Medical Student Opportunities at MSK: Life in New York City

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Pictured: East 67th Street in Manhattan

Memorial Sloan Kettering is located on New York City's Upper East Side, a neighborhood with a diversity of restaurants, interesting shops, and some of the world's best museums.

Memorial Sloan Kettering is part of a world-renowned biomedical research complex that includes Sloan Kettering Institute, the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and The Rockefeller University. The three institutions, which extend for several blocks along York Avenue, share not only many staff members, but extensive library and technical facilities. Staff, fellows, and students have access to shared core facilities and an active calendar of lectures, seminars, and visits by distinguished scientists.

Central Park

The city’s centerprice, Central Park, is a short walk from our main campus. Within its borders, you’ll find fields, trails, jogging and cycling paths, woods, rocks, ponds, a boating lake, formal gardens, and even a zoo. During the summer, the park hosts free concerts and plays, swimming, and tennis; during the winter, the park’s ice skating rink is a popular stop. And any time is a great time for people watching.

Museum Mile

Along the eastern edge of Central Park, also within walking distance of the MSK, is “Museum Mile.” This 20-block stretch along Fifth Avenue is home to many of New York’s best and most famous museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the largest museums in the world, is renowned for its collections of American art, Egyptian artifacts, and European painting and sculpture. The Guggenheim Museum is famous not only for its inspired architecture but its wide-ranging exhibits. A branch of the Smithsonian Institute, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum specializes in the history of design. El Museo del Barrio showcases Latin American art. At the Museum of the City of New York, paintings, photographs, costumes, sculpture, and other artifacts tell the stories of New York and New Yorkers. The Jewish Museum examines Jewish culture from ancient times to the present through art and artifacts. Several other notable museums located nearby include the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, both distinguished for their collections of modern and contemporary art.

International Flavor

Also just minutes from Memorial Sloan Kettering are the international outposts of countries and cultures around the world. The Asia Society, the China Institute, the Czech Center, the Alliance Francaise, the Goethe-Institut, the Ukrainian Institute and the Queen Sophia Spanish Institute, and the Kosciuszko Foundation are on the Upper East Side, and all sponsor gatherings, exhibits, talks, movies, and other chances for cultural exchange. Another mecca in the neighborhood is the 92nd Street Y, which hosts chamber music and jazz concerts, cabaret, dance performances, and readings and lectures by some of today’s most interesting writers and thinkers. Nightlife in the neighborhood includes clubs offering stand-up comedy, blues, and jazz.

Yorkville, the community immediately around the main campus, was originally settled by German immigrants. You can still find remnants of a thriving German and Eastern European community at several restaurants and shops where sausage, salami, pickles, spaeztle, goulash, and fresh rye bread are sold or served. As is true throughout New York City, you can find delicious food from almost any region of the globe at one of the hundreds of restaurants on the Upper East Side.

Getting Around Is Easy

Most areas of the city and their attractions are easily accessible from the Center by subway, bus, or taxi.