Weill Medical College of Cornell University Class of 2009

[PMinty44]

At this point I'm likely going to Cornell (just two more schools to hear from and I'm not sure I'd pick them over it), so I'll be at the second look weekend!

I hope to meet those accepted and those soon to be accepted off the waitlist there! I'm really excited =)

[I can't help you out on estimating acceptance timing since I was in the early batch in dec- sorry!]

Congrats to you! Have fun that weekend. Thanks for your positive vibes.

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[arraysyn]

any post-interview rejection?

 

[palminator2003]

Hi all. I just got the waitlist letter too. It was dated March 9 and postmarked March 10. So, it looks like the waiting will continue for me at least. Congrats to all those who got in though. You lucky bastards.

 

[PMinty44]

any post-interview rejection?

Good question: Has anyone been rejected from Cornell post-interview????? I keep hearing all the ecstatic accepted people and all the hopeful waitlisted people (me), but no rejections......?????

 

[indianboy]

Yet another member of the WMC board of oversears has been implicated in a financial/corporate scandal: Maurice Greenberg, of AIG fame. At least Sandy Weill will have some company at board meetings.

I wonder what other surprises some of the unsavory characters sitting on the board of CitiGroup med have for the public: http://www.med.cornell.edu/welcome/leadership.html

Hope that Helps

P 'Investigative Journalist Extraordinaire' ShankOut

 

[bidster]

Thought I would procrastinate by reviving this thread --who else is going to Cornell revisit next weekend?

Did anyone else get the confirmation email from Ms. Montano? If so, does anyone happen to know what the housing arrangement is (are we staying with students)? They weren't too specific!!!

 

[turkeymou]

Thought I would procrastinate by reviving this thread --who else is going to Cornell revisit next weekend?

Did anyone else get the confirmation email from Ms. Montano? If so, does anyone happen to know what the housing arrangement is (are we staying with students)? They weren't too specific!!!

I'm going!!

no idea about specifics re: housing arrangements though i did just get confirmation email...

 

[edfig99]

i'll be there...moderating the student panel. come say hi.

 

[sockandmittens]

anyone know what housing is like? sheets? towels?

and what are you wearing? (especially directed towards the girls)

 

[quideam]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to say for those of you who are waitlisted, hang in there - I was also initally waitlisted at Cornell, but got off the waitlist in early May. Also, i'd say that about a 1/3rd of our class came from the waitlist, so there is definetely still hope!

Oh, and definetely come to the 2nd-look weekend- it will be tons of fun! For those who are coming and would like to chat, PM me for my name, etc.

Quid

 

[2009doc]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to say for those of you who are waitlisted, hang in there - I was also initally waitlisted at Cornell, but got off the waitlist in early May. Also, i'd say that about a 1/3rd of our class came from the waitlist, so there is definetely still hope!

Oh, and definetely come to the 2nd-look weekend- it will be tons of fun! For those who are coming and would like to chat, PM me for my name, etc.

Quid

a third? that's great. i had the impression that they only let in a very small number off the waitlist...now if i only knew how many of us were on the waitlist!

 

[bidster]

anyone know what housing is like? sheets? towels?

and what are you wearing? (especially directed towards the girls)

I got a response back from Ms. Montano and also spoke to a friend at Cornell who went to second look last year....housing is either in one of the empty rooms in Olin Hall--apparently they have some surplus--or with a student host (I got the sense that the latter is less common, but I could be wrong). Sheets/blankets etc are provided, but I forgot to ask about towels, so I'm bringing one just in case.

As for dress--it's supposed to be pretty casual; my friend just said to avoid wearing jeans for whenever the hospital tour is (tomorrow I think).

Looking forward to it!!

 

[tommerbommer]

I was told by someone in the admissions office that jeans were fine, but I guess I'll bring a pair of non-jeans, just to be safe.

