NYC Programs

[CloudEmperor]

There are a ton of radiology programs in NYC and it's kind of hard to sort them all out. I'm interested in sorting them out a bit.

For one, I guess we can stratify them by prestige/rank/academics/etc and then by the nonacademic merits of each like housing, location, amenities, etc.

ACADEMIC PRESTIGE/QUALITY OF TRAINING

- Top 3 probably got to NYU, Columbia and Cornell
- Mount Sinai and Albert Einstein-Montefiore probably follows
- I hear Maimonides is really good for MSK

After this, not really sure where to place programs like Harlem Hospital, Hofstra Lenox Hill, Mt. Sinai-St. Luke's, Albert Einstein-Jacobi, Maimonides, SUNY Downstate, Hofstra-Staten Island, etc.

NONACADEMIC MERITS

- NYU, Cornell, Mt. Sinai-St. Luke's, Lenox Hill and Columbia are in pretty nice areas from what I can tell
- Cornell offers subsidized housing attached to the hospital (DOES ANY OTHER NYC RESIDENCY DO THIS?)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[rrxr]

Hofstra LIJ/northwell/whatever it's called now and NYU offer non guaranteed housing, I think NYU's is very hard to get into though. For non academic merits, LIJ is loaded and PGY-1 pay has now broken 70k, I believe. I've heard their resident salaries advertised as the highest in the nation, no idea if that's true.

Columbia is in an area not quite as nice as NYU and Cornell. It is quite a few streets north of the undergrad campus, it's basically in Harlem. The area is quite gentrified now, but it's not the Upper East Side.

There's generally a huge divide in NYC between the best and worst, with very little in between... I think Hofstra northwell would be the best of the non brand names.

Edit: I just realized you might not be counting Northwell as NYC? I do simply bc Monte etc etc are also a big trek from Manhattan, but I understand not counting it.

 

[DrfluffyMD]

I am not going to a NYC IR fellowship but this is what I heard on the street as far as NYC IR fellowships and interviewing for DR. Your residency experience may differ.

DR (interview 2013)

High tier: NYU is the king. Cornell and Columbia are the next two best thing and about to be equivalent (both belong to NYP hospital). Cornell is in a much nicer area. Sinai is the weakest of the big 4 but still above every other program.

Mid tier: monty and downstate

Low tier: maimondies then everything else.

IR: interviewed last year

Between 1990-2005 or so (or until Ziv Haskal left) I understood Columbia was considered to be the top program in the city.

Then from 2005 to the the mid 2010s Sinai was considered to be the best due to having PAD still.

However, the more recent picture is more nuianced. When I got an interview at Sinai last session I found out they have a whopping SEVEN spots for fellows. When I was a med students rotating through Sinai in 2012, there were 2 or 3 fellows. Sinai did acquire other hospitals (with a case complexity less than Sinai) but it seems like the number of fellow expanded faster than case volume. Sinai still is the king for PAD in the city and do some boutiqe stuff.

Columbia: similar case volume to Sinai but minus the PAD connection sinai has. It has the only children's hospital in Manhattan. Better transplant and hepatobiliary experience than Sinai. The case volume is massive per fellow (similar to Sinai overall but 3 instead of 7 fellows). Columbia has the least numbers of fellows for its size which means in theory you pick and choose the case you want. Reportly fellows log some of the highest case number I've heard (1600+) which is just nuts, in a good way if you have a surgical personality. Also has the biggest outpatient IR office in town.

From my interview experience Sinai and Columbia are about equal now, depends on what you need. If you like PAD sinai maybe better. Columbia is a lot bigger brand name than Sinai outside of NYC.

Cornell and NYU: I didn't interview there but from friends who did they say they are about equivalent and just slightly below Sinai/Columbia.

NYU has great trauma experience. It's a fellowship on its way up supposedly. Unfortunately not regarded as highly as their DR.

Cornell: great name. Appearently a bit boutique and fellows have slightly less autonomy in the beginning.

Sloan: when I interviewed at Sloan the fellows reported there is less autonomy (to be expected at a place like Sloan). Great for IO.

In summary: DR: NYU > Columbia = Cornell > Sinai > Monty > downstate > maimonides > everything else as of 2013.

IR: Columbia = Sinai > Cornell = NYU = Sloan > Monty for IR FELLOWSHIP.

For DR IR, I imagine NYU is bumped up due to how strong their DR is. I don't know if Sinai will as many DR/IR residents as they have IR fellows which can make case load per resident greater.

