- Joined
- Aug 3, 2011
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 50
Mount Sinai- Main Campus
1. Ease Of Communication: Good Communication, reminder email sent by program office, additional dinner information sent by chief resident.
2. Accommodation & Food: No housing provided- Most applicants stayed with friends or family in the city- Air BNB seemed like a popular option as well. Dinner is held at a resident’s house once per week during application season with the program paying for food and wine. Food during interview was good and plentiful lots of different options at breakfast (yogurt or pastries, coffee and juice) Lunch apparently rotates but was also very good. Ours was chinese and sushi with plenty of choices- meat, veggies, tofu.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Interview day runs from 8-3:30 most days (1 hour longer when there is grand rounds I believe) Pretty standard introduction to the program by the program director and associate program director followed by 3 half hour interviews, everyone interviews with either the program director or the associate program director but not both. Interviews also have some break time built in, and many residents popped in to say hi and answer our questions- were very friendly and seemed genuinely excited to talk to us. I’m sure the food and coffee from breakfast was a good incentive for them to stop by, but this was the best resident turn out for interview day that I have seen. Questions were pretty standard- one of my interviewers was well matched to my interests but asked fairly generic questions. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to speak with both the APD and the PD since the PD just started this past year and I would have liked to hear both perspectives. Interviews were followed by lunch over in the main hospital building. They had a lovely area in an open atrium roped off just for us with tables. The room was well lit and many residents showed up because the food was very good. Having almost all the rotations on campus probably helps with resident attendance during interview day- but I found it to be a positive. Following the lunch we had a wrap up session again with the APD and PD where we heard more about the program goals and ambitions as well as the history of the program and the medical school. After wrap up we had tour of the medical center, classrooms, and other places residents spend time. We did not visit the VA where the residents do their half year of outpatient PGY2 though they mentioned there is a shuttle that goes there.
4. Program Overview:
14 residents per class plus 2 triple board residents per year. Residents from all over the country- very strong group overall. This program has completely restructured its curriculum in the last two years. The program Director is new as of July, but had worked closely on the transition with the outgoing director. Program director and Associate program director mentioned that they were given a lot of support by the institution to revamp the rotation structure and create early outpatient exposure. Their vision for the program is that residency should be more like college, in that you would choose a major early on and come out prepared to practice in a subspecialty of psychiatry regardless of whether you end up continuing on to do fellowship training. To this end they have several tracks within the program to provide individualized curriculums for residents. 1st year rotations are all spread out- medicine, neuro, psych all interspersed over the course of the year. Night float blocks of 2 weeks at a time plus short call on non-inpatient medicine. Didactic time is currently not protected but interns feel they are able to attend an all rotations except inpatient medicine. All other years have half day didactics that are protected. They have made half of PGY-2 outpatient based at the VA doing acute care. This is done in a block with half of the class starting at on outpatient and then switching mid year. 3rd year is outpatient with a variety of clinical settings- on call in Psych emergency. 4th year is 80% electives 20% outpatient, 2 months of CL no call 4th year. (specific schedules are available on the web)
PD and APD mentioned several times that while mount sinai now owns Saint Lukes and Beth Israel, there are no plans now or in the future of combining the programs. Residents will have opportunities to do rotations at these other sides if interested, but that is the extent of the merger.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Many high profile faculty in the department, with psychiatrists serving as the dean of the medical school and the CEO of Mount Sinai. New PD has a research background, APD very interested in Medical education. Residents feel that faculty are approachable at that the current residency program leadership is extremely caring and supportive of them.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Location is the upper east side of NYC- for those who want to be in NYC this is clearly a draw of the program. If you live in Sinai housing you are walking distance from all main rotations except the VA where they run a shuttle. You don’t need, and probably shouldn’t have a car while you are here. Residents have easy access to the rest of NYC. Housing is expensive but residents feel that they have a good quality of life.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Starting pgy-1 $59,000, benefits pretty standard- subsidized housing guaranteed all 4 years. Wide range of prices depending on family size- still very expensive.
Moonlighting opportunities starting PGY-2 half way through the year. Residents who did this seemed enthusiastic about it.
8. Program Strengths:
Program has the ambition of becoming the top neuroscience based psychiatry residency program in the country. Really diverse group of interesting residents. Great location- NYC next to central park. Diverse patient population. Mount Sinai is growing and well funded working to grow its brand and name recognition both locally and nationally. Program seems very supportive of residents. Residents have the ability to customize their experience in 3rd and 4th years.
9. Potential Weaknesses:
Very high cost of living even with subsidised housing. Location is very desirable for residents, but the lower salaries in NYC make it difficult to retain young talented faculty- especially for inpatient. I found it difficult to get a read on the faculty interviewers as to what they felt about the new program curriculum. The questions were fairly generic.
Program and institution are very transparent about their ambition to rise in the rankings. Unclear if this has really translated into improved quality of patient care or happier faculty.
Night float is currently 6 days a week (only one day to recover so not really a day off). No protected didactics 1st year, didactic days in upper years are on different days of the week from each other.