 

[gardenlily]

To those who went to Cornell second look, how was it? What were your impressions of the PBL session, happiness of students, friendliness of faculty, etc.? If you were undecided before, did it help you make a decision?

 

[patsfan2]

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[bidster]

To those who went to Cornell second look, how was it? What were your impressions of the PBL session, happiness of students, friendliness of faculty, etc.? If you were undecided before, did it help you make a decision?

I'm still waiting to compare with one more school, but I'll say this--I met and talked to a lot of other prospectives at Cornell revisit this weekend, and I honestly can not think of a single person whom I didn't like. It's crazy--Even on interviews, within 10 minutes there would always be at least one person whom I could tell I would never get along with or who came off as being antisocial, way into themselves, or having some other off-putting personality glitch etc. But somehow, I didn't pick up that vibe with anyone else visiting Cornell (yeah, you guys rock ) That definitely caught my attention and has me thinking a whole lot harder about it now....

 

[paco]

Can any of you discuss your thoughts on the mock PBL session? I wasn't able to make it out there last weekend, but I'm very interested in how it went.

 

[sunsweet]

How do you guys feel about the clinical experience @ Cornell? I've heard from many people that since its in a "rich" area, you don't really get that much clinical experiences. Then again, at Cornell they told us that there are both private and medicaid patients at NY Presbyterian so you do get experience with both...

 

[PMinty44]

How do you guys feel about the clinical experience @ Cornell? I've heard from many people that since its in a "rich" area, you don't really get that much clinical experiences. Then again, at Cornell they told us that there are both private and medicaid patients at NY Presbyterian so you do get experience with both...

Bump.

I want to get the answer to this very question also. Thanks.

 

[patsfan2]

/

 

[PMinty44]

from what I understood, you get a wide variety of clinical experience at Cornell. Not only does NYPresb. get a variety of patients, but the sheer number of Cornell's clinical affiliates was staggering. They have hospitals all over the city, from the Bronx, to Queens, to Brooklyn, to midtown Manhattan. If there's a certain experience you want, it seems like you can definitely get it. Example: You can do your ER rotation at Lincoln hospital, which has one of the busiest trauma centers in the country. I think the experience you get is really up to you. If you know you want to go somewhere, see a certain area, visit a certain type of population, you simply need to schedule a rotation there. Cornell doesn't seem to hand things out. (And this was a message I got across the board). It's a school that will fulfill all your needs academically, but a school where you will have to do the legwork for those things on your own. (If you want to do research, you go out and find someone to do it with, they don't come to you - by the same token, if you want to go out and do Ob/Gyn w/ a poor latina community, you go out and find that community. They'll have a hospital there for you.)

Bottom line, I got the impression that the school has the resources, but they're taken advantage of by self-directed, assertive learners. I guess the students that fit that profile will be the one's that are most successful there.

sorry if that was rambling - I hope that helped to answer your question. Maybe a current cornellian can get in here and make some more sense...

Thanks for the info!

 

[greets fr. nyc]

How do you guys feel about the clinical experience @ Cornell? I've heard from many people that since its in a "rich" area, you don't really get that much clinical experiences. Then again, at Cornell they told us that there are both private and medicaid patients at NY Presbyterian so you do get experience with both...

interesting question. seems to come up quite often. *wink*

the question translates perhaps to:
do cornellians get strong "clinical experiences"
meaning = are cornell med students trained to be excellent clinicians by their medical school?

more specifically:
1) do they see different types of pathology? in different types of locales?
2) do they learn how to adequately take H&P's (history and physicals)?
3) can they adequately formulate an A&P (assessment and plan)?
4) are they given enough responsibility?
5) are they given enough independence?
6) do they get to do their share of procedures?
7) do they continue to perform well after graduating as they are assessed by residency directors (do they give cornell a good name, enabling future grads to get top positions based on their "forebearers" performance?)

