so...
First off baltimore is kind of like one big ortho program. Here is how it works. Union guys rotate at UMD for shock and JHU for peds/tumor. UMD rotates at JHU for peds/tumor. JHU rotates at UMD for shock and Union for some hand i believe.

UMD: Shock is great. Lots and lots of OR time and the faculty teaches tons in the cases. However service can get insanely busy but no resident in the city can escape anyways. Spine guys there are great teachers and they get a fairly decent variety cases. Shoulder guy is pretty good. Rest of program is so so...

Union: Probably the most solid all around program in the city. Have the curtis hand center so they do tons of hand. Tons of operative experience. Great faculty. Its not really a research year but you get 6mos in your 4th yr for research. Half of the 6th yr is as a jr attending. So there is no true yr off. They just added the time for extra training b/c of the 80hr wk week.

JHU: Most academic program in the city. They do the vast majority of peds stuff in the city. otherwise is a pretty solid program. They really pummel the 2's though (on call is one guy for all services for all of hopkins, which is a pretty freaking huge service).

anyways
kind of what i know
later