2009 Post-match Rank Order and Stats

For what it is worth...
Public School in the Southeast, minimal ortho rep
Steps 236/240
top 1/3 of my class, unsure of rank
4 publications and around 10 poster presentations - almost all from a research job I held before starting medical school. None were ortho related.

Applied: 39
Offered/Interviewed: 14/13
Ranked: 15 (2 programs had a separate 6-year research track)

Tiers:
1: CMC, Greenville Hospital Systems
2a: AMC, Maryland, Wake, Baylor
2b: VCU, Arkansas
3: UF-Jax, USF, LSU-NO, MUSC, USC

Matched in the 2a group and am very excited.

Advice: Be organized. Have a smartphone with email and try know the interview dates of the programs you applied to before you're offered an interview. That way you'll know which dates to target when the invitations start rolling in. Many applicants respond very quickly (within minutes, not hours) to the ERAS invitations to interview, and it's easy to get stuck having to turn some programs down because those that were more organized and had email access filled the dates that had fewer conflicts right away. The second weekend in January was an especially popular date this year for interviews.

Med School: Private top 25 (based on the useless USNWR)
Class rank: No class rank, top tier
Step I: 238, Step 2: 269
AOA: Nominated but not selected
Preclinical Grades: Pass/Fail
Clinical Grades: Honors: Medicine, Surgery, Neurology, Ortho x 2, High Pass: Pediatrics, OB/gyn, Psych, family
Research: 3 ortho publications, 1 pending publication, 5 presentations
Extracurriculars: Some community service

Applied 59, Invites: 21, Attended: 13

Ranking:
(RANDOM)

UC Davis – very strong trauma & peds. Very well rounded California program.

UVa – Very strong training in a nice collaborative atmosphere. Attendings are DEDICATED to your education. Rotated here, loved the program & location. Strong research. Tons of outdoor activities to do. Charlottesville is absolutely beautiful.

UVermont – absolutely beautiful location, right next to skiing and lake champlain. Small program, and thus residents are really close. Burlington was too far from any family.

UPenn – Well rounded. Residents were the most tight knit as a group that I’ve seen. Also the most motivated residents I’ve seen. Many clinical sites within a few mile radius, gives you broad exposure. CHOP is a gem of the program. Rotated here and loved it as well

UCLA – Well rounded, excellent research. LA is awesome, though wanted a program with a little bit more autonomy

Northwestern – great training, best didactics I’ve seen anywhere. The residents are so friendly and knowledgable. Chicago didn’t do it for me.

Brown – Probably produces hands down the best clinical training – tons of trauma, strong in every department. 6th year makes you super proficient. Though I have no family in the northeast, I ranked this place so high because of the unique clinical training they get.

Emory – strong trauma, affordable city location. Residents seemed tight. Grady experience looked like it produced seasoned warriors quickly

WashU – leaders in the field of ortho, all subspecialties very well covered. Wasn't feeling it on interview day

Case Western – again, a very very well rounded and research heavy program. I didn’t mind the 6 year they offered, but again Cleveland didn’t do it for me.

Yale – well rounded, tight knit group, tons of elective time that the motivated resident can use to his/her interest. No family in northeast.

USC – very busy residency & thus residents are competent early.

Not ranked: HSS – got letter that I will not match there.

Matched at #1 – UVa, couldn't be happier. PM if questions.

Med School: Middle of the road, state school in the midwest
Boards: Step I: 248, Step II: 242 (in from beginning)
Rank: Top 20%, but not AOA.
Pre-clincial grades: 3.6
Clinical Grades: Honors in General Surgery. High Pass in everything else.
Ortho Sub-Is: Honors x4, and really good comments on my evals like "one of the top students I've seen in the past 10 yrs" and "outstanding in all regards"
Research: Couple small projects (case reports) published and presented. 2 bigger projects that I was working on and listed in ERAS, and was asked about during interviews.

Applied: 53
Offered: 22
Attended: 15 (because of scheduling)
Ranked: 17 (one program had a seperate research track and another had already interviewed me during my rotation)

My top 5 programs, listed in alphabetical order:

Case Western - Excellent program.. very well-rounded, with a strong focus on academics. Great group of residents, and beautiful facilities.

