Can't say much about Gtown, although we have a guy here in our program from Gtown medical school. As for location, if your single and like to go out - live in a city setting, hands down the Gtown area is much better than Worcester. If you are married and want to be able to buy a place, have low cost of living, access to boston (1hr) or New York (3hrs), and be able to enjoy New England (Cap Cod, N.H., Skiiing, Maine, etc) then Worcester is not so bad. It is central to alot of places.
As for the program, at Umass, you have a very early operative experience. As an intern, you do 3 months of Ortho, and during this time, you will get to do a lot of junior cases skin to skin (DHS, I & D, fracture plating, Hemiarthroplasty, you will also scrube in a lot of Total hip/kne cases as the secondary surgeon, etc) You will also take inhouse first call which will give you plenty of opportunities to do close reduction of wrist / ankle fxs. At the University, the hospital is the only Level I trauma center in central and western Mass, responsible for about 120 miles radius via heli pickup. So we basically scrap up anything and everything from the highways. The trauma experience is unbeatable here and I can say this after experiencing my home program and 2 other away places. It is almost too busy at times. The Juniors (PGY 2-3 ) on the trauma service gets to operate a ton, Gamma nails / fracture plating / etc are routain and the PGY-2 do them. In fact, if you are on the joint service at Memorial Hospital, one of the attendings will let the PGY-2 do the total hip / knee skin to skin. We also have a brand new ED facility, 300 milion bucks and about 250,000 square foot, with 4 trauma bay, 70 treatment rooms, 12 New OR (4 dedicated Ortho), and brand new ICU. Conference schedule is very good, friday mornings for 3 hours are blocked off, and 1 hr fracture conference every morning during the week day. Our Ortho conference room was just renovated completely..... the department will get you a Delll Axim PDA, a lot of review books (millar, all the OKU series, Campbell Operative set, possibally loops in the future) plus you get an additional 700 bucks per year for book money. Chiefs get very good fellowships. Also there is a lot of research opportunities here as there is 2 spots in for the 6 yr and 2 for the 5 yr. But I think the best part about our program is that we are a very tight group of residents that go out of way to help each other out, everyone is laid back and HAPPY to be here at Umass.
If you have a interview, definitely check us out. PM me if you have any questions. Thanks