Thoughts on LIJ, Albany and SUNY downstate

[minnime]

Hi,
can anyone tell me the pro/cons of each program. I haven't heard much about any of these programs? Are they good/bad/average? Any information would be much appreciated.
Thanks

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[islander]

LIJ is a very pleasant program - not an academic powerhouse but you get quite good clinical experience, you see a lot of volume of both bread and butter neuro and some more rare cases (they draw from a large population including different ethnic and social groups etc.), the chairman is great, the hospital pays very well and the schedule is pretty easily managed. Bklyn is a strong program but it's much busier than LIJ, likely not the benign experience LIJ is for the most part. Don't know about Albany but the winters are miserable.

 

[minnime]

Thanks islander,
Anyone else have opinions they want to share

 

[buckley]

Very quiet setting in Manhasset, but you rotate through so many hospitals (5, I think-- North Shore, LIJ, Montefiore, Schneider's (?) peds hospital and Zucker (?) psychiatric hospital--not sure). The residents seem to love being in Manhasset and hate having to commute to the bronx for their Monty rotation. PD seems very nice. PC is just wonderful. (One of those rare PC's who actually go out of her way to help you out with your scheduling). There's a major Alzheimer's research center nearby but from what I gather, the residents know nothing about it. The surrounding area is expensive, but the hospital has a lottery system of housing that's supposedly very cheap. Training-wise, I think you would be a very well rounded neurologist coming from training there with a good paying patient base to build on

 

[kanapen]

I thought the three programs were roughly on the same "tier." I thought that the difference between the programs was the personalities of them.

LIJ is located in a pretty posh area of long island, and it seemed like the residents didn't work extremely hard, but at the same time were able to see lots of good pathology since it's one of only two neuro programs in long island (high population density in the LI area).

SUNY Downstate was right in brooklyn, and to me it seemed like the volume of patients would be higher. At the same time, I think I remember them saying at the interview that there was opportunity to do rotations at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and possibly even a mandatory one in the PGY2 year. If a person feels like living real close to NYC, this is def a place to be.

Albany Med seemed to brag that it was the only show in town, and I thought that what they were saying was true. For the area between Syracuse and NYC, Albany Med is the only show around. It covers a lot of territory for a program in the NY area. I thought that of the three programs, Albany had the friendliest faculty, and it seemed like there was really good relations amongst the residents with each other and with the faculty. I thought that this helped a lot of the PGY4s get pretty good fellowships.