Elite Programs

I'd say by taking your board score times 12 divided by the gross national product of Denmark plus the square root of 674 that your chances of matching are no less than 42.687%...

My sarcastic point...there is no formula to any of this. Who knows what chances are based on the information you gave? Without mentioning a specific program, it's not possible to know the exact impact that an away would have. But as we've gone over ad nauseum on this site, your chances of matching at a certain place increases by rotating there, no question.

By the way, I was wondering...I got a 983 on Steps 1 and 2, am the national president of AOA, am the grand marshall of next year's AAOS parade, and Hoppenfeld copied my notebook to write that whole surgical exposures deal. Am I a good candidate?

rwbrhp29... I'd say your chances are OK. It would help if you rocked Step 3 prior to interviewing (I'm talking 1000+). After all, you knew you wanted to do ortho when you took steps 1 and 2 and only got a 983. Also, getting licensed in every state to which you apply prior to interviewing is sure to be a bonus. The fact that Hoppenfeld copied your notes without acknowledging your contribution indicates that you probably don't work well with other people, you may wish to consider that as a weakness. And, surely if you worked harder or were better connected you would be the INTERNATIONAL president of AOA. That being said, if you interview well and apply to a few lower tier (saftey) programs, I'd say your chances of matching are slightly better than 42.687%, assuming the GDP of Denmark doesn't fluctuate to wildly.

By the way... do you have to wear a tutu to be grand marshall?

HandyAndy,

You have the resume, so as long as youre not a total tool youll probably match. But then again, only tools ask questions like yours.

I guess the points I want to focus on are the fact that I don't have any publications and the fact that I attend a less than prestigious school. Are top programs only interested in applicants with publications from top med schools?

A search for these "elite programs" that you refer to and a look at their websites may reveal what type of med schools their residents come from (if it's included on the website). If you haven't observed so far, just because you didn't go to some Ivy League school doesn't mean you're not smart or that you're not gonna get into a good med school. The same holds true for orthopaedic surgery residencies. Some of the best residents in my program didn't go to "top med schools."

However, one very well-known chairman did tell me that one of the factors that comes into play in their selection process is the med school that the person came from....ie if they know about the school and attending at the ortho program at that school. So in your case, if you're from a little known state school in the midwest, chances are some big name east coast programs may not be as familiar with your school (unless they've had a previous resident from your school). What can you do to counter this? Rotate at some of the programs in the east coast that you're thinking about. Get letters from attendings at these programs that say that you're a strong student, hard-worker, etc. This will prove to other programs that you're legit.

In my opinion publications aren't that important. If you've got them, good. It'll help your application. If you don't, then you don't. At least have done some orthopaedic research that you can talk about during your interviews. That's all that matters.

If you haven't seen it, there is an article by Bernstein et al, in the Nov 2002 issue of JBJS entitled Orthopaedic Resident Selection Criteria that was a survey of program directors about what factors they considered important in resident selection. Read it.

And don't stress. I wasn't AOA. I didn't have a 262 Step I and yes, I am an orthopaedic surgery resident at a good residency program.