The
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, abbreviated
P&S, is a graduate school of
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
located on the health sciences campus (
Columbia University Medical CenterColumbia University Medical Center is a medical complex associated with Columbia University, covering several blocks in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan...
) in the
Washington HeightsWashington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
neighborhood of
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
, and was the first medical school in the United States to award the
Doctor of MedicineThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
(M.D.) degree.
One of the most selective medical schools in the United States (based on average MCAT, GPA, and acceptance rate in the 2009 US News and World Report), Columbia P&S enrolls approximately 150-160 students per class.
The
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, abbreviated
P&S, is a graduate school of
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
located on the health sciences campus (
Columbia University Medical CenterColumbia University Medical Center is a medical complex associated with Columbia University, covering several blocks in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan...
) in the
Washington HeightsWashington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
neighborhood of
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
, and was the first medical school in the United States to award the
Doctor of MedicineThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
(M.D.) degree.
One of the most selective medical schools in the United States (based on average MCAT, GPA, and acceptance rate in the 2009 US News and World Report), Columbia P&S enrolls approximately 150-160 students per class. In 2007, 6,946 people applied and 1,194 were interviewed for 155 spots. The average undergraduate GPA and average MCAT score for successful applicants are 3.78 and 35.4Q, respectively. Columbia is currently ranked 10th amongst research-oriented medical schools in the United States by
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American newsmagazine published in Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek, it was for many years a leading news weekly, although it focused more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
.
Curriculum
Beginning in the fall of 2009, the medical school will implement a new curriculum that differs markedly from its traditional structure. The largest change involves a reduction in the number of preclinical months from 24 to 18 and the expansion of electives and selectives to 14 months. Each student will be required to spend four months working on a scholarly project during the fourth year before graduation.
Campus
Situated on land overlooking the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. It rises at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains, flows past Albany, and finally forms the border between New York City and New Jersey at its mouth before emptying into...
and separated from Columbia's undergraduate campus in Morningside Heights by approximately 50 blocks and the neighborhood of
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
, the
Columbia University Medical CenterColumbia University Medical Center is a medical complex associated with Columbia University, covering several blocks in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan...
has its own unique standing and identity. The campus comprises not only P&S, but also the College of Dental Medicine (formerly the School of Dental and Oral Surgery), the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the Presbyterian portion of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (including the
Morgan Stanley Children's HospitalMorgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian is a pediatric hospital in New York City. It is a part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center and is located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan...
) and the
New York State Psychiatric InstituteThe New York State Psychiatric Institute, established in 1895 and located on Riverside Drive at the foot of Washington Heights, the far upper west side of Manhattan in New York City, was one of the first institutions in the United States to integrate teaching, research and therapeutic approaches to...
. Housing options include Bard Hall and the Bard-Haven Towers, a complex of three 31-story apartment buildings overlooking the Hudson and the
George Washington BridgeThe George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee in New Jersey by means of Interstate 95, U.S. Route 1/9. U.S...
.
Opened in the 1920s and originally known as the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, it was the first academic
medical centerA Medical Center is a concentration of medical care providers. The term can be used to refer to* A clinic* A hospital* A larger complex of medical facilities often including hospitals, research facilities, medical schools, and/or other health care facilities.Medical Center may also refer...
and pioneered the practice of combining medical training with patient care.
P&S Club
P&S is notable amongst U.S. medical schools for its devotion to a diversely talented student body, including world-class musicians, Olympic athletes, and chess grandmasters. There are a host of student clubs available at P&S that cover a range of interests, both professional and personal; all of which fall under the umbrella of the P&S Club. One unusual element is the Bard Hall Players, a theatrical group entirely run by the students of the medical campus, and one of the largest and most active medical school theater groups in the country, performing a musical and two plays each year. Founded over a century ago by
John MottJohn Raleigh Mott was a long-serving leader of the YMCA and the World Student Christian Federation...
, the 1946
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:...
recipient, the P&S Club serves to support and provide activities and organizations for the enrichment of the lives of P&S students. The P&S Club is well known for its humanitarian aims; most notably the 1917 purchase of a steam launch delivered to Sir William Grenfell, a physician living in
LabradorLabrador is a region of Atlantic Canada. Together with the island of Newfoundland from which it is separated by the Strait of Belle Isle, it constitutes the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The region is part of the much larger Labrador Peninsula on the Canadian mainland...
