*The pre-clinical curriculum is totally integrated which has allowed for a more streamlined presentation and elimination of redundancies. This translates to 18 months of pre-clinical coursework compared to 2 years everywhere else.
*Due to the above, you complete your core clerkships at the end of year three, which gives you plenty of time to do electives, selectives, and sub internships, which NYU has a HUGE amount of. NYU is also the only school that allows you to do a "concentration" (its like a major within medicine). This theoretically allows you to make a more informed decision about residency selection.
*Pass/fail all four years. This leads to an incredibly collaborative student body. However, I believe Columbia, Sinai, and Cornell are also pass/fail
*You take Step 1 at the end of year three not year two as with the other schools. Their idea is that applying basic sciences on the wards gives students context. NYU has very high Step 1 scores, so apparently this works.
*"Practice of Medicine" course for all 18 months of pre-clinical curriculum combines ethics, social medicine, and P&H into one course.
*"Pillars of Medicine" takes disease states that will be prevalent throughout the 21st century and weaves them through the pre-clinical curriculum. Some of the pillars are diabetes, colon cancer, and arteriosclerosis. You learn about these diseases on a molecular/physiological level but also meet with patients who have the diseases to understand the socio-cultural and clinical aspects of each one.
*Patient-based longitudinal ambulatory experience (P.L.A.C.E) pairs students up with several patients with chronic diseases at the beginning of year and then you follow them for the 18 months of the pre-clinical curriculum. The idea is that you learn about disease as a progression, learn bed side manner, and build strong relationships with patients.
*NYU puts a huge emphasis on international health projects for its students. It has a commitment to fund up to 80%/2500 dollars of an student initiated project though a specially created department of global health.
The above is what really sold NYU for me. There are other little things that are a bit gimmicky but are still neat. For example, Anatomy 2.0 is a 3D projector program ((complete with 3D classes) in the anatomy lab that allows you to manipulate the body in three dimensions and supposedly complements dissection.
