New York City Programs: Columbia, Childrens Hospital at Montefiore (Monte), Cornell, Long Island Jewish (LIJ):
For the people who want to be in New York City, you probably know who you are. It is an awesome city for a lot of things, however, it is expensive and is not the cleanest of cities (its gritty). Moreover, by having so many people crammed into one location, even close things can take a while to get to. But that said, if you are a city person, having so many people so close together is part of what makes it cool.
As far as academics goes, Columbia is assumed to be the top dawg of New York City, with Monte coming in second. However, Monte seems to be gaining on Columbia and in fact a number of attendings (particularly peds cardiology) have left Columbia for Monte because of the politics at Columbia. Also, Cornell still has brand name appeal if youre into that. LIJ isnt much of an academic powerhouse in what Ive seen and heard, but that said, LIJ is part of an extremely profitable health care system and it sounds like a lot of money is already coming LIJs way to make it a more competitive program. As far as the other New York City programs, I really havent heard that many good things about NYU or Mount Sinai. I dont know specifics, but I was just told by a couple of different people to not bother with them. Additionally, for what its worth, the nursing can be hit or miss in New York City (although I can only say that based on experience for Monte). In my opinion its due to the large Nursing unions that make it really hard to fire crappy nurses. While there are some awesome nurses in NYC, theres also some that make going to work like death.
Heres some more specifics for each one:
Columbia: Extremely high volume patient load (you will learn by doing, not by reading). Described by the program director as the quintessential urban program (which I agree with). I was told by the chief resident in my interview that if you come here you should expect to deal with a lot of social problems for your patients. You will have a largely Hispanic population. There are rumors that Columbia is malignant, but, as stated in my intro, Im slow to believe that it actually is. However, there did seem to be some discontent among faculty and they were very interestingly focusing on a lot of negative things in the interview (ie, you shouldnt come here if you want yadda yadda yadda). But that might be them just being smart / honest about the application process and their program? Seems like the teaching is very good and the residents were really nice.
Monte: Its a great program with a very congenial atmosphere and fun residents / attendings. (I really had a lot of fun on my rotations here.) They see a lot of patients with all sorts of crazy different pathology (the Bronx gets people of all kinds from everywhere) and the teaching is pretty darn good. Like Columbia, you will deal with some crappy social situations and the ancillary staff (like nurses) can be hit or miss. When you are on the floors, only one of the three floors you might be stationed on has a call room, which means 2/3rds of the time you are sleeping on the lounge chairs in the resident workroom (which sucks). But, youre pretty busy and dont sleep too much, and with the new work rules I dont know how much of an issue this will be in the future. They feed you a ton (you get $15 for food every day), they have a pretty decent cafeteria, and every Friday they have a housestaff pizza party. The one thing Monte has that Ive never heard of anywhere else is that the Peds residents have their own FREE personal masseuse. Shes there 2-3 days out of the week (all day), and any of the residents can sign up for a 15 minute massage whenever they have a quick break in their schedule. I have a pretty high opinion of the program and it will probably be my top choice of the New York schools. The only drawback for the city people is that its not in Manhattan, but, there are several residents who still live in Manhattan and make the reverse commute.
Cornell: Lower patient volume so youll probably learn more by reading. Good teaching and nice residents. The main reason why I think people come to Cornell is because they get subsidized housing (although subsidized does not equal cheap) on the upper east side of Manhattan (which is a very desirable place to live), AND, youll have time enough to enjoy living there as a resident. (ie, I dont think the residents there are as busy as other places.)
LIJ: Not necessarily an academic powerhouse, but it could be a program on the rise. And for what its worth, they have the highest paid residents in the country ($65,000). I think you would chose to come here if you want to be right next to Manhattan, but still be able to live in at least a semblance of suburban living. (Further out on Long Island it actually becomes very suburban.)
Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP):
So this program is obviously an academic powerhouse where you can go anywhere, do anything after residency. And as it was my last interview, I somewhat expected it to be similar to BCRP in that it would cater to subspecialties primarily. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how well rounded the program was. They place a lot of emphasis on making you a good GENERAL pediatrician first and actually have the patients to pull it off (ie, although they have the sickest of the sick at this hospital, they also still see a lot of bread and butter patients). It was explained to me like this in my interview: Every resource a residency could potentially have is at CHOP, and thus, they had the liberty of making the program into anything they wanted. And they chose to make it about providing a great general pediatrics education, while allowing those with subspecialty interests to be able to delve as deeply into whatever they want. So in sum, they are able to provide both great depth and breadth for all aspects of pediatrics. And moreover, in their acceptance criteria, they arent just looking for people with specific interests (like research). They want a good mix of every kind of pediatrician, including those who want to do primary care, advocacy, etc. I specifically asked one of the residents if they had any problems with getting patients to do procedures on (because there are so many fellows that need procedure experience too), and he told me that hes never had a problem with that and felt like there were plenty of patients to go around. All the residents and attending seemed really nice. As a con it is a big program where you potentially could get lost, but they put some effort into countering that with opportunities to get together with each other.
As far as living in Philadelphia goes, Ive heard Philly referred to as having all the filthiness and crime of New York City, but none its ritz and glamour (which seems somewhat true). However, it didnt seem too bad to me and Im told some residents live in the suburbs and commute in. Also as a big plus, Philadelphia is actually affordable.
