the big NYC programs

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for people fortunate to have interviews at all these place, will anyone be ranking nyu or mt. sinai over columbia/cornell? it would be interesting to hear why..

 

[BigBadBix]

for people fortunate to have interviews at all these place, will anyone be ranking nyu or mt. sinai over columbia/cornell? it would be interesting to hear why..

I am. Cornell is actually last on my list (#11). I strongly disliked that program for a variety of reasons, including less than stellar clinical training (little autonomy), the attitude of the attendings I saw (arrogant and busy debating minutiae among themselves rather than teaching residents), and the fact that I met residents who point-blank told me they were unhappy. Cornell has a strong rep but I can't figure out why. I was impressed with both NYU and Sinai in terms of clinical training, autonomy, and the camaraderie among the residents. I will admit that Cornell has better fellowship placement, but that's most obvious in cards. Barely anyone there does pulm/cc and I had trouble finding anyone to talk to about research in that field. I am hoping to do pulm/cc and I think NYU has the best placement in that specialty among these three.

Didn't get the invite to Columbia, but I had already decided to turn it down before they rejected me because I know someone there and it is VERY malignant. So in a way I would have been choosing NYU & Sinai over it were I given the chance.

I posted in more detail about all this on a recent thread comparing NYC programs, and also in the "interview experiences" sticky. Really, it comes down to what is important to you. Name recognition/prestige is less important to me than to most on this forum. I'm hoping to go where I think I'll be happy and get strong clinical training.

-BBB

 

[DoctorDo-Little]

I'm really interested in going to NYC and will probably be ranking
Columbia > Sinai > NYU > Cornell
Why Cornell last? Coming from a county hospital, I'm hesitant to train at a program that has _too many_ private docs. Never mind the lack of autonomy (which might be a little over exaggerated), I just don't like the idea of having phone rounds with 5 different docs every morning - what a headache. Also, I don't like that your attending does not care for ~70% of your patients. Plus, personally I don't think that the housing is such a steal - ok, if your married, it's great, but if your single AND willing to get a roommate, you could do better on the open market. Granted, living in a place that's physically connected to the hospital would have its perks, but on the other hand the neighborhood isn't that great for young singles. BUT, the residents did seem very strong and friendly; the conferences seemed very good; the PD is a _really_ great guy - in short, I do think that it's a strong program, where I'd be more than happy to train.

As far as Columbia's malignant rep goes, I think that that too is over exaggerated. I spent a month there, and everybody I talked to seemed reasonably happy (including people who trained at my home program, which is always an important perspective). No one denied that the work load was heavy, but no one complained about it being too malignant. Having said that, I've been hearing that a lot of Columbia med students would prefer to go elsewhere (might just be rumors, but it's something I find troubling), making me wonder if maybe I should shoot for Sinai instead, which is famous for its "happy residents"

Of course, all this talk might be moot when, come 3/16, I find that I've matched at my #5 🙂