Current fourth year here, and I'd like to clear the air about a few things.
First of all, with regards to fourth year - yes the rotations are graded, just like in third year (it's like this at most schools), but most of the rotations (except sub-i's, neuro, and ambulatory month) are electives, so the grading is very lenient and doesn't really matter. Einstein gives you 8 electives fourth year, which is plenty. It is fairly easy to get the schedule you want and you can always trade spots with classmates if you have a last minute change of plans. Overall a much less stressful year than third year.
Now for the money, and the YU vs. AE situation and why money was being lost:
1) Yeshiva University has a massive deficit, though to be north of $100 million per year. This is due to a combination of reduced endowment income (Madoff, investing in too many hedge fungds, etc.), reduced liquidity from the endowment (aka not being able to spend the endowment because it's tied up in hedge funds), and increased spending vs. decreased revenue.
2) As for Einstein losing money, that's for a number of reasons. Part of it is due to Einstein being part of Yeshiva - with Yeshiva's crappy bond rating, Einstein couldn't refinance construction loans on the Price Center (new research building), and also there was a reduced NIH budget. However, an important point is that most research-intensive medical schools lose money. NIH grants don't fund all of the costs associated with research. It is up to the medical school to make up the rest. Here is where Montefiore comes into play.
3) Most research-intensive medical schools make up this deficit in funding through clinical revenue and through university funds. In other words, the profit from the hospital is partially plowed into the research side, thereby balancing the books. All of the big NYC medical schools have this setup to some degree, most notably Mount Sinai (which I'll come back to). Einstein sold its hospital (Weiler) to Montefiore decades ago, and Jacobi, Einstein's other main affiliate, is a public hospital and isn't sending cash back to Einstein in that manner. Therefore, Einstein has been an anomaly in that it doesn't get large amounts of clinical revenue to supplement its budget.
4) Yeshiva could no longer afford to plow money into Einstein because of their own problems. Montefiore is a large and very healthy hospital system. The faculty of Einstein and Montefiore are closely knit, there is already cost sharing between the entities. After much negotiation, Montefiore will now gain operating and financial control of Einstein, in a manner very similar to Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital.
TL;DR:
- Einstein's financials are in no worse shape than any other medical school - it loses money like any other research-intensive medical school, but up until now has not had its own hospital to supplement and balance its budget (and being attached to Yeshiva hurt things like bond ratings).
- Einstein/Montefiore will merge and support each other in the same setup as Mount Sinai and the Mount Sinai Hospital.
- Monteifore is very healthy and has the resources to back Einstein's research, just like Mount Sinai Hospital helps fund its medical school's research.
- Einstein is a top 25 school when it comes to NIH grant money, and will continue to remain an excellent research-intensive medical school because Montefiore has the substantial resources necessary to continue such an endeavor.
- Yeshiva is still on shaky financial ground, but moving forward this will NOT affect Einstein anymore, as Einstein will become funded and operated by Montefiore and will be affiliated with Yeshiva in name only (and for degree granting, for now).