Columbia SON MDE 2019

Updated:   Published

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to start this thread for those who are all applying to the Columbia School of Nursing MDE program for 2019 Entry.

I figured we could all share our thoughts/ questions/ concerns here, or just use this to meet some new people ?

My name is Gurdeep, I'm from NY, and I'm a recent Grad from Binghamton University. Looking forward to meeting all of you ?

2 hours ago, The_Salty_Cat said:

The flat-rate tuition took effect for the 2018 cohort, so the 2019 cohort to feel this change. Here is the cost of attendance for 2018-2019. Hope this helps!

Tuition $82,234

CUMC Network Fee $585

Program Fee $150

Simulation Lab Fee $75

Student Activity Fee $105

Technology Fee $150

Transcript Fee $105

Health Insurance Fee $4,053

Room and Board $26,100

Student Health Fees $1,773

Transportation $1,452

Personal Expenses $2,050

Loan Fee $2,094

Budget totals....$123,326

I know this number is high, so you really want to consider the schools you were accepted to, what their financial aid packages look like, sit down and crunch some numbers, what your career goals are, and whether it's worth it to attend Columbia. There are outstanding nursing programs out there. I think my classmates and I can safely say...don't just pay attention to the name of the school.

I'm also a bit curious why the merit scholarship this year went down by almost $10k! I wonder if it's because of the loss of funding from the gov, the new dean, the saturated market in nyc, or just the school trying to make more money, etc.

I didn't know that. How much is the merit scholarship this year? If that is true, that's awful because tuition also goes up 3% every year. We were told that our merit scholarships comes from funding and that varies every year. We do know that finances is a concern for many current MDE students going into the DNP, since we'll be graduating with more debt than the Columbia medical students next door and we'll never make that an MD's salary. I highly recommend you attend visiting days everywhere and ask detail questions and see how faculty and administration respond. It will give you a sense of the programs here and whether you want to attend.

4 minutes ago, The_Salty_Cat said:

I didn't know that. How much is the merit scholarship this year? If that is true, that's awful because tuition also goes up 3% every year. We were told that our merit scholarships comes from funding and that varies every year. We do know that finances is a concern for many current MDE students going into the DNP, since we'll be graduating with more debt than the Columbia medical students next door and we'll never make that an MD's salary. I highly recommend you attend visiting days everywhere and ask detail questions and see how faculty and administration respond. It will give you a sense of the programs here and whether you want to attend.

It's $15k. I know last year was $24k.

4 hours ago, abcdenrse said:

It's $15k. I know last year was $24k.

The max last year was $27k. That's...awful. Feel free to PM me if you have questions about finances.

5 minutes ago, The_Salty_Cat said:

The max last year was $27k. That's...awful. Feel free to PM me if you have questions about finances.

Thank you for letting us know. We will consider for our best interest whether to buy into that Ivy League hype. ?

Absolutely. No nursing school is perfect, but you should know the truth about the good and bad, especially when you're committing to a >100k tuition. We all wish we did our research better ? Though there are advantages of being in the city also.

18 minutes ago, The_Salty_Cat said:

Absolutely. No nursing school is perfect, but you should know the truth about the good and bad, especially when you're committing to a >100k tuition. We all wish we did our research better ? Though there are advantages of being in the city also.

Do you know if most of the MDE graduates stay and are employed as nurses in the city right after graduation?

1 hour ago, The_Salty_Cat said:

The max last year was $27k. That's...awful. Feel free to PM me if you have questions about finances.

Did any students in your cohort receive a need based scholarship on top of the 27k merit scholarship?

Hey all! Regarding some fin aid questions, in my cohort, most students who filed FAFSA received a 24K need based scholarship. We also received merit scholarship added to the need based depending on whether or not we filled out an application composed of a few short essays. I believe the most anyone in my cohort received total was 32K (need based 24K + merit 8K). This is for 2018-2019 cohort. I know this varies a lot from year to year, so definitely seek to ask the school directly for your incoming class. Hope this helps!

1 hour ago, abcdenrse said:

Do you know if most of the MDE graduates stay and are employed as nurses in the city right after graduation?

Most of the MDE graduates don't continue into the DNP and they work as RNs for 1-3 years before returning back to NP school. It really depends on what you want to do. Some people fall in love with bedside nursing and stay working as RNs forever. It's hard to stay where students go after. Our class is very diverse and I heard 1/3 are from California.

30 minutes ago, OpiePl said:

Did any students in your cohort receive a need based scholarship on top of the 27k merit scholarship?

You would have to ask the financial aid office because the aid varies every year. They told us that the max amount of need-based aid was 27k last year.

31 minutes ago, fnptobe123 said:

Hey all! Regarding some fin aid questions, in my cohort, most students who filed FAFSA received a 24K need based scholarship. We also received merit scholarship added to the need based depending on whether or not we filled out an application composed of a few short essays. I believe the most anyone in my cohort received total was 32K (need based 24K + merit 8K). This is for 2018-2019 cohort. I know this varies a lot from year to year, so definitely seek to ask the school directly for your incoming class. Hope this helps!

Hi, I thought the merit scholarship for your cohort is $27k. So together with the $24k need-based is $51k?

+ Join the Discussion