MDE Columbia University 2021

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Hey ! I know im super early to make this thread for the MDE program at Columbia for the 2021 start year ? but I was wondering if there are any future nurses out there as eager as me to get started !!

Specializes in Public health.
53 minutes ago, ladybug1 said:

I emailed administration on Friday and they emailed me back today surprisingly! I didn’t think they would respond to emails on weekends? Anyway, they said to look out for an email tomorrow or by Wednesday for decisions! 

Thank you for the update ! I’m trying to have patience. This is the only school I applied to, and I am just hoping and praying that I get in . 

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I called them last week and whoever I spoke to said that the office is closed tomorrow, but honestly they may have it set be released tomorrow! 

I was told early next week... so LATEST Wednesday 

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Specializes in Public health.
4 minutes ago, michellemirjani said:

I called them last week and whoever I spoke to said that the office is closed tomorrow, but honestly they may have it set be released tomorrow! 

I was told early next week... so LATEST Wednesday 

There are so many different responses for the release date. I’m trying to look on the bright side. Hopefully Wednesday or the end of the week. 

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Hii

For anyone still waiting or for anyone who was accepted in the first round, would you mind sharing your stats?

I am so nervous for what CU is looking for in the second round. 

How important do you think the timed writing and video "interview" are? 

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1 hour ago, againstthegrain said:

CUSON promised decisions by the middle of the month. Tomorrow is a federal holiday, although Columbia is holding classes. But if administrative offices are closed on Monday, the decisions will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday.

It is strange that ladybug1 would get a response on a Sunday and that admissions would give that information to just one applicant, but I guess that's just how this process works...

Thanks to ladybug1 for the effort and for sharing the admissions' office response!

Best of luck to everyone!

 

I feel you on all of this @againstthegrain 

If CUSON has known anything about any type of timeline since their last vague email months ago, they should’ve shared it with everyone. Again, best to not say anything out of the gates than to make completely undeliverable promises. As a note, one of my close friends attended CUSON and said the administration is extremely disorganized and disjointed, and no one really pays attention to you until you’re past the MDE and into your specialization. She said there’s no reliability in their emails and announcements, things change without notice, etc. Hearing that from her probably primed me a bit for how bad this has been. Thankfully, this waiting will end soon. Best of luck to everyone. ? 

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Specializes in Reproductive and Women’s Health.
2 hours ago, dnpmaybe said:

I feel you on all of this @againstthegrain 

If CUSON has known anything about any type of timeline since their last vague email months ago, they should’ve shared it with everyone. Again, best to not say anything out of the gates than to make completely undeliverable promises. As a note, one of my close friends attended CUSON and said the administration is extremely disorganized and disjointed, and no one really pays attention to you until you’re past the MDE and into your specialization. She said there’s no reliability in their emails and announcements, things change without notice, etc. Hearing that from her probably primed me a bit for how bad this has been. Thankfully, this waiting will end soon. Best of luck to everyone. ? 

Thank you for this information. Makes me wonder how good the quality of education actually is if the administration is so disorganized and poorly run. Disorganization is a huge pet peeve of mine and I would think that a school as highly renowned and expensive would be able to operate better. Covid or not. This is supposed to be one of the best schools in the world and I expect far more. Hopefully the actual nursing education makes up for this frustrating process (and this is not just my impatience speaking).

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On 2/13/2021 at 10:07 AM, againstthegrain said:

To all the folks already admitted to, or still anxiously awaiting a decision from, CUSON, I have a question: Did anyone have to make a commitment to any other nursing school (besides those admitted to CUSON in the "first round") by the 29th? In my case, as much as I would have appreciated getting into the program in the "first round," I was happy that I didn't have to make that decision before I heard from other schools. And as I wait for CUSON's decision, I'm wondering if any other nursing school has organized admissions in "rounds," effectively

creating an early decision-like admissions process, but without informing applicants (in advance of submitting their applications) that they would be "sorted" this way? 

There's a worry in the back of my mind that if other nursing programs didn't organize their admissions process the same way as CUSON that (1) students accepted in the first round were pressured to put down a deposit to secure their spot, all the while hoping to get into a different program; (2) that organizing their admissions process into two "rounds" creates an unnecessary and inaccurate perception that students admitted in the "second round" aren't as qualified as those accepted in the "first round"; and (3) that CUSON has potentially engaged in early-decision-like admissions practices that foreclose acceptances to other nursing programs.

No other school I applied to organized their admissions process into "rounds" or required a deposit before the entire (rounds 1+2) admissions process was finalized. So I'm just curious what other applicants' admissions processes have been like, and whether what CUSON has done this year is mirrored in other nursing schools' admissions practices.

Best of luck to everyone!

 

I was admitted to the MDE/DNP psych specialty in the first round and was admitted to Yale’s GEPN program on Feb 1st. I accepted at Columbia and have no plans to accept Yale’s admissions offer. I interviewed with Yale on Jan 14th and they provided a fairly accurate timeline for admissions decisions without giving exact dates. I still haven’t received admissions decisions from Vanderbilt or Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). OHSU has provided the least amount of communication regarding the admissions process so I have no idea when I might hear back.

In general, it is frustrating that admissions decisions are staggered because it makes it hard to plan - but that’s not a Columbia thing in my opinion. It’s just part of the application process unfortunately. 

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13 minutes ago, ForeverPsych said:

I was admitted to the MDE/DNP psych specialty in the first round and was admitted to Yale’s GEPN program on Feb 1st. I accepted at Columbia and have no plans to accept Yale’s admissions offer. I interviewed with Yale on Jan 14th and they provided a fairly accurate timeline for admissions decisions without giving exact dates. I still haven’t received admissions decisions from Vanderbilt or Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). OHSU has provided the least amount of communication regarding the admissions process so I have no idea when I might hear back.

