I am a female MS4 applying to ortho residency programs and I just finished interviewing at programs on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the Midwest. I can honestly say that all of the programs I interviewed at seemed "receptive" to women. Of course, I was probably only invited to interview with a program if they were interested in having women. That being said, I think that most programs are interested in female candidates and will evaluate your application on its merits. When choosing your away rotation, you should focus on the type of program you want, location, # rotaters, etc... By doing an away rotation, you will find out if you fit in well with the residents and faculty at that particular program. That information will mean much more to you than some Orthogate rumor about whether the program is "female-friendly".

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

A few places to avoid: William Beaumont in Michigan, one of those UMNDJ programs in New Jersey, and Loma Linda in California.

Otherwise most programs appear to view women fairly equally. If you don't see too many women in each program, it's because probably 10% or so applicants are female.

see you PM

Tufts in Boston prides itself on having a lot of women in the program (probably about 1/3). However, they are searching for a new chairman so this may change.

I'm quite familiar with UMDNJ-NJMS (Newark), and must assume that this is NOT the program you are referring to. I know that there are females in the program and anotehr who was retained as a fellow. They are both very highly regarded within the program, and the department interviews many female applicants.

I cannot speak for the RWJ program, but the NJMS one is certainly open to females.

That is good to hear. I wasn't sure which it was.

I am more certain though that the other 2 are big offenders (Beaumont, Loma Linda) and I am sure there a few more that I just don't know about.

Anyone want to try and contest these 2 programs?

Thank you sooo much for all of your responses!!! I've used alot of advice received here and via scutwork.com and I've been very happy with the reception I've received via telephone at a number of programs; namely thus far Mayo and MCOW. MCOW in particular was very warm. They stated they've never had a female applicant to rotate there before. I think I'm going to try to seek out the programs women don't usually rotate and work my butt off. I can go to three sites and I'm pretty sure MCOW will be one of them. I now have to carefully decide the other two. I'll continue to take your suggestions and once again thank you everyone for your help!!!!

If you are mainly looking at Midwestern programs and would like to rotate at an academic program, I would recommend considering the University of Minnesota. When I interviewed there, I was extremely impressed with the strength of this program. Unfortunately, it does not fit in well with your plan of rotating at programs that do not have many women - U of M has many women residents and the program director is a woman. However, this program only interviewed 38 candidates for 8 positions this year (this is according to the program director) so if you rotate there and do a good job, you have great odds of matching!

You can't go wrong with rotating at MCW. I am currently an M4 at MCW and have done 2 rotations in the program. They currently have 2 female residents, and in general do they night have female rotators but no AIs at all. It is a very solid program. Any ?s ask them here or PM.

Crackbone

I hear that Harvard is very female friendly and surprisingly so is Duke as well. However, unfortunately it seems as if minority candidates still "need not apply" to Duke. Diversity is not to high on their priority list I guess.

J

I would have to respectfully disagree with the previous post about Duke being female friendly. While it is true that 3 of their 8 interns are female, I (and at least one other female I met on the trail) had a pretty eye-opening experience during the interview. I had inappropriate comments made about my physique DURING an interview and was told blatantly during an after-interview party at one of the resident's houses that "females bring down the quality of the ortho applicant pool." Duke seems like an awesome place to train, and I may have happened to run into the few "bad seeds" while I was there, but I just wanted to pass on my 2 cents to any prospective rotators/applicants so they get the full story.

It's funny someone should mention that Duke feels "Minorities Need Not Apply" because I happen to be a "Double Minority". I didn't feel it to be much of a problem getting into med school or during my research years. During my rotation in Ortho at my home school there were no other African Americans, but my color seemed never to be an issue. As a matter of fact, that's how I really got motivated about ortho was due to the support I received from the program at my school. I hate to put the question out there, but do you guys think I'll have a problem being a black female applicant? I really don't think so....

My prior comment was not intended to be generalized. Just a conversation from a classmate of my who also interviewed at Duke. The majority of programs are very progress and have a great mix of residents who are equally talented and just enjoy orthopaedics. Sorry to hear about your experience at Duke SkeletonCrew.

