2010 Match Results

Med School]


This is a great post, thanks a lot for the information.

Med School: Low Tier Public
Boards: 230s on Step I and II, Step II after ROL submitted
Rank: Don’t have it
AOA: Yes
Clinical Grades: HP in psych and family medicine, Honors in all else
Ortho Sub-I: Home rotation and 2 sub-I’s with Honors in all
Research: Undergrad and med school bench research in non-ortho with 2 abstracts, some ortho experiences but no publications at time of submission
Letters: All ortho and 1 gen surg, all except my home chairman’s letter were from my sub-I’s

My thoughts on some of the programs I interviewed at (in alphabetical order)

Brown: Really impressed with this place, Ehrlich’s introduction was one of the most impressive presentations I saw on the trail, really makes you want to come here. Research opportunities here seemed abundant if you are into that kind of thing. I think the 6th year sounds like a great supplement to the operative experience you get and turns you into a great surgeon…but’s it’s still an extra year…

Campbell Clinic: Another fantastic place to train. Sounds like they get great trauma experience downtown with a good PP experience out in the suburbs. Sounds like a love it or hate it place, and I loved it. Memphis is kind of a downer, but if you are from the south I’m sure it’s not that bad. Seem’s like their graduates are very well respected. Rotation is pretty cush as a med student too. Really liked this program.

Case Western: Dr. Marcus gave a great introduction and talked about his desire to have people to match here that are the leaders in the field, not community orthopods, so keep that in mind as you are looking at rotations and going for interviews. I liked most of my interviewers and residents that I met, but there were a couple that really rubbed me the wrong way and Cleveland didn’t help the situation. Still seems like a great program though with excellent training.

Miami: Loved it here, really seemed like that had good coverage of every specialty, residents seemed like really cool guys. Dr. Eismont is a legend and would really like to be here under his lead. New program director seemed like a nice guy with a real desire to help the residents. I like Miami a lot, not sure if I could live there for 5 years…and still be financially solvent. Really liked this program.

U of Virginia: Loved this place, Dr. Chabbra seems like the type of program director that anyone would be lucky to train under, and sounds like he TRULY cares about the residents and wants to make this a superior residency program. You do go to Roanoke for 40ish weeks spread out over years 3-4 which the residents seemed somewhat split on opinion wise, it sounds like a great opportunity to me. C-ville seemed like a nice town and really revolves around the university. Really like this program.

Utah: Fantastic program, probably the most well rounded that I visited. Great experience in every subspecialty. Chairman and PD were GREAT, but the rest of the faculty I interviewed with seemed kind of cold. Residents all couldn’t stop talking about how great salt lake was and how much they enjoyed it, which sounded like a great place to me. Great social at the former chairmans house. Doesn’t interview a lot of people.

UTSW: Heard great things before going here, and it lived up. Seems to really have a great reputation for producing top-notch technical surgeons. It sounds like the residents operate a TON. Chairman Dr. Borrelli seems highly interested in research, but it doesn’t sound like its shoved down the residents throats if they don’t like it, but opportunities for interested residents were available. A great mix of big county/semi-private/VA/Scottish Rite and Children’s for well rounded experience. Dallas is my favorite city in the country. Really loved this program.

WashU: Hands down one of the most impressive departments I have ever seen. Top names, impressive pedigrees for the residents, number one in NIH funding this year for departments. All that said, there were a ton of fellows, which don’t sound like they get in the way. St. Louis is OK. You could probably land any fellowship you want outta here, but some residents did say operative experience is top heavy. Really like this program.

Yale: Sounds like a great schedule with all the research time they have. Sounds like they really operate a lot, liked the mix of the community attendings with the academic rotations, would probably be great for your training. Residents were all very proud of the program. I just didn’t get a great feel from the faculty and new haven was pretty low on my list of locations I wanted to move.



Final thoughts:

Work hard on your subis, if you meet the stat cutoffs (>230) and apply widely as long as you have done well and have good LORs from them you stand a GREAT chance at matching.

There is no “best program in the country” or “top five in the country.” There are great departments with terrible programs and so-so departments with great programs. It is a personal choice based on numerous factors that are independent for every applicant. One person’s “best program in the country” could be almost dead last on another applicant’s ROL and THAT IS FINE!!!!!

Think hard about location when deciding which interview to take, really think about WHERE you want to LIVE for the next 5 years (big vs small city, etc). I didn’t really take location seriously until over halfway through the interview process, a HUGE mistake on my part. Think about this too when deciding on subI locations.

Be humble throughout the entire process, because honestly everyone will feel both exhilarated and demoralized sometime throughout this long and stressful process.

Would greatly appreciate some more match advice. This thread is great!

Match result: at one of my top tier places and couldn't be more excited to start.

School: top 20 private
USMLEs: 249/250 (released)
Rank: 1/125
Awards: scholarship, AOA, GHHS
Aways: UTSW, Duke
Research: had some, no pubs

ROL by tiers:

Tier One
WashU - as said before, very academic rogram with a reputation for being light on the OR experience. Still, great opportunities in every field and St Louis seemed nice

UVa - strong academics and research opportunities. Clicked well with residents I met. C-ville was small for me.

UTSW- amazing peds and trauma experience. Really loved the residents here. Trauma experience is among the best. Operative experience is front loaded and ample, which was important to me. Dallas is a great city.

Campbell Clinic - incredible tradition and reputation. Great operative experience. Residents seemed cool. Was told they serve beer at conference, which sounds awesome. only downside I saw was Memphis, although it didn't seem as bad as some had said. Lots of money for resident education.

Emory- loved this program. Great operative experience at grady. Residents seemed like a cool and hard working bunch. Atlanta is awesome. Didactics are pretty weak.

Second tier
Duke
UNC
Florida
Mississippi
Miami

Third tier
Kentucky
Baylor
Orlando
UT San Antonio

Well I went through a year ago but I interviewed at a couple of places not mentioned above…

School: Midwest Public
Step 1: 240
Step 2: 244 (released in time for applications, which I recommend)
Grades: Top 10%
Awards: um, none, and I'm still pissed that AOA was a popularity contest at my school...
Research: MS in Biomedical Engineering, couple of pubs in vascular biology, and I worked part time for bank $ during my 1st-3rd years of med school... no Ortho work, but as I've said many times before, the experience of research is more important than the topic
Other stuff: in college I stole a prototype Smith and Nephew oxinium femoral head and made it into a shift knob for my car
Aways: Akron General, Mt Carmel
Interviews: Applied 50, Offered 20, Made 15

