hiya raph...do you have any specific hospitals to compare with...i.e. maybe if you list your top 5 it is easier to compare the goods and the bads between them...
In general, I found Yale to be a very impressive place...they had great matchs in cards including a few to the ccf, and a bunch who stay there...it was emphasized again and again by the many interviewers i had and the people I met that in fact people tend to stay at yale for a lifetime once they are there...my interviewer for columbia was actually a yale housestaff and med student and even she said she loved it there and we spent a bunch of time in the interview talking about her experiences there vs in columbia...I think rep wise it probably isnt as strong as say the general, the brigham or hopkins...and most would agree that even penn and columbia and possibly even cornell might be a little more competitive and better represented nationally mainly cuz of some locational factors and rep...I would say yale is still higher in rep than sinai and NYU, even better versus montefiore and probably a little easier to get into than BID...probably higher than BU or Tufts although I have heard good (and some bad) things about BU (was supposed to interview there but ended up not doing so cuz I got tired)...
to really get into nitty gritty about lifestyle and everything would probably need more specifics to compare against...for me personally, although I liked yale, I had a lackluster experience during the day...i.e. nothing stood out at me personally as being exceptional from any other program...each place has its own thing in my mind (the general has its rep, the brigham has braunwald and is a fun place, cornell has housing in a nice area of manhattan, columbia is in NY and has the best rep there, penn is a powerhouse and has really sweet people, and jhu just pops out the best of the best) but yale kind of just became yale...an awesome undergrad name, with all the ingredients for success, but nothing excited me...New haven was not as bad as I had imagined though, lots of restaurants, bars clubs and very college feel...which is nice if you are a single...if you're married, cheap housing in its suburbs may allow you to earn some equity...its proximity to NY and ease of transport there (metronorth goes into grand central) makes cultural activities very easy to attend to...having the yale name on anyone's cv can't hurt...plus its nice cuz unlike MGh or the Brigham at least they call themselves by their well known "yale" name...kind of wish the Harvard programs would call themselves "harvard"...not that I'm name whoring but if thats a big deal to some people (possibly me =) ) it is nice to have the name for the public eye...
Some people make a big deal about not having a chairman of medicine...first off they are actively searching (in fact saw an ad in the NEJM for a chairman spot for several weeks, then mysteriously in the last week's journal the ad was no longer there...hmmmm) and now that they have a new dean they can get a new chair...the cardio division cheif will likely come into place somewhere into residency (need a chair to appoint a cardio cheif)...the yale name and their old school fame and rep will likely get them some big people...as their match implicates, I doubt the housestaff training program will really suffer...the yale guys work hard...but probably not harder than most other programs...a good friend of mine is an intern there and he said that hes having a good time, and would pick it again...people seemed happy and the turn out for the dinner seemed good...residents definitely hang out together a lot, going out several times a month...facilities are nice...resident report was well attended and the PD shares the "nicest PD on the trail" distinction (and actually is a very eloquent speaker) with NYU, the Brigham, the General and Sinai...
sorry for the long post but I didnt know what to discuss...I hope this places Yale in perspective...it would help to place this in context with other programs you are considering so people can comment on their individual merits...
J
