2020-2021 Mt. Sinai (Icahn)

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spottedcory said:
Rip this was one of the first schools I added to my list cuz it seemed really cool
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same!! During my interview, I got a really good vibe from the school but honestly with everything being virtual its super hard to perceive things like this.

Also, I don't think that Dr. Anandaraja was the Director of well-being and resilience though. Someone correct me if I'm wrong pls
 
Hiphopscorpio31 said:
same!! During my interview, I got a really good vibe from the school but honestly with everything being virtual its super hard to perceive things like this.

Also, I don't think that Dr. Anandaraja was the Director of well-being and resilience though. Someone correct me if I'm wrong pls
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I like shallowly checked for student happiness too when making my list, like looking at past X vs. Y threads and Sinai seemed to have a happy student population so I dunno what happened
 
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This story is really infuriating, but unfortunately I think there's many stories like these across medical schools in the country. I remember reading about a Miami medical school where female students were complaining to administration about being harassed by a male classmate and nothing was done until these female students' photos ended up on an adult website. And then Michigan state was covering up Larry Nassar for months **edit: YEARS. These are just two of the recent stories that come to mind. It pisses me off how pervasive this culture is. Mount Sinai is probably going to release a statement saying something about how serious these concerns are bla bla, only because now they're receiving bad press.

It's inexcusable, depressing, and makes me feel hopeless sometimes, because you'll find stories of this malignancy wherever you look
 
Wow! I was really impressed with them and always thought it would be a hard decision choosing between them and a cheaper program in Texas, my state, but NOPE! I have an acceptance to an unranked Texas program where I fit their mission and the work they do really resonates, all about working for health on the US/Mexico border, and I'll be attending there or somewhere else in Texas. I can cross this one off the dream school list.
 
Drsecondchance said:
Wow! I was really impressed with them and always thought it would be a hard decision choosing between them and a cheaper program in Texas, my state, but NOPE! I have an acceptance to an unranked Texas program where I fit their mission and the work they do really resonates, all about working for health on the US/Mexico border, and I'll be attending there or somewhere else in Texas. I can cross this one off the dream school list.
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I'm a little sad I could've spent the money on another school but it's okay cuz I didn't know at the time of my list. I guess I'll treat it like a rejection and onto the next!
 
spottedcory said:
I like shallowly checked for student happiness too when making my list, like looking at past X vs. Y threads and Sinai seemed to have a happy student population so I dunno
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Yeah no the majority of students are probably happy there, but this is so unfortunate cause you never know if you'll potentially experience being marginilized/taken advantage of by someone in a position of power over you. And to gamble your tuition and the stress of med school on top of not feeling like your school would truly support you (especially as a woman or minority) on the off-chance of something happening, amplifies this red flag.

super sigh 🙁
 
My understanding has been going to med school in NY is okay, but doing a residency there should, in general, be a last resort.

Icahn has something shady going on all the time. Last cycle it was a story about an ER doctor sexually assaulting an anesthetized patient and talks about how [surgical?] meetings brought up fears of being physically assaulted by senior faculty.
 
Hiphopscorpio31 said:
Yeah no the majority of students are probably happy there, but this is so unfortunate cause you never know if you'll potentially experience being marginilized/taken advantage of by someone in a position of power over you. And to gamble your tuition and the stress of med school on top of not feeling like your school would truly support you (especially as a woman or minority) on the off-chance of something happening, amplifies this red flag.

super sigh 🙁
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Sometimes I wish I were a white male and then I could just go here anyway because a med school is a med school but alas
 
spottedcory said:
Sometimes I wish I were a white male and then I could just go here anyway because a med school is a med school but alas
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Even if I were a white, straight, cis-gender male, I don't know if I could attend Mt. Sinai and be able to sleep at night knowing that all of these injustices are taking place behind closed doors. This is incredibly appalling and while it is my calling to become a physician, I refuse to sell my soul and violate my core values for the sake of earning a medical education.

Mt. Sinai needs to re-evaluate their leadership team and start making changes because this is not a good look.
 
This story is actually quite surprising to me. I interviewed at Sinai, and they seemed to be genuinely concerned with diversity, inclusion, and social justice. I know that every school pays a certain amount of lip service to these things, but Sinai struck me as more authentic in their intentions than other schools. I walked out of that interview feeling excited about the school, thinking they were doing important work. Needless to say, this is all concerning and disappointing.
 
SodaStream56 said:
This story is actually quite surprising to me. I interviewed at Sinai, and they seemed to be genuinely concerned with diversity, inclusion, and social justice. I know that every school pays a certain amount of lip service to these things, but Sinai struck me as more authentic in their intentions than other schools. I walked out of that interview feeling excited about the school, thinking they were doing important work. Needless to say, this is all concerning and disappointing.
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Would you elaborate a bit on maybe what about the school gave you these impressions? Genuinely curious as someone who hasn't interviewed at Mt Sinai!
 
