What did he say?
2009-2010 Mount Sinai Application Thread
- Thread starter shemarty
- Start date
- Status
What did he say?
i'm not saying i wouldn't prefer living on the UWS to living in WaHi. i'm just saying that WaHi is also part of NYC-- and i disagree with "there's NYC, and there's NYC." i get how a tourist could feel that way, but as someone who's done organizing work as well as direct service with low-income people in all parts of all boroughs... NYC means something very different to the people that live in those places, and to me, than it does to an outsider. washington heights is just as much a part of new york city as the upper west side, or the financial district, or canarsie, or flushing, or riverdale are. that's all i'm saying.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
Ohhh. Yes! He was quite persistent on that issue (surgical skills) and just wouldn't take the simple and obvious answer. I am btw, also a short male but not the one in question who asked those questions.
i'm not sure any of us could do it justice in a post... it was just the whole situation that was hilarious
I wish they video taped it
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 438
- Reaction score
- 0
I think this argument is getting a little specific. If you like Washington Heights, then its your type of place. I personally have loved living in the West Village, but my boyfriend loves the UES (though I think this is more b/c of commute than anything if he had to be honest). My parents hate the UES w/ a passion and love their morningside location... then I have friends that would never leave Brooklyn or the LES...
Overall, the beauty of Manhattan is that each neighborhood (or even few blocks) is like its own little city. They are all pretty unique and all fairly easily connected. The A train is not bad at all. I used to frequently take it from Columbia to West 4th at around 2am in the morning and the worst I ever dealt with was non-threatening if somewhat gross.
The other good thing is, while its everyone's own decision, you can probably live anywhere in the city and go to almost all the schools. I had a friend who is graduating from Einstein and lived in Manhattan w/out problems. Many people I met at Sinai were hesitant to give up their living locations. Yes, there's a commute, but subways are a good place to read (esp during non rush hour).
Either way, I think all the places in NYC are unique which makes everyone's version of "NYC" a different image.
DW, we met?Who are you! hahah
Overall, the beauty of Manhattan is that each neighborhood (or even few blocks) is like its own little city. They are all pretty unique and all fairly easily connected. The A train is not bad at all. I used to frequently take it from Columbia to West 4th at around 2am in the morning and the worst I ever dealt with was non-threatening if somewhat gross.
The other good thing is, while its everyone's own decision, you can probably live anywhere in the city and go to almost all the schools. I had a friend who is graduating from Einstein and lived in Manhattan w/out problems. Many people I met at Sinai were hesitant to give up their living locations. Yes, there's a commute, but subways are a good place to read (esp during non rush hour).
Either way, I think all the places in NYC are unique which makes everyone's version of "NYC" a different image.
DW, we met?Who are you! hahah
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 438
- Reaction score
- 0
Ha, DW you beat me to the punch!
it's not getting specific-- i'm encouraging people to have an open mind about ALL of the city's neighborhoods. this is not about WaHi vs anything else.
and i have to disagree that all neighborhoods are easily connected-- it took me an hour to get to my einstein interview. train + bus + bus FTL.
we only met super briefly i think... at the wine and cheese thing on friday.
He asked whether anyone going into surgery was worried that they didn't have to manual dexterity to succeed in that field. A girl on the panel responded that having a passion for surgery was more important as a medical student, and that the manual dexterity would come with practice in rotations and during internship/residency. He insisted this wasn't the case while the med students on the panel insisted this was true. This was followed by awkward silence and, I presume, lots of eye-rolling
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
Before visiting I was a little hesitant about Columbia's location too, but to be honest it's not all that bad. It is right on the A train, so you can get down to the cooler parts of Manhattan really easily. There are also were a lot of Columbia students who can actually afford real apartments in that area, meaning they don't have to live in university housing all 4 years...which is something I'm really excited about for M1 and M2 at Sinai, but also scared of for M3/M4 when I know I'll just want my own place to retreat to when I'm not in the clinic. I sort of like the neighborhoody/diversity feel of Washington Heights as well. I think there are a growing number of people moving there because it's still one of the last remaining cheaper places to live in Manhattan that has convenient subway access. WaHi sort of reminded me of the area I lived in London during my junior year in college...diverse, not really much to do, lots of immigrants, sort of isolated from the central part of town. I loved living there because I always knew I had a quieter place to retreat to after a night on the town.
After reflecting a lot, the reason I didn't like Columbia wasn't the area or the general poor state of many of the facilities there, but really the faculty/students that I just didn't seem to click with.
I think question123 has a good point on what we're disagreeing about. I used to go to WaHi very often and it was definitely not my cup of tea. There are many different neighborhoods in NYC but my personal preference is for places like SoHo, Greenwich, and the UES.
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2010
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
wow guys. I have two weeks to make a really difficult choice between schools and had what I thought were legitimate questions about the differences in curriculum, and whether there is sufficient opportunity at Sinai to explore specialties and make a confident choice. I'm sorry that I haven't been on SDN every day for the last 8 years and don't know every detail about how medical school works. I'm also interested in how a busy medical school schedule affects long distance relationships, because I'm choosing between schools in different cities. But thanks, the fact that my prospective classmates would mock me on an anonymous internet forum for trying to resolve these concerns definitely informs my decision.
to be clear, everyone, i have been responding to pelliper's mentioning that "P&S tries to sell the school like it's in NYC."
i'm not trying to say that WaHi, as a place to live, is preferable to whatever other neighborhood-- that's for everyone to decide based on their needs and interests. what i'm saying is that low-income neighborhoods like WaHi are as much a part of NYC as the tourist-y vision of NYC that many people have.
carry on.
i'm not trying to say that WaHi, as a place to live, is preferable to whatever other neighborhood-- that's for everyone to decide based on their needs and interests. what i'm saying is that low-income neighborhoods like WaHi are as much a part of NYC as the tourist-y vision of NYC that many people have.
carry on.
see: post i just made. WaHi isn't 100% my cup of tea either!