Here's another review post on NYC IR program posted on another big radiology discussion forum. I won't link it here due to TOS but here it is.

"In reply to irinterview2017
Personally I would rank
Sinai > Columbia ~ NYU > Cornell ~ MSKCC > Montefiore

If you have to live in New York and can go to all the interviews then DO IT. Based on interviews from this year and recent past.

Sinai:
(PRO) Only NY program with strong PAD due to Rob Lookstein and vascular surgery connections, also huge liver volume. Great autonomy with bro vibe attendings such as Aaron Fischman, Rahul Patel.
(CON) Huge program (~7 fellows + integrated IR residents) with few procedure rooms means lower case volume but with solid case complexity. The other fellows rotate at a nearby community hospital, clinic, consults, OR.

Columbia:
(PRO) Only NY program with a large busy outpatient office that does same-day TACE/UFE, Y90 in future. Very complex hepatobiliary cases with strong liver and kidney transplant programs, growing children's hospital (only large one in NY). Only 3 fellows so more cases.
(CON) No PAD, location is far away from downtown. Some attendings have a reputation of more headstrong leadership resulting in slightly less autonomy and some tougher days, but overall most are pretty friendly.

Cornell:
(PRO) Strong name especially outside of the city, with many big names including David Madoff. Decent liver program plus two months spent at MSKCC to hone clinical interventional oncology skills.
(CON) No PAD, slightly lower case complexity than the above two programs. Depending on who you talk to, some have said they do more PICCs ports, etc, tough to know what to believe.

MSKCC:
(PRO/CON) Huge name in interventional oncology with large clinic volume, cutting edge equipment and a large amount of research in all aspects of IO. Fellows get ample time to work on research projects if desired. Two months spent at Cornell to get 'general hospital' experience. However, a lot of attendings (20 as of now) means fewer close relationships and likely the least autonomy of any program in NY. Depends on what you're looking for in fellowship.

NYU:
(PRO/CON) Only program in NY with decent trauma volume thanks to Bellevue. Burgeoning PE lysis volume thanks to Akhi Sista. Young programwith a lot of recent faculty turnover, which means several new attendings trained at big-name institutions throughout the country. Though the program is currently remaking itself in transition period, definitely promising for an increasingly well rounded experience.

Montefiore:
(PRO) Long history of training successful IRs with good autonomy, decent liver cancer volume.
(CON) The Bronx. Two fellows and one is often under Sabbath program(unofficial but frequent) meaning the second fellow could carry more Saturday call. This year's fellows don't have jobs yet.

If anyone has comments to add please edit the above. Check them all out if you can because each has its merits. Complex cases spread out among all these places just like in any big city.

Finally take the above with a grain of salt, irinterview2017 is not all knowing.
<message edited by irinterview2017 on 03/22/17 01:31PM>"

 

[qxrt]

Common consensus among NYC DR programs is the following:

Big 5: NYU >= Cornell > Columbia >= Mount Sinai > Montefiore

NYU has the biggest name in radiology, but Cornell is considered a close #2 and on the rise. Seems to be the consensus that those two are the tops in DR in NYC. Columbia, Mount Sinai, and Montefiore round out the rest of the NYC big 5.

Location-wise, NYU, Cornell, and Mount Sinai are in great locations. Columbia in Washington Heights and Montefiore in the Bronx, not so much.

Among community programs, LIJ-Northshore and St. Luke-Roosevelt are considered tops (Beth Israel used to be there, but is closing/closed their residencies). SUNY Downstate is technically an academic program, but I think places like LIJ and St. Luke's may still trump it in both education and fellowship placement. That said, looking at Downstate's website, they seem to match their residents into good IR fellowships. I guess LIJ-Northshore is technically an academic program now since they've recently been afiliated with Hofstra, but I think most people would still consider it closer to the community NYC programs. The rest of the community programs are probably below LIJ, St. Luke, and Downstate.

Location-wise, St. Luke's is in a great location in Upper West Side. I interviewed at Downstate for med school way back in the past, and the location is terrible, in a bad part of Brooklyn.

For IR fellowships, I am not the most familiar with all the programs, but Mount Sinai is considered tops, with Columbia/Cornell/NYU coming after and similar to each other.

With the advent of the integrated IR/DR residencies, though, the above IR fellowship rankings will probably change, since med students now have to consider both IR and DR in tandem with each other and cannot separate them.

For MSK, Cornell and NYU are probably tops because of their affiliations with Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Hospital for Joint Diseases, respectively.

