Admissions

Students take the MCAT and request scores be sent to Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S). The MCAT must have been taken within the prior three years.

International students are welcome to apply.

Once applications are complete, highly qualified applicants are invited to Columbia for a series of medical school and MD-PhD program interviews. For dates, please check our How to Apply page.

The interview day begins at 8:45am with a light breakfast, and an introduction to the program by the directors and administrative staff. Applicants then meet individually with MD-PhD Advisory Committee members, a medical school interviewer, faculty members, and student interviewers. All interviews will take place in one day, unless otherwise arranged.

Students in the program host a campus tour and an informal lunch the day of the interviews. Optional informal dinners, one the evening before the interview, and one the evening following the interviews, are also offered. This gives our applicants the opportunity to meet with current medical and MD-PhD students over lunch and a campus tour.

Entrance Criteria

The Columbia University MD-PhD program is seeking students with strong academic and research backgrounds in basic science. The successful applicant will have substantial undergraduate hypothesis driven research in biology, chemistry, physics, computational biology, mathematics, epidemiology, or engineering. Students seeking an MD-PhD will be interested in combining a career in medicine with an interest in the investigation of questions in research in the biomedical sciences.