As a second year Einstein student, I thought I might offer some thoughts from a current student's view. Plus, I'm avoiding studying.
1) About hospitals: Einstein is one of those schools that is affiliated with many hospitals. In third year rotations, you are not only assigned to Jacobi, Montefiore, or Weiler ("Einstein Hospital"), you can also be in clinics all over the Bronx, the often-times daunting Bronx Psych (from the movie "Awakenings"), Beth Israel (two locations in Manhattan), and others. I believe there was a comment earlier about poor "ancillary staff?" I'm not sure exactly what that means, but rest assured you are going to be drawing a hell of a lot of blood and pushing many a patient around the hospital as a student anywhere in the country. If you don't do it as a student, I sure as hell hope you don't plan on learning as an MD.
2) Einstein is extremely supportive of their students, as is most easily shown by opportunities in the summer after first year and during fourth year. Many of my classmates went to Ecuador, Cuba, Costa Rica, etc. this past summer. I spent my time doing research on pig hearts in the Bronx, but I'm not as adventurous as others. Also, as someone mentioned, there are great tutoring services here. For example, first year anatomy dissecting groups each have their own second year or MD/PhD tutor, chosen from the best students in the classes above them, to help them through the class. There are tutors for every class, and I know very few people who haven't taken advantage of one at some point.
3) The Jewish situation (i.e., sabboth observances and kosher dining hall). First of all, the dining hall is not supposed to be what you were used to in college. Students have their own, decent-sized kitchens. The dining hall is largely a gathering place for faculty, interviewing students, and MS-I/IIs that keep kosher. As far as library hours, I have never felt inconvenienced by them. There are many labs and classrooms that are always open over the weekend for students to study in.
4) "Reputation" For applying students, this inevitably means USNews rankings. Just like in college, these mean very little. For colleges, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton will always be at the top. If one year Princeton is above Yale, that does not mean it's the better school. They're all looked at as the same. For the New York City schools (the ones I'm most familiar with), it's pretty much the same. You have Columbia/Cornell in one level, then NYU/Sinai/Einstein in the next, followed by NYMC/SUNY-downstate. It would be silly for a residency director to favor an applicant from Sinai over Einstein, if they have the same credentials, just as it would be silly for a med school admissions person to favor a Princeton grad over a Yalie.
That's it. Micro awaits.
That reminds me. I saw necrotizing fasciitis (think flesh-eating bacteria) while in my class in the hospital yesterday. I'm not promising that you will if you go to Einstein, but I doubt I would have if I had gone to Vanderbilt or University of Florida.