 

[radsisrad]

Interesting. I thought I'd heard back when interviewing that Columbia/Sinai/Monte were all more or less on the same tier for DR (not IR, of course).

 

[qxrt]

Interesting. I thought I'd heard back when interviewing that Columbia/Sinai/Monte were all more or less on the same tier for DR (not IR, of course).

Tier, maybe not too different from each other; the difference among those three not as pronounced as with NYU and Cornell. But practically speaking, Columbia and Mount Sinai have better overall name and/or location than Montefiore, so you will not find too many people who rank Monte above the other two.

 

[CloudEmperor]

Hofstra LIJ/northwell/whatever it's called now and NYU offer non guaranteed housing, I think NYU's is very hard to get into though. For non academic merits, LIJ is loaded and PGY-1 pay has now broken 70k, I believe. I've heard their resident salaries advertised as the highest in the nation, no idea if that's true.

Columbia is in an area not quite as nice as NYU and Cornell. It is quite a few streets north of the undergrad campus, it's basically in Harlem. The area is quite gentrified now, but it's not the Upper East Side.

There's generally a huge divide in NYC between the best and worst, with very little in between... I think Hofstra northwell would be the best of the non brand names.

Edit: I just realized you might not be counting Northwell as NYC? I do simply bc Monte etc etc are also a big trek from Manhattan, but I understand not counting it.

I didn't count it because it wasn't that close to Manhattan, like a 1 hr trek. I'm more interested in Manhattan though I know Hofstra Lenox Hill is not as good as LIJ, it's in a way better location.

 

[Mdmbaguy]

To give a modern update, I'm a current DR resident in Manhattan and here's the perceived ranking of programs. I'll also include the correlating Doximity rankings for comparison, because there are some arbitrary differences in making these lists.

NYU (#4 on Doximity) > Columbia (#16) = Cornell (#14) = Mount Sinai (#24) > Mount Sinai West (#25) = Montefiore (#41) > Hofstra/Northwell (#69) > SUNY Downstate (#109) > Everywhere else is neither worth interviewing at or applying to, unless you're just not competitive. These programs in general average Step scores > 240.

If you're interested in VIR:
Mount Sinai Health System is the strongest program in the city by far and one of the best in the country. Mount Sinai has a dedicated IR/DR program and Mount Sinai West has an ESIR program that fills almost exclusively into the Mount Sinai VIR fellowship program. The MSHS faculty work through both programs, so the experience is the same for both. NYU is the second best VIR program, followed by Cornell and Columbia.

If you're going by location:
Mount Sinai West (Columbus Circle with guaranteed housing) > NYU ( Gramercy/Murray Hill with no guaranteed housing) > Mount Sinai (UES with guaranteed housing) > Columbia (Washington Heights)

 

[justadumbbunny]

The new NYC rankings should be based on the number of required Covid redeployments.

 

[Slave to the Game]

If you're interested in IR, Sinai main campus is great. If you're interested in anything else, it is = or below Sinai West and Monte. The volume and exposure in some of the other fields is weak at main campus.

 

[tigga2013]

The new NYC rankings should be based on the number of required Covid redeployments.

Truth. If this thing doesn't blow over until July, the worst program will be the one that also redeploys the new R1's.

 

[Dave1980]

You will get a lot of ICU rotations and ER rotations throughout your Radiology training at the NYC programs.

 

[justadumbbunny]

You will get a lot of ICU rotations and ER rotations throughout your Radiology training at the NYC programs.

Yeah forget asking about Statdx, ask about PPE and hazard pay.

 

[lidlyft]

To give a modern update, I'm a current DR resident in Manhattan and here's the perceived ranking of programs. I'll also include the correlating Doximity rankings for comparison, because there are some arbitrary differences in making these lists.

NYU (#4 on Doximity) > Columbia (#16) = Cornell (#14) = Mount Sinai (#24) > Mount Sinai West (#25) = Montefiore (#41) > Hofstra/Northwell (#69) > SUNY Downstate (#109) > Everywhere else is neither worth interviewing at or applying to, unless you're just not competitive. These programs in general average Step scores > 240.

If you're interested in VIR:
Mount Sinai Health System is the strongest program in the city by far and one of the best in the country. Mount Sinai has a dedicated IR/DR program and Mount Sinai West has an ESIR program that fills almost exclusively into the Mount Sinai VIR fellowship program. The MSHS faculty work through both programs, so the experience is the same for both. NYU is the second best VIR program, followed by Cornell and Columbia.

