I'm pretty tired from my trip today (3.5 hour train ride + 2.5 hour drive to charlottesville from maryland), but I'm going to attempt to be coherent with my response...
This was a very difficult decision to make, especially after my visit to Pitt's second look in mid April. Initially after the 2nd look, I was leaning towards Pitt because of its amazing hospitals, departments, and curriculum (PBL, early clerkships). Also, the students all were happy and the acceptees I met at the 2nd look were really cool. However, I was unsure about spending four years in Pittsburgh because it seemed to be a bigger version of Charlottesville (small town atmosphere) and it didn't provide for as ethnically diverse of a patient population (i.e. no non-English speaking immigrants) as NYC. So, to make sure I was making as informed of a decision as possible (or should I say "we" since TheFlash and I were both visited Sinai together), I revisited Sinai Monday through Wednesday afternoon, speaking with as many students as possible, getting a feel for the area around Sinai, and taking another tour of the school. I was absolutely blown away. I did not meet a single student who had a single criticism of the school (except for maybe it's "name" value, though this means nothing given their match list)--they loved being students at sinai because the administration was attentive to their concerns, sinai's location near central park and spanish harlem provides for an extremely diverse patient population, and the straight pass/fail system made the atmosphere very non-competitive and allowed the students to enjoy NYC. Also, Sinai's departments and affiliated hospitals were stellar and the fact that the school is in NYC allows students to connect with researchers at other schools. One fourth year I met spent a year at Columbia doing ENT research.
So, my decision essentially boiled down to choosing between Pitt's better curriculum and Sinai's better location. Based on my strong interest in serving immigrant patients and wanting to be in NYC, I decided that Sinai was the better choice. More importantly, I really became excited about starting school at Sinai and could see myself being a part of their community. Pitt's a fantastic school, but I couldn't rationalize turning down Sinai's opportunities and its location in NYC for Pitt's curriculum. Sinai's traditional curriculum (double science block) leaves something to be desired, but it wasn't significant enough for me to choose against Sinai because the students still seemed to have time to enjoy the city and rock the boards (average score is ~228). I can't wait to start at Sinai in August and I look forward to meeting everyone!