Explore Sinai

[OscarWao]

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I've gotten a couple of questions about this event which I went to last year and there's no other thread about it so I just thought I'd post here.

This is an event that Mount Sinai puts on to try and attract competitive applicants (I think all invited are minorities). If they invite you, they will offer you a scholarship with your financial aid package, but it's not clear what they would do if you don't go. The scholarship is for about $30,000. It's unclear if they will give you the scholarship if you are invited and you don't go to the event. The event is just a day of hanging out with faculty who are all very friendly and who will tell you about how quickly Mt. Siani is growing and taking faculty from Columbia. They also pay for you all to eat dinner at a restaurant in the neighborhood and then for drinks at a bar afterwards. Students from the med school join you at the bar for free drinks.

Financial aid ultimately ends up being a real weak point for Mount Sinai, so don't go to this if you're low-income and competitive for schools like Yale, Stanford, Penn, Harvard, etc. because those other schools will give you better aid packages even accounting for this scholarship. On the other hand, if you're dead set on going to Sinai or it is a reach for you then definitely go just to make sure you'll get the money! Hopefully someone else can chime in if they've been invited and haven't gone to the event.

Let me know if this was helpful!

 

[tengofe]

Thanks for this helpful information @OscarWao! It was exactly what I wanted to know. Just a couple of additional questions: 1) What was the dress code for the event? 2) Is the $30,000 only for the first year? 3) Can you leave relatively early in the evening after a drink after interacting with students for a bit?

 

[OscarWao]

You're welcome!
1) I think I dressed up formal but some people might have been business casual (don't remember exactly)
2) The 30K was for the first year, but it might have been renewing, didn't end up going so I didn't look into it
3) Yes, absolutely, you could even completely not go to the social part of the evening if you so wanted

 

[Deel323]

Thanks for posting this, @OscarWao ! Is there anyone on here from previous years that was invited and didn't attend? Did you still receive merit money? I was planning on attending, but something unavoidable came up. I'm hoping this doesn't affect my chances at a scholarship.

 

[Cerebral_Policy]

Hey, I was recently invited to this. Just to clarify, is the scholarship for 30k per year? And people invited are automatically awarded the scholarship, correct?

 

[medicalCPA]

This is actually the most helpful thing I've seen anywhere about Explore Sinai (and believe me, I've searched!). Since it's on Friday afternoon, I've decided I'll be going, since I can fly there in the morning and be able to go into lab the next day. If I can, I will ask lots of questions so that people in future won't be flying blind.

 

[The Bioethicist]

I think @OscarWao was lucky. I talked to another current Sinai student who attended the event last year and he did not receive any merit aid.

 

[Cerebral_Policy]

That makes me sad.

I want certainty!

 

[OscarWao]

Yeah, I wish they were more transparent. As a rule, med schools are very opaque about how much aid they offer and what they're willing to do. In general, the safest thing to do is not only to go to events like this, but also to sell yourself at it! Smile like it's an interview, bump shoulders with the faculty, talk about how you would love to go to Sinai, and also ask about the scholarship opportunities they mentioned in the email - I certainly did, maybe that helped.