In alphabetical order:
Akron General- I liked the residents and the daily morning conferences. They also get a ton of free food and I actually gained weight on this rotation. Note: if you do an away there, they put you up in a nice hotel and get you some food money. They also have a kids hospital across the street. However, as mentioned somewhere else they get random cases every day so you can do spine on Monday, joints on Tuesday, etc. which could be very difficult to manage the first couple of years. Call wasn’t very busy, and so there’s not too much trauma.
Arkansas- Excellent family-friendly program which produces very capable surgeons. New hospital and great benefits. The residents have a great deal of autonomy and develop a tremendous surgical confidence. They also seem to have a great rapport. Balanced rotations with great peds, trauma, shoulder, hand, joint, and sports experiences, but not really spine-heavy if that’s your thing. There's also an associated VA hospital which provides its own set of experiences. I haven’t seen anything really negative about this program on this forum. Definitely worth a look. Little Rock’s a nice town, but if you’re from a big city, it might not be for you.
Greenville- Good balance, and the residents seemed appropriately-busy. The real strengths I saw on my interview were the fantastic physical resources such as the adjacent Shriner’s hospital as well as more research-focused amenities like an amazing gait lab. I was fortunate to be invited to an interview, and it would be hard to go wrong here (unless you have a thing against Palmettos).
Kalamazoo- Technically, I think they’re associated with Michigan State, however you get the feeling it’s a pure private program based on the 2 hospitals they serve. For the research-inclined, there’s a strong link to the Biomedical Engineering program at Western Michigan University. Kali’s not a bad small town, and housing is affordable, and the residents get an unlimited free food budget… gourmet coffee included. This was one of my top choices, but the only downsides were the fact that the size is small (2 residents/year) and that consults are staffed before being called to the residents.
Louisville- The night before my interview, I took a running lap around Churchill Downs. Louisville’s an excellent KY town and the Barnes-Jewish hospital system seemed pretty strong. The interview day is a bit weird in that there’s only one day and so you’re thrown into the mix with 30-odd candidates. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a good read on the program from my day there. I believe this is the place with the great anatomy lab where you can request body parts to practice if you’re preparing for a surgery.
McLaren- Unfairly, the worst part of McLaren is that it’s in Flint, otherwise it’s a great program. Small hospital system and residents that seemed to get along very well. The day I was there it was sunny and -20F… time to pull out your snowmobiles… That said, I’d definitely recommend interviewing there because of program substance.
Med College Wisconsin- I got the distinct feeling this Milwaukee program was very regional and, even though I came from a Midwestern medical school, I felt sort of out-of-place. The hospitals are gorgeous and the residents seemed very confident and capable. This was in the top half of my rank list.
Mt Carmel- Probably one of---if not THE--- strongest “small” “private” training program. Brilliant residents, decent staff, good hospital system, excellent pay and availability of moonlighting $$$. The seniors pull in close to 100g/year. They share a huge kids hospital in Columbus with the The OSU guys. Lots of private experience. Unmatched OITE results. Fankhauser may be one of the best PDs in the business. The biggest downsides I noticed were: 1) it’s small and very fraternal and 2) I took call one night and the resident didn’t get called in a single time. As I’ve said before, if you’d like to go into private practice, it would be difficult not to rank MC near the top of your list.
MUSC- I was probably colored at my interview by other reviews and the fact that I was at the end of my interview cycle. The residents seemed pretty happy but they were a varied crew. I met a few at a course this year and they were very capable. Per rumor, bonus points go to the applicants who like wakeboarding…
The Ohio State University- Much has been said about the new chairman who was nipped from Missouri, and with the resources available to that hospital system, one would expect great things. I have no doubt it will be a strong program in the future, but at the interview day (which was excellent), I got the feeling that there lacked a certain “esprit de corps” of the residents… there’s not really an Ortho lounge or anything the guys and girls could stamp their name to. Depending on your preference, an 1100-bed hospital may or may not be to your liking with the red tape and “policy” that goes into such a massive system.
Oklahoma- Trauma heavy, but the residents were quite happy. Great support network for spouses. I ranked them highly because of the intensity and integrity of the program. I would’ve been happy to match there but would’ve liked to know more. Probably a good away rotation, although due to their location would probably lean towards regional folks. Other upsides: the beef is excellent. Downsides: it’s flat, really flat.
SUMMA- Located in Akron, OH, these guys run a great service. As far as I know, they share Akron Childrens with AGMC and while there’s a bit of competition between the two programs, there’s plenty of business to go around. When I was there for an interview, I actually got the chance to scrub for the morning (where a resident was doing a reverse) and was bragged-to about the volume of cases logged by the residents. There’s also a gourmet restaurant inside the hospital. Conferences seemed quite good. A gem of a program in the Midwest.
UMKC- Weird program director, even though I thought we clicked and his methods seemed reasonable (there’s the almost-laughable “fire and brimstone” speech which was the entertaining hour of the morning). Although, from talking to med students from UMKC, the malignancy is real. Truman’s probably a great medical center. For those of you who didn’t match the first time, there seems to be a preference for matching prelims.
West Virginia- Another of my top choices. The chairman is a spine surgeon who’s really set the program in a great direction. Morgantown is a great town. There’s also a very good research/anatomy lab. I was surprised that they only take 2+1 residents (one into a 6 year research track) given the business they receive. I’m from WVa by birth, and I’d’ve been happy to match there. I forget where they do their peds rotations, but as far as I know there’s not a dedicated kids hospital in Morgantown.
William Beaumont- Perhaps the most lavish program in the country… there’s even a concierge service for the residents. Excellent hospital and research facilities. Because of this, Beaumont was one of my top choices. Of note, this is the place where you’re asked your max bench press, and after I said “I can do the combine press at 46 reps”, I was reminded there was a gym nearby where I’d be tested… and I recanted. Seriously awesome program. There’s been talk before of the 2nd year anatomy requirement, and while this would absorb some extra time, you could never fault a surgeon for being too-good of an anatomist… I consider this a strength of the program.

BUMP.

Post your thoughts etc on programs.

My turn...I thought this thread was the most helpful of anything on this board. It gives you a vague way to compare yourself to others.
School: Midwest state school
Step 1: 244
Step 2: 254, taken early and submitted with initial ERAS app
Grades:: Honors in all classes except for two in first year
Awards: AOA as a senior, Gold Humanism Honor Society
Resarch: Two ortho pubs, multiple ortho poster presentations, special school research project in ortho to be presented at MAOA this April
Other stuff: college basketball, lots of community service, job at a tissue donation organization for five years, married with 2 kids
Aways: Wisconsin
Interviews: Applied-30, Offered-18, Went on 10 (scheduling conflicts/money)

TOP TIER
U of Wisconsin- Rotated here and absolutely loved it! That seems to be the common thread on this board. Really, the strength of the program is the residents. Great group of people that are having a good time learning what they want to do. Extremely balanced! Best program as a whole if you ask me.

Iowa- Another amazing place to train. Know I would have been very happy here. Iowa City is Iowa City, not really all that much do here, but enough since it is a college town. Faculty is well known in all specialties. Maybe a bit malignant at times...hard to tell from a two day interview.

Cleveland Clinic- Great name, great operative experience. Hospital is beautiful and life in Cleveland is very affordable. Seemed very balanced with relatively speaking "cush" life as a resident.

SECOND TIER
Ohio State- I got the sense that this program is really headed somewhere. The Chair seems to have a compelling way about him and I was buying what he said. Lots of money coming towards the ortho dept and hospitals in general

Kentucky- Loved this place because I did undergrad nearby. Great operative experience. Lots and lots of trauma. Strong in peds and sports too. Seemed liked residents were very hardworkers.

Northwester- Actually got an interview here without rotating, so another example of this happening (phone call made by an attending) Great group of guys! Seemed to be having a great time, always cracking jokes and having fun. Downtown Chicago location not ideal for a family guy.

THIRD TIER
Jefferson- Probably the most high powered place I saw. So, if you want academia or research, this is the place to be. OR time is extremely back loaded, so much that some of the younger residents seemed almost depressed about life...not what I was looking for. But, serious options for research here!!! Philly wasn't really appealing to me.

Duke- Great interview experience and a very strong program. Seemed well balanced Guys there were first class. Only reason this wasn't ranked higher was distance from home...and they spend a lot of time away from Durham doing peds and/or VA.

Mich St.- Smaller community program. I wanted academic and larger in size.

Matched at my top choice!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the advice I have for future applicants is twofold. First, listen to your predecessors. I.e., read orthogate ( and don't take things too seriously), call alumni who are currently residents at programs you are interested in, work with your faculty to exhaust every possible connection (Literally, my wife's Dad did the taxes for a family doctor who had his knee replaced by an ortho doc at a program I wanted to interview at...he sent an email on my behalf and the next day I had an interview there!). Second, apply broadly. I only applied to 30 programs and didn't get interviews to several programs that I thought I would be guaranteed at. There really is no rhyme or reason to the whole interview selection process.

Please feel free to PM me with any questions. I would be more than happy to help anybody out!

Med School: Midwest, mid-tier public
Boards: Step 1: 247; Step 2: 238 (taken & released in March 2010)
Rank: no ranking at our school; Top 25%
AOA: No
Preclinical’s: High Passed every class but two.
Clinicals: Honored pediatrics, High Passed Medicine and psych. P on the rest.
Ortho: Home, UW, Stanford. Two honors and one high pass.
Research: Conducted a novel MD Honors thesis to graduate w/ distinction, one case report submitted, two oral presentations at national conferences.
Extracurricular: Mens soccer league, International volunteering between 1st & 2nd year twice, Free Clinic for uninsured, translated Spanish for clinics, AMA delegate and 4 national conferences with that, other stuff.

What I was looking for: Location and surgical experience were the two biggest factors. I wanted to finish a five year program and have no doubt in myself if I were to go to Nicaragua the next weekend after graduating and work in a trauma hosp. as an ortho surg. for a few weeks or start a general practice afterwards. I will apply for a fellowship however.

Applied: 70
Offered: 12
Attended: 10


Stanford: Rotated and loved it. No double scrubbing, all subspecialties are truly represented, when on sports you interact with collegiate athletes’ and research opportunities are endless. Trauma at Stanford hosp. is weak, but you make up for it on outside trauma rotations. Weakness: Cost of living is prohibitive. Cheapest house I could find was 850,000! Location is divine however. Laid back residents and great atmosphere. If you want to paten a new device or invent something, Stanford has the resources, capital and minds for it.

Loma Linda: I didn't know what to think about this program since no one ever mentions it on this sight or anywhere else. Operative experience and case load was the highest of any program I interviewed at. They provide optional international rotations in Dom. Repub. As a second year you are assisting with spine surgery and putting in screws. They accept five residents now and will adopt a night float system. Three hospitals to work with including a VA. Downside is that oncology and foot & ankle are weak and LL is not the most known for its academic side. However, all the fifth year residents said they felt like they knew more about operating than all other interviewees when interviewing for fellowships. Location: In the winter, mountains to ski on are only 45-1 hr away. Sand Diego is 1.5hr LA 1 hr away. Tons of Mt. biking and outdoor activity and it never gets below 60 degrees year round during the day. Free food, parking and gym.
As you can tell I loved this place and matched here!

USF: Amazing program and I was blown away by it during interview day. Facilities are top notch. It is a new program; this year is the first year with fifth year residents. Dr. Letson is the MAN. He has so much passion and energy for his program and he is the most personable ortho. surgeon I have ever met aside from Dr. Wagner from UW Seattle. Oncology is the powerhouse at this institution. If you want to do oncology you need to be here! If your a Harvard grad---good connections here. Dr. Letson did a fellow at Harvard and the fifth yr. resident just matched at Harvard for Onc. Tampa is a great area, beautiful weather and women. Disneyworld 1/2 hr. away. All subspecialties represented but not to the degree that Stanford has. Didactics are solid and facilities pristine.
Weakness: It is fairly new and they were so used to running the system with PA's that residents end up not doing a lot of "resident" work. This could be good or bad depending.

