2008 Rank Order/Match List

so that's it for this year's thread huh?

Another addition for those with more near average stats
Med school: NE top 20 school
Preclinical: Pass in important classes, honors in a few non-important
3rd year: Honors in Surgery, rest HP
4th year: 3/3 ortho honors
AOA: No
Step 1: 234
Step 2: 238 (got back in Feb)
Research: 3 projects, 1 first author pub submitted after match, 2 poster presentations/abstracts
Extracurriculars: intramurals, bar hopping

Aways:
Orlando Regional - I loved the program, fun residents, great early operative experience, good didactics, fun city.

Ochsner Clinic - Also a great program to rotate, faculty and residents loved to teach, good operative experience. New Orleans is a blast.

Applied to: 47
Interviews offered: 8
Interviews made: 7
ROL: 7

Unordered thoughts:

Orlando/Ochsner - noted above

Pitt (5 and 6 yr)- Terrific program, operative experience more top heavy but plenty of cases to go around. Residents are great guys, have a good time in and out of the hospital.

Atlanta Medical Center - Pre-interview dinner showed that the residents definitely know how to kick back. Great operative experience as fas as I could tell. Plenty of traffic in atlanta, but tons of stuff to do

Greenville - Terrific community program, will continue to get bigger/better with Stedman/Hawkins doing stuff there. I loved Greenville and the laid back feel of the city.

Allegheny General - Huge operative experience, interested faculty, good residents. Older hospital but appears to have all you need. A little bit of good natured pimping during the interview.

Palmetto Healthcare/Columbia,SC - Unable to make the interview day I was assigned.

Overall I was very impressed by the community programs and loved the opportunity to operate early coupled with a more laid-back family/fraternity type feel. Matched at my #1 and feel that I would have slipped pretty far down my list or not matched if I hadn't worked hard and impressed during aways. You can match with fewer honors/non-AOA/avg. board scores, but aways will be a major asset. Good luck to all!

Med school: top 10 NE
Preclinical: Pass
Clinical: Mostly H
Ortho: H on 3 ortho sub-Is
Step I 250s, Step II Not Available
Research: Decent number of ortho pubs

Aways: Stanford, Harvard

Apps: 25
Offers: 22
Interviews made: 10

Interviewed at:
Duke, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, HJD, Wash U, Stanford, Penn, Georgetown

Harvard - Rotated here and loved it from day 1. The bottom line is that this place has an unrivaled tradition and everything that comes with it: world class attendings and teachers, tremendous connections, unlimited resources, and some of the best training on the planet. Harvard has an incredible combination of the big names that write all the books and the talented young guns that are changing the game. Nice mix of the typical patients that just need the typical primary procedure in addition to the patients that failed after 3 previous procedures and are now flying in from XXX to see Warner, Gill, Ring, Rubash, Wood, Bono, Thornhill, etc. (I could go on forever) Despite being ingrained in rich history, the department is incredibly attentive and responsive to resident feedback, often fine-tuning the program to make the most of the resident experience. HCORP is large and seems much akin to being in a fraternity/sorority. The residents are brilliant and really friendly. As for where the residents go for fellowship… you guessed it, wherever the heck they want.

Duke –The "southern slam" is a breakfast special at Denny’s restaurant, but its also one of the best programs in the country nestled in Durham, NC. Great faculty and teachers. If you like the idea of walking out of a Starbucks on 5th Ave. looking across the street, and seeing another Starbucks, Duke aint for you; if however, you’re into southern hospitality, ancillary staff and patients that actually respect and appreciate physicians, and you also have a strange fascination with wearing semi-transparent white pants around in your free time, this is the place. In all seriousness, Duke is a special place and I definitely would have been ecstatic to end up there as well. Words to the wise: if you decide you really like Duke, take a second look and/or let them know how you feel. Otherwise, don’t even bother putting them on your match list.

