Mount Sinai vs. NYU

[wahoo95]

Fortunate enough to have acceptances to two great NY medical schools. Costs of attendance are approximately the same with NYU being slightly more expensive due to more expensive housing--I'm not really using cost as a decision-making factor. I already decided against Vanderbilt and UVA largely because I'm interested in being in a large, diverse city for a more interesting patient population and to live in a more culturally exciting place. Don't really care about the USNews ranking differential, but reputation could be a factor. My family lives in Northern Virginia, and this will be my first time living outside VA. My significant other will be living in Baltimore.

Mount Sinai
Pros
Location: close to Central Park and subway, somewhat isolated from downtown (might make it an easier transition to NYC)
Lot of student feedback/input in curriculum
Faculty seemed very engaged in student experience
Commitment to serving community and patients of Harlem
Very laid-back, student-centric program. Happy students
Focus on arts, humanities, infocus weeks; progressive institution
Flexible online testing format
Stand-alone med school: all resources and time directed towards med students
Housing: more spacious, better, and cheaper than NYU
Maybe historically better reputation in northeast?

Cons
2 year preclinical: seems backwards, unnecessarily slow, reduces elective time. I'm very undecided about specialty, so I would like the extra time after clinical year to explore
Match is strong but more IM/EM/Family/Peds than NYU; perhaps it is easier to match to competitive residencies from NYU?
Slightly bigger class size i think?

NYU
1.5 year curriculum gives extra time for electives; also lot of student feedback and control over curriculum
Take Step 1 after clinical year
Biweekly preclinical exams on Fridays gives you every other weekend free
Combo of Tisch/Bellevue was very impressive; would see a lot of interesting and very different things at both hospitals
More impressive facilities and medical education technology
More nationally ranked specialties at NYU
Maybe more nationally known?
NYU works really hard to fund social events for students
Class was very tight
Access to resources of a full university (probably not a big deal)

Cons
Location/housing; although NYU students say the distance from subway makes the neighborhood feel like its own bubble which might be comfortable
Students were definitely happy but I heard NYU is a little more stressful than Sinai?
Admin seemed a little ranking-obsessed. There are definitely opportunities to engage with community but it wasn't as big a priority as Sinai

Summary: I like different things about each school, don't really know which one to pick. I know I'll be fine at either school and had good interview days at both, maybe a little better at Sinai because the MMI at NYU was kind of stressful. Which factors should I focus on, and is there any more information I should consider in this decision?

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[slippydubloons]

I'd probably take NYU on this one. I agree with you on that preclinical annoyance, I think 1.5 years is fine, taking step after clinical year helps w/scores, Bellevue especially would give you that really diverse population you're looking for. I think if you end up being more interested in competitive specialties NYU has really strong home programs in things like Derm/Ortho etc. and that could help you a lot.

 

[wahoo95]

Can anyone more familiar with new york speak about NYU's location?

 

[GnothiSeauton]

Can anyone more familiar with new york speak about NYU's location?

NYU is in a neighborhood called Kips Bay, which you must have already visited. It's a quiet, sterile, upper-middle class neighborhood in midtown NYC. Bellevue is a city hospital, so during rotations there you get a very diverse patient population from lower Manhattan, many of whom have no insurance (Bellevue can't turn them away). Cost of living is more expensive in Kips Bay than uptown, although like other NYC schools NYU has relatively cheap dorms. Being in the lower bit of midtown you are closer to the hip parts of Manhattan (East Village, Lower East Side), which saves you 15-20 minutes of travel time over being up at Sinai.

Sinai abuts the lower border of East Harlem, a poor hispanic/Black neighborhood uptown. East Harlem itself is not nice, although being on the border of East Harlem, Central Park, and the Upper East Side results in the area around Sinai being pretty quiet and harmless. It's not as interesting from a nightlife perspective, but it is quite close to the 6 train which goes directly down to Union Square and the East Village, so accessibility to the cool parts of Manhattan is barely worse than at NYU. Housing is considerably cheaper, and in my opinion nicer than NYU's dorms.

What else do you want to know?