Vermont: Solid Solid program. Residents are real cool and the program has a solid foundation and little turnover of faculty within the last 15 years. Faculty had great personalities and All the Residents Ski whenever they get a chance. Burlington is ice cold in the winter, and very small town. It seems like a good time however. The terrain is almost identical to Washington State. Well known to other programs and residents have no problem getting fellowships. Gym inside hospital (free), food is free and parking free.

BU: Work super hard and do a lot of Trauma. Program director is the man with regards to trauma and makes phone calls for all his residents placing them in their top choices for fellowships. He is very explicit about this. Just started a night float, so call won’t be as bad now. Boston is a great city duh. Expensive though and parking is like 220$ per month, no gym and food is not really free.

Hawaii: Best interview ever! Esp. going to the North Shore the day after the interview. This program seemed like it had great operative experience but seemed to lack organization for resident activities and schedules. In addition funding is not to be found and it seemed most didactics were residents teaching residents which wasn’t necessarily what I wanted. Sports is their niche. Location is mind blowing; however moving out there would be horrible unless you bought all new house/apt. stuff in Hawaii. Food and gas and everything else is expensive.

KU Kansas city: Great Great Great program, would have ranked higher, but wifey wanted out of the Midwest!

Nebraska: Same story as above, there are many posts accurately reflecting Nebraska. Residents are a solid group and they are operating by yr. 1 and 2. Faculty seems a little standoffish. Not as big of a program as I would like. Omaha is dirt cheap and great place to raise family.

SIU: Chair has a vision and will take this program very far. Program Director is a compassionate man and doe a lot of international ortho. Apply here! They have the best lab to practice surgical skills. You can go down any time of day and practice fixing any bone with all the instruments a surgeon would have in the OR. There is also a scope lab that you can practice with every day if you wanted. Springfield is very affordable, but I ranked it so low because of location...wifey.

Columbia Missouri: This was only ranked low because my wife really wanted out of the Midwest and this was the smallest town we interviewed at. It lacks a strong didactic curriculum and research. Things were a bit disorganized leading up to this yr. They were on probation and the Chair left. They now have an amazing Chair from Alabama. In addition they just built a 4 story pure Ortho hospital. Faculty has grown tremendously and I think this will be a top program in 3 yrs-5yrs.

Funny thing about my experience was that I received honors on my UW Seattle rotation and two outstanding LOR from two faculty there. I was denied an interview. I have a feeling that it was due to the guy I worked with in the beginning. He happened to be kind of weird and maybe didn’t like me. To get into UW you must win over the residents. They make or break you.

I had no connections with any ortho guys and had no one make any calls. Its tough to break into the world when you don't know people, but it can happen
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California out of all places!

I found this stuff helpful in the past, so I'll chip in

Med School: Southeast, Public
Boards: Step 1: 238, Step 2:238 (studied for a week and not released)
Rank: No class rank
AOA: No
Rotations: P/F 1st 2 yrs; A's in surgery,peds,psych (not sure how); B+'s in the rest
Ortho: Home, Utah, Emory
Research: significant basic science research in undergrad, a few ortho pubs submitted
Personal Statement: I had a unique story/background that was commented on frequently in interviews

Applied: 47 (primarily in SE and West coast)
Offered: 18
Attended: 13

Top Tier:
Brown - Great program overall. I've interacted with a few of their recent graduates while on sub-I's and was very impressed. They get a great balance of academics, operative experience, and research, which was imp't to me. The 6th yr wasn't a big deal for me, but the fellowship is unaccredited. If you know you want to be an attending, this is the place for you as they have about 50% of their residents go into academics. Providence was average. Got a lukewarm vibe from the residents.

Carolinas - Was blown away on interview day. The program seemed almost too good to be true, but many of the rotators vouched for the program. Seemed to have a great operative experience and they work 1-on-1 with attendings. Have some big names on staff, esp trauma and F/A. Research facilities and opportunities were abundant. Residents were great, tight-knit group. Charlotte was an underrated city. 3 residents a yr was on the smaller side for me, and there didn't seem to be much team work involved.

Emory - rotated here, loved it. The residents were an awesome group, with strong camaraderie. They get early and well-instructed operative experience. You get worked at Grady, but the PACS system makes life a little better. Attendings were very approachable and focused on resident education. Previously lacked a fellowship trained traumatologist, but they are getting one this fall. ATL is a great city, but traffic and crime can be a concern. Didactics and research were good, but lagging behind others in my top tier.

Utah - rotated here, loved it. Most well balanced program I saw. Big name faculty that are all focused on resident education and love their jobs. Early, graduated operative experience and the best didactics I saw. Research is readily available and well-supported. Facilities were great and rest of the housestaff seemed easy to work with. Residents were a great group with a work hard, play hard mentality. SLC is a great place for outdoor enthusiasts, but lacks much of a nightlife. Lots of fellows, but I did not see them affect the resident operative experience. Tough to find a weakness in this program.

UW - Very impressed on interview day. Both the residents and faculty were great to interact with. Great research opportunities. Well balanced program, with great trauma experience. Operative experience was back loaded. Seattle was an awesome city, probably my favorite. Currently searching for a new chair after Matsen stepped down, but Chapman seems like he would be a great chair. Like Utah, they have a lot of fellows. Committee interviews was cool.

Middle Tier:
Campbell Clinic - had heard great things about the program, and it was compared a lot to Emory. Was quite disappointed on interview day. The residents seemed great, but the faculty were just arrogant. Every interviewer asked me the same questions, and didn't know anything about me. That really turned me off with the program. Ranked it in this tier based on reputation and operative experience. And Memphis seemed like a dump.

Georgetown - seemed like a very white collar program. The recently added trauma experience in Fairfax seemed like it would be a great addition to the program. They admittedly didn't have much emphasis on research. Delahay seemed like a great PD who was willing to both bust your balls a little bit. Got the feel that it was like a community program. DC is expensive and has tons of traffic.

UVA - great all-around program. Chhabra is a great PD and will likely be chair there someday. Good balance of research, didactics, and operative experience. Roanoke rotation is 1.5 hrs away and you spend 40 wks there as a 3 and 4, but it is supposedly a good experience. Residents were a great group. CVille is a nice town with tons of culture.

Wake - very underrated program. Has the kind of balance I was looking for, but Winston-Salem wasn't doing it for me. Plenty of volume, good residents. Likely overshadowed by programs to the east, even though they likely get better residency training. Recently lost their big trauma guy (Webb), which will hurt.

Last Tier:
AMC - nice community program, with a hybrid feel. Improving research and academics. Get to work with the best community orthopaedists in ATL. Got a new anatomy lab. Didn't vibe with residents and things seemed too individual there.

Case - great program on paper with everything you could want. Great research oppurtunities and op experience. Residents were ok, and social was a waste of time. Cleveland was recently rated as worst city in US, need I say more.

Indiana - program is under the radar. Lots of research funding. Trained by some great faculty including those at the Hand Center. Can do a rotation with OrthoIndy guys if desired. Anglen seemed like a great chair and was very honest about the program. Indy was much nicer than I was expecting. Residents were very cool.

Kentucky - seemed like a solid program, with a great experience in trauma, peds, and sports. Lacked tumor guy, which was big downer for me. Milbrandt seems like he'd be a great PD, and Johnson has gotten a lot of funding for the program. Building a new hospital. Lexington seemed decent.


I matched at one of the programs in my top tier.

Advice: As you can see looking at my stats, I am average by ortho applicant standards. I have always sucked at standardized tests. However, I matched at a top notch program. I believe I was able to score solid interviews with my scores based on my LOR's, which were commented on in virtually every interview I had b/c they were supposedly great letters from some big names. I believe these are key to differentiating candidates.

So my advice while on sub-I's is this - know more than just anatomy, be confident, don't be a douche, and be helpful. You need to try to show the residents what kind of resident you will be and you can't do that by just following them around. Try to anticipate what they will need, fill out H&P's before you're asked, run and get the C-arm; all simple things that go a long way with residents. Also, as competitive as ortho is these days, you need to know more than before. Anatomy is the minimum. To impress people these days, you need to read Miller's or something like it and know more about ortho pathology. This will differentiate you from the standard rotator.

I also wanted to address the whining about not getting an interview despite rotating. I rotated at a place (Utah) that is notorious for not interviewing all that rotate. Know this before you sign up for it. It's not helpful for anyone to waste a plane ticket and an interview day during the middle of interview season to interview at a place that is not going to rank you highly. On the other hand, I know I would have never gotten an interview there had I not rotated and done well. Thoroughly research where to do aways and ask people for feedback about whether it was a beneficial rotation. If you're planning to get a letter, I wouldn't rotate at a place where you spend each week on a different service b/c the residents and faculty probably won't be able to write you as personal a LOR.

Tired of typing, PM w/ questions.

School - Top 40 USNWR
Step 1 - high 240s
Step 2 - low 250s
Grades - All H 3rd year
Rank - Top 10%
AOA - Yes, as a senior
Research - Some, no pubs; in ortho
Looking for - balance between operative experience and academic reputation. Single, no real geographic preference.
Applied to 40, got over 20 invites, went on 13 interviews plus home program

ROL random order by tiers

TIER 1

IOWA - loved this place. top notch in every way. big names in joints, tumor, upper extremity. really one of the best programs in the country. liked the residents a lot, saw myself fitting in well here.

