Any program that switches its chairman gets put on probation automatically. So that can be a reason to be on that list, which means nothing.
I rotated at Sinai and found it to be a really solid program, even though I didn't match there (still pissed). The residents were normal, laid back guys for the most part. They scrubbed on a ton of cases, and I would actually say they are a little OR heavy if that is possible. They had a bunch of PAs and nurses to do a lot of scut work. Like for example they have one PA who came in during the afternoons and stayed late in the evening to do all the post op checks. That saved a lot of time for the on call person.
They had a mix of private and academic attendings. So some of the guys would operate there but they had offices outside of the Mt Sinai campus in midtown or something. Actually there were a lot of guys who weren't full time academics there. I found that great because it gives you exposure to both worlds.
I put it first on my list because it was the right size program for me, I wanted to operate a lot (because I feel that's what residency is for), and the people were easy to get along with. But everyone has to figure out what's most important for themselves.
