I am an intern at SIU and am very happy that I chose to come here. I rotated here for a month as a medical student and really loved the program and the residents. Our biggest strength is probably the operative experience which is outstanding especially as a junior resident. This is definitely not a place where you will be holding hook for five years. We dont have the typical services that you see at most programs. We have one-on-one rotations with the faculty with the exception of our sports and upper extremity rotations where you work with multiple attendings. I like this set-up because it means you are not getting the leftovers from the two or three more senior residents who might otherwise be on your service. We currently have seven full time faculty and a large number of community attendings with whom we also work. There are plenty of cases to go around and as a chief there is a lot of flexibility in choosing. At all levels, but especially as a chief, you will do a lot of cases with the community orthopods which is great because they are excellent to work with and you get to see a lot of different ways of doing things. Our training is very focused on the bread and butter of orthopaedics and residents from our program feel extremely comfortable going directly into practice after residency if they wish. At the same time, our chiefs, like all chiefs from programs across the country, dont have any problem getting fellowships they want (you will find that everywhere says this because it is probably true--the bottleneck is getting into residency and there are more than enough fellowships to go around). We do have a level I trauma center, but this is not a trauma heavy program where you will be doing a nail every night. This in combination with our night float helps to make our quality of life pretty good (the residents on call field the questions for all in-house patients so you dont have to carry your pager 24-7 despite being one-on-one with faculty).

We take three residents a year and are a very tight knit group who work and play well together. The residents had a big impact on my opinion of the program because I knew that I would enjoy working with everyone. This definitely matters since you will be spending more time with your fellow residents than you will with your family no matter where you go to residency. Springfield is a safe and extremely affordable place to live. We are also compensated very well. All the residents own homes and this is a great place to raise a family. Most of the residents are married, but a few such as myself are single. The nightlife obviously doesnt compare to a big city, but life as a single guy here is not bad (I have no idea how it would be for female residents).

In regards to weaknesses, we are not a research heavy program. There are opportunities for research, but it will not fall into your lap like it does at more research focused programs. Also, Springfield is a small community and if you want to live in the big city you might be disappointed (however, I believe that Morganstown is about the same size).

In summary, outstanding operative experience especially as a jr in a nonmalignant blue collar program with a good quality of life and a close knit group of residents in a safe and affordable community. I would rank it again as my top choice if I had to do it all over. I did not interivew at WVU so I am no help with that. Good luck and hang in there. It is a stressful time, but the pain will be over soon. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

thank you very much for the information

I am a second year at WVU and can attest to it being a program that's pretty similar to what SIU sounds like. Morgantown is approx Springfield's size, but does have the actual University here. There is quite an active downtown scene that is actually growing as more restaurants and a wider array of types of businesses are springing up.
The program itself carries three residents per year, with a spot for matching in an extra research position now open. That spot is a recent addition and it has both "plug and play" projects waiting as well as an incredible amount of flexibility to start your own - so by no means are you pigeonholed. During that year you take no call and are allowed to moonlight at local ERs.
As for non-research matching residents the opportunity to participate is quite ample. Many attending have projects they would like to see get done and are willing to really help you out. With the program's trend of hiring more faculty that opportunity get better. Recently our sports guy, from Fort Bragg, via Duke, asked one of the residents to review a series of parachute jumping injuries. Research, however, is by no means forced upon the residents.
Our "new" chairman of about three years has tremendously strenghthened the program and in addition to hiring more faculty has expanded the department and takes a great interest in both resident training and education. Our experience leaves us easily prepared to start general orthopaedics directly out of residency. We are a level one trauma center that gets generally busy during the summer (you'll never see so many ATV or coal mining accidents in your life), but calms down during winter time and holidays are actually pretty good as the students leave town. In addition to a strong trauma experience, we get excellent spine, sports, and hand training. Six months of your second year is spent at a private institution next door to give you a good fell of private practice.
The residents are also a tight group that gets along well with each other. We play in summer softball and soccer leagues, and when someone isn't too lazy winter basketball. In addition, it is not uncommon to have a large group go to football/basketball games, or simply go out to grab dinner. Lastly, as with most programs, and I like the way orthooverhaul said this, we get mostly whatever fellowship we want in all subspecialties. I did not interview at SIU so I too can't speak for them, but I'm quite happy here and feel our training is well rounded and on par with all other programs I'm familiar with.

thanks for the additional info