Yale – Yale may be one of the best kept secrets in orthopaedic training. Don’t tell anyone you heard this from me, but Yale is one of the best programs in the country. Average size program with incredible young faculty. Here’s the kicker: hardly any fellows (just two in spine). You get the operative experience of a community program with the Ivy League rep. Close group of residents that are all awesome. New Haven gets a bad rap, but its a pretty nice small city that’s affordable. Tons of research time. Bottom line is Yale turns out some of the best residents in the country that get some of the best fellowships in the country… and the residents have a good time doing it. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wash U – What happens when you hire a brilliant chair and give him tons of money to recruit some of the best orthopedic surgeons from all over the states? Wash U happens. Strong in every field with tremendous facilities. St. Louis was kind of a downer for me, but for the Midwesterners, what could be better. For some reason, many of us medical students on the coasts don’t really have an appreciation for this place, but if you ask your attendings to name some of the “best programs in the country”, Wash U will undoubtedly be on their list.

HJD – Whether you’re aiming to fix joint disease or learn special surgery, you can do it in New York. HJD and HSS are the big programs in the city and both obviously have great reputations. Zuckerman is the man and runs HJD as though he were the general of an army. Loved Zuckerman and loved his army of residents. Any program that asks me during the interview to liken myself to an alcoholic beverage and play leap frog while getting pimped on “which actress is hotter?” certainly has my vote.

Brown – This program likely turns out the best surgeons in the country, but it takes them an extra year to do it. If youre interested in trauma and don’t mind the extra year of being a junior attending, Brown is a pretty sweet program. Nothing bad to say about this place, but just didn’t love the city.

Matched at #1 Harvard

Two invaluable pieces of advice:

1) There is no one best program. There is only the best program for you. There is a reason this process is called the “match”; each applicant has his/her strengths and weaknesses and each program has its own strengths and weaknesses and the most successful relationships are those in which the applicant and program are well “matched”.

2) People are quick to criticize competitive programs. Lebron cant shoot. A-Rod is overpayed. Tebow is all hype. Its all the same. If you want to find out what a program is really like, go and see for yourself.

I'm also posting for the average or even below average applicant. Average can be a little misleading because usually people mean their Step scores or AOA status. These are important and from what I found Step 1 scores will keep you out of many interviews simply b/c of screening purposes. However, once you attain an interview if you have improved on Step 2, which I suggest you do if Step 1 was low, then they do not really mention it much. I only had one negative comment about Step 1 while interviewing and most of the programs had more to say about the improvement than anything else. So here are my "average" stats

Med school: Southeast avg public program w/ above average reputation of producing students that will be good residents in all specialties
Preclinical: No honors @ our school but in top quarter of class
3rd year: once again no honors @ our school but in top twenty w/ good comments on evaluations
4th year: did very well on my two aways in regards to grades on also did very well at home program
AOA: nope
Step 1: below 210
Step 2: above 250
Research: 3 projects (two ortho and one pediatric surgery) w/ one poster presentation and in publication process of which I was PI and 1st author (pediatric sx research)
Extracurriculars: the usual plus romanian mission trip after 1st year and j.v. football coach during 2nd year, also collegiate athlete

Aways:
Univ. of Arkansas - great group of residents, strong operative experience, good didactics, overall good staff though had just lost great hand attending and not very strong spine (though neither very important in my decision), surprisingly good city

UAB - mixed group of residents, seem to have an agenda over the past few years w/ a set mixture wanted yearly, very strong staff w/ a large number of attendings in each specialty and adding more, somewhat of a divide felt b/w the attendings secondary to recent chairman change, difficult to get interview unless you rotate though possible

Applied to: over 50 secondary to Step 1 score
Interviews offered: 10
Interviews made: 6
ROL: 6

I want to say that I like many others on here believe that personal fit is the most important thing in ranking your list. I also believe it is the most important thing in the programs rank list. Also, as common sense dictates, you need to know what you want to do after residency. My list was based not only on personal fit but also the surgical strength of the chiefs @ the different programs. There is a difference and anyone that says otherwise is probably no being honest. Though I believe you will receive good training at most programs (at least the ones I saw or interviewed with), some are better than others.
That being said, I did match at my #1. I also believe I could have matched at one or two other places on my list though who knows.
If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me and good luck.