I was thinking of applying here next cycle because the school sounded cool but yeah...yikes. it's a no for me. I don't think I could sleep knowing i'm funding an institution that does not care about the things they preach about. I just reached out to a colleague who is also applying next cycle to let them know about this and their response was "well...every institution has stuff like this going on, where do you draw the line?" scary to know that some people will still apply here regardless of the injustice going on. Couldn't be me
 
Beatles08 said:
I was thinking of applying here next cycle because the school sounded cool but yeah...yikes. it's a no for me. I don't think I could sleep knowing i'm funding an institution that does not care about the things they preach about. I just reached out to a colleague who is also applying next cycle to let them know about this and their response was "well...every institution has stuff like this going on, where do you draw the line?" scary to know that some people will still apply here regardless of the injustice going on. Couldn't be me
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My friend (as a current NY med student, not at Sinai) said the same thing. They said "this probably happens everywhere, it's just someone spoke up about it at Sinai"
 
spottedcory said:
My friend (as a current NY med student, not at Sinai) said the same thing. They said "this probably happens everywhere, it's just someone spoke up about it at Sinai"
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I understand the sentiment because it is true and certainly happens at other institutions, but on the other hand, it excuses the entire situation. Kind of like "it happens everywhere, get over it"
 
spottedcory said:
My friend (as a current NY med student, not at Sinai) said the same thing. They said "this probably happens everywhere, it's just someone spoke up about it at Sinai"
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I agree with you. I hope that students, residents, and physicians at Mount Sinai speak up and demand accountability, as should current applicants. I also don't want to minimize anyone's personal feelings, because this abuse of power and disregard for victims of sexual harassment is so triggering, so I understand why some people would withdraw their applications or lose interest given this recent news. But it's also naive to assume this isn't happening right now at other places, from Harvard to the Caribbean; sexual harassment, abuse, discrimination, and victim blaming is rampant.

I initially didn't apply to UMiami because of the story about female students being harassed and the administration not doing anything, but then I pictured this same situation at the other schools I'm applying to and realized that it would probably have been swept under the rug and ignored the same way...I'm not sure what the right course of action is for applicants in these situations. We just have to make sure that wherever we do end up, we always speak up and make these stories public when our institution fails us. Time and time again, this seems to be the only way any action is taken.
 
Sterlinyx said:
Would you elaborate a bit on maybe what about the school gave you these impressions? Genuinely curious as someone who hasn't interviewed at Mt Sinai!
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Sure! During interview day the administrators discussed diversity a ton, and that was to be expected, but I say it seemed more genuine because the current students returned to the subject again and again in our open forums with them. These were forums where no admins or adcoms were present, and the current students were speaking very candidly. The way they described it, Sinai sounded like a place that very explicitly tries to overcome institutional norms that perpetuate bad power structures. Obviously this new disclosure is making me question that. But for whatever it is worth—and I don’t frankly know how much it is worth—the students I spoke with seemed to think that Sinai was doing a genuinely good job of fighting institutional racism/classism/etc. It makes me wonder if the medical school culture is significantly different from the culture within the larger Sinai system—that wouldn’t surprise me.
 
SodaStream56 said:
Sure! During interview day the administrators discussed diversity a ton, and that was to be expected, but I say it seemed more genuine because the current students returned to the subject again and again in our open forums with them. These were forums where no admins or adcoms were present, and the current students were speaking very candidly. The way they described it, Sinai sounded like a place that very explicitly tries to overcome institutional norms that perpetuate bad power structures. Obviously this new disclosure is making me question that. But for whatever it is worth—and I don’t frankly know how much it is worth—the students I spoke with seemed to think that Sinai was doing a genuinely good job of fighting institutional racism/classism/etc. It makes me wonder if the medical school culture is significantly different from the culture within the larger Sinai system—that wouldn’t surprise me.
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According to the complaint put forth by the several women from Mt. Sinai: "Charney is well-known for emphasizing his own strength and toughness under pressure. Charney’s exchanges with Strathdee, the candidate to run AIGH strongly endorsed by the selection committee, included screaming at her on the phone and an email in which he called her “IDIOT” in red capital letters. She said she had never been so rudely treated in her life and would never work for such a bully—and she was a job candidate with a distinguished background being recruited to Mount Sinai."

Dr. Dean Charney is the DEAN of the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I am not convinced that the medical school is somehow immune to this toxic and disgusting culture if this is man is one of their leaders...

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Mount+Sinai+Complaint.pdf
 
MD-to-be-4032 said:
According to the complaint put forth by the several women from Mt. Sinai: "Charney is well-known for emphasizing his own strength and toughness under pressure. Charney’s exchanges with Strathdee, the candidate to run AIGH strongly endorsed by the selection committee, included screaming at her on the phone and an email in which he called her “IDIOT” in red capital letters. She said she had never been so rudely treated in her life and would never work for such a bully—and she was a job candidate with a distinguished background being recruited to Mount Sinai."