If you're going by location:
Mount Sinai West (Columbus Circle with guaranteed housing) > NYU ( Gramercy/Murray Hill with no guaranteed housing) > Mount Sinai (UES with guaranteed housing) > Columbia (Washington Heights)

Are you a DR resident at Mt. Sinai who wants to go into IR? Bias coming off strong. Add info on Cornell, Columbia and NYU please.

 

[NDcienporciento100]

Are you a DR resident at Mt. Sinai who wants to go into IR? Bias coming off strong. Add info on Cornell, Columbia and NYU please.

It’s a know thing that Mount Sinai is The best program in NYC and probably the entire east coast (Brown is also strong, and there are others on the community level that give a well rounded education in the NE). Fischman and Lookstein have worked hard to built a very strong Clinical program that compares to few other places in the country.

 

[Timtom98]

Can anyone shed some light on the Brooklyn programs?

 

[frishoe1]

Can anyone offer a modern update to this thread? Thank you!

 

[Dr_feelsbadman]

I interviewed at most (not quite all) the New York City programs the 2021-2022 cycle. My impressions for diagnostic radiology are similar to the above posts from 2017-2020. A few differences:

Top: NYU. Pretty agreed upon that they have the best name / research output of the NYC programs. Funnily, they have some of the worst benefits out of the big 4.

The rest of the "big 4": Columbia = Cornell = Sinai. All are strong academic big names with robust training and research. There are subtle differences in the programs, ie Cornell is known for being relaxed / Sinai is known for being best IR and subsidized housing / Columbia has the historical edge and great salary to cost of living.

Mid-tier: Montefiore > Sinai West. Both programs are academic, but not quite powerhouses like the above. Montefiore is strong, but feels like they've lost some ground to the above 4 in the past few years in regards to trainee education. Sinai West has climbed in the last few years by leveraging the Sinai system. They are undoubtedly academic now, compared to their past as community-based, but they still haven't cracked the top.

Lower-tier: Downstate, Maimonides, Rutgers NJMS, Hofstra. Programs that still have a strong training culture, have research opportunities, and leave the future doors open to jump higher in academia. However, these programs didn't send their residents to conferences, give them research opportunities, or offer the same cutting edge technologies as the top ones.

Community: Jacobi, Nassau, Harlem, Atlantic Health. All great programs, some of the best doctors and residents I met on the trail. They still train great radiologists, but don't have the same offerings as others.

 

[frishoe1]

I interviewed at most (not quite all) the New York City programs the 2021-2022 cycle. My impressions for diagnostic radiology are similar to the above posts from 2017-2020. A few differences:

Top: NYU. Pretty agreed upon that they have the best name / research output of the NYC programs. Funnily, they have some of the worst benefits out of the big 4.

The rest of the "big 4": Columbia = Cornell = Sinai. All are strong academic big names with robust training and research. There are subtle differences in the programs, ie Cornell is known for being relaxed / Sinai is known for being best IR and subsidized housing / Columbia has the historical edge and great salary to cost of living.

Mid-tier: Montefiore > Sinai West. Both programs are academic, but not quite powerhouses like the above. Montefiore is strong, but feels like they've lost some ground to the above 4 in the past few years in regards to trainee education. Sinai West has climbed in the last few years by leveraging the Sinai system. They are undoubtedly academic now, compared to their past as community-based, but they still haven't cracked the top.

Lower-tier: Downstate, Maimonides, Rutgers NJMS, Hofstra. Programs that still have a strong training culture, have research opportunities, and leave the future doors open to jump higher in academia. However, these programs didn't send their residents to conferences, give them research opportunities, or offer the same cutting edge technologies as the top ones.

Community: Jacobi, Nassau, Harlem, Atlantic Health. All great programs, some of the best doctors and residents I met on the trail. They still train great radiologists, but don't have the same offerings as others.

Thank you! May be a stretch, but do you have any thoughts on differences in IR training between the big 4?

 

[Dr_feelsbadman]

For IR Sinai is best in NYC, and one of the best in the nation. Dr. Lookstein is a legend in the field and they have a solid stream of PAD, y90s, and embolizations.

A little less familiar with the other 3 (I'm DR), but my general sense was the people hardcore about IR typically ranked Sinai > NYU > Columbia > Cornell. Their reasoning was that NYU has the strongest DR program, and still very decent IR training, albeit not as strong as Sinai. Then Columbia is decent IR, decent DR, not the best at either. I'm not that familiar with Cornell, other than my friends were ranking them last for IR of the big 4.