I have to disagree with the statements above. I volunteer in their ER on weeknights, and it is intense. We get car accident and interpersonal traumas, homeless, drug addicts...There are TONS of DIVERSE patients, and many of them wait for 10 - 12 hours to be seen....some come from NJ....They all are HAPPY to talk to hospital staff, including volunteers and med students, just to be reminded that they are not forgotten ...So, it is not true that patients won't even talk to med students. NYP is a private hospital, but it sure is #1 in New York State and #7 in the nation, and attracts a HUGE number of patients. The kind of patient care Cornell docs do is amazing both medically and interpersonally, and is a great learning experience for somebody studying medicine.
I have never been to Bellevue, but I sure heard not so good remarks about the how docs treat patients as second class citizens at Bellevue from a classmate who volunteered in their ER. I won't generalize about it though, but I have to say that just because NYP is private does not mean there is not enough clinical exposure.