Program rankings?

From a previous post that I responded to: There is no ranking system of any kind. Now of course US News and other magazines may rank departments and hospitals, but it weighs heavy on research dollars and staffing ratios. It doesn't rank how good of training you're going to get.

When I was a MS4, I was told (by a chairman) that there are about 7 excellent programs that have it all together. There are only a handful of programs that are poor and probably not worth going to. There are about 20 programs that are great but not quite there, and then all the rest which are all very good programs. He said that orthopaedic accreditation is structured in such a way that the vast majority of programs offer very good and complete training with only a handful of outliers on either side of Excellent/Bad. I say this because chances are you will end up with great training wherever you match.

The next thing I would look at is where you want to live and the way you want your program set up. Team based vs 1 on 1 with attendings. Traditional call vs Night float. Academic focused vs community focused (careful on this one, there are some VERY academic community programs and some very community academic programs). Do you want a large program vs small. Think about all these things check out program websites to see which programs you think fit what you are looking for. Then apply for those for aways.

I never came across a very good ranking system. After the interview trail, I felt that US News was a very poor indicator of how I would rank the programs.

There was a thread a while back () called Top 5 Academic programs. Im not sure how useful most of the thread was but on page 3 I think there were a couple lists posted of some excellent programs and very similar to the list I would make. It may be worth a look for a starting point at least.

I think that many of the program reviews are biased and inaccurate but may be worth a read to see how they are set up.

Hope some of this helps.

I totally agree. Forget us news rankings, forget what orthogate or your peers think....go with what you want. After all of my interviews I had made a detailed list of like 30 criteria that I ranked each program with. But when it came down to truly making my rank list I went with what was closer to my family and my overall gut feeling. From talking with my other classmates who matched they did the same. The top ortho program is the country is different for every applicant out there.

Thanks for the responses.

So there is no ranking of programs in the country, that's fine. How do you then make sure that with the 2 or 3 Away rotations are done at institutions that you have a shot at landing a residency?? I know all spots are competitive, but that some programs are more coveted and competitive than others. I guess my real question is:

HOW DO YOU PICK AWAY ROTATIONS????

Thanks for the responses.

So there is no ranking of programs in the country, that's fine. How do you then make sure that with the 2 or 3 Away rotations are done at institutions that you have a shot at landing a residency?? I know all spots are competitive, but that some programs are more coveted and competitive than others. I guess my real question is]

It's based on what you want out of residency. I know early on it's tough to say but usually you have some ideas. Region, preference for large cities, and interest in research all play a large role in this. To figure out where you stand for specific programs you should find out where past students have gone. Also you should find an advisor, ideally someone who will give you an honest assessment of where you stand.

Who told you that the only way into a top program is to kill step 1. I can tell you from experience that this is NOT the case. Yes, you can match into a 'top program' with a relatively low step 1. On the flip-side, you can have a top step 1 score and not match at all.

What were those 7 programs?

DHT, I'm also interested in hearing which 7 programs your chairman considered excellent. Thanks.