I applied to 30 programs, all in the midwest, and received 26 offers for interviews. I think I did well in terms of interviews because I did not apply outside my "region."

I went to 13 interviews and thought all were at least solid programs, although a handful stood out amongst the others...

1. University of Wisconsin- I think they have the best mix of clinical exposure and operative experience out there. Great staff with an equally stellar group of residents. Madison is an extremely underrated city.

2. University of Iowa- I program I would love to train at, they have a sterling reputation and I think they lived up to it. Iowa City is better than most give it credit for.

3. University of Minnesota- Very strong program with great staff and great residents. Multiple sites is a +/-, exposure to different settings but also lots of driving. They have a VA second to none.

4. Mayo Clinic- They have an amazing program in a not-so-amazing town. I seriously considered ranking them higher, but felt like Rochester is a city I wouldn't be all that happy in.

5. Medical College of Wisconsin- Another program I would be very happy to match at. They have great facilities and I really thought the residents were a good bunch. Milwaukee is a pretty cool city.

6. University of Chicago- Great program, I just don't like Chicago.

7. Saint Louis University- If not for the sixth year, could have been higher. Their trauma staff is fantastic, along with their residents.

8. Case Western- I thought they were a great program, just didn't like Cleveland that much. Also, I am a little wary of the way they pick the two residents for the six year track (i.e. they make the residents pick amongst themselves and if two don't step up...)

9. Loyola- Solid program, I just don't want to live (or drive) in Chicago.

10. University of Kansas- KC is a nice city and I thought they had a solid program.

11. University of Missouri- This is a program on the rise, I was very impressed with their soon to be new "Missouri Orthopaedic Center," it is basically an independent ortho hospital, where the will do most of their elective cases and house their short stay patients.

12. Wash U- They have ridiculous facilities, but I felt like they were trying to make me feel like I was lucky to even have a chance to interview at their self described "world-class institution." Not the vibe I want to feel for five years.

13. University of Illinois at Chicago- I don't think their probation is a real issue, but why take the chance? Also, as previously stated, I don't like Chicago.

I will be almost equally stoked at 1 through 4, very excited at 5 through 8, and happy to have matched at 9 through 13.

I remember reading previous years posts and how people describe it as a "personal list;" after going through it myself I couldn't agree more. This list is obviously not ranked solely on national reputation, but also how I (individually) fit in the program and a multitude of other personal factors. I am sure many people would have made a different list with the exact same programs, but for me this is what worked best. Good luck to all in the match.

I applied to 40 programs, was offered 12 interviews attended 6

1. Pitt - overall very strong program, great staff, great reputation. Research experience is second to none. Has trained more chairman than any other program. You got to love Dr. Fu. Other faculty liKe Dr. Kang, Gruen, Tarkin all amazing people and great mentors.

2. University of Virgina - I loved this programed, can speak highly enough of it. Wonderful city, amazing staff. Dr. Chhabra is proably one of the best teaching facultly I have ever met. Chairman is an amazing guy, residents are down to earth. Top notch program, would be great place to train

3. Carolinas - I really enjoyed this place as well. Truely amazing operative experience as a resident, associated with a private group ortho carolinas which has 80 some orthopods. Residents hand pick cases. Have premiere foot and ankle faculty in world. Smaller program, but solid group of residents

4. Howard - has a tremendous history, produces phenomenal doctors and great technicians. Residents cool as hell, so are faculty. Hospital lacks resources, but overall you will know how to make more with less. Puts out great doctors.

5. Hopkins - it was hopkins. Overall ok, residents where better than I expected but still could not shake the fact it was hopkins. Fell down my list when I realized that Vivan Thomas picture is not really up in the hall way. Watch Something the Lord made.

6. G-town - super white collar program. I like everyone and faculty seemed cool but just not my type of place. No trauma, very previledged patients, expensive as hell. Still good place.

Did not make interviews at Penn, Cleveland Clinic, temple, penn state, darthmouth, Umass

Interview process was a good experience, no negative stories. God bless all the applicants this is the home stretch, and for those in the ranks work hard and you will get it no doubt.

Applied to 58 programs (yikes!), many to which I had no business applying (but hey, you can't get a residency in California unless you apply, right? . Interviewed at 9 (not that great a ratio, huh?).



#1 U of Louisville. Strong program, really liked the cadaver lab. I was surprised I got an interview there.

#2 U of Il at Chicago. Outstanding trauma experience. I actually think training at so many clinical sites is a benefit because of various points of view from attendings. Probation probably not a big deal. I would really like to move back to Chicago and am familiar with the area around the medical center.

#3 Med College of Wisconsin. Great program, great residents. Milwaukee is an affordable version of Chicago.

