NY Residency and Housing....

[Future GI Guy]

I'd love to go to New York for medicine, but the one thing that keeps bothering me is the overwhelming cost of living--specifically apartment prices.

I know that Cornell owns its own apartment building and has pretty cheap rates for its residents.

What about the other programs? Do they offer housing assistance?

What's more, do programs in San Franscisco or Boston (where apartment prices are also totally unreasonable) offer the same kind of assistance?

Without housing assistance, what are some strategies that NYC Resident Physicians have used to survive?

Thanks for your responses.

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[Stinky T]

Columbia and Mt. Sinai both offer housing to their residents. The locations for Mt. Sinai and Mt. Sinai - Cabrini are pretty sweet. In fact, at all the TY, Prelim Medicine, and PM&R interviews in NY, there was housing assitance. I think the best offer was at NYU Downtown Hospital. I believe housing was only $200-$300 for a one bedroom apartment in the Financial District. The program sucked, but the pay was close to $50,000 for the PGY-1 year.

I'm not really sure about Boston because I didn't interview at many places. I don't recall being offered housing assistance at BU, Tufts, or Harvard. My guess would be that the answer is no. Of course I probably paid less attention in Boston because I had planned on buying a house if I matched.

I am almost certain that in San Francisco, you will not find programs that offer housing. Also, your salary will be pretty paltry. Again, I probably didn't pay as much attention since I had a house in the Bay Area.

The feeling I got after I was done was that although the cost of living is high in NY, you do receive a much higher salary and great assistance with housing.

 

[AJM]

Well, one of the things that many of the New York programs do is that they pay their residents about $10,000 more than a "normal" resident salary. (ie. Cornell's intern salary is $42,000, and it goes up from there). Cornell has by far the best housing deal that I saw in Manhattan -- they actually own 4 apartment buildings which go for different rents depending on how much you want to spend and how nice a place you want. Several Cornell residents I met actually invest some of their "extra" income. Mount Sinai theoretically has some subsidized housing, but it's much more expensive and not nearly as nice as Cornell's. I'm not exactly sure about the other NY programs.

UCSF does not have subsidized housing that I know of. Stanford owns an apartment complex across the street from the hospital that they rent out to residents for slightly reduced rates. They're also planning on building a second apartment complex to satisfy resident demand. But the SF Bay Area rents are starting to come down a bit, so it's possible to find some relatively reasonable deals right now.

Hope that helps!

 

[Soupbone]

Stinky,

Isnt Cabrini in Gramacy Park?

How is the housing? What did you think of the hospital?


S0upb0ne

 

[Voxel]

NYU-Downtown. I didn't know the benifits were so good for a prelim. Sweet housing and sweet pay. Yes, you have to speak chinese because 1/3 of all their patients there speak chinese only. I also hear that only half of the patients speak english at all. I would have applied had I known about the benefits. How's the ancillary support at that hospital?

I wonder if you have any worries about living near the WTC and the fumes/particles from that area?

Cabrini is in gramercy park section. Sweet pay and sweet location/housing subsidized and subsidized gym membership. Great chairman who I think would help you out in a jam. Call sometimes is q5 with night float. ICU has 8 beds with 4 interns covering it. Lots of scut for interns. Pray for a good senior resident to help you. Prelims at this place are all top-notch and may run the show themselves sometimes with little help from seniors. Sign out is usally by 4-5pm if your team is efficient. Housing is across the street when you are done. 1-2 months of elective, 1 month PM&R no call/little call, 1 month detox (no/little call) but scary at times. Hospital facilities are ok. I have seen worse, but overall subpar for manhattan. The best part is the view from the cafeteria on the 17th floor. You can see most of manhattan and lunch is a nice part of the day when it is not raining/foggy. The conference I saw was bad and little teaching as per prelims (more time to finish scut I guess?). If you want GI or Cards fellowship go elsewhere.

 

[Stinky T]

Soupbone - You are asking the wrong person about where things are located in NY. However, I do believe that Cabrini is located right next to Gramercy Park and the police station. The housing was relatively expensive ($1000), but not bad considering it was NY. We were told that people who weren't medical residents paid between $3000-$4000 for the same apartment.

I thought the hospital was fairly nice in comparison with some that I had seen in NY. Perhaps it was just the location that gave me a fonder impression, however. I am a little biased because New York and I are just not a good fit. Perhaps some New Yorkers could give you a less biased view. The housing at Cornell was definitely in the best location in NY.

 

[Stinky T]

Originally posted by Voxel:
Yes, you have to speak chinese because 1/3 of all their patients there speak chinese only.

Fair enough, but it still didn't feel good knowing that I would be ranked based on the fact that I spoke Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese.

Originally posted by Voxel:

I wonder if you have any worries about living near the WTC and the fumes/particles from that area?

I should've mentioned that these interviews were last year and it was my first trip to NY.

Originally posted by Voxel:

1 month PM&R no call/little call

 

[Voxel]

Yes. PM&R has little call for the most part.