2006 Match List

First of congrats to all!

Stats:
Attend middle tier medical school in northeast
Pre-clincal grades: mostly honors
Clinical grades: honors in all but medicine and surgery, honors in all ortho rotations
Class rank: Top 10
Senior AOA
Research: All ortho (2nd author on book chapter and review paper; 1st author on case report)
Extra-curriculars: assistant head wrestling coach at local high school throughout med school (came up in every interview)
Aways: Einstein in philly, UPENN
LOR's: from what I was told they were very solid.

Applied to 43, got 28 interviews, went on 14, ranked 10, couples matched (S.O. doing peds) which made location a big driving factor:

1. UPENN
2. AEMC -- philly
3. Jeff
4. Temple
5. UCONN
6. GW
7. Geisneger
8. Drexel
9. UMDNJ
10: Montefiore/Einstein

Matched at No. 1 UPENN and very stoked about it.
My S.O. also matched at her No. 1!

Fatman and bonescrubsandhumerus looking forward for all the fun to begin!

ddog118

Undergrad: Prestigious, Top 50 USWNR
Major: Physiology
MCAT: 29
Grades: 3.5. I had a 3.9 during my last 2 1/2 years, but what can I say- freshman year involved a lot of drinking.

Med school: Less than prestigious

Grades: ~95% A's (high honors) years 1-4. Top 15 % of class.
AOA: Senior

Step 1: 241/97
Step 2: 224/90 - Studied for 2 days because I was hopeful it would never factor into my life; It's a good thing I didn't take it until Dec., and even better that I matched. Obviously I didn?t let any of my programs know.

Research: None from med school. 1 basic science pub in prestigious journal for ortho department from undergrad - asked about/ complimented on at most interviews.

Extracurriculars: a fair amount, including some great service projects (no one gave a shit, or at least they never mentioned). Most interviews revolved around sports and leisure.

LOR: 8 (2 ortho PD's from aways, 1 big name orthopod from away, 2 community orthopods, 1 medicine, 1 surgery, 1 chief ortho resident) - at least 4 were great (got to read them at George Washington interview).

Aways: UC Davis, OHSU, St. Marys

Applied: 47 that I was really interested in, but would apply to 80 if I could do it over again to relieve some of the stress about getting interviews and then scheduling them.
Interviews offered: 11

Interviews attended (chronologically): 11 (UC Davis (during rotation), UNC, USC, Albert Einstein (Bronx), SUNY Downstate, St. Lukes, Univ of Wisc, George Washington, NYMC, Temple, OHSU)

Ranked: all 11 (almost considered not ranking SUNY Downstate because of a poor impression and some bad word of mouth, but figured it would be better than not matching at all)

So excited to have matched at Temple!

While not my number 1 choice, it might have been if it was on the west coast. I told myself the day before the match that I'd be happy anywhere other than NY (I have a family and want to buy a house), so here I am - very happy! Temple is a great fit for me. It?s family friendly (20 kids among 20 residents) and there are tons of affordable suburbs. Furthermore, Temple is a kick ass, busy place that will give me a great education. I know I'm going to get my hands dirty early and looking forward to it. If you also matched here or are an upper resident, please PM me.

I wanted to comment on aways since it's all over this site, and I certainly had the impression that they?re a crucial factor to getting into ortho. In my case, I couldn't be more surprised at how little they mattered for me. And no I'm not an egotistical, arrogant, nerdy, jerk- on the contrary most people thought my personality would get me in somewhere. Perhaps it did, but on the interview, not because of an away. Also, I didn?t attend Temple?s night before party, and I showed up an hour late to the interview because I drove 4 hours from another interview! Who knows, the match is mysterious?

Good luck to the future ortho hopefuls. It should be clear from this string of posts, whether you went to a shitty school, had less than desirable USMLE scores, were far from AOA, or had no research, ortho is possible. I agree with an earlier post, your chances depend a lot on things you can't control like how your personality fits into orthopaedics, and probably more important how well you fit in with the programs.

I've been reading these for a while, can't believe it's my turn to write one!