Iowa - I did a clinical rotation and an additional month of research here. It's an outstanding program. Many of the attendings are world renowned surgeons--several have authored some big textbooks--but they're all down to earth and very approachable. Dr. Buckwalter (their chairman) is probably one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. The residents were all team players, and always looked out for each other. They were great to work with.

Loyola - I rotated here as well, and I felt this was truly a resident focused program. The attendings really cared about your training and education. Even as rotating medical students, you'd have several student conferences with various attendings and they'd go over different topics from their specialty. The residents are an amazing group of guys/gals, and they were all great to work with. They have an outstanding hand program and a great trauma experience, and it's a really well-rounded, outstanding program.

Vanderbilt - Another outstanding program. Close group of residents who all seemed really happy. It's a strong academic program, but you still get an outstanding community-hospital type operative experience. Seemed like it was very trauma heavy with a large volume and variety of pathology.

Yale - There's no doubt that you'd get outstanding training here. The attendings and residents all seemed really laid back and easy to work with. There is also unlimited support and resources for research, if you're interested in it.


I got my #1 choice, and I'm thrilled!!!

Some advice for future applicants: I think my performance on my Sub-Is was the strongest part of my application. I got some great evals and LORs from them. I didn't get very many clinical Honors, but I made up for it with my Sub-Is.
You need to make sure you truly shine.. Be available, helpful, and genuinely interested in learning. Get along with all the residents well, because they have a huge influence on the rank list. Show them that you're willing to work hard. Anticipate the needs of your team so you can take care of things before they ask you. When you finish the rotation, they should notice how much of a positive impact you had on the efficiency of the team.

Good luck and SM with any qs

Small State School
Step 1: 238
Step 2: 253
Class rank:29/105
AOA: No
Research projects: participated in 3. No posters or publications
Pre-clinical grades: Around a 3.5 for first 2 years
Clinical: School goes on A,B grading system for third year. A's in psych, OB, ortho, optho, urology, and ENT. B in medicine, peds, and surgery. Honors on Med, Peds, and Psych shelf. No shelf for surg sub specialties


Applied to 39
Offered 10
Attended 10
Ranked 10




Florida- Had a great rotation here. Really liked all the residents and attendings. Great exposure in all fields. Gainesville is a college town and fits nicely into what im looking for. Facilities are also top notch. Great early surgical experience.

Jackson Mississippi- Large program. Trauma heavy. Great trauma attendings. Good experiences in most fields. Had a great rotation while on my away there. Allows there fourth years to do a AO fellowship just about anywhere in the world they wan to go. When i went back on the interview i didnt have the best experience and ended up feeling like it wasnt the best fit for me personally.

JPS( fort worth)- Great benefits. Great town. Residents enjoy the program. Hospital is very profitable. Fort worth was a very impressive city. This was a very impressive program but i ended up feeling like i could get a better experience at some of the other programs.

Kentucky- Outstanding trauma and sports experience. Lots of young energetic attendings who try very hard to help the residents. Very trauma heavy. But also good exposure in all fields. Lexington is a nice town with a variety of things to do.

LSU-NO- great city. Residents seem to like to have a lot of fun. Spoke highly of their surgical experience. I really liked this program and it was close to my hometown. Ended up ranking the program last because they spend 3 months or more per year in other cities and it was not a good fit for my fiance and I.

LSU-Shrevport- THis is my home program has great residents. The upper levels here are as good as any residents I came across. Faculty is very understaffed though and experience is limited in many specialties. Sees a ton of trauma. I believe it is a program that is going to continue to improve with new faculty being hired. But i felt there were other programs out there that are already great programs and not in the rebuilding process. I have also been in louisiana my whole life and wanted to move somewhere else for a while.

Orlando- One of my best interviews. The residents and attendings were all very down to earth and approachable. Faculty gives residents a big say in the direction of the program. Seemed to have great exposure to all fields. Trauma, General, and Peds are at orlando regional and the other specialties are more of a community rotation.

San Antonio- Dr. Carlisle was extremely easy to talk to and energetic about his program. Has some very big names on staff including rockwood and green. Call is q3 while on trauma and then home call the remainder of the time. Residents seemed to enjoy working there.