as a current med student here whilst finishing up my 3rd year(& being very relieved to be done with peds / ob-gyn / medicine / surgery / doing elective right now)
i guess, here's my take on things

1) do people see different types of pathology?
= New York Presbyterian is just like any top-rated tertiary care hospital = you will have a chance to see in the flesh all the common major diseases and complications thereof (MI's, end-stage renal failure, heart failure, sepsis, all stages of diabetes, PE's, infectious dz, all types of cancers: heme / GI / neuro / pulmonary neoplasms) as well as your share of zebras (can you believe seeing Neurofibromatosis I AND... II ??, or a pt with a NEMO mutation or a pt with post-cardiotomy syndrome??).

in different types of locales?
interestingly, the ONLY required parts of rotations you MUST do at New York Hospital= 2 months of internal medicine (the 3rd month is done at an away site), and 1 month of surgical subspecialties (other 2 months either at NYH or away)
the other hospitals one has to chose from are:
a) Lincoln hosptial = inner city hospital in south bronx; busiest Emergency Medicine service in New York City ~180,000 visits / year. predominantly poor - working class / varied Latino and African American population. very good ER and psych rotations as well as trauma / bread and butter surgery experience there as well. sadly OB part is disorganized.
b) NYH Queens = community hospital in Flushing, Queens = predominantly
Chinese / Russian / Working class Italian / Irish / Mix. Long hours for surgery but fair amount of trauma and bread and butter cases. Also has neurosurg and cardiac cases in a community setting. strong surgical ICU experience if that is your cuppa tea.
c) St. Barnabas: Urban community hospital. Very strong peds rotation here: lots of bread an butter community health issues.
d) Methodist Hospital: In Park Slope Brooklyn: serves Red Hook as well. Middle class / working class / poor pts. Community hospital.
e) Westchester NYH: Dedicated Psych hospital in Westchester County ~ suburban small city USA population. Great teaching.
f) Memorial Sloan Kettering: top-notch cancer center across the street from Cornell (for Neurology / Intensive Care / all sorts of Electives). the best of the best, and excellent teaching to boot.

because of the teaching at the main hospital, New York Hospital (the NY in NYPH when NYH-cornell merged with Columbia-Presbyterian: med schools totally separate / hospital administration and financials of hospitals linked)
... i chose to do peds, medicine, psych at NYH, surgery and ob-gyn at a combo of NYH, queens, and lincoln. for neuro i'll be at memorial sloan kettering.

2) do they learn how to adequately take H&P's (history and physicals)?
-- as in any med school, you will do so many that won't want any more~!

3) can they formulate a well thought-out totally complete A&P (assessment and plan)?
-- this comes with practice, and i must admit i'm still really working hard to master this!! (any one who tells you they've mastered it at the end of any med school is foolin'!) ! actually this is one of the toughest things in med school to do especially in 3rd year as you are constantly being bombarded with different disciplines / diseases / medical and surgical services. however, that being said, i do feel confident that after 9 months of different rotations i have a strong foundation / framework on which to work up patients and am ready to face my forth year sub-I... (see next)

4) are they given enough responsibility?
& 5) are they given enough independence?
-- med school is like the college i went to, in a way. you have to take INITIATIVE or you won't learn squat. if you take the initiative and show your patients and your team that you are there for them, they will give you more responsibility, trust in what you say (scary at first!), and value you for your real contribution.

-- that being said, another one of the major strong points at cornell is the Medicine Sub-internship at New York Hospital during 4th year. basically for a month you function as an intern with another partner paired with you (hence sub-intern): You are your patient's doctor: and means you do pretty much everything for your patients (with senior residents / fellows there for back-up if you need it). that means: you are on-call q4 / there's very little filtering of cases when they get to you / you attend to any issues they have / you present to the attending directly and anything that does or doesn't get done is your responsibility. at other hospitals, often times folks get 2 or 3 pts. it is the rare hospital (as with most of the people i know who've done it in past years) that has each sub-intern handle 5 , 6 on a regular basis. but that is exactly what you get at New York Hospital (NYPH) -- an Intense but truly a worthy experience.