Dr. Dean Charney is the DEAN of the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I am not convinced that the medical school is somehow immune to this toxic and disgusting culture if this is man is one of their leaders...

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Mount+Sinai+Complaint.pdf
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Woah, I did NOT say the medical school was “somehow immune” from this and I’m not trying to downplay anybody’s abhorrent behavior. I was just conveying my surprise at this news, given that the students I spoke to thought that the school was doing a great job on this front. I had not seen that legal document, though, so thank you for bringing that to my/our attention!
 
MD-to-be-4032 said:
According to the complaint put forth by the several women from Mt. Sinai: "Charney is well-known for emphasizing his own strength and toughness under pressure. Charney’s exchanges with Strathdee, the candidate to run AIGH strongly endorsed by the selection committee, included screaming at her on the phone and an email in which he called her “IDIOT” in red capital letters. She said she had never been so rudely treated in her life and would never work for such a bully—and she was a job candidate with a distinguished background being recruited to Mount Sinai."

Dr. Dean Charney is the DEAN of the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I am not convinced that the medical school is somehow immune to this toxic and disgusting culture if this is man is one of their leaders...

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Mount+Sinai+Complaint.pdf
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I hope the admissions committee addresses this. The allegations of how these women were treated are disgusting.
 
SodaStream56 said:
Woah, I did NOT say the medical school was “somehow immune” from this and I’m not trying to downplay anybody’s abhorrent behavior. I was just conveying my surprise at this news, given that the students I spoke to thought that the school was doing a great job on this front. I had not seen that legal document, though, so thank you for bringing that to my/our attention!
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No I know! I was trying to speak generally and I'm so sorry if my post made it seem like I was accusing you of that <3
 
Sigh. It's really quiet here. Does anyone recommend if sending an update/interest letter pre-II would help?
 
Hi everyone! Current MS1 here at Sinai. Saw a lot of the posts concerning the current allegations from the Director of the Office of Wellbeing and wanted to chime in. Her resignation letter was circulated amongst the entire class and there have been a lot of ongoing talks with student activism groups and administration over this as well. I think I can speak for the vast majority of my classmates when I say no one thinks this behavior is acceptable and that accountability matters. That being said, if you are someone with an activist/advocate mentality, I can think of no better student body to belong to. There are TONS of student orgs like SNMA, LMSA, Human Rights and Social Justice Scholars, Racism and Bias Initiative, and Segregated Care that spearhead a lot of the changes and attitudes from the inside. None of us like to see Sinai on the news for things like this, but here the students are truly leading that fight more so than a lot of our sister schools. Even on Slack activism channels, Sinai is overwhelmingly represented. There is an attitude amongst many of our students to be a "thorn in the side of the school" whenever we see something unacceptable. Students waste no time to voice their concerns. Advocacy and activism are one of the main pillars of our education and the admissions process really reflects that. That being said, if you're someone with options and feel better going somewhere else that is totally ok too! Just wanted to offer a bit of insight as a current student. Would also be more than happy to discuss more about some of the student orgs mentioned above if anyone is interested.
I can also attest that this is one of the happiest student bodies I have seen, especially when i talk to friends at other medical schools. The morale is very high and we are all extremely collaborative and share study aids all the time. Our first semester has been completely remote and many of us are spread around the country, yet I feel that I know a lot of my classmates very personally and already consider them good friends. The vibe here amongst students is very laid-back (as far as med schools go), progressive, activist, social, and welcoming.
happy interview season and best of luck to everyone!
 
Until what dates have interview dates been filled up?
 
nycccpremed said:
asking myself the same question. I sent my secondary in early July. what's the consensus on pre-II interest letters?
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I'm no expert, but I think the consensus is, in general, letters of interest are really not considered unless you've been interviewed and wait-listed. Things that could be helpful pre-II are updates for new manuscripts that have been published or new awards received.
 
dep15105 said:
Is it just me, or is this thread surprisingly quiet compared to other school threads and previous years...
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Yeah, I'm very curious how many II have been sent out so far.. This is one of my top choices because I'm trying to stay in NYC so I'm kinda bummed they are being so slow with apps this year
 
premed_kh said:
Yeah, I'm very curious how many II have been sent out so far.. This is one of my top choices because I'm trying to stay in NYC so I'm kinda bummed they are being so slow with apps this year
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Same here. Waiting since late August on this one.
 
premed_kh said:
Yeah, I'm very curious how many II have been sent out so far.. This is one of my top choices because I'm trying to stay in NYC so I'm kinda bummed they are being so slow with apps this year
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Same heree! Also trying to stay in nyc and it seems like most of the nyc schools I applied to have been pretty quiet! Probably delayed this cycle
 
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