Another poster, from another thread, re: Columbia (NYC):
"Impression: Great all around program, good mix of research and clinical powerhouse, fellows appear happy and nice, though they seem homogenous in terms of their background. essentially everyone is either from BW, MGH, hopkins, ucsf or columbia. Chief is a pure clinician and the PD is a pure researcher.
In terms of their departments:
Cath: world class, very innovative and busy, lots of structural (PARTNERS), strong congenital and peripheral, heavy PCI volume and alot of CTO exposure. CRF and TCT are run out of this lab so a ton of trials going on and a ton of clinical research opportunity
Heart Failure: world class, impressive transplant and mechanical support program, alot of ECMO and VADs (REMATCH), very very very busy. Seems that their VAD program is so large that it is becoming its own thing.
EP: a bit disappointing, faculty seem nice but not much in terms of cutting edge stuff, volume is ok, three rooms. appendage closures are done by the cath lab, not by EP. There is alot of expoosure to VT since the VAD population is so huge there.
Echo: very strong, high volume, exposure to alot of structural heart disease through the cath lab, lots of publications (WARCEF)
Nuclear: strong, pushing PET essentially over SPECT, everyone is doing research
CT/MRI: VERY WEAK, really the low point in the program and they recognize it. not sure if anything is being done to rectify it
Prevent: very strong lipids group (ACCORD), busy primary cardiology clinic with an NP, not sure about rehab
Congenital: very strong, very busy, they seem to be exposed to a large congenital population, and they have a fellowship in it, three dedicated CT surgeons, large peds group, active cath lab
For me, positive points:
-T32 training grant, used by a ton of fellows, salary support increased over NIH scale to ACGME scale by the dept. great research opportunities, but can take it to another institution if you need to
-Good track record for getting K grants.
-Also very family friendly program. Four women last year gave birth in the fellowship, seems like everyone has kids and there is alot of internal moonlighting for extra money to have a family
-food was ridiculous, no french wings though,
-can get level 2's without restriction
-fellows seem like a social cohesive bunch
Negative points
-Call sounds horrible, like really bad and you have it all three years, but you do go home the next morning
-hospital sounds dysfunctional, not sure how the residents are
-washington heights sounds bad
-not sure how good mentorship is there, sounds like sink or swim
-seems like a club for people with elite pedigree, some level of arrogance
-CT/MRI exposure
-cannot incorporate a subspecialty year if you are doing the four year research track like at other institutions.
overall: would have been nice, but doubt I will be able to match here.
looking forward to my other nyc interviews.
would appreciate if others could write in their thoughts about their experiences on the interview trail (especially nyc)"