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
To be honest, I thought you were questions were fine. I was mainly too sleepy that day to pay attention anyway. I think people are laughing with you, rather than at you.
Last edited:
Was that really you? I'm not sure if you're joking or serious.
i'm sorry if i hurt your feelings. try to have a sense of humor-- i'm not laughing at your questions per se... it was just the context and manner in which they were asked that gave me a laugh. concerns about future specialty choice and personal life are totally legit. please don't think i'm making fun of the fact that you had concerns about those things, because i'm not.
yeah i'm struggling here too...
He definitely wins troll of the day if joking
i think whether he was joking or not, the point that it was a little strange to call out a particular person on SDN for being awkward at revisit might have been worth making...
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2010
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
yeah. whatever.
by the way, I discussed the surgery issue at another point during the weekend with an M2, who was concerned enough that he plans to work in a research lab operating on pig hearts largely to make sure he has steady hands.
And on the other point, frankly I care way more about how this decision affects me and my girlfriend then about how you all perceive me.
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2010
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
He definitely wins troll of the day if joking
not a joke. seriously factoring this in to my pro and con lists
yeah and i'd like to say again that i didn't mean to make fun of the questions themselves, and i'm sorry if i offended by posting that. but i thought it was a funny situation; i'm also sorry if i laughed inappropriately.
Sorry dude, I shouldn't have pushed them to say what happened.
As someone who also doesn't have steady hands, trust me that it doesn't matter. My hands shake whenever I get very nervous, so you can imagine how much they were shaking when I had to make my first incision or close up (i.e. very much). But when you do things enough you gain confidence and all that shaking goes away. I did fine during my surgery rotation. Plus you're not graded on how well you perform in the OR, so if you think you need to perform like a surgeon by the time you hit third year, you won't need to.
Speaking of which...what's the breakdown of how grades are determined in MS3/MS4?
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
Is your GF in NYC? And not moving? Or is she moving with you if you choose your other school?
If it's any consideration, know that you will most likely not see your significant other very often once you start clinical rotations (even if she's living in the same city)... but especially if they live in another city. For M1/M2, if you're reasonably close there's always weekend visiting.
I know M2's at the other school you're considering (we PMed about this) who has finished her shortened pre-clinical curriculum and is now on clerkships. Her significant other (who isn't a med student) probably sees her about once or twice a week during the brief moments that either aren't working or in clinics...I, in fact, likely spend more time with her BF than she does.
I also a know a M3 at that school who is getting married (her fiancee lives in Chicago I think, and has for the last 2.5 years). I'd be happy to give you her contact info if you want me to..she could probably talk at length about long distance relationships from the other school you're considering.
In other words: unless your SO is also a med student at the same institution, it will definitely be a strain on your relationship once you enter clinics. It will definitely be tougher if they're not with you or in the same city.
this jives pretty well with what the student panelists said
Maybe that student panelist was me!
were you on the panel? i don't remember any 4th years...
It wasn't me, I was joking.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
I feel like this thread has devolved to a chatroom.
I could have sworn I posted about this earlier but I can't find it.
Basically, it's dependent upon the rotation. I'll try and give the breakdowns but I don't fully remember exactly how it is.
Surgery: Shelf is 5%. There was an oral exam that I think was 10%. There was a case presentation that maybe was another 10-20%. The rest were evaluations from residents.
Medicine+Ambulatory: Shelf is 20%. There was an additional easy written exam for I think 10%. Preceptor sessions where you write up and go over cases was another 20%. The rest were evals from residents.
Peds: Shelf was like 20%. Oral exam was like 10 or 20%. Preceptor sessions with cases was another 10-20%. Rest were resident evals.
Obgyn: Shelf was 15-20%. Preceptor sessions with cases was 10-20%. Rest I think was resident evals.
You also need to do psych, neuro, and family medicine, but the breakdowns are similar.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 9,746
- Reaction score
- 1,666
a/s/l?
Do grades come from the raw scores or is there a curve?
Most of the rotations it's raw score and meeting a cut-off to get honors or high pass. One or two of the rotations it's by curve.
Sorry, I keep asking questions piecemeal. Do many people get Honors/get High Pass or are these fairly difficult to achieve? Is there a ranking constructed based on these that's sent out for residency applications?
It generally works out to 1/4 get honors, 1/4 get high pass, and 1/2 get pass on any given rotation. Not exactly a rank but you are placed in a quartile and this goes into your MSPE. Just about every school does this (minus I think UCLA and CCLCM).
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
- Messages
- 280
- Reaction score
- 0
I know you all have resolved your neighborhood differences and moved on to more pressing issues, but I just have to give DW a
Also, I will defend WaHi forever and ever and ever, and can list the many cool things that is has to offer that are often neglected. But, I won't do that in the awesome Sinai thread.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
I know you all have resolved your neighborhood differences and moved on to more pressing issues, but I just have to give DW a
Haha I definitely agree premad. Have you decided where you'll be at next year?
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
- Messages
- 280
- Reaction score
- 0
Still waffling, but I've narrowed it down to Boston or Bay. You?
dw backpedalling...nice...
sigh. not backpedaling, trying to apologize for saying something dumb. would you have been happier if i stuck to my guns and refused to admit i messed up?
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,374
- Reaction score
- 61
what is?
- Status
