Hey guys,
I got back last night from Einstein/Sinai. I stayed with hosts at both places and learned alot about the respective schools. Here are a few thoughts that stick out in my mind...
Einstein - Strong academically, well-respected (especially in the NYC area), students are pretty loose, non-competitive. All the people there (students, faculty, and staff) seem to be very receptive to students and treat them with kindness and respect from what I saw. The class schedule seems friendly, with not much afternoon class and plenty of free time (most students there were busy preparing for an intramural basketball tourney when I was there). My interviewer actually told me that my PS was one of the best she'd ever read - so that was kinda cool - hopefully she meant it! . One thing I didn't like was that the class is made up us about 180 students, which is one of the largest in the country. However, the resources do seem to be there for them in terms of facilities, faculty, etc. Another potential problem, depending on the kind of person you are, is the location - in the Bronx. The area in which the school is located is actually very safe. But there's not much to do there, so if you are into exotic cuisine, bars, nightlife, and the like you will have to go into manhattan, which is a 45 min express bus ride away (very convenient bus, as I took it to Sinai). The living arrangements at Einstin I thought were very good. Most students live in 3 person/3 bedroom apartment style housing with one bathroom, kitchen, and living room area. The apartments are big for NYC - the bedrooms particularly. Plus, the rent is about $260/month per person - you can't beat that anywhere. Also, there is a newly renovated gym next door that looks really nice. Oh yeah, one more slight problem though, since it is a Jewish school, the gym, along with other things, closes early on fri and sat (I don't know exactly how it works) - but the upside to that is there is no class on fri afternoons ever. Also, I got the feeling that the students were happy there, but that Einstein was the school they backed up into - they didn't get into more desirable schools and had to settle for Einstein. This showed, and the students were not as happy as they could have been it seemed to me.
Now for Sinai - I was very impressed with the quality of students at Sinai - I met several of them and they seemed very very smart and extremely happy with the school. They also seem to have lots of free time in their first two years with which to explore the city and volunteer, get involved, etc. I don't really know how well my interview went - it was hard to read but I am hoping to get in to Sinai and it has jumped up on my list of preferences. The location of Sinai is top notch - you can't ask for much better - a few blocks from central park and the subway at your fingertips. The dorms are really apartments, and a significant number of them are duplexes that will blow your mind. The place I stayed in was a duplex with 5 students/5bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. There was a big kitchen and living room area and an amazing balcony area. But keep in mind not everyone will get a duplex - stil thought I saw the single-story places and they were very nice too - best I've seen as far as NYC schools go (haven't seen Cornell though). The rent is about 600/month. The Mount Sinai Hospital is a major selling point - it's really great - the head of cardiology there is the Pres of the American Heart Association, plus they just recruited the entire transplant team from Brigham and Women's (a Harvard hospital) - which is like 17 docs. The faculty are great and my interviewers were clearly interested in helping students seeing them succeed and become humanistic doctors. The finacial aid at Sinai is very effective too = the avg debt for students, which factored in bedt accumulated in undergraduate years, was 90K - that's really good. Another thing I liked at SInai was the opportunity to do a MS in community medicine (eq. to an MPH) without spending another year there. Plus, my hosts and I sat around and drank Beam+Coke the night before my interview - gotta love that 🙂 )
It is no question better than NYU and Einstein. It may, depending on your personal wants, be more desirable than Cornell. (the problem I have with Cornell is that their hospital affiliatioa are not great, whereas Sinai, COlumbia, and even NYU to a lesser extent have great teaching hospitals with clinical opportunities abound).
The NYC schools, all thiongs considered, as I see them right now (interviewed at all these except Cornell so far):
1. Columbia (no question about this at all)
2. Sinai (close with Cornell, but my visit to Sinai convinced me - for now)
3. Cornell (this could very well change if/when I see the school)
4. NYU
5. Einstein (location, big class kills it - but still a good school with lots of opportunities)
That's all folks, let me know if there is anything else of if I can be of any help...and good luck with your apps!
PS - I was told that the wait post-ionterview at Einstien is 6-8 weeks. At SInai, the Dean said acceptances will go out 3 weeks after the interview, whereas the waitlist will be established sometime in Febraury. So basically, if I don't hear from Sinai in 3 weeks I can assume that I'[m rejected or waitlisted. Also, Sinai will be interviewing through April...