MAYO - very academic. I wonder about the uniformity of the operative experience. town was a downer for a single guy. still, the opportunities are endless and you can do whatever you want for fellowship.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON - rotated here and loved it. well balanced. great trauma experience at harborview. leaders in every field. top notch research opportunities. seattle would be great for a single guy.

CAMPBELL CLINIC - didn't know what to expect on interview day, but was blown away by this place. the set up they have here is amazing and the operative experience seemed unmatched as there were few fellows. great balance between operative experience and academics. memphis = good bbq. wasn't sure about living in the dirrty south, but i would have definitely done it for this program.

WASH U - very very academic. i got the vibe that i was lucky to have been invited to an interview. still top tier in my opinon as the academics are great and the name will take you wherever you want to go for fellowship. residents were a mixed bunch. didn't get the good vibrations email about chances of matching here, but still ranked it high in case they were by chance mistaken.
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TIER 2

WISCONSIN - great city. incredible spine opportunities here. residents were very happy and outgoing bunch. chairman takes the residents waterskiing... umm are you serious?

FLORIDA - great facilities. good lifestyle. gainesville was a stretch for me being from the midwest.

VANDERBILT - really liked Nashville, but this program has had a lot of faculty leave recently. best benefits i saw. residents were definitely happy. i liked their call schedule as you get killed when you are on, but you're not on very often.

TIER 3 - tired of typing so much

UTSW
EMORY
HOPKINS
MICHIGAN
MARYLAND
(HOME PROGRAM)


MATCH RESULT - in my top 3 programs and couldn't be more excited.

To all the M3s, apply broadly, be humble, don't be a d-bag because I've seen it hose people.

Med School: Midwest State school
Boards: Step 1/Step 2: 210's
Rank: Ranks not disclosed at school
AOA: No
Clinical Grades: Only 4 Honors (including all my ortho sub-I's), no honors in Gen surg, Peds or Medicine
Sub-I's: 3 at home, none away. 1 2nd look
Research: 10+ basic science papers from previous upper level degree, 1 ortho paper submitted
Recommendation Letters: Home chair, 3 ortho surgeons, 1 gen surg
Other: 1 ortho mission trip

Applied: 70+
Pre-interview communication: Lots, see text later.
Offered: 3 interviews (I had no specific connection to the 2 programs other than my home program)
Attended: All of them (Home Program, 1 East Coast, 1 West Coast)

Ranked: all 3 programs
Thank you letter sent: sent emails to PD thanking them for the opportunity and highlighting the things that I liked about the interview & their program
Post-interview contact received: a generic thank you letter

Rank criteria: academics, trauma experience, operative experience, personality fit well with faculty and residents, collegial attitude between residents and faculty.

Text:
First & foremost, matching in ortho can be done even with below average board scores. If one looks at the NRMP data, 70% of people that rank only 3 programs match. I was one of the lucky ones to match, but it was not easy. Here is the story:

After choosing ortho, I pursued every single attending and resource available to devise the best strategy to match. I have a fairly logical reason to go into ortho and compelling experiences, so it was recommended to me to use FRIEDA and share my interest in ortho and my interests in their specific programs with PD.

I researched the different programs in at least three ways: what was available on the program website, what was said in websites like orthogate and by perusing their publications from the last 3 years by using webofscience. If I found interesting papers I read them and mentioned them in my letter.

I mailed 33 letters and 49 emails to PD with about 20 responses. I emailed also 52 program coordinators. One of those replies turned into an invitation for interview. My other invitation for an interview came from a program that had not responded (but certainly read the message).

Having three interviews in the bag and knowing the odds, I turned to look for back up plans. I decided to pursue prelim surg, because I had extensive previous academic experience and wanted to hone my clinical abilities.

The interviews came & went. I loved all three programs where I interviewed. They all have great reputations, provide great training and people get great fellowships & jobs afterwards. I would have been extremely happy at any of them.

I ended up matching at my first choice, which was not my home program. This was a surprise for me, as it is very competitive program and I had not even done an away there or done a second look.

I am sharing this story with you, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I am not advocating this approach. It was gut-wrenching and a lot of work. Also, I think this approached worked only because it was unusual, but who knows... This approach can certainly not overcome the algorithm's or cut-offs used by many programs to select interview candidates:

Resident Selection and Predictors of Performance: Can We Be Evidence Based?
CORR 2006, V:449, 44-49
doi: 10.1097/01.blo.0000224036.46721.d6

Nonetheless, if you are a third year and are thinking about pursuing Ortho, but you don't have the numbers, do some self-reflection. If you are convinced Ortho is IT and you are willing to work hard for it, it can certainly be done. Give it a shot, it may work the first time around.

If you are a first or a second year, I second the advice from mdwstms & previous posts, stop reading orthogate and focus on Step 1 & your classes. It will make your life easier, help with shelf exams and open many doors. If despite your best efforts, you are unable to get great scores, there is always the road described above.

If you did not match, I am sorry about that, but I am sure you can get it done next year or the one after that, if you still want it. My plan was to work on my weaknesses (do an away rotation before finishing med school & do prelim surg). Explore what your weaknesses are and position yourself better next time. Never be afraid to ask for more help/advice. The worst that can happen is somebody will say no and you can move on to other sources of support/advice.

Hope my experience & two cents will help you.

Best of luck.

Med School: DO school
Boards: Step I - 245, Step II - 259 (available took in June)
Rank: Top 15%
AOA/Honor Society: Gold Humanism Honor Society
Research: No publications, did some ortho research between MS1 and MS2

Other Info: Was an Orthopedic Physician Assistant for 3 years before returning to medical school. This was talked about at all my interviews and definitely made me unique.

Aways: I was very particular and researched my aways quite extensively. I knew I was fighting a particularly bold battle applying for allopathic orthopedic position, and always discussed at my interviews. I did aways at Mayo Clinic, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix. Either these programs I knew to be "DO friendly" or have a current or past DO orthopedic resident. I loved all of my away rotations and would of been happy at any of these places.

Applied Over 50
Interviews - 7 (this included my 3 aways)
Ranked 7

Programs in no particular order:

University of Wisconsin - My first interview and I loved this program. The facilities the residents and the faculty were awesome. Loved the program director. Stated I was the first DO they had ever interviewed, because I was different. I thought the training here would be fabulous and one of my favorite places. Surprisingly the downside for me was Madison. It's a college town and with a family and kids, just didn't know if the town fit our family to be honest.

Banner Good Samaritan - Rotated here and was a great program. Definitely train you to be a great general orthopedic surgeon. Have rotations at Mayo Scottsdale and all over Phoenix. Expensive to live here. Great program director a total resident advocate. Have to do one research project a year.

University of Indiana - Another great program training general orthopedic surgeons. Did not feel as though my interview went well here at all. I thought the program itself was fine, just my experience did not go well. Big city for the family to be living in.

Mayo Clinic - Rotated here and loved this program. As a former PA the preceptor style training was very comfortable. I thought the residents were great surgeons and I felt I fit in here great. Definitely more academic compared to other programs and it's in Rochester, which was a fabulous town especially for the wife and kids. Great size, plenty to do, great living possibilities, and close to Minneapolis.

Southern Illinois University - Smaller community program that has a lot to offer. I was shocked by this place and it ended up high on my list. Affordable town, (Springfield) very livable, again training good general orthopods and had fabulous OITE scores. Really enjoyed the program director and the interview time. Felt it was one of my better interviews.

University of Nebraska - Rotated here and this program is a typical team based residency program. Program director is definitely one of the strengths and goes to bat for his residents. Just a down to earth guy and a great teacher. The program has added some new faculty and has all the bases covered, except spine, which is done out in community. VA program and children's hospital right in Omaha. Residents were strong and got their fellowships or went on to practice general orthopedics. Omaha is a great midwest town to raise kids in.

University of Toledo - It's Toledo. I thought the program provided good training. Nice facilities. Big draw back was 4 month away rotation for pediatrics I believe.

Contact: Had contact from two programs that I was high on their list to match, and one program contacted me after the match asking why I didn't match there.

Matched: I don't have tiers obviously since only 7, and ranked all 7. I matched near the top of my list and am very happy about being an orthopedic surgeon.

Final Comments: I returned to medical school to be an orthopedic surgeon. Location was a big thing for my family and biggest factor for ranking of the programs. Secondly was fit where I felt I would fit the best. The rest all ran together.

DO's looking to go Allopathic: Obviously DO's in the orthopedic allopathic world are the proverbial unicorn to be honest. You have to really be OK with possibly not matching. Two of the places I interviewed at (not including away rotations) stated I was the first DO they had ever interviewed. Would things have been different if the initials were reversed? Who knows possibly, but then again DO's do have their own match for DO's (only MD's can't enter into it), yet I can enter into the allopathic match, which makes absolutely no sense, but that's another debate topic for another day.

You have to take USMLE and dominate it and be compared apples to apples. Rotate at places that are DO friendly or give automatic interviews to rotators. I'm blessed to have matched where I matched, but don't know if I would recommend it to other DO's unless you have a real strong reason for forgoing the DO match and you'll have to articulate this well on the interview trail.

