Suggestions on Ortho Programs?

Programs that stood out to me when I interviewed that meet your criteria include Brown, Harvard, Irvine, U Penn, and HJD.

Some that meet your criteria, but not geographically are University of Iowa, University of Rochester, University of Michigan, and Loyola.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate them. I am applying to most of those programs, other than Harvard. I have heard a lot of bad things about them recently in regards to malignancy and teaching.

hey, i'm not telling you where to apply, as i am sure you'll match with your stats, but do not let rumors of malignancy prevent you from applying to harvard. i did a sub-i, and i was uniformly impressed with the quality of teaching and how great the residents were (not pretentious in the least.) i did hear buzz about some faculty being difficult, but everyone i had a chance to work with was awesome. i don't know if the rumors are started by people trying to deter other apps, or people who don't like to work hard (because they do, at least at mgh) or people that are just thin-skinned, but i found the program to be outstanding.

... just an alternative perspective.

3 programs that stood out most for me that fit many of your criteria and, most importantly for me, seemed to have the happiest residents (or maybe just the most similar to me) were Columbia, Univ Washington, and UPenn. there were the 3 were i felt i just clicked on interview day and ultimately ranked them in order of the city i preferred to live in (and my fiancee's opinion) and ended up with NYC>Seattle>Philly. I was also extremely impressed with the strength of Wash U and Harvard, but would say the residents didn't seem as happy as the previous 3 i mentioned and some at Harvard seemed beat down (i.e. falling asleep during presentations). nonetheless, i ranked harvard and wash u #3&4 ahead of upenn b/c my fiancee really didn't like philly. other programs i really liked and would seem to fit you criteria, but are in less desirable locations are Univ Wisconsin, Univ of MI, and Case Western.

you never really know until you visit the place how much you will like it. i thought columbia and Univ Wash would be in the bottom half of my top 10, but ended up 1,2. on the other hand, i thought i would love Pitt from what I heard, but really wasn't that impressed after the interview. the interview seemed like "smoke and mirrors" to me, but don't get me wrong, it is a very well regarded academic program and i am sure you can't go wrong with Pitt.

just go to as many interviews as possible and don't rule anything out unless of course you have conflicts and have to choose. everyone has different opinions and priorities. the great thing is there are so many great programs out there.

If you would consider the MidWest, I would suggest Univ. of Wisconsin. Great town, great residents, and a well balanced program. I was very happy there and the program is even better now with the addition of several new staff.

If you are considering the Great Lakes Region, I would add the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine programs at SUMMA Health System and Akron General Medical Center. These are both "semi-academic" programs with excellent reputations. Residents from both institutions have scored extrmely well on the in-training and have attained excellent fellowship appointments. Basically, both places have what you're looking for in your list...plus there are no gaps in attending staff. Attedning staff overlaps at both hospitals and there are at least 2 fellowship trained orthopaedic surgeons in every field with more than two in most specialties (i.e 6 peds ortho, 6 hand surgeons, 5 spine, 3 shoulder).