#4 U of Indiana. Solid progam. Nice residents. Indy cool

#5 Mich State-Kalamazoo. Small program, lot's of autonomy. Kalamazoo is an up and coming city with a large college population, young urban professionals, a couple fortune 500 companies...

#6 Wright State. Nice residents. Nice facilities. Dayton OK.

#7 U of Toledo. Very nice facilities. Residents a lot of fun (too much fun?). Concerns with diversity of attendings (most are former graduates).

#8 Kansas-Wichita. Too far away... From everything. Haha.

#9 Mich State-Flint. Flint. Nuff said... Great training. Very busy residents. Paid call options as a senior (at least for now until they get more residents).

I would get a good education at any of these places and have the ability to get a good fellowship. A lot came down to being happy in the town I was in (I'm a city boy).

Good luck to everyone in the match.

I will post because I thought the past years' threads were helpful in deciding which interviews to take when I had conflicts. Again, this list is very personal. Two things that were important to my better half and me were being able to buy a house and not wasting time in traffic. One of the biggest struggles was weighing the importance of program reputation, which I ended up putting much less weight on as the ROL deadline approached.

I applied to 43, received 29 offers, and went on 15.

1) Utah - extremely well-rounded program, down to earth faculty and residents, love Salt Lake City. I honestly thought this was the best training program I visited, period.

2) Wisconsin - as well-rounded as Utah, good community rotations, great residents, Dr. Z is awesome. Madison is a sweet city.

3) Grand Rapids - I rotated here and loved the program. Great trauma experience, operative experience that can't be beat, best group of residents I've met. Doesn't have the name of many programs, but residents all get top fellowships and come out as great orthopods.

4) U of Washington - top notch program, get killed first and second year with trauma but fellows and chiefs do most of the operating. More top-heavy op experience than I prefer, but they come out as great surgeons. Seattle traffic sucks and it is expensive, which moved it down on my list.

5) Cleveland Clinic - great op experience, fun faculty, lots of community rotations that allow some autonomy, mentorship style rotations. Lack a solid trauma experience, which I think is important for training orthopods; cleveland is less than desirable.

6) Vermont - well-rounded, great residents and faculty, q3 call second and third year. Burlington is cool city, but a little isolated.

7) Case Western - I was extremely impressed with this program and the residents, but playing russian roulette for an extra year is ridiculous.

Rush - great name, cush residency. lack trauma experience, residents seemed a little 'elitist', chicago is expensive and the traffic...

9) William Beaumont - great program, op experience rivals Grand Rapids, nice call schedule. Don't want anything to do with Detroit.

10) Harvard - huge program, was surprised by how down to earth residents were, very top-heavy op experience. Didn't like many of the things I heard from rotators and on this forum, which made me very skeptical on interview day...

11) WashU - top-notch training, but as noted in a previous post I also felt they were extremely arrogant on interview day, not the atmosphere I want to spend 5 years in.

12) Iowa - great program, but I didn't fit in with the residents and I don't think my better half could live without direct access to a Macy's.

13) Minnesota - solid program, but spread out all over the city which means a lot of driving, cool residents, long rotations.

14) Ohio State - seems like a pretty solid program, but nothing really stood out to impress.

15) U of Chicago - seems like a great program, but I want nothing to do with the southside of Chitown.

If I match at any of my top 6, I'll be ridiculously happy drunk on March 20th

I'll play...
Applied to 50, offered 11, went on 11

1. Emory- Didnt know much till I got there, but loved it. Laid back attendings, Tons of operative experience, cool residents. Grady will be fine.

2. Wash U- Interview day was really stuffy, but I think they were told to be. Great training and facilities, top notch attendings. Would have #1 if alittle less top heavy op experience.

3. Campbell Clinic- Amazing attendings, Lots of operating. Memphis is a bummer, residents are fun to hang out with.

4. Dartmouth- Great training and lots of operating. Would have been higher if not located in Hanover.

5. JPS- Great community program, probaly the most perks for residents at any program i've seen. Ft. Worth is a cool town. Still up and coming

6. Pitt 5 - Everyone knows this place is amazing, Fu puts on a great show. Im not gonna lie, probably would have been higher if I got the phone calls that I knew others were getting.

7. Univ of Texas Houston - Up and coming also. Earliest op experience ive seen. Maybe too early. Would have been in top 4 if they took more than 3 a yr.

8. Brown - Great place, great attendings, cool city....cant get over 6 yr

9. Dartmouth 6yr

10. Pitt 6

11. George Washington- good place, i just wasnt feeling it when i was there.

12. Galveston (UTMB)- horrible show on interview day

13. Texas a&M(scott and white)- Too country for me, but great training and lots of operating

..

