Negatives - They take two a year, are not the only ortho guys in their own facility, have some random residents that don't talk to you during the "get to know us" evening before the interview (I even heard that at one pre-interview session, they stole all the coupons intended for the interviewees at Jillians and played games for hours). Also, their chairman was one of the weirdest guys I have ever had the chance to meet in person. I'm sure he is a wonderful guy and an excellent surgeon, but dag-nabit, he was strange to listen to during his presentations. Plus, they didn't match anyone. Either nobody in their top 50 decided to rank them highly at all on their ROL, or the program knew that they would fall far down an extensive list and would rather take their chances and try for people like Screwed and G-Love that are obviously qualified and determined to do ortho.
Whatevers - The facilities were so-so, not good or bad, the city is alright, hot and muggy, but near enough to the beach (less than two hours). They put you up for free the evening before (in some "Real World" kinda house) and pay for pool, drinks, whatever (best part, if you do it right).
Positives - Some of the residents were nice, normal people (didn't show the night before), they have some really great (connected) and friendly staff that project the image that they really know what's up.
I ended up ranking this program, although it was one of two that I really didn't want to go to (but would rather do ortho there than nowhere). I would suggest that any of the MS3s out there that want to stay in or come to the South should apply to this one. If you get plenty of interview offers (12-14+), then you can probably safely skip it.
But be careful overlooking or overshooting, we've all heard the horror stories from this year.
OSB )
