Columbia residency program (Harkness Eye Institute)

[dk23]

Does anyone have any insight into the Columbia program in New York (good/bad, training, post-training placement, faculty, residents, facilities)? 😕

Any info would help. Thanks.

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[dammit2]

?? No one has comments about Columbia? I'd like to know what others think about this NYC program as well.

 

[Retinamark]

Anyone at all ????
I'd be interested to hear about Columbia / Harkness too. Is it better than New York Eye & Ear?
How does it compare to Cornell / New York Hospital?

What happened to Manhattan Eye & Ear? I heard it closed down for a while but then reopened. It's website has been down for a while, unless I've got the wrong one. (http://www.meeth.org/)

 

[JZ2020]

I'm from NY and applied to all the NYC ophtho programs, so I can offer my humble observations on the matter.
I don't know that much about Columbia's program. It's kind of small (only 3 residents per year, covering one of the largest and busiest hospitals in New York), so the residents are busy. I think the program compares pretty evenly with Cornell's.
New York Eye and Ear is an excellent program. The surgical volume there is realtively high, and the clinics are busy. The residents work very hard, and they are the only NYC program that I know of that has almost a full day of general clinic on Saturdays. While it lacks the Ivy league status that Columbia and Cornell share, I think that many ophthalmologists will agree that NYEE is the best of the three.
Manhattan Eye and Ear used to be an independant hospital and residency program (and a very prestigious one for that matter). A few years ago, the hospital faced serious financial and political problems and almost shut down. In the end, however, the hospital was taken over by Lennox Hill Hospital and the residency program merged with NYU's ophtho residency. It remains an excellent program.

 

[JJMD]

Cornell residents did few surgeries before, and I believe they lost their affiliation with their VA...The clinic numbers at New York Hospital are not big, either...NYU is very disorganized, maybe the experiences with attendings at MEETH are worth braving Bellvue, but I know that on Saturdays, the on-call resident has to see a list of private patients at MEETH...Columbia and NYEE have the best reputations.

 

[Anna82]

Hi,

Does anyone have any current information on Columbia's ophthalmology program? How is the clinical training? Do they get a decent number of surgeries? Do they have to trek a long way between hospitals in NYC?

Thanks in advance; I couldn't find any recent information on the program.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

What about other not as well known NY programs...for instance, the SUNY programs? or Bronx Leb? or NYMC? Thanks!

 

[OphthoOrDie]

SUNY Downstate Ophtho sends residents to 6 hospitals, and boasts high surgical volume compared to other NYC programs. Residents work very hard.

 

[InterviewMe]

My impression of Columbia's program:

Pros:

GREAT faculty with excellent connections

Busy hospital with lots of opportunities to learn from the exceptionally good medicine, neurology and neurosurgery programs

Opportunities for research

Good fellowship matches in the past

NYC


Cons:

Basement clinic is depressing

Many patients speak only Spanish

Surgical volume is not as high as many programs

No chair at the moment

Washington Heights


Neutral considerations:

Many consults

Medium workload (high, but not as high as some programs)

Focus is more academic than clinical

 

[speyeder]

SUNY Downstate Ophtho sends residents to 6 hospitals, and boasts high surgical volume compared to other NYC programs. Residents work very hard.

While it's true that SUNY Downstate has higher surgical volume than most NYC programs, their numbers are just average when compared to programs nationally. Additionally, it has a malignant reputation and their fellowship match lists are not very impressive.

 

[speyeder]

My impression of Columbia's program:

Pros:

GREAT faculty with excellent connections

Busy hospital with lots of opportunities to learn from the exceptionally good medicine, neurology and neurosurgery programs

Opportunities for research

Good fellowship matches in the past

NYC


Cons:

Basement clinic is depressing

Many patients speak only Spanish

Surgical volume is not as high as many programs

No chair at the moment

Washington Heights


Neutral considerations:

Many consults

Medium workload (high, but not as high as some programs)

Focus is more academic than clinical

I agree with this. Columbia's biggest weakness is low surgical volume, which is low even by NYC standards. Their strongest asset is how well-connected their faculty are and consequently how well their residents do in the fellowship match.

 

[etoile86]

Anyone have thoughts on Columbia vs U Minnesota? Their interview dates are conflicting.

 

[Ophthimist1]

Does anyone know how many candidates each school invites? Does Columbia invite 50+ to fill 3 spots; of which 1 is likely prioritized for a Columbia graduate? So essentially 50 candidates to fill 2 spots?

By the way, does anyone know how good the Long Island Jewish program is?