NE state school
step 1: 266
step 2: 264 (after interviews)

preclinical and clinical: mostly honors
AOA+
undergrad molecular bio research with pubs
ortho related research article submitted
letters: strong letters, but not from "world renowned" faculty

rotations: home, lennox hill, USC, UCLA

applied: 48
interviews: 27 offered, 13 attended (CWRU, AEMC, Jefferson, Yale, NYU-HJD, UMDNJ-NJMS, UMDNJ-RWJMS, Tufts-NEMC, USC, UCLA, UCI, Harbor-UCLA, Monmouth)

Matched at UMDNJ-NJMS!

Advice: Choose where you rotate carefully, because rotations can be very important, both for you and the program. I rotated and interviewed out West but ultimately decided I'd rather be close to home, for multiple reasons, so all the LA schools dropped pretty low on my list (i know its hard to believe i wouldn't want to be in LA..lol). Also, be careful about the preconceived notions you have about schools, many of my impressions about programs changed drastically after rotating/interviewing there. In the end, it really does all come down to location. Although everyone likes to talk about the "top residencies", you'll quickly realize that there really isn't much of a difference between the training you get at different programs. Every program will train you to become a competent orthopedic surgeon, it's up to you to become a great one.

Medical school that you have never heard of
mostly honors thru years 1-3 (top 10% of class)
AOA
step 1: 250
step 2: not yet taken
6 orth pubs
3 very good ortho letters
applied: 46
interviews offered: 22 (sent my application in late which I do not recommend) NYU-HJD, U of Washington, Michigan, Vermont, Loyola, Grand Rapids, Wash U, Wisconsin, Beaumont, Henry Ford, Dartmouth, Pitt, Mayo, Miami, Iowa, USC, Boston University, Case Western, Indiana, Yale, Cincinnati, and Brown.

interviews attended: 10 (lots of interviews offered with the same interview dates--if you are ever offered an interview for a week day, take it)

ranked all 10

Matched at No. 1 UW. In my opinion, UW is the ideal residency program and Seattle is a dope city...very stoked to have matched there, however, I am sure that I would have been happy at any of the programs on my list...

Good luck to all in the future--the process is expensive and most of the time it sucks

Thanks bones!

I'll tip a guinness for you tonight

Congrats!

Him of ever expanding waistband

Fatman

Northeast state school

step 1: 249
step 2: 257..got scores mid jan...sent it out, not downloaded by most places..Upenn and NYU saw it though since these were late january interviews.

Not AOA

class rank: top 10%
Apgar scores: both 9.....drexel, umdnj, unc wanted this...lool jk
No research:.....Got asked about this in at least 90% of interviews.
Almost nil extracurriculars in med school.
wrote a review article for orthohyperguide during one of my aways.....a few places asked about it.
Aplied 58
got 21 invites
attended 15
ROL: see ROL thread.

Matched @ Upenn 5yr.......

i hope i have a liver left by july....
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congrats fatman....

Congrats again to all

School: Wayne State
Pre-clinical grades (P/H): Mostly honors
Clinical grades: Honors in Med, Peds, OB/Gyn, Neuro, Psych, Pass in Surg, Family (I thought the pass in surgery would hurt, but was never even mentioned)

Research: Small general surg project btwn 1st and 2nd year, but no pubs and absolutely zero ortho research.

AOA

Step 1: 240
Step 2: 250-score was available and mentioned several times
Rotated: Home, NW, UMich
Applied to 52, offered 21, went on 15 and ranked all

(Loyola, NW, Umich, Beaumont, Cleveland Clinic, MCOW, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, UIC, Einstein/Montefiore, Henry Ford, USC, Vermont, SUNY Downstate, Baylor)

Didn't attend MCO, UMDNJ-RWJ, Flint, Mayo, St Lukes-Roosevelt, Temple

Matched at Cleveland Clinic...A little surprised considering it has a research year and I have not done any ortho research, but very happy. I think it helped that a wayne grad recently finished the program and is now coming back as faculty. The program is outstanding and I probably would have ranked it first or second if it were in michigan.

For those of you wondering about second wave interviews, CC was definately a second wave interview.

Some comments about the programs...

Loyola and MCOW were my other favorite programs. They both are academic programs where you get to operate a lot but still seem to have good lifestyles and are pro-resident. Residents also seemed very cool. Definately top notch in all aspects.

NW and UMich are good programs with ideal locations for me, but they have some flaws. At both places, even the upper level residents were stuck holding retractors in some cases, which was a turnoff. Also at NW, you get very little clinic which seems good, but at some point, you need to be able to make decisions. Other than those things, and the sat conf. at NW, they are both very good programs with cool residents.