. This launch was used to deliver medical services to the
EskimoEskimos or Esquimaux are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska and Canada, and all of Greenland....
and
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
fishermen living on the islands of the Labrador coast and was frequently manned by P&S students.
Colonial Years
In 1767, King's College (now
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
) opened a medical school. At the time, the medical program at King's College was the first to open in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and only the second to be opened in the
American ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783...
. Three years later, in 1770, King's College conferred its first
medicalThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
degree to Robert Tucker, this would prove to be the first Doctor of Medicine awarded in the Thirteen Colonies. Prior to King's College of Medicine offering of the MD degree, other American and Canadian medical schools had been offering the
MBBachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries that follow the...
degree. King's College continued to educate young doctors until 1776 when the school was forced to close due to the onset of the Revolutionary War and the occupation of New York by British soldiers. King's College remained closed until 1784 when the school was reopened as Columbia College and in December of that year the faculty of the medical school were re-instated. In 1791 Dr.
Samuel BardSamuel Bard was an American physician. He founded the first medical school in New York. He was a personal physician to George Washington...
, a prominent colonial physician whom
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America...
credited with saving his life, was named dean of the medical school.
Merger with the College of Physicians and Surgeons
In 1807, with a growing young nation in need of adequately trained doctors, the New York State Board of Regents founded, under separate charter, the College of Physicians and Surgeons. And merely four years later, in 1811, Dr. Samuel Bard, dean of Columbia University Medical School, became president of the College. The year 1814 then saw the merger of Columbia University Medical School into the College of Physicians and Surgeons, a move that was made in an attempt to stymie what was then seen as a period of decline for the medical school. Despite this merger, the College of Physicians and Surgeons retained its independence from Columbia and it was only in 1860 that the College of Physicians and Surgeons, after severing its ties to the New York Board of Regents and through agreement between the trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia, became the official medical school of Columbia University. However, this new relationship between the College and Columbia was minimal at best with the College still retaining independence from Columbia. It was not until 1891 that the College of Physicians and Surgeons would be fully integrated and incorporated into Columbia. In 1886, the Sloane Maternity Hospital, later the
Sloane Hospital for WomenThe Sloane Hospital for Women is the obstetrics and gynecology service within New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City....
, was founded as part of Physicians and Surgeons.
Medical Center Formation
In 1911, Columbia University entered into a Formal Agreement of Alliance with Presbyterian Hospital, a hospital founded in 1868 by
James LenoxJames Lenox was an American bibliophile and philanthropist, born in New York City. A graduate of Columbia College, Lenox was a founder of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. His collection of paintings and books eventually became known as the Lenox Library and later became part of the New...
a New York
philanthropistA philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. It was this alliance that helped to pave the way for the creation of a new medical center format. In 1928, the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center opened its doors. Set on land in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center was the first place in the world to provide facilities for patient care, medical education and research all under one roof. Included in this project with Presbyterian Hospital were the Babies Hospital, the Neurologic Institute of New York, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute; these were then joined in 1950 by the New York Orthopaedic Hospital.
In 1997, the Presbyterian Hospital merged with New York Hospital (partner of Weill Cornell Medical College of
Cornell UniversityCornell University is a private university located in Ithaca, New York, USA, that is a member of the Ivy League.Cornell counts more than 255,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 41 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students...
) to form the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. This new hospital system has also incorporated many of the satellite hospitals and affiliated programs of these two institutions. While the two medical schools remain independent of one another, there has been significant cross fertilization between the two campuses leading to increasing numbers of shared research experiences and training programs. NYPH is now the largest private employer in New York City. All hospitals in the
NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare SystemThe NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System is a network of independent, cooperating, acute-care and community hospitals, continuum-of-care facilities, home-health agencies, ambulatory sites, and specialty institutes in the New York metropolitan area....
are affiliated with either the Cornell or Columbia medical schools.
