How would you guys rank the following programs:

Wash U, Columbia, Cornell??

I'd rank them by where you want to live, man. All comparable programs; if you want to live in NY then you gotta decide between 2 fine programs...just know a little about what the 'atmosphere' is like at each, and what fits your personality. I'd choose solely based on location, at this point. You're not deciding between good or bad, these are all good programs. But if you decide on NY, I'd consider greatly the atmosphere between Columbia and Cornell.

I agree with DR however I would consider WashU seriously over Columbia and Cornell. For IM I would say repuation wise and probably training wise WashU is a better program. For NYC both Columbia and Cornell are strong programs and like it was said it depends on the atmosphere that you like. Reputation -wise I would say Columbia has the edge but not by much.

just to get people's opinions:

when ranking programs by reputation i would put brigham, mgh, johns hopkins, ucsf, u of wash in the first tier. my second tier would include schools like wash u, yale, u penn, columbia, etc. do you see it like that? would you put columbia or wash u above one or the other for purely reputation as an internal medicine program?

I loved my interview at Wash U last year, despite the city of St. Louis. The residents impressed me and the training is excellent.
Columbia and Cornell are both good programs, but malignant from what I hear. NYC can be a plus.....or a minus, depending on your view point. It has everything, but for a hefty price (i.e high rent and expensive food etc.....) You can't go wrong with any of them. just pick the ones where you felt most comfortable on the interview and could see yourself training there. That is my advice. You should like the program and the location, not one or the other. 3 years is a long time.

Originally posted by katz5001
just to get people's opinions:

when ranking programs by reputation i would put brigham, mgh, johns hopkins, ucsf, u of wash in the first tier. my second tier would include schools like wash u, yale, u penn, columbia, etc. do you see it like that? would you put columbia or wash u above one or the other for purely reputation as an internal medicine program?

I might stick Columbia up there if you're talking about reputation. I seem to remember one of the chairmen speaking of it in the same breath as Hopkins and the Boston programs and it seems that many who visited there think highly of it...

when comparing the atmospheres of wash u and columbia, my impression that columbia really wasn't that bad.