Good luck to all and welcome all to the ortho family![/b]

Med School: Southeast, Public
Boards: Step 1: 255; Step 2: 271 (taken & released in Nov)
Rank: No ranking at our school
AOA: No
Rotations: All Honors
Ortho: Home, Oregon, Colorado (All Honors)
Research: 1 non-ortho project, but I was not part of the publication
Extracurriculars: Former varsity athlete

What I was looking for: I wanted a program that focused on resident education. I liked the preceptor model at my home program and used that as a comparison. Early operative experience was more important than outstanding research. Geographically I wanted to go somewhere with ample outdoor activities i.e. Skiing.

Applied: 48
Offered: 26
Attended: 16

Tier 1: I have posted my exact ROL in previous posts but I like this format.

CMC- Outstanding program with excellent didactics and major operative experience. Residents were a competent and friendly group. Research is a big presence in this "community" program more so then many academic institutions. The facilities were great and they really sold the program well on interview day.

Utah- I like everything about this program. Early operative exposure, strong didactics, active researchers, night float. The facilities were all on the same campus. Attendings seemed very friendly and committed to teaching residents. Lots of fellows but both residents and faculty emphasized the importance of training residents.

Vermont- This program seemed out of place in my top tier but I loved Burlington specifically and Vermont in general. They were almost identical to my home program in terms of preceptor set-up and lack of fellows which was a big bonus. I went on a second look here and really enjoyed the didactics. Trauma and Peds/Tumor are a bit light but no glaring deficiencies.

Wash U- Probably the strongest program I interviewed at. Did not do a second look but got the "Highly Competitive" email from Dr. Wright. They have an outstanding faculty with big names across the board. Residents were all happy and loved living in St. Louis. Fully funded international elective was a plus. Facilities were top-notch.

Tier 2:

Colorado- Did an away here and loved it. The trauma experience at Denver Health is amazing and as a result the residents get excellent training and operative experience. Didactics are improving and occur mostly on one day a week on the main campus in Aurora. Faculty enjoy interacting with the residents however there were a few at Denver Health who were not as receptive to students. Denver is one of my favorite cities.

New Mexico- This program surprised me. I did not know much about it until interview day but they are a strong program. The faculty are committed to training residents and the didactics seemed excellent. Albuquerque is another great city for outdoor enthusiasts.

Oregon- Rotated here. The program has undergone drastic changes under Dr. Yu and it is really starting to take effect. The new faculty are eager to teach residents and are committed to Dr. Yu's vision of the program. They are becoming more active in research and didactics were very good. Residents were very competent but seemed harder to read but overall a friendly group that loves doing things outdoors. Portland is my favorite city and I loved hiking around Mt. Hood, the Gorge and the coast is only 90 min away.

UNC- Excellent program with solid leadership (Dirschl). Preceptor style rotations with no fellows equates to excellent opportunities for residents. Didactics are daily and very strong. Trauma can be light at UNC but residents rotate in Raleigh where they experience high-volume trauma. Historically they have struggled with turnover but they have just added a hand surgeon and sports and are looking to hire a joints surgeon. Chapel Hill is a great college town and nice place to live. Not as many outdoor activities nearby but the mtns are 3 hours away and the beach is 2 hrs away.

Tier 3:
Brown-
Cleveland Clinic-
Dartmouth-
Greenville-

Tier 4:
Harvard-
Kentucky-
Maryland-
Miami-

Outcome: I matched in my 2nd Tier and was a bit surprised initially based on feedback I had received from Wash U and others who basically told me to choose my number one carefully because I would likely end up there. I am happy because the program I matched at still has everything I am looking for in a residency.

Advice: It has been said before but choose your away rotations carefully. Do your research, call and email current residents to get their take. I ranked the places I rotated at lower then I would have liked but I was trying to be objective and that may have hurt my chances at them. Away rotations are golden and you should take full advantage of that month.

Posted: 21 Mar 2010 16:26 Post subject:

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Med School: Midwest, mid-tier private
Boards: Step 1: high 240s; Step 2: high 250s (taken & released in Dec)
Rank: no ranking at our school; using AOA selection, unofficially in top 5%
AOA: Junior AOA
Preclinicals: Honors in all the big classes except Pharm, H/HP in smaller classes
Clinicals: All Honors except neurology
Ortho: Home as a JMS and SMS, 1 Away (Rush). All honors.
Research: 1 ortho project, but I was not part of the publication
Extracurriculars: AOA, International volunteering between 1st & 2nd year, Free Clinic for uninsured, curriculum council member, lots of other stuff.

What I was looking for: I wanted to go to a well-regarded program where the residents were well-trained, cohesive, and happy. Broad opportunities for fellowship & practice after graduating was important to me. I wanted Minimal malignant behavior from attendings. Program size and location didn't matter very much; so long as it had 4 or more residents/year & was someplace I could see myself living I was fine with it. I like teaching & wanted to be able to interact with students, junior residents, etc.

Applied: 50
Offered: 16
Attended: 14

Tier 1:
Rush: Rotated & loved it. Deservedly well-regarded for their faculty and research, it's surprising how down-to-earth and easy to work with the faculty are. They're great. The residents, however, are the best part of the program: great personalities, fun to work with, hard-working, & very intelligent. Quite cohesive, too. A question mark with Rush has been their operative experience (many fellows on Joints & Sports), but I don't think it's a big problem. On joints, junior residents double scrubbed if only one room was going, and chiefs always had their own room. As a student, the fellows were AWESOME as they let you do a ton. Further, the residents spend time at Cook County, Shriner's, and in Rockford, and they operate a ton & independently at those places. Bottom line: the chiefs were confident, happy, and off to outstanding fellowships after living in downtown Chicago for 5 years. What's not to like?

Mayo: The program with the most resources & opportunities of any I interviewed at. The potential available to you is essentially unlimited. The research year is an example: you can take 2nd year to do research, get a master's degree doing it, and because there is so much flexibility in scheduling you do busier rotations PGY 3-5 and graduate with the same caseload as non-research students. Huge. You will be impressed by Mayo, you just have to ask "can I live in Rochester?" For me, the answer was "yes," so I ranked it high. The main downside was that with the mentorship model I think it might get rather lonely, as I do like working as part of a team.

Brown: Awesome program. Probably the best trained graduates out of any program I saw, based on how the years were arranged & balanced exposure to everything. I was ok but not enamored with the 6th year. It's an UNACCREDITED trauma fellowship, but everyone does a real fellowship after graduating anyway so not getting the accreditation wasn't a deal-breaker for me. You get almost a full year of research time over the course of your residency, which was great. That being said, I do NOT think the residents necessarily get any more out of the PGY-6 year than they would stopping after PGY5 and doing a fellowship anywhere else, and even if you get $120K for the year, if you can get done with residency & a real fellowship in 6 years, you'll probably be starting out at $250-350K, so financially you're still taking a hit. I just looked at it as spending an extra year at an outstanding program to make you a top-notch surgeon, not a fellowship or attending year or whatever they were trying to sell it as, and I was ok with that. Providence seemed quite nice, residents were cool.

Vanderbilt: Blown away on interview day. Didn't know what to expect as I hadn't rotated & had recently interviewed at Campbell Clinic (see below), but this place is awesome. The facilities were beautiful, and educational opportunities there excellent. From top to bottom, people were happy. Residents were great & got a fantastic education with great fellowships after. Nashville seemed like a really cool city; driving around in Jan there were people outside playing football--coming from the frozen midwest, how sweet is that? Cool downtown, too. I went to the Smokies after the interview & hiked around, and having those nearby would have made residency that much better. Downside of getting killed as a 2nd year, but it seemed like everyone got through it & was the better for it, so I was ok with it.

Tier 2:
Case Western: Top-notch program in every way except location. Faculty, resources, opportunities, facilities, etc., were all excellent. Residents seemed nice. They rescheduled my interview day after I missed my original interview due to a cancelled flight, which I took as a great sign. In terms of overall quality of the program it was probably in the top 3 of the places I interviewed, but I was not thrilled with Cleveland. I would have lived there for the program, no question, but that still it took it down a notch.

U of Chicago: One of my favorite interviews. Dr. Peabody seems awesome, and one of the few chairs openly more interested in education than research. Chief residents were off to great fellowships, seemed very happy/confident with their education, and overall resident cohesiveness seemed great. One of the faculty from my home program is a recent graduate from here & regarded by many residents as one of the best surgeons in the department, so that helped. Did not like how much driving the residents seemed to have to do, though--none of them live near the hospital, and even if they did, they are often travelling far around the city to get to their sites. And in Chicago, the less time in your car, the better.

Northwestern: Managed to get an interview here without rotating--so apply, it's possible. The fanciest program in Chicago: gorgeous hospital in the best location in the city. The residents seemed happy with their education (though I suppose who doesn't?), and interacted with each other very well. Education seemed solid. I was turned off by the surprisingly small academic component to the program, though--most teaching faculty are private. Per rotators I met on the trail, research isn't a big part of the program and opportunities are there but not anything special. Operative experience was also something of a question for me, but their Peds exposure is outstanding, and as I'm interested in that I ranked them somewhat higher.

