This is a reply I posted a while back to a similar question...hopefully it's helpful...
Here are my take on your questions after I spend my first year at Sinai. First of all, I would like to say that I absolutely love this school, my classmates are one of the most supportive students I know and everyone try to help out everyone on every single exam time. As for your questions...
what are your views about the different hospitals and patient populations associated with each school?
I haven't had my clinical rotations yet so I won't be able to answer your question very throughly. I do know that due to our hospital location, we take a lot of patients from Upper East side and Spanish Harlem. In addition students rotate through the Bronx VA, and Elmhurst to mention a couple. Elmhurst is known to have VERY diverse patient population.
what about research opportunities?
There are lots of faculty willing to help you out. I got a project going my first semester here. Faculty members are very accessible and willing to work around your class hours. Our class size is 120 up from 100 last year. The whole school has about 500 so students including grads and MS students so you get a chance to really get to know the faculty.
facilities?
I have no complaints about facilities and we just got a 100K donation from Alum to revitalize our student lounge. Our classrooms are undergoing some reconstruction over summer I think.
location?
I'm 100 feet away from Central Park and my classroom. I can walk to any of museums around here and Manhattan is connected by the metro. I don't think it's too much different from Cornell as far as I know.
cost?
As far as I know, our average debt for graduating seniors have been around $86000 after 4 years including undergrad debt. I was offered an excellent financial aid package, 26000 in scholarships and grants 1000EFC.
other students?
I love my classmates like I mentioned. Someone mentioned how good our class looked this year and I think that's true pretty much for all students here. Also there are a lot of people from different backgrounds. There are about 20 Humanities in Medicine kids who got accepted in their sophomore year in college, and about 3 Engineer in Medicine students. They are also fun bunch to party with after every exam.
attitutes?
Every class has gunners in class, but I think my classmates are very relaxed and chill for the most part. Not much stressing since it's strictly P/NP for the first two years. It's H/HP/P/F for third and fourth year so I don't know how that's going to be.
plain old vibes you got from each school?
Chill. Very student oriented. Administration does everything to listen to student concerns. Sometimes I wonder if they are baby us too much.
Good luck with making your choice!
Send me a PM if you have anymore questions.
