The match saga comes to a close...
Undergrad- private school, 3.6/28, Division I athlete
Medical School- Home state school (37th in primary care, 45th in research if anyone cares)
Preclinical- H/HP/P system: All HP except for P in micro
Clinical-
3rd year: Honors in Peds, Medicine, Neuro, Ortho elective in musculoskeletal oncology; High pass in family medicine, psych, OB/GYN, Anesthesia; Pass in surgery
4th year- Honors on 2 Ortho aways, elective with private ortho guy, and anatomy elective; HP at my home ortho program and in ER
Top 25% of class overall
Step 1- 229
Step 2- 221 (after interviews)
Research- 3 sports med projects, 1 oncology case report
Pubs- poster presentation at AAOS next week but no publications yet, submitting 2-3 papers this month when I get them finished.
AOA- Negative GhostRider the pattern is full
Aways- UT-Memphis/Campbell Clinic, Mayo Clinic
LOR- went with the "more the better" approach. Had 7 in total: one from home musc-onc rotation, one cosigned by home program's PD and chairman (a great way to circumvent not knowing the chair very well, get someone who you worked closely with to write you a good letter, have the chair read and cosign it, and submit it as your chairman's letter), three from my two aways (one from editor-in-chief of JAAOS, another from UT-Memphis PD), two from private ortho docs, one that I shadowed in undergrad and one that I did research with. Way more than I needed, but assigned them regionally and by program type (i.e. Mayo letter to Midwest programs, Campbell Clinic letter to Southern program, private doc letters to community programs). Did I overanalyze this? Perhaps...
Applied to 51 programs. Offered 15 interviews. Turned down Hamot and Kansas due to conflicts with other interviews. Cancelled Orlando at end of interview season.
Went on 12 interviews and ranked in this order: UT-Memphis/Campbell Clinic, Medical College of Wisc., Mayo Clinic, Beaumont, Case Western, Cincinnati, Summa, IU, Medical University of Ohio, West Virginia, Atlanta Medical Center, Geisinger.
Matched at No. 1 UT-Memphis/Campbell Clinic!!! Would have been very happy anywhere in the top 5.
Extremely excited, Almost cried like a little girl when I got the letter. Ready to become a Southerner. I'm trying to incorporate y'all, sir, and ma'am into my vocabulary...maybe I'll have grits for breakfast.
I realize this is turning into a book, but here are my impressions of the programs I went to.
UT-Memphis- Obviously, this was my favorite. Very deep in all subspecialties, great conferences, residents are the best I found, operative training is outstanding. Most importantly, I saw their residents at conferences and they were so intelligent, confident, and well-spoken about Orthopaedics that I want to be like that in five years. PD Dr. Azar is a great guy. Support structure is great...they really take care of their people.
MCW- Very cool city. Hospital is all in one place in west suburb area with nice family oriented neighborhoods nearby. Really liked the residents and thought it was a group I'd fit in well with.
Mayo- Again, extremely well rounded and deep in all subspecialty areas. If you want to do joints, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better place. Facilities are amazing. Teaching was awesome...their people leave there really knowing their stuff. Operative experience seems variable as many cases are very complex and over a resident's head. Fellows are not a problem, they have separate services and don't conflict with residents for cases (this criticism of Mayo is overplayed in my opinion). Endless research opportunities. Didn't get the same close-knit feel with the residents that I did other places.
Beaumont- The best community program I interviewed at. Was really surprised by the volume...there is much more surgery than the residents can cover. Amazing facilities. Not a fan of Detroit, but Royal Oak seemed nice. Ended up way higher on the list than I'd planned.
Case- Thought this was great training at a place that seems to have a lot of pride. I was turned off a bit by their mantra, "Where you train in Orthopaedics is who you are in Orthopaedics," that they repeated all day. I like a city with a cool downtown and thought downtown Cleveland that I saw was dumpy.
Cincy- Like the location and city. Seem to get really killed on their Peds and Trauma. Residents talked a lot about "getting killed during 2nd year" which sort of turned me off. I'm sure this happens everywhere, just seemed to be a point of emphasis that was sort of weird. Stern is a great program director. Their guys get great fellowships because of him.
Summa- Very efficient, well-run community program. PD was a cool guy, don't remember his last name because the resident I was with called him Scott (nice to be on a first-name basis with the chairman). Have 8+ Ortho-dedicated ORs every day with lots of volume. Don't want to live in Akron, neither does the wife.
IU- My home program. Lots of turnover right now, though I think Dr. Anglen, the new chair, will get it going again. Lost 3 peds guys and another trauma staff, which is a blow to the educational experience,but they just hired a foot and ankle guy, new peds guys, and are looking for a spine guy. Indy is awesome, very underrated as a city, housing is inexpensive. May be a very different program in a couple years.
MUO- decent program with nice people, don't want to live in Toledo. Ebraheim, their PD, is eccentric, but a real resident advocate.
WVU- program on the way up with Dr. Emery at the helm. Morgantown is a cool college town, but it's still in WV. Great if you like that part of the country and do a lot of outdoor activities.
AMC- decent community program, don't want to live in Atlanta. Lots of traffic and expensive.
Geisinger- decent community program, in the middle of freaking nowhere. Sweet moonlighting setup and nice lifestyle.
My advice to underclassmen: rotate where you think you want to go. PD at Campbell Clinic told me straight up that most of their residents are AOA and I'm not, but since I rotated there and did well, I'd get an interview and a serious look. Don't think I'd have matched or maybe even interviewed there without the rotation. Doesn't mean you can't match there if you're not AOA and don't rotate there, but obviously it's more of an uphill battle.
-Do research if you find something interesting, and know it cold. Everyone will ask about it and talk about it on interviews. Shows you have more interest in Ortho than the average applicant.
-Have fun! So many people post on here that are tired of the process. But it's really a fun challenge and if you enjoy yourself and get to know people, it can be a really enjoyable process.
Congrats to everybody, sorry about the long post, and if anyone else is going to UT-Memphis, see you in July!