6) do they get to do procedures?
-- doing "x" amount of blood draws becomes only educational to a point.
That being said, my personal experience has been to achieve a certain level of competancy in doing blood draws / draw cultures/ put in IV's / properly sampling from PICC lines / doing ABGs / put in foleys / put in NG tubes / put in OG tubes/ "close" on surgical pts / take out chest tubes.
currently doing an anesthesia rotation, on a daily basis I am intubating (successfully!) / putting in A-lines / putting in central lines / floating the swan-ganz catherter up the pulmonary artery.

it's really up to you how much you want to do and how aggressive you are at finding opportunities. at any med school, if you want to float by, you can. you can dictate your education anyway you chose.

but always remember the difference between you and a good technician (basically any procedure is just repetition) is really the CLINICAL JUDGEMENT and KNOWLEDGE base that you learn while on the wards.
you can draw the ABG, but can you analyze it and work it up for anion-gap acidosis or perhaps a concomittant non-anion gap acidosis? can you figure out if respiratory compensation is adequate?

will you take the time to follow-up and actually view the blood-smear or get that CT-scan read, stat? what about finding out why it's prefereable to measure and calculate for the fraction excretion of urea instead of FeNa when your patient is on Lasix?
it's up to you.

7) do cornellians continue to perform well in residency.... i.e. after graduating are residency directors satisfied by the performance of cornell grads?
-- Yes.



anyway,
the point is,
if you are present and willing, you should get a quality and diverse clinical experience at most any med school one can attend, cornell being one of many.

The medicine sub-I at the main hospital is exceptional.

hope this helps...

 

[sunsweet]

thanks so much for your detailed response! it really helps alot!

 

[patsfan2]

n/

 

[schooldaze]

Just to help out those who watch this thread, the waitlist has started to move. Good luck everyone

 

[Wahooonnikon]

Hey y'all, I'm goin to Cornell Med See you guys in August.

 

[joyful]

Hi all,
Has anyone received stuff from Cornell yet about all the vaccinations we need to get and housing forms, etc.?

 

[patsfan2]

/

 

[schooldaze]

random question, but, anyone remember if there are one or two refridgorators in the kitchens in Olin?

Not sure about your question, but I have one of my own: Do all incoming M-1's live in Olin or do some students opt to live in a studio in one of Weill's other bldgs? There's a really big difference in rent between the two, so I am just curious.

 

[patsfan2]

/

 

[schooldaze]

I too would like to know about this... as far as I knew, all incoming M1's were in olin, other than students in married housing or off campus. But I can't find anything on the housing page that actually says that outright. I guess it'll be in the info they mailed today??

The housing website doesn't say anything about it (it actually makes it sound like you have a choice), but I spoke to a friend who is an M2 and he said that the majority of first years live in Olin. I guess it is a good way to really get to know most of the class plus save about 6 or 7 grand since the next least expensive housing option is about $1100 a month. I'm thinking that I will opt for Olin for the first year and then see where I want to be after that.

 

[nrnx]

do you guys know if subsidized housing is guaranteed for all four years? so after the first year the majority of people live in apartments? that's a big increase in the budget for years 2-4.

The housing website doesn't say anything about it (it actually makes it sound like you have a choice), but I spoke to a friend who is an M2 and he said that the majority of first years live in Olin. I guess it is a good way to really get to know most of the class plus save about 6 or 7 grand since the next least expensive housing option is about $1100 a month. I'm thinking that I will opt for Olin for the first year and then see where I want to be after that.

 

[edfig99]

do you guys know if subsidized housing is guaranteed for all four years? so after the first year the majority of people live in apartments? that's a big increase in the budget for years 2-4.

yes - cornell guarantees subsidized campus housing for all 4 years. people move into the apartments years 2 through 4. no one stays in olin hall after 1st year. i don't know what the budget situation is if you move off campus.