This tread also helped me last year. And I have nothing to do until 3/20.
1. Duke -- World class in everything. The required 2nd look was good and bad. And I do love my short white coat, enough to wear it for another year.
2. Ohio State -- OSU residents were all fun to be around. Columbus is a fun town with both college atmosphere and big city activities with reasonable cost of living. The entire 3rd yr is at a new private hospital
3. UConn -- Great program, new ortho institute, new chair with great vision. High cost of living sucks.
4. U of Missouri – Columbia -- Program on the rise with new free standing ortho hospital. The chair is on a mission to build a great program. Residents all seemed cool. Columbia is the stereotypical college town, which I like.
5. Oklahoma -- a solid program with a close group of residents. But they get worked hard and no online x-ray system, all hard films.
6. Arkansas -- Residents operate early and often with a good ol boys club feel. Would be very happy here.
7. KU-KC. Solid program in a good city.
8. Thomas Jefferson-- One of the best programs in the nation. An academic powerhouse. Team docs for Eagles and Phillies. Just couldn’t live in downtown Philly. If you like city life this would be the perfect place.
9. Case Western -Another academic powerhouse and one of the best programs in the nation. But its Cleveland. A third of the residents get picked at random to do an extra year of research, not cool.
10. U of Maryland Strong all around program. Shock Trauma is good and bad. Baltimore is knife & gun club headquarters. Just look at Shock Trauma.
11. Summa –If this place was not in Akron it would be number 2 on my list. Residents are operating machines. Very energetic and friendly residents
12. St. Louis U. Dr. Moed is great but that 6th yr is not worth it to me.
13. Southern Illinois - nothing to do in Springfield besides work.
14. Akron General – Its Akron

I wish I had known that this thread existed from previous years, because I struggled a lot with how to rank my programs. That being said, there was something remarkably personal to me about my experience at an interview and my feeling of "fit," which became my biggest factor for ranking, so I may not have relied on other opinions too much. I also have a sig other who I had to worry about, which complicated things--getting to buy a house and maybe have a yard where we match was a big factor for us.

I applied to 31 programs, got offered 18, went to 14.

1- Brown- absolutely loved it here. Thought the residents were fun, great operative opportunities, Dr. Ehrlich was the kind of guy I wanted as a chairman. I know I would like getting up to go to work most of the time here. And I can deal with the 6th year, I think it provides good opportunities for what you put in.

2- Pitt- would have been equally perfect for me, but my wife wasn't into it. I think Pitt is easily a top 5 program in just about any facet you can imagine.

3- Penn- their residents are so impressive as a group it's hard not to want to be one of them. And resident education is the focus of the program, unlike at some other big institutions. CHOP is a great hospital just to get to experience, too. But I don't love Philly that much, which was a strike against this program.

4- Carolinas- I agree with what has been said above. This was a total surprise to me, but Carolinas is exceptional in everything they do. And the residents are cool as hell.

5- UNC- Chapel Hill is a great town, and the program is on the rise. They seem to be committed to resident education and the residents get to operate a ton. Also, they use the preceptorship model, which I have mixed feelings about.

6- NYU-HJD- loved the people, loved the hospital, loved the philosophy, don't want to live in NYC. You might think I'm crazy, but there it is.

7- U of C- really liked it here, hard to explain. Leaders in the field of orthopaedic education, and Peabody seemed like a fantastic chairman.

8- Harvard- great program, puts you in a position to do whatever you want afterward. It's all been said. Wasn't crazy about the residents; Boston is cold and expensive.

9- Cleveland Clinic- really liked this program, but Cleveland is a tough sell. The hospital was, by far, the nicest I was in on the trail. These might have been the coolest faculty I met, too.

10- OSU- probably a great program, just didn't feel it. Also, Columbus in January has to pale in comparison to Columbus, in say, October, but I didn't get to see that, unfortunately.

11- Jefferson- definitely a program on the rise, top notch faculty, but I didn't sense that resident education was a priority. Also, not crazy about Philth-adelphia.

12- Loyola- solid place, just not quite the academic scene I was looking for, as far as I could tell.

13- Allegheny General- a good operative program, but the residents seemed a little overworked. The best meal I got on the trail. Pretty minimal research opportunities, which turned out to be a bigger factor for me than I anticipated.

14- St Luke's/Roosevelt- very similar to AGH, except with sh--tier housing opportunities. Cool faculty, though.

Couldn't make interviews at Hopkins, UVA, BU, and GWU.

Good luck to all on 3/20.

any more ROL's out there?... i thought there would be more after they were submitted.

there will be many more after match day