Tufts: What's not to like about getting to learn ortho in Boston? Residents seemed very happy & got solid fellowships. Excellent exposure to 3 big types of practice settings: academic, high-complexity private, and bread-&-butter private. Downside of having to drive a lot to get to those locations. Chairman touting all the "young, new faculty" at Tufts/NEMC made me a bit leery, though--that seemed to imply faculty turnover & people having recently left. I'd imagine training is fine but I was looking for more program stability. Trauma exposure at Tufts is minimal, so they go to Brown. Since I ranked Brown higher, I was ok with this. However, I knocked them down a few spots because they did not reschedule interviews for students kept out of Boston by a giant snowstorm, and this wasn't a good sign to me.

Tier 3:
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison: I love Madison dearly. I'm from WI originally & I did undergrad here. The program seems top-notch in every way, and honestly, I would have loved to go here. But I thought it'd be better for me, personally, to see something other than Madison again. But to prospective applicants, appy here: it's a sweet place to be & learn for 5 years.

Medical College of WI: An excellent, highly underrated program. The chief residents here are some of the most confident I've seen, and get a great, balanced exposure to all the specialties. Chairman is genuinely great guy & cares deeply about the program & residents; PD is a great resident advocate. Residents are awesome. Only downside for me was that, like UW-Madison, I didn't want to be in Wisconsin again.

Vermont: Gem of a program in the northeast. The faculty seemed to make teaching residents their #1 priority, and consequently the residents seemed to get a great education. Location is remote, yes, but gorgeous. Mayo is remote & surrounded by cornfields. Vermont is remote & surrounded by lakes, mountains, rivers...it's a giant wilderness playground. Residents seemed very happy. Downsides were weak peds exposure, 3 residents/class, and a very small city (it's only like 30-50K, I think).

Campbell Clinic: I think this is a love-or-hate program, and honestly, I hated it. I did not feel welcome at the interview. At least 1/3 of the interviewers basically asked me "so, would you really come here?" in a dismissive way that suggested they expected "no." 2/3 to 3/4 of the interviewers asked me if I was married or single--I get one or two people just being curious, but seriously, why did that many care? I got the sense from some other applicants, too, that they're unhealthily interested in your personal life. Also, nobody--NOBODY--read my application. At least take 3 or 4 minutes before calling me in the room to quickly glance over stuff & pick some questions. Essentially every interviewer sat shuffling through my file. Maybe it was some sort of strange test, but I thought it was rather unprofessional & showed little regard for potential residents. Regarding the program structure, I think they do too much trauma. You have a trauma rotation every year, including 6 months of your PGY2 year, of which 3 months of that is spent 24 hours on & 24 hours off all month. That seemed miserable to me; trauma is just one of many ortho subspecialties & you have to represent them all (though it'd be top-notch if you want to do trauma). Also, they do too much driving around the city for my taste. I did not like Memphis. That said, there are huge names at this program, the residents seemed like a good bunch & very happy to be there (fitting with my love-it-or-hate-it thinking), and I do think training is excellent. You can do anything you want coming out of here, so I still ranked it.

NOT RANKED
UIC: A decent, well-rounded program. Residents were happy. That said, way, way too much driving site-to-site in Chicago. They were put on probabation for having too many sites (amongst other reasons), and cut it back from utterly ridiculous to just crazy. But, oddly, they did so by pulling out of 2 sites within walking distance of their main hospital: Cook County & the VA. Also, while in conference at the interview they made at least 4-5 somewhat dismissive/insecure references to what "the people across the street" (meaning Rush) do, which did not speak well to me. I did not rank them because they are still on probabtion. The chair told us at the interview that they would give us an update regarding their status prior to our rank lists being due, but this did not happen, & I took that as a bad sign.

Akron General: Seemed like they produced well-trained surgeons & were a very cohesive bunch. Faculty seemed nice. Benefits are, indeed, excellent. I just did not want to live in Akron, and I wasn't sold on how they don't have set rotations. I could see that making sense as a senior resident but it'd be maddening & unproductive for me as a junior resident. It seemed at the interview that many of the residents "ended up" in Akron because they dropped that far down on their rank list, rather than genuinely wanting to go there, which didn't thrill me either.

Matched in my top tier and I am thrilled!

My advice to future applicants: Matching can be surprisingly easy, yet, of course, it's very difficult to do everything you need to. You MUST: 1) Kill your board exams. Take Step 2 early regardless because it's an easier test than 1 & if you do well, you can release it. 2) Get as many honors as you can 3rd year (hell, every year). Just medicine & surgery & ortho is not enough. Honor everything, if you can. 3) Ortho aways are fundamental. They are taken as a sign of where in the country you want to do residency, so choose wisely. Work hard on them, obviously. 4) Get some research under your belt, because everyone asks. 5) Make sure to have some interesting, different stuff on your CV. At least 12 or 13 of the 14 places I interviewed asked about interesting non-medical stuff on my CV, because that's what made me unique. 6) Get as many letters as you can & "target" them based on residency/fellowship connections. 7) Apply broadly. Apps are not the time to be frugal, even if you're the best applicant ever. 8 ) Remember to thank people. I'm not talking about the post-interview thank you letter. Thank your 3rd year preceptors. Thank your letter writers, ortho preceptors, and residents before and after match. Thank the course coordinators who helped you set up rotations. Don't be a suckup or anything, but it's polite behavior & frankly, people talk. You want them to say good things about you.

Congrats to those that matched & good luck to those in future years!

Med School: State School
Boards: Step 1: 264; Step 2: 269 (taken early)
Rank: 1/100ish
Awards: Top 1st Year, Top 2nd Year, and right now nominee for Top Medicine and Surgery Student (TBD in May)
AOA: Junior AOA
GHHS: Yep
Clinical Grades: All Honors
Ortho: Home program (ranked but not listed on rank list for anonymity reasons) and two aways (CMC and UFlorida)
Research: Lots of basic science research. 2 Non-ortho publications from undergrad. 1 Non ortho basic science project in med school (not published) and 1 ortho project (manuscript written, not published)
Extracurriculars: AOA President, AMA President, Surgery Interest Vice-President
Post Interview Contact: 3 programs told me I am in top X.
What was I looking for in a program: I applied only on east coast and was not terribly interested in really big cities (NY, Chicago, Cleveland) or very remote places (Rochester, Iowa) so interviews in those areas were more likely to be cancelled. Well-balanced is the best way to describe what I was looking for in a program. I want to be prepared for whatever career path I choose (academics/private/hybrid). Finding a place with great OR experience and strong research was key. I preferred not to spend any time away but was willing to compromise that for a great program. All this being said, I would say that “feel” became king when it came time to make my rank list.

Applied: 43
Offered: 28
Attended: 16 (ranked all research years)
Notable Offers: Iowa, Mayo, USF, Case Western (places I wish I hadn’t canceled for what I went on)

I apologize for what may sound like gushing over CMC especially since I matched there, but since I posted this already on the ROL 2010 thread pre-match I don’t feel as bad/biased. I also had more to say about it since I rotated there. Also since I already posted my list I see no need to try and randomize them into tiers. I would have been thrilled at my top 7 and very happy at my top 14.

1. Carolinas Medical Center - Rotated here and loved it. The show they put on on interview day is very accurate (if not on the modest side). The thing that impressed me the most was how talented and intelligent all the residents were. I thought everyone I worked with was at least a pgy-5 based on their OR skill and knowledge (turned out I was working mostly with 2's and 3's). They have the case volume, efficiency, and facilities of a community program, but the case variety and research of a large academic institution. They could easily train 8 residents a year - less than half of the cases done are scrubbed by a resident. Residents operate a TON and are never with a fellow (except advanced trauma cases). Great perks, great facilities, great residents. They have the best of both worlds (community + academic) and they excel at everything they do. There are no away rotations which is great to not have to leave my wife. I love the 1-month preceptorship model. This way you get 1 on 1 attention but still work with multiple attendings in each field. Lifestyle suffers a bit to fit in the OP experience but they have no problem staying below 80 hours (you may push it on trauma though) especially now that they have a night float. Charlotte is my favorite city in America.

2. Duke - Got a great vibe here on interview day and at the dinner. The residents were all great and clearly had a ton of pride in their program. Probably some of the best OR experience of the "Big Names" partly due to their VA rotations. Durham is nicer than people think, you just have to live in the right areas. Living 6 months away didn’t bother me much even though I am married. On my second look the residents were all super cool and easy to get along with. The trauma cases were all theirs. A couple things worried me: I scrubbed in a total hip and the fellow just retracted and closed and had really no role in the case. The attendings were a little handsy on some of the sports cases I saw but the resident (PGY-5) seemed very good with the scope and knot tying so he obviously got great training along the way. I also wonder why they are so scared of matching outside of their top 8.

3. UVA (5+6) - Great training in a beautiful town. Chhabra's dedication to education and making UVA the best program it can be is obvious. I feel like everything will be very stable for years to come. Roanoke rotations don't bother me much and sound like a great asset to the program. I feel like this program had a great balance between academics and community experience. The research year is entirely basic science and what a put off because of my extensive basic science experience already.

4. Campbell Clinic - Did not rotate here but heard great things from those that did. It sounds very similar to CMC but in a worse location (for me at least). Again I felt very comfortable here and really liked all the residents. Another hybrid program that excels at everything they do.

5. Brown - Great training and good vibe. Personality wise was a great fit too. The 6th year isn't ideal but at least you make >100k on that last year. No nightfloat was a turnoff.