As far as community programs, beaumont is definately a cut above. Very academic for a community program, and the residents operate a ton. Again, they don't have much clinic, and they don't get money for books, etc. Very little call, too. Outstanding program

Grand Rapids and Kzoo are also very good programs and both seem to be very clinically oriented. The cities are both nice, with gr a little bigger.

UIC was not as bad as I thought it would be and I got the impression that the training there was quite good. Chair is stepping down, so you never know if the program will head in a different direction. I think people wonder about it because you don't get to talk to very many residents on interview day. Again, Sat conf blows.

I also liked einstein/montifiore and Vermont. Training seemed to be very good and I like new york/Burlington, just wasn't sure if I wanted to be either place for five years.

As others have said, suny downstate was very mediocre in every way.

USC is a great program if you want a ridiculous amount of trauma. To be more specific, 4 months of q3/q4 in-house trauma call every single year of residency. I like trauma, but maybe not that much.

I thought baylor was ok. I am not as sure that things are as tranquil after the split and probation as they make it seem, but I know many others really liked the program. I was told by many residents that fellows definately get in the way on sports.

Good luck to future applicants. This has definately been an interesting experience. Feel free to PM with specific questions.

wow - applied to four programs. that takes some stones. I guess you can pull it off when you're an all-star; not recommended for most of us.

I also enjoyed reading through these last year as a MS3, so here's my story.

Undergrad - state school

Medical school - mid tier state school

Preclinical - All honors (top 10%)

Clinical - Honored in all required courses and ortho sub I's

Step I - 268
Step II - 270 (available in Jan to ERAS)

Junior AOA

Research - submission to JBJS and undergrad research

Great LORs

Applied to 4 programs and got 4 interviews - Iowa, Mayo, Minnesota, Wisconsin. I have a family and my wife and I wanted to be near Minneapolis. All four of these programs are excellent and I would have been happy to train at any of them. I did an away at Mayo and was very impressed.

Matched at Mayo Clinic. Cant wait to begin the journey! Good luck to you all as you get ready to apply this summer/fall.

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!

I thought that I would post this here as well at rwbrhp29's request:

Just wanted to let everyone know that it IS possible to match with less than stellar board scores...
Medical School: middle tier western school
Step I: 214
Step II: 210 (released to all the programs I applied to, not sure why I did this)
AOA: hell no
Pubs: none, and minimal research
Honors: smattering of clinical honors
I managed to score some great Letters and did a ton of away rotations where I worked like a dog to make good impressions. I went to seven interviews and got my top choice! Congrats to everyone who got what they wanted.

i'm a non-US citizen and a foreign medical grad from australia.

matched at university of maryland / shock trauma


bring it on.

I'm game--
Middle of the road Medical School in NE

Preclinical: Mostly honors (90%)
3rd Year: All Honors

Step I: 240
Step II: 238 (wasn't in during interviews)

Jr. AOA

Research: One ACL project with no publications

Aways: UT-SW, JPS, home

Applied to 40+ schools, offered 21, went on 13: UTSW, JPS, Baylor, UT-HSC, UT-Houston, UArizona, UCI, NYU/HJD, Yale, UK, UMDNJ, St. Joe's, Georgetown

Matched No. 1 JPS

Well, here is the first DO posting that I have seen:

Went to DO school in MO
Top 15 out of 230 students first two years
Excellent clinical scores, 1 honors (can't have honors in electives so no ortho)
COMLEX 1: 664 (97th percentile)
COMLEX 2: 95th percentile (I know our scores are kinda foreign vs USMLE) made ERAS

Psi Sigma Alpha and Sigma Sigma Phi
No real research

Rotated at 5 interviewed at 5.

