Mt. Sinai Vs. Einstein in NYC

While Mt. Sinai is in a great location if you like Manhattan, Einstein is a far stronger program. They send a good number of people to fellowship each year, while it seems like Mt. Sinai has had a bit of trouble with this. My impression is that the residents at both programs work their butts off, but that perhaps you get a better training overall at Einstein. It all depends on what you are looking for...

Hi,
I liked both of these programs a lot. Mt. Sinai has an awesome location across the street from Central Park and the residents that I met seemed dynamic and interesting. They have very good Family Planning training, and you go to the Planned Parenthood in Greenwich Village as well as getting experience at Mt. Sinai itself. I also think that the Elmhurst hospital is very cool - I actually went out there at the end of my interview day to check it out and a multip preciptously delivered a baby about 10 mins after I arrived - If I'd been wearing scrubs instead of my interview suit I think they might have let me catch it! Dr. Gottlieb, who runs Elmhurst, is awesome. You get LOTS of clinical experience at Elmhurst (and the NYU residents even rotate out there to get more deliveries) but a big downside that I feared was that you spend about 40-50% of the year on rotations there and when you're out there you don't come back to Manhattan for didactics. It sounds like they get very little teaching/few lectures at Elmhurst. Overall, I thought the faculty at Mt. Sinai were very impressive, and they have definitely grabbed faculty from other NYC-area schools in the past few years. They are also starting an exciting-sounding international rotation to W. Africa to do fistula repairs. People have also previously gone to Honduras.

Overall, I was impressed by Einstein's public health commitment. They are REALLY involved in the community, establishing peer-led discussion groups both for low-income women who are pregnant and also for teenagers in public schools. The faculty are super dedicated, and many of them told me that they are choosing to work in the Bronx because they feel a real commitment to this patient population, rather than making more money and working in Manhattan. The Dept. seems very stable (Chair has been in place 27 years, PD for 20+ years). They have excellent research opportunities. They are very well-connected for fellowships (as well as having every single fellowship represented there). They also have international health rotations to W. Africa. They also have a dedicated Family Planning elective (6 weeks as R2). I was a little put off by the formality/hierarchical nature of Grand Rounds on the day I visited, where after the visiting speaker had finished, the Chair himself called on specific people to ask questions rather than letting it be open to the floor (and only called on Faculty, not on any residents). I also did not feel like to got to meet many residents on the interview day at all. Most residents live in Manhattan anyway and drive into work. It sounds like you have to have a car to drive back and forth between their hospitals because the shuttle runs at inconvenient times.

My issues with both programs were that neither had a dinner the night before, so I didn't feel like a got a great picture of the residents as a group. Also, as both are in NYC, there are of course some issues with ancillary support services.

I am not really sure about the Private nature of patients at Mt. Sinai. One resident said she thought that even if it was a private patient most Attendings seemed cool with having the residents be involved. It seems to me that at least at Elmhurst you would have plenty of both Gyn and OB admits.

I think this was previously referred to but...the other thing that put Mt Sinai lower on my list is that they didn't match ANY residents this year into fellowships and Einstein matched most if not all their residents into fellowships.