6. Florida - If they had a better location I would have ranked them higher. Very relaxed feel with a good work/life balance. Great facilities. Gearen and Scarborough are both excellent mentors. Maybe a little more fellow heavy than they should be. Research is there but DEFINANTLY not emphasized at all. They do get plenty of trauma which is something people may think is a weakness here.

7. Dartmouth (6+5) - Again, another program I loved in a less than ideal location for me. The hospital is very nice with lots of windows to get some natural sunlight during the day. No fellows to compete with for cases and the program seems dedicated to resident education. A little light on trauma but everyone feels it more than enough to get good at the bread and butter cases (but is it enough to deal with complications?). The extra year to get a masters in outcomes research I expect would serve me well in what I want out of my career.

8. UNC (6+5) - Another program similar to Dartmouth and UVA in its obvious dedication to resident education. No fellows. I liked the residents a lot and Chapel Hill is a great town.

9. Pitt (5+6) - They put on a good show on interview day but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was disingenuous. I had a couple friends rotate here and were miserable so that may have been it. Still a big name place with probably the best research in the country. The residents were not very approachable or social at the dinner. Big name moved it up 1 spot.

10. Wake Forest - Very good well balanced program. Winston Salem is a great town to start a family. Had some weird interactions at the social. I’m sure they offer great training, but are a little overshadowed by CMC and Duke.

11. Jefferson - Too heavy in spine and joints which may take away from other aspects of their training. I’m not really a big city person so that probably didn't help much. Just didn't feel like a great fit for me especially since balance is probably the most important thing I was looking for. I missed the social because of plane delays. Big name moved it up 1 spot. If I went into ortho knowing I want to do spine, this is probably the place to be.

12. Atlanta Medical Center - I loved this interview day, in fact I had my 2 favorite interviews here. I liked the residents a lot. Was probably too community for me and not enough research. I’m not a big city person so that didn't help. In hind sight I wish I had ranked them higher...oh well didn’t matter anyway.

13. Ohio State (6+5) - Liked the program a lot. The brutal honesty of the new chair was refreshing. Columbus was a little too dreary for me most of the year and I am someone who's mood is very affected by the weather. Other wise the current state of flux scared me off a little bit. It sounds like the program will have a lot of support and funding from the rest of the medical center and will be a powerhouse in a couple years. Research year can be taken during the PGY-3 year and by then one should have a better idea what they will be doing with their career and can tailor their research year around it.

14. Greenville - Great program with great residents. Was not academic enough for me. Otherwise would have been much higher.

15. George Washington - Wish I hadn't cancelled interviews to go to this one. I liked the residents a lot but the chair rubbed me the wrong way. I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual and he will not be ranking me. DC is the most frustrating city I've been in. Very few residents own a house which kind of sucks when you are married and plan on starting a family in residency.

Matched at my top choice CMC and couldn’t be happier! Although I would have been very happy at every place on my list, CMC was truly the perfect storm between location and what I was looking for in training. The OrthoCarolina guys and the Campbell clinic guys are doing EXACTLY what I want to with my career: being in private practice but still involved in resident education and research.

I would recommend spending a long time figuring out what you want out of a program and where you want to live when you are choosing your away rotations. I would NOT recommend doing an away rotation just for a big name letter unless that is a place you would like to go.

Go on as many interviews as you can stand. The reason for this is you never know when you are going to be blown away by a program you really knew nothing about. It also lets you see how programs differ and makes it easier to define things you like and don’t like in a program.

As everyone has said before, there is really no “best” program. If I wanted different things out of my training my list would have looked COMPLETELY different. One thing that may be helpful is to write down what things you want in your career and residency and rate how each program fulfills each aspect. Do this after each interview because by the end of interview season the programs all start to run together.

If you are married, make sure your SO is on board with your list. 5 or 6 years is a long time and there is no need to live somewhere you hate because there are so many great programs out there. Besides, your happiness will be greatly affected if your SO is miserable.

Go to every social you can because getting along with your fellow residents is SO IMPORTANT and this is really the best way to get to know them. Socials with very few residents should be a big red flag.

I posted this on the other thread, but I'll transfer it for the crew next year. I hope this helps the average, Midwest applicants because I know these threads are pretty heavily tipped toward upper tier programs.

USMLE score: 237(step 1)/233(step 2 - not sent, taken in Feb)
Applied: 75
Offered: 15 (went on 12 due to conflicts)
Ranked: 15 (11 interviews, 2 aways, 2 6 yr options, and I didn't rank 1 pretty well known place because I hated the interview so much)
Research/publications: 3 - 1 ortho, 2 non-ortho
Grades: Honors in Medicine, Surgery, Plastics elective, Orthox2 (but HP at home rotation - why, I still don't know). High Pass in all others except Pass in OB/Gyn
AOA: Nope
Any advice for the next generation of hopefuls: Don't be bashful about applying to a ton of programs. The most important thing is that you match. Trust me, you'd rather get 10 interviews at mid-level programs than 2 at prestigious ones. I'm a pretty average applicant, and I'm glad I applied to a ton of community programs and local programs. It's always fun to do a few places that are "dreams" but it's much more effective to do a TON of schools you think are safety programs.

TIER 1: (ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Colorado: I mean, c'mon, it's Colorado. I did an away rotation here, and I loved it. The residents are great (they even have a monster truck that they take to CU football games), they have excellent Trauma and the staff are top notch. They are a little short on foot/ankle, but the rest of the program was so strong that I sort of overlooked that.

Tufts: I wasn't sure I would really like this place - but I was blown away by the residents on my interview day. I stayed out until about 3 am drinking with them and shooting the s$(& - they had very positive things to say about the program, and they all were headed to amazing fellowships. Boston is unreal, and they are located right in the heart of the city. Another program that probably gets overlooked because of all of the programs nearby, but I think this place has a much better operative experience than those other "name" programs (of course that's my opinion since I interviewed @ Tufts and not the others...haha).

UNC: This place is really a diamond in the rough. It's so close to Duke and Wake that I think it sometimes gets overlooked - but they have an outstanding program with well known surgeons. Dirschl is a great chair, and Dahners is a Trauma wizard. The didactics here are also probably the best I've seen anywhere. And... being on campus at Chapel Hill gives way to a lot of nice "scenery."

TIER 2:

Akron General: Another program that completely surprised me. This place is unreal. The benefits are 2nd to none, the residents are super cool, and they continually score in the top levels on the OITE. Their caseload is psychotic and I think most of these guys(and girls) feel comfortably tackling just about any surgery they see. This place probably could've gone higher, but being in Akron bumped it down a bit as well as the fact that they don't do "set rotations" (meaning that you may cover a bit of joint/sports/hand, etc all at the same time). There are pluses and minuses to that - but it's less my style. Even so, I'd be more than happy if this is where I ended up.

Henry Ford: I think people knock this program because it's in Detroit, but I was really impressed with both the facilities and the staff. The residents all seemed friendly, and liked to joke around - and the Chairman is a HUGE advocate for the residents (I don't think you'd ever have to pay for a book if you go to this program). It seems like the experience here would be excellent. They also cover some of the local sports teams, which is always a fun perk.

Medical College of Wisconsin: I rotated here. It's only this high because my girlfriend (soon to be fiance) really likes Milwaukee. It's an outstanding program with unbelievable trauma - you will be a good surgeon by the time you're done here. Schmeling (PD) and Roberts are probably the most skilled traumatologists I've seen. The residents are a good group, and the lower classes are especially fun to work with. I'm not sure my personality fits in here very well, but it would sure make my g/f happy - and you know what they say... happy wife [to be, I guess], happy life.

West Virginia: Morgantown is the #1 party school in America - enough said. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect here - but this seems like a program on the rise. They just hired a new well known peds guy and it looks like the program is really rounding out. The residents put on a slide show during the interview day, which basically made me rank this place here instead of lower - they seemed like a great group that like to have fun together, and they're constantly ripping on each other -which is just my style of humor.

TIER 3:

Detroit Med Ctr: Honestly, I don't know what to think about this place. Dr. Blaser (the PD) lambasted my research during my interview, and it really turned me off to the proram (despite really enjoying all of my other interviews). They take you to a Wings game the night before, which was awesome - and the residents are a fun group of guys to hang out/drink with. They cover the Wings for sure, and I think the Pistons (although I'm not sure) - which, again, is kind of cool.

Marshall (WV): This is an up and coming program. The chairman is a very amicable guy - and he will definitely win you over during your interview there. The only caveat about this place is that they interview about 90 people and only rank 30. So choose wisely if this ends up conflicting with other places. They've got a solid foundation in place, and I think in 5-10 years, this may be one of the top programs in the region.

U of Kansas - Wichita: Another program that wasn't on my radar until I got there. Some things you should know about this place: the Chairman basically said that he doesn't like to interview people from the coasts because they are so much less likely to A. Keep their interview appt, and B. Rank them highly. Also, you MUST do the handwritten essay (he basically just wants to see that he can read your handwriting and that you're willing to take the time to do it). I had a 30 minute conversation about guns/hunting with some of the residents here - so if you're in to outdoor activities, this is a good place to check out. Although they are a university program, they function sort of like a community hospital, and I think this is a huge benefit because you get a huge amount of cases and 1:1 attention.

