Does anyone have any information on the program? Fellowship, life as a resident? Thanks!
Great program all around - excellent clinical experience and likely the best academic program in the city.
The center of the program is the resident clinic, which creates a great amount of independence and diagnostic skill and generates the surgical volume for the residents. With changes enacted by the new chair and program director, there is a more formal surgical curriculum, and phaco numbers are probably 140-160 on average now. Also a good variety of cornea/glaucoma/plastics/peds/retina cases with top notch nationally/internationally renowned faculty in each department.
Because it is a smaller residency with 3 residents a year in a good program in a desirable city, matching is difficult (as it is in any good program).
Fellowships offered at Columbia include a top notch retina fellowship, as well as very good glaucoma and cornea fellowships. There is also a great ASOPRS plastics position that is shared between NYU, NYEEI, and Columbia.
As far as how residents do for fellowship placement - most have gone on to do fellowships due to the academic nature of the program - recent matches have included glaucoma at Jules Stein and Wills, cornea at Cleveland Clinic, peds at MEEI, and surgical retina at Jules Stein, Bascom Palmer, Colorado, and Columbia, and plastics at MD Anderson (ASOPRS).
You will be busy at Columbia, and you will come out being able to do whatever you want to do.