 

[wahoo95]

NYU is in a neighborhood called Kips Bay, which you must have already visited. It's a quiet, sterile, upper-middle class neighborhood in midtown NYC. Bellevue is a city hospital, so during rotations there you get a very diverse patient population from lower Manhattan, many of whom have no insurance (Bellevue can't turn them away). Cost of living is more expensive in Kips Bay than uptown, although like other NYC schools NYU has relatively cheap dorms. Being in the lower bit of midtown you are closer to the hip parts of Manhattan (East Village, Lower East Side), which saves you 15-20 minutes of travel time over being up at Sinai.

Sinai abuts the lower border of East Harlem, a poor hispanic/Black neighborhood uptown. East Harlem itself is not nice, although being on the border of East Harlem, Central Park, and the Upper East Side results in the area around Sinai being pretty quiet and harmless. It's not as interesting from a nightlife perspective, but it is quite close to the 6 train which goes directly down to Union Square and the East Village, so accessibility to the cool parts of Manhattan is barely worse than at NYU. Housing is considerably cheaper, and in my opinion nicer than NYU's dorms.

What else do you want to know?

Thank you! I'm curious, although the patient populations are geographically different between the two schools, do you think there would be any significant difference in patient diversity (race, SES, severity of condition, variety of diseases, etc) between the two schools, given that both schools have strong private research hospitals and a commitment to treating the underserved in their communities?

Additionally, I got a stronger vibe from Sinai that they were training medical students to be advocates for their patients beyond just the clinical realm, through programs like EHHOP. On the other hand, having Bellevue right next to campus helps NYU students get a solid clinical foundation with an incredibly diverse group of patients. thoughts about this?

 

[slippydubloons]

Thank you! I'm curious, although the patient populations are geographically different between the two schools, do you think there would be any significant difference in patient diversity (race, SES, severity of condition, variety of diseases, etc) between the two schools, given that both schools have strong private research hospitals and a commitment to treating the underserved in their communities?

Additionally, I got a stronger vibe from Sinai that they were training medical students to be advocates for their patients beyond just the clinical realm, through programs like EHHOP. On the other hand, having Bellevue right next to campus helps NYU students get a solid clinical foundation with an incredibly diverse group of patients. thoughts about this?

As someone who lives/works in NYC:

I would say likely no to your first question. As to your second question, these components of a medical education kind of baffle me bc a school having one extracurricular program over another isn't going to change your training. NYU has a free clinic process too, similar to EHHOP

Honestly you will get a fine education at both places. Pick the one in the area you'd want to live in more (for me, that'd be NYU no question, as Kips/Midtown is chill AF)

 

[GnothiSeauton]

Thank you! I'm curious, although the patient populations are geographically different between the two schools, do you think there would be any significant difference in patient diversity (race, SES, severity of condition, variety of diseases, etc) between the two schools, given that both schools have strong private research hospitals and a commitment to treating the underserved in their communities?

Additionally, I got a stronger vibe from Sinai that they were training medical students to be advocates for their patients beyond just the clinical realm, through programs like EHHOP. On the other hand, having Bellevue right next to campus helps NYU students get a solid clinical foundation with an incredibly diverse group of patients. thoughts about this?

My thoughts are that all of the NYC schools have fundamentally diverse patient populations to train with. Mt. Sinai supposedly has the largest healthcare network in the city now. Between uptown and downtown Manhattan and Elmhurst they probably have the most diverse patient population overall. This is NYC though, so it's really a wash. Also these are all impressions, I don't have real data.

Anyway, if it were me I would choose based on money first, and if that were equal I would probably go to NYU simply because they have more highly regarded residency programs than Sinai. The whole serving the underserved piece is just a talking point for medical schools. Even if it is true to some measurable extent it's not really going to affect what you yourself decide to do with your time in medical school, most of which will be comprised of the same standardized stuff everyone will do.

 

[slippydubloons]

Anyway, if it were me I would choose based on money first, and if that were equal I would probably go to NYU simply because they have more highly regarded residency programs than Sinai. The whole serving the underserved piece is just a talking point for medical schools. Even if it is true to some measurable extent it's not really going to affect what you yourself decide to do with your time in medical school, most of which will be comprised of the same standardized stuff everyone will do.

100% completely agreed