NYU vs Mt Sinai

[agrasky]

Anyone have some insight into these 2 programs and how they might differ?

NYU: I loved my interview day at NYU, the residents and PD all seem intelligent, friendly, and engaged. The breadth of clinical experience (multiple hospitals, diverse patient base) seems unmatched. My hesitations are with the work hours and quality of teaching/supervision. Along the interview trail I've heard that residents often stay till 7pm or sometimes even 8pm. Regarding teaching, the residents repeatedly said this is a, "learn by doing" type of place, and that you have to "Love the craziness of New York." This makes me worry about the quality of the teaching and how hectic Bellevue is to work in.

Mt Sinai: Compared to NYU, I get the sense that this program has more reasonable work hours. My concerns here are resident camaraderie and faculty teaching. I've heard residents don't hang out much. I've also heard that teaching on the wards is not so great. Anyone heard otherwise? Also, anyone know of the reputation on a national level?

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[VMSmith]

From what I've heard they have a similar national reputation - NYU historically has a slightly better reputation than Sinai but the gap has been closing.

I have similar concerns about the two programs; it seems that the advantage to Sinai is that there's more flexibility with your time so you can pursue research. At NYU you CAN do research, but it's tougher to squeeze into your schedule. NYU residents work a lot harder (I've heard the same about staying til 7 or 8 pm) but tend to be people who ranked NYU highly because they had a strong work ethic and wanted to work with other residents who work hard.

 

[BobA]

I didn't look at either place, however I'd be careful about writing off a place based on second hand info such as "I've heard the residents don't hang out much."

First, it might be untrue.

Second, that doesn't mean YOU won't hang out with your fellow residents! Sometimes all it takes is a couple of people you really click with to make a nice group of friends.

Resident camaraderie is something that is important to me. I'm single and will be moving to a new place when all is said and done. When I think about resident camaraderie I think about - are these high quality people? Are they interested in what they do? Do they have a life outside of work?

For that reason, I took a good look at the residents during my interview day. Also, I'm really appreciative of residencies that give a little bio of their residents on their website (like Brown does) or like longwood gave out that packet w/resident bios during the interview day. Little things like that go a long way for me.

 

[dianamd]

NYU residents work a lot harder (I've heard the same about staying til 7 or 8 pm) but tend to be people who ranked NYU highly because they had a strong work ethic and wanted to work with other residents who work hard.

Just my two cents: NYU residents tend to have ranked it highly because of its outstanding clinical experience. That is probably the far and away most important reason to go to NYU. As I've written on this message board before, it is acknowledged (at least in NYC) to be the best clinical experience, by far.

Yes, they work hard, but so does Columbia (who work harder than all the others in NYC), Cornell, and Mount Sinai.

I don't know who would go to a residency because they want to be with residents who work hard... when working hard is a given. It is really about the outstanding clinical exposure when it comes to NYU.

(That said, there are reasons to go to the others, Columbia the research emphasis, Cornell the clinical/psychodynamic training, Mount Sinai the teaching/flexibility, etc.)

 

[dianamd]

I didn't look at either place, however I'd be careful about writing off a place based on second hand info such as "I've heard the residents don't hang out much."

First, it might be untrue.

Second, that doesn't mean YOU won't hang out with your fellow residents! Sometimes all it takes is a couple of people you really click with to make a nice group of friends.

Resident camaraderie is something that is important to me. I'm single and will be moving to a new place when all is said and done. When I think about resident camaraderie I think about - are these high quality people? Are they interested in what they do? Do they have a life outside of work?

For that reason, I took a good look at the residents during my interview day. Also, I'm really appreciative of residencies that give a little bio of their residents on their website (like Brown does) or like longwood gave out that packet w/resident bios during the interview day. Little things like that go a long way for me.

I completely agree.

Yes, each resident class is different, and also, while the whole class may not hang out, I would bet that close friends (who hang out) are made in nearly every resident class.

Also, this hearsay about "residents at Mount Sinai don't hang out" reminds me of the "Mount Sinai is up and coming" rumors. What is "up and coming"?? The answer is, something that was said in an SDN thread long ago, and has been repeated endlessly. It is a vague description that says very little about the program itself -- it's something that I have read more than once on these threads this year, and the fact that such a useless phrase gets recycled only shows that the recent comments are based on the past comments, not actual experience.

That is one of the unfortunate problems of these boards -- it's not always people who have first-hand experience (eg, I happen to know two Sinai residents who are great friends and speak very highly about the program). And when it's based on the word on the street, people aren't always so clear that their comments are second hand. When it's based on past SDN comments, all bets are off.

And yes, I love the resident bios -- extremely helpful.

 

[agrasky]

Mount Sinai the teaching/flexibility, etc.)

Does anyone know how what the quality/fequency of teaching by attendings is at Mt Sinai? I went to didactics on a second look and the teaching there seemed good, although there was little resident participation. What I'm more concerned about is how often my attendings will explain and discuss the evidence behind what we are doing as oppossed to just saying what we are doing. I'd love to hear more about teaching at Mt Sinai

 

[agrasky]

Also, this hearsay about "residents at Mount Sinai don't hang out" reminds me of the "Mount Sinai is up and coming" rumors. What is "up and coming"?? The answer is, something that was said in an SDN thread long ago, and has been repeated endlessly. It is a vague description that says very little about the program itself -- it's something that I have read more than once on these threads this year, and the fact that such a useless phrase gets recycled only shows that the recent comments are based on the past comments, not actual experience.

Just wanted to say that I spent some time there (more than just interview day) and this was my personal observation, which was reinforced by things I heard on the interview trail and read on these forums. I do agree though with what was said previously about good friends being found in every class, and its more about how likely you are to seek those friendships out. I guess what I was more concerned with, and should have written, was that residents did not always seem that enthusiastic about what they were learning/doing, and this I interpreted as a feeling of apathy. I realize though that this is something very difficult to gauge with limited interactions, and will vary by class.