Midwest School Known for primary care
Previous HealthCare background
Step 1: 219
Step 2: 237
AOA- Junior Year & vice-president
Research & applied for publication
Presented Research at International Conference
Superior(A) in all rotations except Surgery (High Sat =

Applied to 35
Offered 13
Attended 12
Ranked 12 (one place ranked twice for 5 & 6 year program & one program not ranked)

Here are the programs I interviewed at in the order I went on the interviews.

1 KU- good program & liked the residents a lot; only drawback is no private practice experience and didn't like the whole teams because you weren't one-on-one with attendings. Didn't like not doing the same things/service for 3 months. Take primary call as 1-3. Great attendings and good to learn from. Lot of residents coming out and doing sports and lot going to same places (Cincinnati & Minneapolis), which concerned me. Also not as many attendings to learn from vs. other programs.

2. Carolinas Medical Center - Unbelievable program - Community program, but more academic than academic programs; unbelievable experience and can operate on anything when done. Charlotte is great city and attendings are great. Get private practice experience.

3. Duke - Liked the program, but although they said that they operate from year 2 on as 1st assist, had heard they didn't. Very academic; Great place to go if you want to go into academia or research. Not a fan of white pants on intern year.

4. Mizzou - Good growing program. Has gone from 2 attendings to 23 in 3 years. Good young attendings but currently, have trouble handing over the knife. Didn't truly mesh with the residents. Also is in Columbia (not lot to do) and question the amount of Trauma they get.

5. UT - Memphis - Great high caliber program. Very/Very busy when on trauma, but rest is not too bad. Start in OR early and sometimes with minimal supervision (just not my style). Not a fan of the Memphis crime!

6. Southern Illinois - Nice program with good lifestyle, but is in Springfield, IL (not much to do either), and question amount of trauma also. Have a night float system which alleviates lot of call (nice)

7. Medical College of Georgia - Program is having its problems. Lost program director and majority of their staff this past year. However, the residents all loved their experience. If ship is righted, will probably be a good program.

8. Greenville Hospital System/U of South Carolina - Great program with private practice and academic feel. Association with Steadman-Hawkins. One on one with attendings. Good residents and lot married. Attendings are lplentifull (20+) and laid back. City is cool with plenty to do and cost of living is low. See all rotations ( maybe not tumor) by end of 3rd year to be able to make good decision on fellowship. Great peds opportunity as the hospital adjoins with Shriners Hospital ( where CMC, & Duke ortho residents go for their peds ). Best interview of any program I interviewed at.

9. Medical College of Wisconsin - Nice program and in cool city (Milwaukee). Lots to do. Older residents were nice and open, but the younger ones were less social. Cold interview (less personal than any other) Great program, but down farther on rank list due to cold interview.

10. Nebraska - Good program. Gets private practice rotations also. Bad things are lacking in official sports until 4th year and as a 5th year on joints service, you retract the whole 3 months. So you never really get a true joints rotation (Department chair is joints guy and won't change). Overall good teaching.

11. U of Florida - Gainesville - Awesome program- Great outpatient facility and great benefits. Nice weather and attendings are awesome and lifestyle isn't horrible. Have night float system also. Got a great vibe from the program, but if interested, they like to take rotators.

12. St. Louis University - Only program I didn't rank- Totally unimpressed by the lack of professionalism and just downright arrogant attitude of residents in program. Got hazed by residents the night before at social gathering (I'm sure the residents are good, but it left a bad taste in my mouth). Also 6 year program without fellowship training. Just extra year to take call and do research for them. No thanks!!


