Opinion re: Southeast programs

In response to jd10's questions about South Alabama, I think it is kind of a forgotten place when people consider doing externships and I am not sure why this is. Perhaps it is because they have a lot of residents from south Alabama. I'm not sure but if you are truly interested, I think doing an away there would be really helpful. As far as experience, I got the impression that they get plenty of operative experience to go put into the community and practice. I don't think they told us the numbers at thee interview but I got the feeling their numbers are more than adequate. Hope this helps.

Kentucky takes 4 per year and was applying for a research spot that would give them 5 per year

I heard that Orlando Regional's program just recently got approval to expand to 4/year. Great chances at a great program if you interviewed there.

Orlando did get approved for a fouth spot. And they only interviewed about 30 people. I dont think you will find better odds than those

Gainesville's reputation of a numbers program is somewhat deserved. Focus is on 3rd year clinical scores more than many other programs out there (not a secret... explained to those that interview and rotate), so that may be where the "numbers" come in. We benefit somewhat from having competitive applicants from across the country, so the difference between some applicants can be "numbers". That being said, I wouldn't say our program is much more focused on numbers than any other. Feel free to PM me if you have further questions.

glad to see this thread getting some life. there are some really great ortho programs in the SE.

about chattanooga: i don't think they are a heavy numbers program. as always, it helps, but you don't need a 250+ to get an interview there.

as for florida being a numbers program, all i can say is that i didn't get an interview from Florida despite growing up 3 hours away from gainesville, having family as alumni from UF, being senior aoa, having all A's in junior clerkships and scoring 240's on step 1 and 2. i'm not saying that to be resentful or anything, i just think that in this day and age, you should pick your 4th year rotations wisely and if you don't have the numbers to get into UF, you *may* be better served spending your limited time rotating through other programs.

i also interviewed in orlando and i was bummed out because i would love to live there but :
1) the residents seemed super busy, maybe too much
2) few residents were married and owned homes, less family friendly which mattered to me
3) a couple attendings rubbed me the wrong way, saying they've made people cry and how would i deal with that, saying they weren't convinced i wanted to do ortho... blah blah blah. at this point, i don't need that. if they're not convinced, i've got 10 other programs where i interviewed where they were convinced i'll work my ass off and i that want to do ortho

I think this thread is good in outlining that there are many things several programs look at. I can guarantee that there are current residents of the program who didn't rotate at UF and have lower scores and worse clerkship scores than the ones presented here. It's hard to pin down one thing or another as to what pushes program directors and admissions committees to invite one person over another candidate or rank one over another. There are very few programs that have a strict, unemotional, completely objective way of ranking and interviewing candidates.

I've always been of the mentality that you should apply to a wide variety of programs and do away rotations at a similar variety if you are a risk averse person. There are many ways to play the "game" that is the interview season. Some people end up being more successful than others, and the difference between those that are successful and those that aren't is sometimes "millimeters" so to speak.

I'm a 3rd year at Orlando, and in response to minifrag, that sucks that your opinion seems to have been swayed negatively. I hope you make the right choice for a program that fits you, and I can recall how difficult a choice that was. I hope I can shed some light on some of your assumptions.

1) We can be very busy...especially with trauma your first 2 years. Your 3rd year becomes night and day relaxed. You stop taking primary call and you only operate when on call. As an example, I only came in this weekend for surgeries, and mostly had my own room.

2)We have 14 residents currently. 9 are married, 1 engaged, and I am delaying the inevitable costly purchase (so 11 cohabitants, many w/ children). 9 or 10 own homes.

3)As for crazy questions... doesn't make sense. Don't understand why they would do that, but that is beyond me.

Again, just wanted to clarify some of your possible misconceptions. I wish you luck. The whole process can be painful.

I think that anyone who goes through this process realizes that it can be completely random. Why some people are granted interviews over others seems to depend more on what a faculty member had for breakfast that morning than perhaps the caliber of applicant, though many programs probably differ in their methodology (i.e. equations considering boards, 3rd yr clerkships, AOA, etc).

Another interesting point I heard made was that doing an away rotation will sometimes hurt your chances more that it helps you. This depends on how much input the current residents have, but it basically takes a single resident to hear or see you do one thing they don't like and to say "I would pass on this guy". I realize this is very program dependent, but often a short half day snapshot of your personality is more desireable than spending 80+ hours a week with a given student shadowing your every move. Before picking aways, I would examine how many current residents rotated as students if you can, though its not really easy to figure out.

bump for more discussion.

UF has a resident selection committee consisting of Dr. Vlasak (trauma) Dr. Scarborough (new chairman, oncology), Dr. Decker (spine), Dr. Moser (sports). The residents have a collective vote. The residents make their vote by basically doing a slide show of your picture and they talk about you; they vote off anyone that was clearly a bad fit, had a bad attitude, was lazy, showed up late, etc. I'm not sure how they proceed beyond that. Depending on how many students are present, your call will vary. I was there with 3 other students, so we did an approx Q4 call.

Trying to decide on Campbell Clinic vs. Baylor - both interview on the same day. Is anyone able to weigh in on one versus the other?

Go for Campbell Clinic. It would open up a spot for me to interview at Baylor.

Go to Campbell Clinic hands down unless you have a desire to match in Texas for personal reasons.

agree with above

no question campbell clinic is the better program. you're talking about one of the best programs in the country in terms of well-roundedness, operative experience, reputation, and trauma experience. baylor is not a bad program, but its just not on the same level as the campbell clinic.