Scott and White- Good prgram. Had a classmate match here after rotating. Great facilities and faculty. Residents are mostly married and many have children. All seemed to enjoy hanging out together. Temple is a small town, but is close to Austin and Waco. In the end i just didnt get the best gut feeling from temple and moved it down my list because of it.

South Alabama- Smaller program. Not the best facilities. Faculty really emphasized early surgical exposure and training good competent surgeons. I think this is a program on the rise that provides great training.




Feel free to PM me if you have further questions

I'm a foreign medical graduate from a respected University in Western Europe, so this only applies to FMGs. Also, to clarify, I haven't done any residency abroad.

1. USMLE score: 238

2. How many you ranked: 2.

I am sure that I would have gotten many more interviews with my credentials, but I was NOT yet ECFMG certified at the time of the application. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. Be certified before you apply! Despite that fact, I still matched at my #1 (would still be #1 for me if I had another 20 interviews). So I was lucky!


3. Top three programs: matched at my #1 (not where I did research)


4. How many research/publications: 1. 42 pumed pubs, 2. 50 poster/podium presentations, 3. 10 book chapters, 4. 4 prizes at meetings, 5. 1 research grant, 6. Consultant reviewer in 6 pubmed journals (4 ortho journals), and member of editorial board in 1. 7. Several other things, including mentoring and teaching ortho to several US medical students while doing research (sounds ironic, but I will be in the same class with some of them, or some of them are already in residency 2-3 years before me!) . Had excellent LORs from top US people.


5. Any advice for the next generation of hopefuls.

Ortho is very tough for American graduates. Just try to imagine what it is for FMGs!! Just look at the numbers... Matching is extremely difficult and requires you not only to be hard working and smart, but to also have good character and personality qualities. It's not like in Europe, where many places are "malignant" and don't care who they hire personality speaking. My experience is that programs in the US are VERY concerned about the people who hire. They don't want to hire someone who might create personal conflicts in the program (that doesn't necessarily mean they always succeed in that, but that's also their goal).

Be prepared to spend 1-2 years on research in a respected US institution, AFTER you're done with USMLEs. I don't think it's possible to match without coming to the US and get yourself known to people here.

Although the following talks about ENT and FMGs, it also exactly applies to Orthopedics and FMGs:



There is no perfect "recipe" however, and in view of the fact that only a small percentage of FMGs make it each year, one has to consider things on an individual basis.

This was posted by wis1234 in the 2008 thread on accident:

State School with more of a regional presence, if any
Step 1: 235
Step 2: 232
Class rank: 24/140
AOA: nominated but not selected
Research projects x 3, all ortho-related; 1 pub as 1st author, 1 ongoing project and 1 presented at International conference as a MS3
Pre-clinical grades: 4.0 in anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology; otherwise overall preclinical GPA was 3.7
Clinical: we do a 4.0 system (now changed, but my class was the last with this system), with honors given to top 10% of the entire class at the end of the year
Honors in OB/GYN, Family Med, Neuro, and Ortho 3rd year elective, as well as Ortho 4th year electives x 3 NO HONORS IN SURGERY OR IM
Other rotations ranged from 3.3 to 3.7


Applied to 55
Offered 19
Attended 14
Ranked 14 (one place ranked twice for 5 & 6 year program & one program not ranked)

I'm not going to put them in order:

1 Mt. Sinai- Ranked them 1. Best program in the known universe (to me, anyhow). Rotated here and had a blast. Residents are very down to earth and incredibly smart, also very very technically savvy in the OR. Do a trauma rotation as a 2 where the only responsibility is to operate everyday for 4 months. Awesome attendings who are insistent upon teaching constantly, both in the OR and clinic. Clinic time is partially resident clinic and partially time with the boss' clinic, which I think is a positive. Overall just a very strong program with everything going for it, and can be as research-immersed as you want to be during your training.

2-6 (in no particular order):

HSS - not my #1. I think that I'm more in the minority here, having interviewed here but not ranked this program #1. I will not speak negatively of the program - it is super strong, and I think it's hard to say otherwise. However, for me, the program just didn't have quite the same collegial feel that I picked up on from other programs, and that was enough to be a deal breaker for me. Also, I don't know if I really want to do 3 projects/year. I'm not an idiot; I ranked it.