Rank Order in no particialar oder
(#1-6): KU, CMC, Souther Illinois, Greenville Hospital System/ U of S. Carolina, MC of Wisconsin, U of Florida
(#7-12): Duke, UT-Memphis, Mizzou, MC of Georgia, Neraska, Mizzou -6yr
Not ranked : SLU

Matched at Greenville Hospital System/U of South Carolina. I am pumped. It is a great overall program. It will be a great experience and my wife and family are excited to move there. The residents are all great and have already contacted me to meet and help in any way they can.

My list was based on a few things: Program, Cost of Living, Best for my wife, Best for my kids, Perks (health insurance coverage, free food ($ I don't have to spend), conferences, etc.), Friendliness of attendings/residents, Lifestyle (how much I'll get to see my family) & Overall feel.

Also, eventhough step 1 is very important, there are ways around it. Namely, taking step 2 early AND improving significantly. This can prove that it was fluke that step 1 went wrong when everything else points to a great academic career.

Like has been posted before, everyone has their own way to deciding and in the end it is what is best for you! I have a buddy who matched at SLU and is very excited about it. Different Strokes for different folks!!!

Any questions, please feel free to pm me.

no message

That last post by Ifish2 points to the undeniable fact that personality, willingness to work REALLY hard and demonstrate teamwork on sub-I's, ability to play well with others, and of course interview strong, are huge assets in this process; I know several people who trumped "average" scores and resumes just because they are great people; they're about to begin their residencies in solid programs in desirable locations. So, yeah, don't lose heart if you aren't golden on paper. However, I think that last post is a little off target in how much he/she minimizes the importance of the traditional numbers/achievements thing. Sure, junior park ranger on the resume is probably stretching it, but I was a little blown away by how often I ran into people on the trail who had done some pretty amazing things--very humbling. I was also humbled by the fact that there is always some applicant sitting at your table in between interviews who turned out to have authored 6 papers in JBJS and had 260+ board scores, and despite that actually seemed like a nice well-adjusted person. Those people are out there in force and make up a pretty high percentage of the applicant pool in my experience. Perhaps it reflected the particular programs I visited, the regions, whatever. The point I want to make is that while personality and attitude is huge, it would be doing yourself a disservice to fool yourself into thinking that this process is less competitive than it is and that a 205 step I is not such a big deal. If you look really average on paper something else better pop out when you show up in person. For every Ifish2 out there who's well on his way in a great program, there are many many more unpublished, below average test takers, who never sat on the throne of any school clubs, but who are nevertheless really nice people, who are currently looking at prelim surgery years or research or whatever. It's frustrating but true. Finally, in looking back over all the prior postings here it doesn't seem to me that all these posts are rotten with arrogance as just mentioned above. People seem pretty candid. If anything I wonder why all the so-called "typical" applicants who probably also fixated on this site during this process last year don't feel obligated to contribute their own experiences in the interview and match process. It hardly seems the fault of the accused "arrogant" applicants that they're the only ones posting. I think if you found this orthogate thing helpful then kick down and contribute. It will only help make the application landscape more representative and thereby more helpful.

You only rank places you've interviewed at, is that correct?

Tought this would be a good template for everyone to use to say where they matched

This is to show a little balance to the big guns posted earlier.

Med School: Strong public school in the West
Grades: Scattered Honors throughout, class ranking average
Boards: 224 Step I: 242 Step II (took it early and had it available) this definitely helped me and it was brought up in most interviews
Research: 1 pub and 1 poster (both were submitted during most interviews, accepted towards the end of the trail)
Applied: 80 (I'm a little neurotic)
Offered: 18
Went to 14 because of scheduling, ranked all 14.

Matched at my #5.

Advice: A strong Step II can help an average Step I. Being well rounded and unique helps. Be willing to interview anywhere and rank everywhere you are willing to go.