 

[schooldaze]

yes - cornell guarantees subsidized campus housing for all 4 years. people move into the apartments years 2 through 4. no one stays in olin hall after 1st year. i don't know what the budget situation is if you move off campus.

Is Olin the only housing option for the first year if we want Cornell housing or if our budget will allow it, can we live in one of the other Cornell properties? I just noticed that there are some studio apts. that are only a little more than Olin, but I don't know if M-1's can go there. Housing isn't answering their phone and I still couldn't find this information on the website. Anyone know?

 

[tomato]

Is Olin the only housing option for the first year if we want Cornell housing or if our budget will allow it, can we live in one of the other Cornell properties? I just noticed that there are some studio apts. that are only a little more than Olin, but I don't know if M-1's can go there. Housing isn't answering their phone and I still couldn't find this information on the website. Anyone know?

The simple answer is that Olin is the only housing option for single first-year students. Those with families (read: spouse/partner with or without children) will be offered a spot in Lasdon Hall, which is where the majority of 2nd-4th year folks live in studio, 1, 2 or 3 bedroom apartments. The 77th Street location and L-F only rarely have gone to 1st years, if at all -- and petitions to live there need to be made directly to the housing office.

Olin Hall def. has a few drawbacks: it's a bit small and the shared kitchen is a bummer... but it does really foster camaraderie, and the furnishings are nice. By the time you are a second year, Lasdon Hall will be completely renovated (they're up to the 9th floor of 15) and the new apartments are really nice. They are also building in a second gym in Lasdon Hall, to add to the Olin Hall Gym (which is rather crusty) and basketball court.

Regarding the price increase in rents, you may be confused by the cost of housing listed in the website -- the figures quoted for a Lasdon apartment are shared by the number of roommates. Olin rent was about $450-490/month, Lasdon rent has been about $600/month in a shared 3 bedroom. If you are indeed talking about moving into one of the studio or one-bedrooms in 77th St or L-F, you are going to pay a premium, though.

PS, last I checked, Olin kitchens had 1 fridge -- when you get to campus, you can usually buy a mini fridge for your room from an upperclass student. It's worth it.

 

[DrDarwin]

I was accepted earlier this morning and will almost certainly be attending Cornell come fall. I may have some questions for you all later, but I should probably do some work today . I look forward to meeting you all the fall.

 

[DrDarwin]

How have your financial aid packages looked? Okay, I hope. I should be expecting mine shortly.

 

[patsfan2]

/

 

[DrDarwin]

Thanks for responding. I have yet to receive packages from the two schools I am considering (late FAFSA & Need Access submission), but I have a friend at the other school who is in a similar financial situation and expects to borrow ~140k. Because I cannot conceive of any way I would have to borrow significantly more than that to attend Cornell, I am relatively certain I will be there next year. And even if I do have to borrow a bit more, the tremendous opportunities--clinical, research, and otherwise--at Cornell make it a justifiable investment. I have only been to NYC for two days to interview at Cornell and Columbia, so I am pretty excited to do some more exploring.

 

[sleepymed]

hey you guys,

you were asking about the pbl experience and what you thought of it... based on what i went through this year, i thought pbl was pretty much the best part of the entire program... it was one of the deal breakers... it's a wonderful way to learn the stuff... i thought the cases tended to be pretty good... word of warning! any pbl cases that came from harvard tended to result in the death of the "patient"!

i'm sure you guys have researched the program and everything but you were asking about the clinical stuff, well you do all that in mps and it's a plus that you get to go to the clinic once a week, we start earlier than most med schools and it helps you see the light at the end of the tunnel... we learned how to do a complete history (sexual history, nutritional history, the works) during the first year and we've gone through it so many times that we can basically spit it out in our sleep!! i feel like i was really well prepared for the sp at the end of the year.

