tough year for orthopedics

17 out of 20 matched from my school.

We were 7/10 at my program. Is it getting harder? I would say so based on the fact that state programs are increasing their medical school admissions faster than residency programs are increasing their numbers. For instance, in the state of Texas, the programs have been increased 10% and are looking at more increases. A recent report stated that Texas needs to increase its admissions by another 600 students. I really think this is where the problem is... We'll see how the rectify the situation, but right now there are more students being admitted and there hasn't been a proportional increase in residency positions, accounting for a "more competitive" applicant field

Wow there where 20 ortho applicants in one class.

At my school we matched 5 of 6. This is the first year since Ihave been here that all the applicants did not match in ortho. I am from solid meds school and rock solid ortho program. Don't know if it is any harder than before, just have to work hard and bring that A game, than let the pieces fall where they may.

The reason I think programs are admitting more is the need for more primary care physicians. Students will need to realize that all sub-specialties will be getting harder due to increase # of applicants. My school is looking to double in size in the next 5-6 years.
For medicine I think it is good to have more PCPs coming out of medical school. IM and FP are good fields and I think patients overall get better care than the patients having to see an NP or PA (not a slam on these fields).

my class is already close to 300 a year so that is why we had 20 applicatants but still there are only 6 spots in our state and only 3 stayed in state.

we matched 8/9 in a class of about 170. only one of these stayed in-state (and there are quite a few spots in michigan.)

To reiterate what some have already said, the AAMC has asked ALL medical schools to increase class sizes by 15-20% within five years (AAMC asked medical school to start doing this with last years classes). While all schools might not accomplish this, most have already increased their matriculation numbers. Obviously there is a lag between the new larger first classes and the increased number of applicants for residency(ie. exactly four years), so I don't know if this phenomenon can account for the "increased competitiveness" this year, as the first year of larger class sizes are only up and coming MS2's. Just my 2 cents.

Here is an article from NRMP that shows only 200 additional US students were in the ERAS match this year. So I think my point is valid, but I will say in two or three years with a much larger US applicant pool the competitiveness will be significantly increased.


Washington, D.C., March 15, 2007 - Today, more than 15,000 U.S. medical school seniors will participate in "Match Day" ceremonies nationwide to learn where they will spend their years of residency training following graduation. The record number of seniors applying for residencies through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) this year, nearly 200 more than in 2006, reflects recent increases in medical school enrollment.

Results from the 2007 Match also showed a significant increase (9 percent) in the number of participants who are graduates of non-U.S. medical schools.

Despite increases in the number of international medical graduates (IMGs) applying to U.S. residency programs through the Match, U.S. medical school seniors were more likely than other applicants to successfully match to a residency position of their choice. The success rate for U.S. students, about 94 percent, has remained unchanged for the past 25 years. Forty-five to 50 percent of IMGs typically match to a residency position.

616 ortho spots in the US, 1084(about) US medical grads applying, another 256(about) foreign medical grads applying. The number of applicants has been steadily climbing over the past five years. Your dean's office should have this information available; a match summary is published each year by ERAS/NRMP and is available to all medical schools.

Considering how in the 2005 Match there were 704 US Seniors and 155 "all others" (US grads, fmgs, imgs), I'd say this year's match was considerably more competitive...

Am I missing something here?

If Tboneski's numbers are right, there were 2.175 applicants per position this year, compared to 1.408 applicants per spot in 2005. That's a significant increase in 2 years (481 additional applicants for 6 additional spots). The data is not available currently on the NRMP's website, so there is no way to confirm it unless the dean's offices have the information

Can anyone verify those numbers?

I think you guys are missing the main point. Ortho typically skims the cream off the top. I dont care if half of all med students applied to ortho, only the best really have a shot.

The match and speciality choices have to be carefully planned. You have to consider .....am I really a contender or a mere dreamer.....so if every med school increases its admissions by 10%....are these really contenders? or are we just lowering the bar so we can have more players......so you have to look at more than just raw numbers when making these alligations....I agree that we should increase admissions in US med schools....we are giving really good jobs to people who are not often even US citizens....I dont want to sound like a biggot...but I think we could benefit by keeping US grads and US citizens in these jobs rather than filling all the unmatched spots with IMGs......

I can't verify, but I can tell you that at least half the places I interviewed at didn't follow the tradional "interview 10-15 for every spot" rule.

especially when you have places like brown that interviewed over 100 for 6 spots this year...

According to ERAS, of the 616 positions offered this year, 578 were filled by US seniors. If the numbers posted in this thread are right and there were 1084 US seniors who applied this year, the match rate for US seniors was 53%. That's way lower than last year....I know this past match was tough, but was it really that tough?

holy sh*t!

i doubt 53% is accurate, and i dont think its wise to scare people with these numbers.

Go to Wash U's specialty site:

I used this site as a medical student for getting some stats on specialties, in particular ortho. They extrapolate their data from the NRMP.

According to them:
2007 2006 2005 2004
Categorical positions available for U.S. Seniors 616 615 610 589
% U.S. Seniors matched* 82 84 78 *79
# Unfilled Categorical/ Advanced Positions 2 6 5 1
#Unmatched U.S. seniors 126 101 148 148

If you believe this, then the numbers aren't that bad for getting into ortho, and certainly gave me a little relief unlike this ultra intimidating forum. I'm not sure where the numbers came from for the previous posts. If you add matched and unmatched together you get 742 applicants for 2007. Perhaps, there are a ton of applicants that throw ortho into their ranklist, and end up matching into something else. If you count the numbers of applicants that listed at least one ortho program on their ranklist and then matched into something else, certainly this would increase the overall number of applicants, but not get counted as unmatched, and this may account for the discrepency.

The previous years 2001, 2002, and 2003 were also all between 75-85% match rate. These numbers are more in line with what I personally saw in my match, and with the fact that most schools end up matching between 50 and 100% of the ortho applicants (coindidence the average of 50 and 100 is 75%? I think not!)

In any case, don't sweat the numbers, the bottom line ortho is competative- do well in school/tests, try to impress on interviews, and then just cross your fingers.