J

LadyBone,

As a male minority (Black/Mexican) who just finished the interview trail, I can tell u that u will indeed see both extremes. There are programs who are very diverse and love women and minorities. While there are others where revealing that info will certainly eliminate u from consideration. And of course there is those that are neutral, they are only looking for the best applicants regardless of color, sex, religion, etc..

My best advice regardless of your stats as a med student is to apply broadly and to many many programs. The regions that are most open to minorities in my opinion are the East Coast and West Coast. I too interviewed at U of Minnesota. I think this is a great place that u should definitely consider. They are actively seeking qualified minority applicants.

Don't be surprised to be the only minority and or woman at the interviews. This happened to me for the majority of my interviews. I did 13 interviews and the only place where I saw Black women applicants was at Howard (about 6 of them).

Hope this helps!

"I think I'm going to try to seek out the programs women don't usually rotate and work my butt off." - Ladybone

Just a comment on this. On the one hand, rotating at a place that has more women residents demonstrates that they are open to having females. However, they might have a reputation of being "women friendly" and will have more female candidates. Though times are changing, it's unlikely there would be an all female class i.e. there might be a limit to the number of females they ultimately take, meaning a more competitive spot.

On the other hand, there are programs that have no females that are trying to add females to the residency, which would fit in well with your plan. My friend (female) who interviewed at a midwest program had a story that would likely be common in a place that doesn't have females in the program. She went to the social, was standing around with a group of male applicants, and the chief came up and introduced himself to everyone in the group but her (expecting her to be one of the significant others). She finally introduced herself, and once he knew she was an applicant, wasn't really treated any differently. Point is, these places might be open to the idea of having females, but may not be used to it. This can be from residents, attendings and maybe just as importantly, ancillary staff.

Nothing wrong with being a trailblazer, but if you're at a place where the people you work with are used to having a female resident, you might feel like you're treated a little more equally on a day to day basis.

While it's difficult to determine, I have heard of programs out there that have multiple females in the program who are treated and regarded poorly by the male residents. While it is usually a very good indicator, the fact that there are multiple females in a program does not necessarily correlate with how they are viewed and treated. Ask around about specific programs that you may be considering (like you've been doing) so that you can get a better feeling for their particular attitude.

Though, in the end, if you're a great resident (or even a great rotator), you may be able to change a lot of stereotypes in a short period of time.

On a separate note, I have heard that being a female or a minority can be a double-edged sword for interviews (as stated above). It may open doors to very competitive programs who are specifically looking for applicants like you, as most of the top programs are. I have heard PD's say that females and minority candidates always go to "better" places, and therefore are ranked lower on their own program's lists because they want their top ranks to be more of a sure thing. This may simply be a way to mask their racism, but may also be due to a lack of communication. Just be open about your interest in particular programs so that they don't assume you're going somewhere "better."

Lady Bone,

I'm also a black female hopefully going into ortho. Let me recommend Univ of Cincy as a good program (it's my home school). I had a wonderful time on my rotation there and they seem excited to have me back as a 4th year. They're very receptive to females. Good luck.

Monique

Just a note about Loma Linda...I rotated there and did not see any problems with getting along with the residents and staff because of XX chromosomes. In fact it is one of the "great" lesser known programs with great didactics, early OR experience and being in S. CA is not bad either. On interview day there was one other female interviewing.

BTW: Beaumont while they have never had a female resident seemed receptive to having a female in the program. One female ortho on staff. My interview went great with all the faculty and staff.

Good luck to everyone in the match!

I know for a fact that the previous comments regarding Duke University are false. They pride themselves on taking the most qualified applicants regardless of gender or race. To think that schools still act this way is just plain wrong. As a minority I feel that others complaining about a school not taking enough minorities is not only comical, but also detrimental. I don't want people to judge me based on my race and I think very few residency programs do, I wish it could just become a non-issue and be judged base on my qualifications. By us classifying ourselves as "XX" or "minority" aren't we just adding to the problem. I say get over it and work your butt off and see what happens.