cuz i'm not from the NY area and i'm clueless - what is wrong with hempstead long island? is valhalla a better region?
Allow me to preface this by stating I am extremely biased. I grew up just outside of westchester so of course I favor it quite a bit. However, I attended college on LI, and can speak with some experience on that as well. Though Stony Brook is farther out on the island than Hofstra, there was a lot in common and I would often travel around going to different places on weekends etc.
In NY it's common to trash talk long island if you are from NYC or above, just as those on LI do the same for upstate. Everyone hates on New Jersey, and most would agree that NYC is a cooler place than all the rest....
That said, Hofstra is located in the center of a traffic nightmare. The LIE is essentially a very long parking lot and the turnpike that Hofstra sits on is just as bad (after my interview it took me 4 hours to get home, I live in Westchester -check google maps for an idea). That particular area of LI isn't exactly the Gatsby-esque region people may associate with the Island. Instead its a middle/lower-middle income, high density suburb with all the inconveniences of living in Queens and none of the public transport. I lived on LI while I was an undergrad, further out at Stony Brook and I hated it. This is just my opinion, but the culture there is generally more commercialized-suburbanite, and less individualistic. This is of course an over simplification, but many people would probably agree. Nightlife on the island can be illustrated best by watching jersey shore (again a generalization, but all to often it holds true).
There are absolutely some beautiful areas out on the island, but not in hempstead. Also, med school curriculum will probably stifle your ability to sit on a beach all day.
NYMC on the other hand, is in Valhalla. This is a harder to describe region. On one side you have the hudson river towns like Tarrytown. These are picturesque classic examples of americana, with antique stores, pre-war architecture, coffeeshops restaurants and theaters. The locavore culinary movement is alive and well in these regions, and the arts are widely appreciated here. On the other side you have urban centers like White Plains, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Port Chester, etc. These regions vary in socioeconomic ranking -widely. You can have, within twenty minutes, extremely low income section-8 apartments, and multi-million dollar mansions.
This is well reflected in the patients that visit the hospital .
In my opinion, NYMC is in a better location since you can go to rural NY, or NYC in the same amount of time (~30 minutes). You have access to a wide range of independent and major commercial retailers, shops, and restaurants. You will encounter a less predictable variety of personalities, backgrounds, and cultures.
Im sure someone from LI is going to make a stink about this post. Like I said Im biased towards Westchester. Do yourself a favor though, at 6pm open up google maps and select "show traffic," go to the NY metro and compare valhalla with hempstead.
Best of luck
