I can only speak about the programs I know. However every program in Texas will give you a great training. Also rotating will help you at any program.

UT-Houston is a program in transition. They have a new chair and alot of the staff have left in the past couple of years. With that said, I havent seen a program in the nation so far that offers as early and significant operative experience as Houston. The residents are crazy smart, and they are more competent than any other residents I've seen. The med center is a HUGE plus and UT is planning on getting ortho subspecialty help from The Methodist hospital, which is full of huge names. Will be a great program soon.

UTSW - Overall a great program, my impression there was that no one liked the new chair. He seemed nice enough, but even the attendings would bad mouth him behind closed doors. Kind of short in staff also(bringing in a podiatrist for Foot and ankle....Yikes), but has some huge names that will get you fellowships. Its all Trauma, trauma and more trauma. The residents are real cool, but every one seemed stress. Early operative experience but more hand holding by the attendings than Houston. Dallas is a Plus.

Thats all for now, hope this helps.

The JPS program has a great local reputation and the residents get early operative experience. They have very high caseloads and are competent in all areas of general orthopedics. Their children's hospital and caseload there is second to none as there are 7 full time faculty and only 2 residents there each month--so the residents jump from room to room all day doing cases. Ft. Worth is a nice city, but the hospital is in a shady part of the town. It's an older facility, but they're building on, adding a few more ORs, and a regular cafeteria (right now it's a little window ordering booth). Pluses and minuses, but very friendly faculty and residents.

I am currently a resident at Baylor. I think that overall it is a strong program but that like every program there are strengths and weaknesses. There are earlier threads that suggest Baylor residents do not help each other out. I can assure you that is not the case and there is camaraderie between us.

Houston is a city of 4 million with only 8 residents (5 Baylor, 3 UT-Houston, and 5 in Galveston) The medical center is huge and has plenty of opportunity.

Baylor covers the larger county hospital (ben taub) and the VA which provide most of our autonomous experience. We also cover Texas Children's, the largest pediatric hospital in the area. By far, you will be comfortable with most trauma bread/butter cases when you finish residency (hips/ankles/tibia/femur/forearm/wrist).

The VA provides you with a great arthroplasty experience to refine what you learned on your actual third year Joints rotation (in which there are three great attendings that you work with).

Sports used to be a weakness of the program in that fellows took the majority of the case load. On the sports rotation now, the resident has a room to him/herself where you post knee/shoulder scopes at the VA two days a week. Granted, they are not glorious cases on NFL players but scoping a knee and shoulder and even doing a basic RTC tear will not be difficult.

Our spine experience is adequate as well. Deformity stuff on TCH/Shrine rotations. Trauma/Infection at BTGH and probably not as much elective stuff as you would like but you even get this on your subspecialty rotation. Most importantly, when it comes to fellowship, we have matched well in spine. Our most recent matches in spine are to Emory and Jefferson, both great places to further spine experience.

Overall, I feel that even though most residents do a fellowship, it is because Houston, once you are out, is a competitive place (the medical center then becomes a slight enemy) and you need a fellowship and a niche just to get a steady referral base. I think you could survive just fine if you went general though.

Overall, I've been happy with my experience so far. Hopefully this helps.

Any input on UT-MB? I will be interviewing there, but am not sure what the strengths and weaknesses of that program are.

Thanks

Hope this isn't too late for you, but here's some info on UTMB
Big selling points-
They operate at the Criminal Justice Dept, so they have a good population to learn on, and they operate early and often there
Call schedule is very easy, Q8-10 even early on (no joke!) I've never heard of anything like that. This could be a double edged sword depending on what you're looking for.
If you like being by the ocean to go sailing, fishing, surfing, etc, you're right on the water and there's free time to do so
Dept pays for just about every book known to man-for EACH resident

The chair (Dr Lindsey) came from Baylor a few years back and is very dedicated to his residents and is really working to build the program. He is well-known and definitely has the name to do so.

-OR