I tend to agree with Orthofixation in that the JBJS article is the best thing out there in trying to make sense of what PDs are looking for. But gjp also has a point in that there really is no one thing out there that you can do that will gurantee you a ortho residency spot. You have to take everything out there, including stuff posted on this forum with a grain of salt. True, the JBJS article does have limitations, and I would agree with Orthofixation, the 50% number may not be too accurate since I too am probably not gonna end up highly ranking a place that was my first choice for an away rotation. In the end, deciding on where and if to do an away rotation is a personal choice. If you are awesome on paper, but not as good in person, maybe you might wanna consider skipping that away rotation at the place where you really want to go. If you're not outstanding on paper, doing the away rotation and working your ass off that month will give programs a chance to see you and can possibly get you that interview and spot that you might otherwise not have gotten. It's been mentioned in this forum many times before, but also realize that there are programs out there that heavily favor rotators. So if you really want to go to one of those programs, you may pretty much have to rotate there no matter what.