one great thing about cornell is that your graded on so much more than the exams... pbls, disease journals, the triple jump, etc... our "final exam" the triple jump is actually really fun... it doesn't feel like an exam at all...

the proffessors are all generally really nice and really smart, but some of their accents are impossible to understand... the quizes may drive you crazy... there's this one proff.. dr.fishmann, he teaches the embryology in hsf and he's obsessed with asking which of the following is least incorrect or some nonsense like that... all of the following are true except... make you want to jump out of a moving bus... but all stuff aside, i loved my first year, i thought it was great... i was so unbelievably freaked out about anatomy, but you know what, while it was the most challenging course i've ever done on all levels, it's also one of the most satisfying...

wow, i just rambled on and on forever about stuff i'm sure you guys don't care about...

good luck with those of you on the waitlist and for those who just got accepted, enjoy the summer, get it all out of your system!!

 

[schooldaze]

Does anyone know if Weill has a white coat ceremony and if they do, when do they have it? Are parents usually invited to this? Sorry for the change of subject, but my mother has been driving me crazy about this. Thanks

 

[sleepymed]

they do have a white coat ceremony and it's right at the end of orientation

 

[sweatybrain]

hey schooldaze,

the white coat ceremony is scheduled on 8/24.

 

[DrDarwin]

Do any of you really want to go to the U.S. Open--and get a stadium court ticket--after arriving at school? I checked out the ticket prices on a webpage (www.usopen.org), and they are priced from $22-$96. I would prefer to spend in the mid-range (~$50), because then you still get the great experience (a grounds pass just doesn't compare to a stadium court seat) without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money to do so. Let me know if you are interested. If I don't buy a ticket before arriving, I will probably poll you during one of the first few days of orienation .

 

[schooldaze]

hey schooldaze,

the white coat ceremony is scheduled on 8/24.

Thanks sweaty--Are parents invited to attend this or is it for students only? Also, how did you find out about this? Other than the info on the camping and/or urban experience things (and the health information packet), I haven't gotten any info. Am I missing some information that I should have received?

 

[greets fr. nyc]

Thanks sweaty--Are parents invited to attend this or is it for students only? Also, how did you find out about this? Other than the info on the camping and/or urban experience things (and the health information packet), I haven't gotten any info. Am I missing some information that I should have received?

schooldaze,

a) parents are most definitely invited! it's a nice ceremony and i think they would be happy to be there.

b) for more info on this and all other issues you mentioned, give a quick call to Rachel at Student Affairs at 212-746-1062. She's really friendly and Dean Ballard's second hand person. She can give you updates on all things or direct you where to call.

c) i think in terms of info, the extent of what you've gotten pretty much seems right at this time, tho you might want to consider asking about housing too.

enjoy ya summer!

and welcome to ole' 1300 York Ave...

 

[schooldaze]

Thanks for all the info. I did actually receive another packet today that mentioned the White Coat ceremony and had the orientation schedule. Looking forward to living in the Big Apple. Thanks again

 

[RogueRules]

Actually, parents are not formally invited as there isn't enough room for everyone to bring family. Having said that, some folks do bring parents, and they seem to get accommodated.

schooldaze,

a) parents are most definitely invited! it's a nice ceremony and i think they would be happy to be there.

b) for more info on this and all other issues you mentioned, give a quick call to Rachel at Student Affairs at 212-746-1062. She's really friendly and Dean Ballard's second hand person. She can give you updates on all things or direct you where to call.

c) i think in terms of info, the extent of what you've gotten pretty much seems right at this time, tho you might want to consider asking about housing too.

enjoy ya summer!

and welcome to ole' 1300 York Ave...

 

[DrDarwin]

We're not very good about bumping this thing. Any of you doing Urban Experience? The correspondence I have received makes me think everyone is doing Camp. I am looking forward to meeting everyone in a couple of weeks.