Notable P&S Alumni
- Notable P&S Alumni have included popular and notable medical innovators such as Virginia Apgar
Virginia Apgar was an American physician who specialised in anesthesia and pediatrics. She was a leader in the fields of anesthesiology and teratology, and effectively founded the field of neonatology...
, Oswald AveryOswald Theodore Avery was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City...
, Baruch Samuel BlumbergBaruch Samuel Blumberg is an American scientist and recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine for "discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases." Blumberg identified the Hepatitis B virus, and later developed the diagnostic test and vaccine for...
, Charles Drew, Tom FriedenDr. Thomas R. Frieden is the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry .He was an "aggressive" New York City Health Commissioner from 2002–2009...
, William HalstedWilliam Stewart Halsted was an American surgeon.-Early life and education:William S. Halsted was born on 1852 in New York City. His mother was Mary Louisa Haines and his father William Mills Halsted, Jr...
, Harold Varmus, David McDowellDavid M. McDowell is a psychiatrist, author and creative consultant. He co-founded the Substance Treatment and Research Service at Columbia University and served as its medical director...
, Dickinson W. RichardsDr. Dickinson Woodruff Richards, Jr. was an American physician and physiologist. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1956 with André Cournand and Werner Forssmann for the development of cardiac catheterization and the characterisation of a number of cardiac...
, Benjamin SpockBenjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time...
, P. Roy VagelosPindaros Roy Vagelos, better known as P. Roy Vagelos or Roy Vagelos , was president and chief executive officer and chairman of the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck. He attracted research scientists who developed many major new drugs...
, and Allen WhippleAllen Oldfather Whipple was an American surgeon who is known for the pancreatic cancer operation which bears his name as well as Whipple's triad....
; writers Walker PercyWalker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
, John E. SarnoJohn E. Sarno is Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, and attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center. He graduated from The Columbia University College of Physicians and...
, Robin CookDr. Robin Cook is an American physician and novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health....
, Robert ColesRobert Coles is an American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he attended Milton Academy and Harvard College, where he studied English literature...
and Jacob Appel; Oprah show regular Mehmet OzMehmet Cengiz Oz is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and talk show host. He has made frequent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as appearances on Larry King, CNN, and other networks....
; Serbian politician Radovan KaradžićRadovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist. He is currently on trial in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs during the Siege of Sarajevo...
; physicist Julian SchwingerJulian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, in particular for developing a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and for renormalizing QED to one loop order.Schwinger is recognized as one of the...
; astronaut Story MusgraveFranklin Story Musgrave is an American doctor and a retired NASA astronaut. He is currently a public speaker and consultant to both Disney's Imagineering group and Applied Minds in California.-Personal life:...
; former Afghan prime minister Abdul Zahir; and Olympic Champion Jenny ThompsonJennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts resident who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
. Former NBAThe National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league, composed of thirty teams in North America . It is an active member of USA Basketball , which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body for basketball in the United States...
player Mark PopeMark Edward Pope is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. He played for the Indiana Pacers, the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets and enjoyed his best season in 2000-2001 when he averaged 2.1 points per game for the Bucks...
is currently attending P&S.
- For a further listing of notable Columbians see: List of Columbia University people.
In Fiction
Characters
Derek ShepherdDerek Christopher Shepherd, more commonly known as Derek Shepherd, is a fictional surgeon on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy...
,
Mark SloanMark Sloan is a fictional surgeon on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. The character is portrayed by actor Eric Dane.- Background :Mark was born to an upper-class but emotionally distant family in New York City...
and
Addison MontgomeryAddison Forbes Montgomery, previously Addison Forbes Montgomery-Shepherd and more commonly known as Addison Montgomery, is a fictional character on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy, and its spin-off show Private Practice. Addison is a world-class neonatal surgeon with board certifications...
from television's
Grey's AnatomyGrey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series. It follows the lives of five surgical interns, later residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington. The pilot episode, "A Hard Day's Night" premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC...
all graduated from the
Columbia University College of Physicians and SurgeonsThe Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, abbreviated P&S, is a graduate school of Columbia University located on the health sciences campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, and was the first medical school in the United States to award the Doctor of Medicine ...
.
External links