In general, it is frustrating that admissions decisions are staggered because it makes it hard to plan - but that’s not a Columbia thing in my opinion. It’s just part of the application process unfortunately. 

Also want to add that Yale’s Feb 22nd deadline to accept their offer may come before I hear from Vanderbilt, and almost certainly before I hear from OHSU. 

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Hi ForeverPsych:

Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful comments.

But what I am trying to figure out, with the help of folks on this thread, is whether CUSON is the only graduate nursing program to create a de facto "early decision-like" admissions process this year, which is a completely different approach to graduate school admissions than the run-of-the-mill "staggered" one that you refer to in your above post.

Going into this application process, CUSON was my first choice. But I wasn't admitted in the first round, didn't have to give a deposit on the 29th, and can now choose between other schools (including Yale's really terrific GEPN program), which wouldn't have been possible if I had made the commitment to CUSON on the 29th.  That is the dilemma that early decision admissions creates for applicants, and in the case of applicants to CUSON this year, we weren't told before applying that the admissions process would be organized into successive "rounds," with lucky and well-qualified applicants admitted in the first round, and the rest of left to wait anxiously for the decisions in the second round. Undergraduate colleges and universities have exploited the anxiety of applicants by offering them the  option of an "early decision" which then locks them into that school. But at least applicants who choose the "early decision" route to undergraduate schools know what they've committed to. In the case of CUSON applicants, none of us knew we were going to be sorted into two rounds and that the fortunate students accepted into the first round would have to secure their spot with a deposit before they heard back from other schools.

I hope CUSON's decision to organize admissions this way this year is a "one-off," and isn't a harbinger of the kind of "arms race" admissions process that plagues undergraduate applicants anxious to secure spots in highly competitive schools in the US. But every nursing school has had a dramatic increase in applicants, had had faculty and staff working overtime to teach, practice during COVID, etc., and as far as I can tell, CUSON is the only grad program to organize admissions into what is effectively an "early decision" admissions process without informing its  applicants in advance that this was the way CUSON was going to roll.

Clearly if the admissions process had proceeded as promised (in that early e-mail) and decisions had come out earlier, rather than later, than in previous years; and the process had been explained better, more transparently, so the applicants left waiting for the second round decisions weren't left to think (hopefully unjustifiably) they were being relegated to a second-class, "wait-list" status, in the CUSON admissions process; my speculations about a de facto early decision admissions practice would be baseless. But here we are, still waiting for word about our admissions status, with only breadcrumbs of information from people who reached out to admissions last week to feed our hopes (and anxieties).

CUSON is a school worth the wait. My concern is that the applicants this year weren't allowed to choose, before applying, whether they wanted to participate in this painful process which has left so many applicants in this second round limbo. My preference would have been that CUSON followed the admissions practices of other nursing grad programs and informed all applicants simultaneously of their admissions fate, or at the very least, informed applicants that CUSON's admissions decisions would be organized into what has practically turned into an "early decisions" admissions structure. That would have been better for us and for CUSON.

Best of luck to all!

 

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From speaking to multiple applicants in the first round it seems like the people admitted in that round were not based on when their application was submitted.

There were multiple applicants who submitted their application on October 14th and 15th. Most applicants who were admitted had GPA's above a 3.6 ( some had 3.5's, but most had very competitive GPA's) 

I do not think CU has been transparent with us at all. I have emailed them multiple times what determined who was in what round and have yet to get a response. 

Maybe I am wrong, but my assumption (based on talking to accepted students) is that they took people with HIGH GPA's

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Thanks for this information pedsNPtobe. If you are correct that first round applicants were chosen primarily based on their high GPAs, then my concern that CUSON implemented an "early decision" admissions policy this year is justified. I applied in September and have now been waiting five months for a decision. If this had been a transparent early decision admissions process, at least the people who applied early would have been given decisions in round one. I want to remain hopeful about an acceptance because I wasn't rejected then, but since we know nothing about how many students applied to the program, were accepted, waitlisted or rejected in that first round, we are all in the dark, and are likely to remain so, even after CUSON's final round of decisions are released.  

That said, I am grateful for the universities that offer the opportunity for those who already have BAs to pursue advanced nursing degrees. There aren't many of them, so the competition to get in is predictably fierce. Especially this year. 

Stay well. Stay positive.

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4 minutes ago, againstthegrain said:

Thanks for this information pedsNPtobe. If you are correct that first round applicants were chosen primarily based on their high GPAs, then my concern that CUSON implemented an "early decision" admissions policy this year is justified. I applied in September and have now been waiting five months for a decision. If this had been a transparent early decision admissions process, at least the people who applied early would have been given decisions in round one. I want to remain hopeful about an acceptance because I wasn't rejected then, but since we know nothing about how many students applied to the program, were accepted, waitlisted or rejected in that first round, we are all in the dark, and are likely to remain so, even after CUSON's final round of decisions are released.  

That said, I am grateful for the universities that offer the opportunity for those who already have BAs to pursue advanced nursing degrees. There aren't many of them, so the competition to get in is predictably fierce. Especially this year. 

Stay well. Stay positive.

I just think CU has not be transparent at all and I understand it’s a pandemic, but this is just too out of hand. I have heard back from other universities in less than a month after submitting my application! 
 

I do think the first round was primarily based on GPA and not too many other factors. I believe the second round out resumes and essays will help weed certain people out if GPA’s are close to one another 

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