1. Ease Of Communication: Good Communication, reminder email sent by program office, additional dinner information sent by chief resident.
2. Accommodation & Food: No housing provided- Most applicants stayed with friends or family in the city- Air BNB seemed like a popular option as well. Dinner is held at a resident’s house once per week during application season with the program paying for food and wine. Food during interview was good and plentiful lots of different options at breakfast (yogurt or pastries, coffee and juice) Lunch apparently rotates but was also very good. Ours was chinese and sushi with plenty of choices- meat, veggies, tofu.
3. Interview Day (Schedule, Type Of Interview, Unusual Questions, Experiences): Interview day runs from 8-3:30 most days (1 hour longer when there is grand rounds I believe) Pretty standard introduction to the program by the program director and associate program director followed by 3 half hour interviews, everyone interviews with either the program director or the associate program director but not both. Interviews also have some break time built in, and many residents popped in to say hi and answer our questions- were very friendly and seemed genuinely excited to talk to us. I’m sure the food and coffee from breakfast was a good incentive for them to stop by, but this was the best resident turn out for interview day that I have seen. Questions were pretty standard- one of my interviewers was well matched to my interests but asked fairly generic questions. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to speak with both the APD and the PD since the PD just started this past year and I would have liked to hear both perspectives. Interviews were followed by lunch over in the main hospital building. They had a lovely area in an open atrium roped off just for us with tables. The room was well lit and many residents showed up because the food was very good. Having almost all the rotations on campus probably helps with resident attendance during interview day- but I found it to be a positive. Following the lunch we had a wrap up session again with the APD and PD where we heard more about the program goals and ambitions as well as the history of the program and the medical school. After wrap up we had tour of the medical center, classrooms, and other places residents spend time. We did not visit the VA where the residents do their half year of outpatient PGY2 though they mentioned there is a shuttle that goes there.
4. Program Overview:
14 residents per class plus 2 triple board residents per year. Residents from all over the country- very strong group overall. This program has completely restructured its curriculum in the last two years. The program Director is new as of July, but had worked closely on the transition with the outgoing director. Program director and Associate program director mentioned that they were given a lot of support by the institution to revamp the rotation structure and create early outpatient exposure. Their vision for the program is that residency should be more like college, in that you would choose a major early on and come out prepared to practice in a subspecialty of psychiatry regardless of whether you end up continuing on to do fellowship training. To this end they have several tracks within the program to provide individualized curriculums for residents. 1st year rotations are all spread out- medicine, neuro, psych all interspersed over the course of the year. Night float blocks of 2 weeks at a time plus short call on non-inpatient medicine. Didactic time is currently not protected but interns feel they are able to attend an all rotations except inpatient medicine. All other years have half day didactics that are protected. They have made half of PGY-2 outpatient based at the VA doing acute care. This is done in a block with half of the class starting at on outpatient and then switching mid year. 3rd year is outpatient with a variety of clinical settings- on call in Psych emergency. 4th year is 80% electives 20% outpatient, 2 months of CL no call 4th year. (specific schedules are available on the web)
PD and APD mentioned several times that while mount sinai now owns Saint Lukes and Beth Israel, there are no plans now or in the future of combining the programs. Residents will have opportunities to do rotations at these other sides if interested, but that is the extent of the merger.
5. Faculty Achievements & Involvement: Many high profile faculty in the department, with psychiatrists serving as the dean of the medical school and the CEO of Mount Sinai. New PD has a research background, APD very interested in Medical education. Residents feel that faculty are approachable at that the current residency program leadership is extremely caring and supportive of them.
6. Location & Lifestyle: Location is the upper east side of NYC- for those who want to be in NYC this is clearly a draw of the program. If you live in Sinai housing you are walking distance from all main rotations except the VA where they run a shuttle. You don’t need, and probably shouldn’t have a car while you are here. Residents have easy access to the rest of NYC. Housing is expensive but residents feel that they have a good quality of life.
7. Salary & Benefits:
Starting pgy-1 $59,000, benefits pretty standard- subsidized housing guaranteed all 4 years. Wide range of prices depending on family size- still very expensive.
Moonlighting opportunities starting PGY-2 half way through the year. Residents who did this seemed enthusiastic about it.
8. Program Strengths:
Program has the ambition of becoming the top neuroscience based psychiatry residency program in the country. Really diverse group of interesting residents. Great location- NYC next to central park. Diverse patient population. Mount Sinai is growing and well funded working to grow its brand and name recognition both locally and nationally. Program seems very supportive of residents. Residents have the ability to customize their experience in 3rd and 4th years.
9. Potential Weaknesses:
Very high cost of living even with subsidised housing. Location is very desirable for residents, but the lower salaries in NYC make it difficult to retain young talented faculty- especially for inpatient. I found it difficult to get a read on the faculty interviewers as to what they felt about the new program curriculum. The questions were fairly generic.
Program and institution are very transparent about their ambition to rise in the rankings. Unclear if this has really translated into improved quality of patient care or happier faculty.
Night float is currently 6 days a week (only one day to recover so not really a day off). No protected didactics 1st year, didactic days in upper years are on different days of the week from each other.