Matched No. 1 spot at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Portsmouth, VA

My story:

Med school: A top medical school
Undergrad: A top undergrad university
Step 1: 233
Step 2: 234 taken before interviews, it helped
Preclinical (H/P/F): No honors
Clinical: Honors in OBgyn and Psych, Ortho subIs, "excellent" (one step down from honors) in most everything else. This pretty much equates to minimal to no honors 3rd year in the average orthopod's mind.
Research: One major basic science project resulting 2 pubs in Arthroscopy and J Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, one clinical study in undergrad resulting in 1 pub in Spine
Letters: strong letters (I think) from the Chair and PD of ortho at my institution, a very good letter from a well known orthopod from an away SubI, and a stellar letter from a gensurg PD at a lesser known hospital
AOA: not even close
Other: very active extracurriculars in sports and music

Applied to: 84 programs (holy sh*t! shotgun approach)
Interview offers: 15
Interviewed at: 12 (UCSF, Stanford, Columbia, Sinai, UChicago, Harbor UCLA, St Lukes Roosevelt, Loma Linda, Baylor, Case Western, Temple, UMDNJ)

Matched: Mt. Sinai

I'm so happy to have matched, period. I'm even more excited that I matched at Sinai, where I did a subI. I thought that Mt. Sinai had one of the best overall teaching experiences out there (a well rounded combo of didatics, OR, clinic) despite its lack of "big name" appeal. Great set of residents and attendings as well. I had hopes of going out to CA, but am pretty stoked to be in NYC. It was #4 on my list.

For those applying in ortho in the future: Enough cannot be said about the "personality factor." You can have great numbers and be an academic stud, but if you aren't a cool person that would be a great co-resident, you will have a difficult time matching. Doing a subI at a place you want to go is the best way to show the progam that you are a quality guy/gal, and this no doubt helped me match.

I loved reading these as a MS1-3. Hopefully, this post will give some hope to people.

Top 20 med school
Preclinical grades: half B's, half A's and B+'s
Clinical grades: 2A's, 1B (in surgery), 3B+'s (including IM)
Step 1: 227
Step 2: 238 (available early on)
did research, but only got abstracts
Rotations: Northwestern, UT Southwestern, UTMB (Galveston)

Offered 8 interviews: the 3 above, plus Maryland, WVU, Louisville, Texas Tech, and JPS
Interviewed at 6 because I did not want to be rushed out of my number 1 interview.

Matched at my number 1, very excited

congrats to all of you guys! the seniors over here at my school are a MESS right now, just got back from celebrating with them!...do you guys minds posting where u did your aways and whether or not step 2 was on your app for us future applicants.

SE state med school
227 step 1
223 step 2
3.2 GPA at application time
No pubs/ortho research
No AOA
Great letters of rec

applied to 38, offered 14, went on 10

ROL:
1. Campbell Clinic
2. Southern Illinois
3. UAB
4. Mizzou 5 year
5. Orlando
6. Mizzou 6 year
7. Mississippi
8. Ochsner
9. Tulane
10. LSU-NO
11. LSU-Shreveport

Did not go to West Virginia, UVA, VCU, or Wichita due to schedule conflicts.

Matched at Mizzou.

I'll play...
Step I 236
Step II 225

mostly P/HP preclinical
all HP 3rd year except H in ortho and P in psych
Honored 3 ortho rotations 4th year
not AOA
4 research projects, 2 published at time of interviews

55 apps, offered 14 interviews, went on 12

ROL
1. OHSU
2. WashU
3. Cincinnati
4. Wake
5. Georgetown
6. Baylor
7. UNM
8. WVU
9. UVA
10. Temple
11. Penn State 5 yr
12. WVU 6 yr
13. UVA 6 yr
14. Penn State 6 yr
15. UT-SW

Matched at No. 1 OHSU, can't wait to move

Guess I will follow format:

MCAT: 39

Medical School: Top Tier Medical School

Step I: 260s

Step II CK: haven't taken

Preclinical: Mostly honors (who cares?)

Third-year Clinical (Honors/High Pass/Pass): Honors (Pediatrics, Medicine, Psychiatry, Neuro, Surgery, OB/Gyn), High Pass (Emergency Medicine)

Fourth-year Clinical (same as third-year): 3/3 Ortho Honors (one home, two aways), haven't checked on others

Alpha Omega Alpha: No

Research: 3 pubs (2 JBJS, 1 JOT)

Programs applied to: 33

Interviews Offered: 28

Accepted interviews: 12

Ranked programs: 15 (including some 6 year programs, mostly at the bottom)

List: Stanford, HSS, Harvard, UCLA, WashU, U of Washington, UC Davis

Match: Stanford

Very, very excited and surprised. Expected to end up at #2. Hope that everything worked out well for everyone. Anything is possible with hard work. Good luck.