I've been reading this site for a while and have talked to many people about this, heres what I've reached as far as figuring out which programs are the best.
There is no way to broadly rank the programs.
Just in case this thread gets dug up in the future, it bears repeating:
There is no way to broadly rank the programs.
That being said, figure out where you want to be in 10+ years and go for programs that will help get you there. Do you want to be in private practice in the south? Go somewhere where they operate, a lot. Do you want to do subspecialize? Go somewhere where residents often go into fellowship. Do you want to go into academics? Go somewhere with big named attendings and start/continue building your connections (Here's where HSS fits in). Do you want to show off and expect jaws, and panties, to drop when you drop your program's name? Don't go to HSS. Harvard, Stanford, and even Dartmouth would probably serve you better there. Do you want to do research? You get the drill.
Here are a couple of facts, straight out.
-Just about all residents should be adeq. trained when they finish residency.
-Not all residents operate the same amount.
-Not all residents are equally involved in research and publishing.
-Not all residents have the same exposure to the varying fields of orthopaedics.
-Not all residents go into fellowship (though most do from what I've seen)
And remember, don't be ashamed of what you want.
If you want a fancy name, thats ok. Just recognize it early and plan accordingly. If thats important to you, which isn't bad necessarily, then rankings are again useless because Stanford is a lot lower on all those lists than UW, but I guarantee it'll impress your parents, that little brunette at the bar you'll end up marrying, and the nurse you'll cheat on her with a lot more than ol' UW.
Conversely, if you want to operate a lot, don't feel bad about ranking such a program higher than a fancy named one. I go to an Ivy now, do you think I would get props from classmates for matching at Loyola, UCSD, UTSW... Maybe. Would it compare to that given to classmates ending up at HSS, Harvard, Columbia? No. But thats the price you pay for going where you feel is best for you.
After you figure out what you want then you can play the name game, sorting through those programs, and figure out where you want to go. And for the sake of easing someone's life down the line, if you think you want to go into academics, operating part time and doing research/teaching, then its safe to say that you can come onto this site, read threads on the "top programs", and go to one of those.
If the US News rankings are made for anyone its for patients, not us. I would hope that no one in medicine would turn to a 10pm news special or Time magazine to learn our profession. By this point, you should know where, and who, to go for the information you need. And I am by no means that person. I'm just a guy with an opinion, and I hope I at least gave you something else to consider.