TIER 4:

McLaren (Flint): This is another hidden gem. If you want an interview here, you should apply early though because they send out invites really quick. They only take 2/yr, but they have a huge caseload and the staff are all fellowship trained from well known places. The main reason it's not higher/the major downside is that they send you to Washington state to do your Peds rotation - just didn't seem like something I would do if I had the choice (the upside is that they ALL say it's an incredible experience and that they are basically the primary surgeon on every case out there).

St. Louis University: This place could have easily been somewhere in my top 5 if it weren't a 6 year program. Yeah, it's a mandatory 6 years here. Honestly, I think they have an amazing program and outstanding staff, I just couldn't justify ranking it higher because the opportunity cost of that extra year is so great when you factor in a fellowship.

Wayne State: Going against what I said above, even though this is a 5 year program - it didn't strike me as very stable. They literally got their "go ahead" weeks before we interviewed there and the staff all talked about how they were planning on retiring during my interview. I think if they survive the first 5 years, they'll have a really solid program because they have the facilities and the funding, but I just worry that the RRC won't look to kindly upon a lot of turnover in the first few years.

I ended up matching in my TIER 1! I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE NEXT YEAR!!

Med School: State school
Boards: Step 1: 250+/Step 2: Taken late and not available for ERAS
Rank: No “official” class rank, but top 10%
AOA: Yes
Clinical Grades: All Honors except for peds
Ortho Sub-I: Home program + 2 aways. Honors in all three.
Research: A few ortho projects, 0 publications
Letters: Probably one of the greatest strengths of my application. 1 home ortho chair, 1 well-known ortho mentor, 1 ortho research, and 1 ortho away. My letters were brought up and commented on how impressive they were at almost every interview.
Applied: 50+ - I know, some will say that’s too many but I looked at the application process as an investment in the rest of career, so I thought the few hundred extra $$$ was just a small drop in the bucket in the long run. Remember, it’s much better to have too many interviews than not enough!
Offered: 30+
Attended: 17 – Again, it’s better to be able to pick and choose which interviews you really want to attend. Went in initially with the mindset that I would attend as many as possible in order to look at the different programs plus I enjoy traveling, but by the end of December I was exhausted and cancelled 6-8 interviews that were scheduled in January that I wasn’t highly interested in anyways.
Ranked: 16
Post-Interview Contact: I was told by 5 programs I was ranked in their top X (with X being the number of spots in the PGY-1 class)
Additional Advice: Once you submit your application, make an Excel spreadsheet with the names of the programs and their interview dates if you can find them (either posted on their website, or you can email/call the program coordinator). This will allow you to pick the dates with the least amount of overlap and minimize scheduling conflicts. Also, have a phone with email access that will allow you to respond immediately to interview offers. There are typically only 2-3 dates available for each program and the desirable ones fill up extremely fast.
What was I looking for in a program? I wanted to go to a program that offered a great operative experience, covered all subspecialties (breadth, depth), had a strong reputation and fellowship placement track record, good opportunities for research, a low cost of living, and residents/attendings that were fun to be around (collegial). Balance between operative experience and academics was a key thing that I looked for, because I preferred a program that didn’t sacrifice either one too much. Extras included location (smaller city or town) and, if possible, warm weather.

Programs Ranked Alphabetically by Tiers:

Tier 1:
Duke – A strong program that provides great subspecialty coverage and has good depth within each field. The interview day was one of the best I saw, and everyone there (including the residents) will basically have your application memorized and know everything about you. They seem genuinely interested in getting to know you and are very proud of their program. They have night float if that is what you are looking for and Durham offers a good quality of living with warm weather.
Iowa – I heard from a number of people even before my interview that this was a great program. It has a strong tradition and their Chair (Dr. Buckwalter) is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. They have a ton of research opportunities and are one of the top in the nation in terms of academic production. With that being said, I feel you also receive a great operative experience and overall it was a well-balanced program. I actually really liked Iowa City as it is a Big Ten college town and would be a good place to live whether you are single or have a family. However, if you want to live in a big city this program is probably not for you.
Mayo – Well, it’s The Mayo Clinic. Their facilities are amazing and if you are interested in research you will have every opportunity imaginable. They have a preceptorship-type model where you work one-on-one with an attending vs. a standard team-based model. Whether this is good or bad depends on what you are looking for. Personally, I like the team-based model better, but at Mayo you are working very closely with world leaders in the field. One of the biggest drawbacks for me was the location. Rochester is far from my family and can get very cold. However, it is affordable and if you have a family you will be able to easily get a nice house.
Vanderbilt – This is a strong program in an awesome location. Every subspecialty is covered and the residents are a great group of people. If offers one of the best operative experiences I have seen if that is what you are looking for. Also has a good variety of research opportunities available, making it another well-balanced program. You really can’t find a better location to live than Nashville as it offers most amenities/entertainment/restaurants/bars/etc. as a larger city, yet it is still affordable and has a high quality of living if you have a family. Oh, and warm weather is always a plus.

Tier 2:
Harvard – Another top program that will get you wherever you want to go in your career. Tons of research opportunities, great facilities, attendings are leaders in the field, and the program has a very strong tradition. Although every subspecialty is covered very well and the depth is outstanding, I felt that as a resident your operative experience was limited in comparison to some of the other programs I saw. The only other drawback for me besides limited early operative experience was location, as I did not want to live in a huge city. A lot of people love Boston, so if you are looking for a top program in a large city and want to pursue academic medicine you should definitely check it out.
Utah – In my opinion, this is one of the best programs in the West. Word is getting out about how great of a place this is so it’s getting more and more competitive every year. Great balance between operative experience and academics, and their facilities are top notch. Everyone I met on interview day was nice and it seemed like a good group of people. If you are into the outdoors, I don’t think you will find a better location than this.
Wash-U St. Louis – This program was impressive. They have great facilities, a good balance between academics and OR experience, deep coverage in every subspecialty, and a night float system. Although they have quite a few fellows, I didn’t get the sense that they stole many cases from the residents. The Chair and PD emphasized the importance of resident education, which I believed. Oh, and their didactics were one of the most comprehensive and organized that I have seen. The interview day, however, was more “stuffy” than others and I got the impression that there wasn’t as much of a collegial relationship between residents and attendings. St Louis also wasn’t a place where I was excited about potentially living for 5 years.
Wisconsin – This program may be under the radar to some, but it is one that you will be impressed with. Their level of organization within the residency, collegial atmosphere, and lifestyle were great. From what I gathered, one of their strongest subspecialties is spine. Location is another Big Ten college town (very similar to Iowa City), and is consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the US.


Tier 3:
Brown – This program offers both a great operative experience and strong academics. Their trauma is exceptional and this is a program you should strongly consider if you want to pursue academic medicine. Although New England wasn’t my ideal location, I liked Providence and you’re right on the water. The only real downside for me was the 6th year. Although it sounds like a great experience for some, it just wasn’t for me.
Case Western – This was my first interview and I walked away impressed with the program. They have great facilities, a Chair that is excited about training the next generation of leaders in the field, good coverage of all subspecialties, and a good balance of OR experience and academics. One thing that was unique about this program from the others I interviewed at was 2 out of the 6 residents do an extra research year. If you are looking to take an extra year and devote solely to research, then this would be a great program for you. The thing I didn’t like was those 2 residents are decided amongst the 6 of you, and if 2 don’t want to volunteer than it turns into a “lottery” type assignment.
Yale – The first thing you’ll experience if you get an interview there is an amazing dinner the night before. All of the residents and attending were a great group and the interviews were very laid back. I really liked the program and one thing that was stood out to me was you get a good mix of academic and private practice experience. You also get quite a bit of research time built in to your 5 years. The residents all seemed to love the program and were all very happy. Location wasn’t ideal for me, but I think this would have been a program I would have enjoyed.

Tier 4:
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Oregon

I ended up matching in my Tier 1 and couldn’t be happier!

Overall, I would have been lucky to train at any one of these programs. I will reiterate that there is no “best program,” as everyone is looking for something a little different based on their career goals, priorities, family, etc. One of the biggest things you will find is that some programs will just seem to “fit” better than others.

One of the most important decisions of the application process is where to do your away rotations. I feel that is one of the biggest factors that can give you a huge edge in getting into the residency program of your choice if you make a great impression, work hard, get along well with everyone, and know your stuff. Sit down (with your family if you have one) and make a list of your career goals, what characteristics of a residency program are important to you, where your ideal location is, and anything else that you want in a program. Once you have done that, learn as much as you can about the different programs by reading online forums, going to the program’s websites, talking to ortho advisors, meeting with ortho faculty at your program, talking to applicants from the class ahead of you, and basically anything else you can think of to get info. By rocking an away rotation, not only can you get a great letter that will help you everywhere else you apply, but you have shown them that you can succeed and do well in their program. This goes a long way come interview time and can pay huge dividends.

Also, I would recommend applying broadly because you never know where you will get interviews and it’s always better to have too many than not enough. You will get rejected at places you thought were a lock, while at the same time getting offers from programs you thought you had no shot at. It truly is a random process at its finest. As I mentioned above, I considered spending the extra money as an investment in my future and it paid off well.

Good luck to all future applicants!

Heys guys, I did not match but do not know why.
Step1 260 step 2 267
AOA
no ortho research
18 interviews with 20 ranks (6 yr tracks)

I felt like I had great interviews but I guess not

I would say that this thread pretty accurately represents this year's applicant pool so we should just close it and make it a sticky now.