I only interviewed there, so my advice probably doesn't carry a ton of weight, but I would like to offset the negativity from your friend. When I interviewed there the residents were very nice and down to earth. Met a bunch and most seemed on the happier side of the spectrum. Seemed fairly close-knit. Also, the staff I met were a relatively young, energetric, and positive group overall. Based on interviews, I woud have a hard time imagining any of them being difficult to work with. I can see a few being demanding on the research side, as they had some relatively high-end research going on (esp. spine and tumor), but but that's expected if you want to put out quality work. Lastly, it seemed like a "blue-collar" atmosphere based on discussions wiuth residents, with average to above-average hands-on exposure. On a sidenote, I've worked with two attendings who were Syracuse grads... both were laidback and personable, as well as smart and good in the OR. Overall, I don't know how to rectify my opinion with your friend's comments. Maybe as a non-ortho applicant, unless he's applying to a surgical specialty, his perceptions might be skewed. Or maybe they just put on a very good face for interview day. One way or the other, I'd caution you to take anybody's opinion but your own too seriously. Different residents want different things in a training program and mesh well with different personalities. Two equivalent programs with different personalities could each be the perfect match for one resident and a horrible match for another. Hence. the rotation nd interview process. Which brings up another point. Be yourself when you interview and rotate, especially when hanging out with residents. If you force yourself to fit in when rotating or interviewing, you are only fooling yourself and the program, and that will end badly if you end up matching there... its hard to keep up a mask for five years. You are better off being yourself and seeing how you fit as such, and avoiding any post-match surprises.

I'm a resident at Syracuse and I can't imagine who would say we don't operate here. This is a great program for a number of reasons.
1) operative experience is great - as a PGY2 you do 3 months at our private hospitals where the attendings let you do the cases. It just gets better after that. As a 3 it's all operative. It is always just you an the attending. The only time there is another resident in the room is at the VA, where half of the time the attending doesn't scrub. You learn to operate here really well - most of the attendings are fairly hands off without leaving you hang too much. Trauma is an excellent rotation as the chief - you do tons of cases. The pgy2 year in the ED is a little rough, but you really learn how to manage fractures.
2) academics - we have daily 7am conference and once a week grand rounds.
3) well rounded - we have tumor, foot/ankle, peds. We don't travel to any far away hospitals.
4) the attendings are all pretty cool, our tumor guy is the best - Dr. Damron, he literally wrote the book on tumor.
5) a surprisingly great location - on a resident's salary I bought a house and a car. tons of outdoor stuff, and a good downtown with bars/restaurants...
overall I think this is an excellent program and I feel adequately prepared for an ortho career