i am a resident at cornell and i wanted to clarify some things that came up:
housing is actually cheaper than what was quoted: i pay $1320 for a one-bedroom apartment (high floor with views...) in one of the most expensive of the four available buildings. the apartments range in size and cost: there are two-bedroom apartments for $1350 and there are studios for $700 to $850. the housing is literally across the street from the hospital (and even connected by a tunnel if you don't feel like wearing a jacket). the cost of life (i.e. restaurants, groceries, movies, etc.) in the upper east side, while higher than that in other american cities, is not more than in other manhattan neighborhoods. i guess that is the price to pay for living in a popular city (well worth it in my opinion as the cultural and entertainment offerings are literally unmatched anywhere in the world).
the relationship with memorial/sloan-kettering (also across the street) on the resident level is significant: cornell residents in their 3rd or 4th year can do a 3-4 month elective at memorial where they basically function as the equivalent of a memorial surg path fellow. there are on average 5 residents per year, so everybody who wants to do this elective pretty much can. there are also combined grand rounds once a month where cornell residents and memorial fellows present interesting cases and where attending from both institutions (including some of the really big names from both places) show up. there is significant cross-advertisement and cross-attendance of conferences including those given by invited outside speakers and memorial attendings regularly come and teach in our didactic surg path conferences. in recent years, almost half of graduating cornell residents have gone on to become fellows and subspecialty fellows at memorial. conversely, people who train there are regularly hired as attendings at cornell.
most cornell residents are not from new york. they may become "die hard" new yorkers after coming here but only in the sense that they are knowledgeable, open-minded, interesting and interested. that and that they like their bagels schmeared... many people are married and have kids (and there is a very good hospital-sponsored day care school). overall, the residents are a very fun and supportive group and as diverse as new york city itself...
in terms of faculty turnover: even though i don't know the "numbers" at other institutions, i don't think it is much higher than other places. our chairman did come from columbia but 10 years ago and the program has expanded significantly since. there is a lot of new faculty and excitement about them. this reflects mostly the expanding subdivisions of the surgery departments and the resulting specimen flow e.g. the new liver transplant program, reorganized bone marrow stem-cell lab, etc. clinical path was already strong and with some new big names is now exceptional. we did lose a couple of people to memorial, but we still get to see them!
personally, while there are of course some things that i would like to change, i am extremely satisfied with my training program and very happy with my life outside of it (given that it is, after all, residency).
