NYU Grossman (MD-PhD) vs Mt. Sinai (MD-PhD) - thoughts?

[owouwu]

I am having a really hard time choosing between these two schools for their MD-PhD programs. They have comparable financial packages, which is free tuition with ~46k/year stipend for 8 years. I want to have my own laboratory upon graduation and lead initiatives in psychiatric care. (... yes, dad, if you are lurking here and wondering if your daughter's posting this, yup it's me.)

Thank you in advance for your time and help with decisions!! I know I can't go wrong either way but I wanted to ask for second opinions. Thank you so much for your help.

Icahn at Mt. Sinai
Pros

• Super diversity-oriented; their leadership are women (of color), and their diversity work/advocacy/changemaking work is truly invested and impressive. This is important to me, because my science and clinical interests largely lie in improving health equity for minorities -- particularly in behavioral health.
• It is located in East Harlem in NY, so it interfaces deeply with the low income Latinx/African American community.
• One of the country's biggest psychiatric genetics programs (several departments, order of hundreds of researchers), which is my field of study. The only other large psychiatric genetics program that compares to the size of the program here is Harvard or maybe UCSF (though I think UCSF is smaller in this regard).
• Students are very chill
• I love the directors very much - I genuinely think they are earth-shattering rock stars.

Cons

• Relatively overburdened healthcare system, potentially due to the patient population who are more impoverished; there were strikes recently from nurses who demanded better working conditions
• Compared to NYU, "lower ranked" medical education in specific fields like psychiatry (what that actually translates to in medical education is unclear)
• "lower ranked"
• Many of the scientists in my field at Sinai are known to be potentially yikes to work with
• Only has a medical school and biomedical PhD programs (e.g. no CS depts)

NYU
Pros

• Amazing clinical facilities and options, and promises better education for psychiatric care (intended field I want to go into) and several other medical fields than most peer institutions
• 7 year program; optional 1 year to get an MBA if I wanted
• "highly ranked" (... does this also apply for MD-PhDs, where every program is free, though?)
• several schools are attached to the program (NYU as an institution has many departments I could learn from or work with)
• In the fun part of NY

Cons

• Human genetics research program essentially does not exist, apart from a couple of people who are starting to build the tiny program from its bare bones
• I might not mesh well with peers (based on my personal social habits)
• Diversity efforts are struggling, and students have commented that change is slow due to institutional challenges
• Directors are definitely not as great

Summary: Mt. Sinai has better overall "qualities" I value (e.g. graduate program selection, scientific programs, diversity efforts, admin characteristics), but NYU has better overall resources (shorter time to degree, options for masters program, clinical resources).

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[finalstretch]

Judging by what you want and value I would think that Sinai would be the better option.

 

[deleted1065184]

Based on what you've said and research strength, Sinai imo