"Great peds, ICU, cardiac. Residents get first pick at the fellowships - if you want to do peds in NYC this is probably your best bet as they filled their entire peds program this year internally. NYC is awesome and you can easily live on upper west if you go here - but probably less feasible to be in Brooklyn or lower Manhattan. Fun, smart group of residents who seem to have good class cohesion and have a good amount of time to enjoy the city. Some great teachers in the dept and plenty of research opportunities. Well-designed intern year that includes a bit of everything. Overall one of my favorite programs on the east." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Great case variety on par with other top programs. Probably the best pediatric experience in New York City. Most residents go on to do fellowships. Nice dinner the night before with a good number of fun residents. Residents seemed to get along and appeared to be a closer group than what I saw elsewhere. Anesthesia-run ICU. Start getting relieved at 4pm. Residents expressed that they had plenty of time to enjoy the city." | More from this Member | Report Response

"- Get a month of transfusion medicine during your intern year. <br> - A lot of emphasis on research (if you like that sort of thing). <br> - Lots of cases to do so you get experience <br> - name recognition" | More from this Member | Report Response

"If you want to live near the hospital the neighborhood is crappy but cheap - probably the cheapest place to live in Manhattan. Regional and pain relative weaknesses. Seemed to be a bit of a NY bias in resident selection. No trauma. Vast majority of graduates stay around NY/NJ, if you are looking to leave the area it is definitely doable but my impression was that connections are more limited outside the area (again only my impression)." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Poor resident relationships with the PD and chair. Residents said they only really talked to the PD twice a year at their scheduled meetings, and the meetings were basically about test scores. The chair doesn't know the residents. Supposedly neither are helpful in finding jobs/fellowships outside of Columbia. This was one of the few programs where I didn't interview with either the PD or chair. Like most of the Manhattan programs, alumni tend to settle in the area, so alumni connections elsewhere may be more limited than other big name programs. Old, small facilities, but they just opened a new "heart" hospital where everything but the ORs are dedicated to cardiac. Not impressed by the CBY; no medicine months, but peds and ob? Seems strange to me, and reportedly is fairly hard. Manhattan location but not in a desirable part. Questionable regional and pain experiences." | More from this Member | Report Response

"- Some parts of the facilities looked very old. With a name like Columbia, I was expecting much nicer. <br> - The location (even though its in NYC, its not in the nicest part). Very expensive and hard to find a decent affordable place. <br> - The first year of the new categorical program seems very surgical heavy. There is NO rotation in basic medicine. Rotations even include an OB month at a near-by hospital that doesn't have OB residents so you will be doing deliveries while there. In addition, you have 2 months between ENT and general surgery for which you are mostly scutted off (according to one resident). There are also 2 months of pediatrics during this year." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Awesome dinner the night before with tons of residents who were a ton of fun. Longer interview day with presentations by both chair and PD, PD goes over just about every aspect of the program in detail. Interviews in the morning, lunch, then a wrap-up with the PD." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Day really starts at 9. Large interview group, gets split into 2. Chair and PD presentations, and some other faculty stop by and make a few remarks. Then interviews or tours. 2 interviews, both casual. There was too much time scheduled for tours and lunch and there was a significant amount of time spent waiting for the PD's wrap-up presentation. Done around 3." | More from this Member | Report Response

"The Bottom Line/Impression: A top 10 program that lives up to its reputation.<p> Lodging/Dinner: No hotel, dinner at a nice restaurant on the Upper West Side with a nice “happy hour” to start. Residents did multiple shots, aka were fun and seemed to be friends with each other and go out and have a life outside the hospital.<p> Schedule: Info session with Dr. Pang (PD) to start the day, pretty standard tour, interview, lunch. I learned that you should not attempt to eat a veggie wrap in NYC: the greens were nasty, and if you think about it, there are no farms anywhere nearby.<p> Program Info: 16 categorical, 8 advanced spots; will be all-categorical for 2009-10 season. No need to go anywhere for any rotations –volume and acuity are not a problem!<p> Pros: Caseload and training are incredible, acuity is very high and you get everything except lots of penetrating trauma and (I think) burns. Cardiac, ICU, transplant are very strong, as is research into health/anesthesia outcomes with new epidemiologist on staff. Mean # of pump cases = 140! Location if Manhattan is your thing. “Team Captain” aka on-call CA-3 runs the board and team is a great opportunity and seems to be pretty standard among the “Top 10” crowd. I would say it’s pretty similar to Penn, but the perks are fewer and the “vibe” not there since we didn’t talk to the chair and the PD was a little…spacey.<p> Cons: Lots of hours (pretty standard for “top” programs) and possibility for “malignancy.” Housing is a little dicey; Columbia provides it, but only in the nearby area and Upper West Side housing on your own is pricey and hard to get. " | More from this Member | Report Response

"The night before there is a dinner at CITRUS restaurant with alcohol hour prior to dinner. Dinner was better than expected. Had to sign in though once there. <p> About 18-20 candidates are brought in over the course of 15 interview days. <p> 8:30-9:00am is breakfast followed by an hour presentation by the Program Director and a few words from the chair. From 10-1:00 you will either be interviewing or on a tour depending on which group you are in. Then there is an hour lunch with residents (okay food but seems like the menu on interview days is often lacking). Around 2 you get a small wrap-up meeting with the PD and you're done. " | More from this Member | Report Response