I don't know about this for sure, but I think you may be better off doing a couples match. The way I understand the couples match is you will match at whatever program you both rank highest that also has you ranked to match. If your girlfriend is applying to less competetive programs, she will likely be ranked to match at several programs, so she should match at just about anywhere you match. You might lose one, or maybe even two spots on your rank list at worst, but you will still match in Ortho and be able to spend what little free time you have with someone you love (or at least dig enough to want to couples match).

Going about it by just interviewing in similar cities and ranking is pretty risky with ortho and say family/IM/peds. Your girlfriends are likey to land their 1st or 2nd choice. If you don't get yours, you most likely will be in diffeent cities. Maybe if the urban is NYC and you plan on ranking every program in the city as your top choices, then you may have a chance, but most urban centers don't have that many programs. It is very likely that you could match at your 5th choice, we will say D.C. for example, but she lands in her first (and your first) Chicago.

Good luck guys.

my wife and i managed to successfully couples match last year in ortho and ob/gyn. i applied to many programs ie 60, she applied to a lot too (~35) and we agreed from the outset we wanted to be together in the same city. from there it becomes easier b/c we didn't do the infinite # of possible matches that could have been. we were also sure to rank plenty of programs as well. we both ended up being straight-forward about telling people that we were married/couples matching, and in most cases it was probably not harming us but i never knew. we usually waited for people to ask rather than volunteering. i know it's one of those illegal questions (literally), and many times i considered the "fit" issue with the rest of the group rather than my legal rights. i think it's far from the first thing on people's minds to rule out a candidate. also consider the atmosphere of the program b/c you'll find it varies greatly whether or not most of the group is married/attached. in general i feel like most of the current orthopods see that family life and the attendant life outside the hospital is important for balance and most orthopods don't want to live in the hospital(although in training they might). good luck in the process- i still am amazed i got through it.

Hey...this is for wolverine and anyone else who can give their two cents. I saw the post awhile ago about couples matching with ortho and ob/gyn....My girlfriend and I are going to try and do the same thing this year. Right now we are in the process of picking our programs (love michigan...went to PSU undergrad) It seems pretty straitforward
for me...just apply to 60 or so and pray...but as far as she goes we are wondering how many she should apply to. For example one of the programs I really like is TUFT's and she really just wants to be in boston but not really at tufts...should she apply to all the programs in the area or just a few...we want to cut her number down but right now it seems like that
might hurt our chances....Just wondering what you thought. We both go to a non-high powered med school...had board scores of 237 and 239. I did 5 really small ortho basic science research projects that only yeilded one publication and she hasn't done any. She's AOA and I may or may not be. Any advice you could give us would be really helpful. Oh one other thing...one of the other posts said to let programs know by sending a letter telling them you were couples matching...We were planning on just telling those who asked...any thoughts on how this could help or hurt us? Thanks a lot. I look forward to meeting some of you on the interview trail. Good luck everyone!

Chiming in again. I would also like to know what people think about the "check this box if you wish to tell programs you are couples matching." I will tell anyone and everyone about my girl and matching with her if they want but should we wear it on our shirts? Could this hurt chances of getting interviews due to programs not wanting the risk and mess of couples matching, especially at competitive programs? I brought this up to mi lady and my ears are still ringing, "she's not selling out" but would like a second opinion... "coming honey." Also we think it may be best if at our prime locations she actually ranks 2-3 programs to make sure that when I get in she will also get in. This would make it so that she will be applying to more than me, sounds different than some others game plan. Good luck to you all and also looking forward to the interview trail. By the way nittanylion, with what you have told us I cannot forsee any problem outside of the big university programs that nobody ever is sure about. Seems like you will be the limiting factor and you ain't too limiting looking from my point of view.