Einstein/Monte - another really great program at which I had the opportunity to rotate. Great attendings (Cobelli is the man, among others), awesome, down-to-earth residents with good attitudes that are fun to work with. A little weak on didactics bc everything is done one day a week. The only other negative is location - this could be me being picky, but the Bronx isn't my favorite borough. Overall a really strong program that is only getting better. I would have been very very happy here.

St. Luke's/Roosevelt - totally surprised me. Extremely laid-back attendings and residents who both seem to be committed to teaching. Good didactics. Had a great time on the interview and ranked this program very highly. Thought I would be very happy here.

North Shore/Long Island Jewish - another surprise on the interview trail. Got a good feeling that this program would be a very nice place to spend 5 years. Tons of ancillary staff to take care of everything while you're operating, incredible new bioskills lab that makes any other lab you've seen look like it was a product of the 80's, and a mostly HSS-trained faculty that were very approachable and seemed excited about the program and the residents.

NYMC - ranked it mostly bc of location in proximity to NYC, but still sounds like a good program - but the interview day was poorly organized. Only 3 residents seen on interview day. Felt as though the faculty were 'suspicious' of me for some reason.


7-14:

UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson: in short, a really awesome program with everything I was looking for. Reminded me of Mt. Sinai of the 'burbs. Unfortunately, not a very convenient location for the wife.

UNDNJ-Newark: solid program, cool residents, but another place where I felt a 'suspicious' feeling emanating from the attendings' side of the desk.

Georgetown: awesome program, good didactics. Delahay is the man. Residents are super smart and really cool guys/girls to talk to. Another program that I would have ranked much much higher if it were closer to NYC

Temple: really liked it here - all the things I was looking for in a program, but unfortunately it was in Philly, and the NY/NJ places took precedent for me. If it had been in NYC it would have been much higher on the list

Albert Einstein Philly: cool small program, with a good feeling from both attendings and residents, who seem to be very proud of the program they are and the surgeons they turn out. Negatives for me was that 2/yr was a little too small and Philly location

St. Joe's/Seton Hall: a little run-down on the facilities side of things, but seems like they get to operate a ton with some really great surgeons (for instance, they do tumor with Wittig from Sinai). There are far worse places to end up.

Medical University of South Carolina (5&6 yr): Rotated here. Charleston is the most beautiful city in the US. High quality of life as far as housing, food, etc. Mostly good attendings (Demos, Hartsock, Gross and some of the hand guys are awesome), but a few are too quick to take the tools from the resident. Residents are mostly cool. Could definitely be in worse places.

Overall, I was very happy with my ROL and think I could have been happy at any of these places.


Matched at Mount Sinai. I am pumped. It is, in my opinion, the "best" program - for me of course. I really enjoyed rotating here and my wife and I are happy to be in Manhattan. The residents are all great and I'm looking forward to working with all of them.

My list was based on a few things: Overall program feel, Location, location, location, overall attitude of residents and attendings toward teaching, happiness of residents in their program choice. Things I did not worry about were: book $, whether or not I get a meal ticket, whether or not women would drop their panties when I dropped the name of my program (if I ended up in one, it would be coincidental).

Edited: some observations gleaned from the process - don't underestimate the power of unique aspects of your application. Everyone has at least above average stats in pretty much everything. I didn't have the highest board scores, the best grades or the most research projects. However, nearly every interviewer was interested in talking about my personal statement and one of my interests listed on my application that was certainly out of the ordinary. Use every part of the app to your advantage - even those 'small' parts that many people will tell you are not important. Good luck to all the 3s!

PM me with questions.

Congrats to everyone!

Should we also include any of these:
Step 2 score, and whether it was uploaded from the getgo, or you sent it later, or didn't send it at all
AOA Status or Med school rank
Number of Honors (3rd year and Ortho rotations)
Where you rotated

I know many are celebrating tonight but hopefully more people will post here. Keep the info coming people.

6. Maybe you should also include where you matched or at least (matched top 3 or matched 4-6 if you don't want to give your specific program away).

1. 214
2. 7
3. UT - San Antonio
Duke
U. Kentucky
4. 0 publications
5. Work hard wherever you go on rotations and at your home program. I believe I got a spot because of my work ethic and my letter writers willing to go to bat for me. I had an awful step I but scored 240 on Step II. I had excellent grades in school and really wanted this specialty. You can get here as long as you are willing to work for it.