MSK TY vs. Sinai prelim vs. St. Luke's-Roosevelt prelim

[Embarrassed Applicant]

Hi All,

I just wanted to solicit some thoughts from folks regarding these programs. I really enjoyed my interviews at each and I'm trying to decide which I will rank first. For a little context, I'm not looking for a "cush" intern year... I actually want to develop a solid foundation. That being said, as I'll only be moving to NYC for the year I would like to make sure I have the time/energy to take advantage of living in the city.

It seems to me that St. Luke's-Roosevelt might be the most laid back of the programs and has a surprising amount of elective time. It also seemed like the training there would be sufficient If I recall correctly, MSK pays the best and has the cheapest housing (plus free food everyday and weekly happy hours!). Also, while they were on the wards the MSK TY interns seemed to work quite hard, but when not on the wards they seemed to have a decent amount of downtime (even if a fair amount of it had to be spent at the hospital waiting to sign out). My concern about MSK is the fact that it's an onc hospital and so I wonder how much that would color the training, i.e., would I develop a solid foundation of general medical knowledge? Mt. Sinai seems like the most rigorous of the programs and the folks there were super nice. I'm just not sure how much downtime I would have. At this point I think my inclination is to rank MSK first, but still pretty far from decided.

Really, I feel like I could attend any of these programs and receive top notch training while living in a fantastic city and so I'm not too worried. That being said, I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts.

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

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[dermie1985]

Not sure what specialty you're going into, but I definitely rank MSK first. I didn't apply to NYC prelims, but I know residents who have done both St. Lukes and MSK TY.

From what I've heard- St. Lukes residents work HARD while on ward months. Electives were easy, but only a few months of the year.

MSK- good balance between working hard/electives. Little less autonomy because MSK has very sick patients and a lot of attendings/fellows. Great pathology, electives month are nice breaks.

Of the 10 or so prelims who graduate from school last year, the one resounding lesson is that all of them are learning what they need to know regardless of the program. The ones who are having the worst time are the ones who chose programs with bad schedules (i.e. a lot of nights/ICU time/etc.).