA, shoes, highlighters, pens...what are other people bringing?

dg

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Ack! Do we need to have a PDA this year? I thought it was just the second year that we needed one!

I feel so behind on all of this, because it took me so long to make up my mind that I was actually going. I JUST got my financial aid and health forms done!

Luckily, I've found housing! If anyone's still looking for off campus housing for the summer try: http://www.studenthousing.org.

SOOO excited, and yet extremely nervous at the same time. Can't wait to meet everyone though!!

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Specializes in L&D.

Re: PDA

This is on the page for accepted ETP students under Next Steps:

" Information Technology

It is expected that you come to the school with some basic informatics knowledge: word processing, database searching on the internet and the use of e-mail. If you do not have a PDA already, you should consider purchasing one. While you are in the first year of the program, using a PDA for handy point-of-care reference is invaluable. Further, when you transition in the specialty phase of the program, you will use a PDA not only for reference but also to record patient care information. The most useful point of care references include:

  • A drug reference
  • A lab value resource
  • A medical terminology dictionary
  • Risk assessment tools of various types.
  • Suggested Devices
    • Tungsten E2 (Palm OS 5.0)*
    • Tungsten C (Palm OS 4.5)*
    • T5 (Palm OS 5.0) *
    • LifeDrive (Palm OS 5.0)
    • Palm TX (Palm OS 5.0)

Treo 700P (**Treo 700W is not supported) "

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Specializes in Diabetes, Primary care.

Dear dg05, thank you for renewing this thread.

About the stuff: I thought the penlight was included in out supply package, am I wrong?

I have set up an account at cubmail, but nothing significant arrived in that mailbox yet ;)

Since I haven't received anything from Columbia in a long while, I even started to wondering am I really going? Is it really happening? Sallie Mae gave me a little of hard time, but now they said that my portion of application is complete, and they will work with the school from this point. Oh... I am worried a little bit, I've never applied for private loans and stuff before...

I haven't bought shoes yet... I am in a kind of financial dire straits right now, so I'm putting all possible purchases aside.

By the way, it wasn't clear from their explanation: when can we expect to get the first check for expenses, like books and stuff? One more thing - no one asked me if I have a health insurance, they just put the cost on the estimate sheet. I do have one, and quite a good one, and I have no intention of spending another 5000 of borrowed money on additional coverage. What do I do about that?

Ok, that's enough for now.

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Specializes in L&D.

Hi Iriska,

Pen lights are included, I was just talking about writing pens with clicky tops (I've heard a lot of nurses say they really like them because they're easier then pens with lids).

Sallie Mae gave me a bit of a hard time too. They kept calling to say my application wasn't complete when it was. They called last week and said my first disbursement will be May 21. That goes directly to the school but it means that we should have our living expenses portion pretty soon after we arrive.

I think that if you can prove that you have health insurance then you can have that fee waived. They just want to make sure that you have SOME kind of health insurance. I'd call them sooner rather than later to figure out what you need to do to prove to them you have insurance.

We really ARE going !!

dg

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Iriska,

I too am putting off purchasing things, but I think I'll go ahead and get some shoes now. Were there any recommendations that anyone heard of? I'm sure I can search around the forums and find something. I'll probably hold off on buying a PDA for a little while longer though, until I'm sure for what I'll need to use it.

I gave up on Sallie Mae, and went with a private loan from Citibank. No matter where it comes from, $58,000 in private loans is a lot! It took a lot to push that "submit application" button. I hope we get our personal expense money, because I'm moving to NY on basically nothing! I put my summer housing payment on a credit card! :uhoh21: ACK! I've heard you have to really stay on top of the financial aid office, though.

Those of you who got housing in Bard, when do you move in?

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Specializes in Diabetes, Primary care.

Hi meagain, nice to see you here again!

About shoes. Since I know absolutely nothing about shoes, here's what I plan to do (as soon as the school money arrive, he-he): I am going to walk into Foor Locker or somethingl ike that and say - "give me the most comfortable all-white shoes you have. You know, the ones nurses buy." I'm sure they'll come up with a few pairs. I am planning to be stingy with my budget, but I heard that shoes are something that we really shouldn't save money on, because that's our health and energy and ability to go on!

Just out of curiosity, why did you prefer Citibank to Salliemae?

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Most nurses I talk to say, if anything, splurge on your shoes. I've been looking online, but I feel like I really need to try them on to really judge them. Every nurse I've talked to says get a pair of Crocs, but I find them ghastly ugly!! I'd like to find something a little more appealing to the eye, if possible, but I might end up sacrificing fashion for comfort.

And I chose Citibank because I get a much better interest rate through them as opposed to Sallie Mae, and Sallie Mae was a pain to deal with. I couldn't find the information I needed on the website, and got annoyed and felt like they were hiding things. Probably just me being overly skeptical, but I felt more comfortable with Citibank. I'm sure Sallie Mae is fine though. It can't be the #1 lender for nothing!

On a related note, did you all know that Columbia's Financial Aid Director (not Oscar, the director for the entire university) was either let go or resigned because of the whole "preferred lending" scandal? I found that curious! If you aren't familiar with it, basically a bunch of universities are under scrutiny due to accepting kick-backs from lenders (including Sallie Mae) for promoting their loans to students. Not saying that I'm morally opposed to that or anything, just found it somewhat interesting.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Wow reading your posts about loans just now made me incredibly nervous b/c I couldn't remember if I had done both the Federal loan AND the private loan from Sallie Mae... I hadn't received any information or confirmation from them, but I just checked and everything is fine :)

Regarding the other loans listed on the financial aid sheet, is the school handling those?

What type of shoes are recommended? Can we just get some comfortable white sneakers? By when do we need them?

I'm super excited about starting, but also nervous that it will be way too much information to handle over such a short period of time and with such beautiful weather outside!

Good luck to everyone who is moving from out-of-state! I hope the city gives you a proper welcome upon your arrival :)

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Specializes in Diabetes, Primary care.

Ok, this post is for my future c lassmates who, like me, worry about the MONEY!!!

I just got a letter from SallieMae that my loan has been approved, and the first disbursement is on May 21st. SO, if they mail the check to school, then add a week until it gets there and is processed, then, as far as I remember, we have to co-sign them, they deposit it to their account, substract tuition and fees, and are rady to give refund! SOOO, if they work well and we stay on top of them, we may hope to get some much needed CASH in the first week of June... :balloons: :monkeydance:

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Iriska- You can waive the student health insurance (but not the health services fee) by filling out the form at http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/student/health/insurance/waive.html . The page is still set to the spring form, but the summer deadline isn't until June 30, so we have plenty of time.

I'm still holding off on buying shoes because I haven't quite come around to the white-shoes-with-navy-pants look. Sigh. I'll probably end up starting with Crocs and then decide if I want to invest in Danskos later.

I can't believe it's only a month away!

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OoOoh, i'm so excited too!! I already found an apt 2 blocks from the medical center. craigslist rocks!

does anyone know when our first bill from columbia arrives? I'm getting loans too, but I'm also paying a big chunk of it myself, so I need to do some preparation...Are they going to bill us in certain installments (like by month), or do we pay the whole chunk of money for the entire semester at one time?

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