2010 Match Results

all the inputs so far are great. it will be kind of others to send in ur match details or profile.

it would also be interesting to see some profiles who did not match and why?

thanks
THRA
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Med School: state school
Boards: Step 1/Step 2: 250ish
Rank: Top 5%
AOA: Senior
Clinical Grades: All A's
Research: 1 poster presentation, 1 case report, 1 grant (all in another field)
Letters: Home chair, PD, 1 other home letter, 1 away rotation letter

Applied: 60 something
Offered: 30 something
Attended (in order): Emory, Hopkins, AMC, Mayo, UT-Chattanooga, Duke, VCU, Oklahoma, USF, UAB, Louisville, UTSW, Baylor, UNC, Campbell Clinic, University of Washington, Florida, Vanderbilt.
Offered but didn't attend (notable): CMC, Greenville


Ranked: 18 + 1 research spot
Rank criteria: academics (ie. research/reputation to get a great fellowship), operative experience (broad exposure, early operative experience), location (near family), cost of living (afford single family home), good trauma exposure, felt like my personality fit well with faculty and residents, collegial attitude between residents and faculty.

Ranked alphabetical by tiers:

Tier 1A:
Campbell Clinic - ( my #1 and matched here) This program fit exactly what I was looking for in a program (see above criteria) and was my number one choice. Great group of guys that get along well together. Incredible operative experience. Great balance between busy trauma experience at the med and the private patients at the Campbell Clinic. Every subspecialty is well-covered. For next year's applicants, I would highly suggest rotating here as you will get to work with some big names in the field and have a great time. Also, not much is expected of you during your rotation. Basically you show up to scrub in, know anatomy, and do clinic with the attendings. No pre-rounds, rounds, etc. Very laid back rotation for a top-tier program

Vanderbilt - another great program. Residents were genuinely happy and well taken care of. Historically great in trauma and tumor. Some recent faculty turnover was somewhat concerning to me. Not a lot of joints attendings, but has a joints fellowship... Would have loved to have matched here as well (my number 2).

Emory - Felt like this program was very similar to the Campbell Clinic in a lot of ways with the balance between Grady and the private Emory ortho pts. PD was a lot of fun. Residents seemed really happy. Location is fantastic, but expensive as a resident.

Tier 1B: Academic programs with excellent reputations that had only minor issues (location or otherwise).
Mayo Clinic - This place pretty much blew me away. The residents are very happy and well taken care of and you get to operate one-on-one with leaders in the field. Unbelievable facilities. Great low cost of living. My only beef with it was the lack of a high volume trauma experience. I think you get enough bread and butter stuff though and what it lacks in trauma it makes up for in almost every other specialty. Sports also a relative weakness per the residents. Honestly, this would have been my number 2 if not for my wife's geographical preferences.

Florida - Really impressed by this program. Dr. Scarborough is great and the department is probably the most well-funded one I saw outside of Mayo. Oncology is unmatched. Great facilities and a brand new hospital. Residents were cool, loved the location. Only downside was the addition of a trauma fellow to an already light trauma load (per students that rotated here).

University of Washington - Great program that met all my criteria for a great residency program (see above). Well balanced with well known attendings in every field. Loved the location personally, but far from family. Trauma experience is great, but there are a lot of fellows. I think they have more than enough volume to handle it though.

UTSW - Excellent southern program with a great reputation in an awesome city. Very good trauma experience, but you never truly escape from trauma. Kind of weak in hand. Great residents that worked hard (especially 2nd year). Had an interesting night float system that I personally liked.

Tier 2:
UAB - Another excellent, hard-working program in the south. Really liked this program, but didn't feel like I got a good feel for how it was on interview day as I missed the pre-interview dinner and had very limited interactions with the residents on interview day.

Wake Forest - Truly under-rated program. Excellent didactics, ample operative experience, incredible research support. Hand and upper extremity is unmatched. Overall great residents, but a few weren't as easy to get along with as others. Affordable city that I saw as a real positive being close to the mountains and not too far from the beach.

Johns Hopkins - Kind of underwhelming considering the name. Got the impression that operative experience wasn't the best, but that you could land a great fellowship coming out of here. Great peds and upper extremity. Trauma was questionable as they no longer rotate at Shock. Tradition was really impressive. Baltimore was a negative for me.



Tier 3:
UNC - I think this place has a better lifestyle than any other place I saw, maybe too good. Mentor training style has unique advantages and disadvantages, and honestly I saw them working a lot better at the Mayo Clinic. Trauma seemed very light as they go rotate at Wake Med (not Wake Forest) for a private practice trauma experience. Location was a big plus for me.

Louisville - A truly under-rated program with great trauma, joints, hand, and spine. Sports is a relative weakness. Great group of residents that get along well together. Didactics are mostly resident-run and were not a problem in my eyes. Chair was stepping down. Very fun and affordable city. Great place to rotate if you are looking for an under-the-radar sort of place that doesn't get a ton of rotators.

Duke - They really do a great job of selling this place on interview day. The residents put together a great picture of the program and make you want to go there while you're there. However, the whole overdone recruiting effort was really off-putting for me. One of my friends went back for a second look and thought the operative experience was lacking. Great reputation. Great location.

USF - Program on the rise. PD is a real asset to the program. Great lifestyle. Cool group of residents and excellent location. Would get to work with some big names at FOI while you're here. Location is a huge plus. I would have liked to see them have a more involved experience at Tampa General for trauma.

Baylor
Oklahoma
UT Chattanooga
AMC
VCU



I would have been extremely happy to have matched almost anywhere on my list. I am so excited and feel very fortunate to be going to my first choice. This whole process was expensive and somewhat exhausting, but I met a lot of cool guys on the trail that I will keep in touch with and honestly had a lot of fun. Just be yourself and ignore a lot of the BS you hear on this forum and from other applicants blowing smoke. Also understand that there is no such thing as "the best" program. Everybody has different priorities and goals and will be attracted to different programs accordingly.

Med School: midwest
Boards: Step I: 255, Step II: did not have when applied
AOA: yes, junior aoa
Clinical Grades: Honors: medicine, ob/gyn, psych, peds, ER, neuro, 2 home orthos, one away ortho.
High Pass: gen surg

Research: 6 gen surg papers, 1 ortho paper submitted, 2 gen surg talks, 6+abstracts
Letters: very good letters, so i was told; 2 from away rotation, 4 from home program, 1 from medicine chairman at school (used when asked for non-ortho only), mixed and matched letters based on region and where the writer knew people --> RESIDENTS are one key to getting good letters, get them on yourside, then ask them who would write you a good letter, and then you ask the writer and the residnets usually tell the writer that you were good etc.
Thanks you letters sent: emails sent to programs that i wanted to go to shortly after the interview - only sent to chairman and PD, though, and residents I got to know.
Other: anatomy TA, international work (2x trips), fluent in spanish, D1 college athlete, captain

--applied to 40
--got 25 interviews (random, kinda based on region: where I went to school and where did away, and top programs outside of region).
--went on 11 interviews (knew I was a good/almost sure shot at home program and where I rotated)
--1 revisit to program I wanted to go to(not sure if this helped, but am certain that it did not hurt)
--5 phone calls from programs saying I was either ranked to match or they really liked me and would love to have me.

matched at #1, academic program w solid op experience, good trauma, and international research/work opportunities (which turned out not to be home program or where I rotated, but close/same region as where I rotated --> letters from away really helped this I think - and my interests were same as the goal of the program I wanted to go to, which I think really helped, and I think I had a solid interview)

Other advice - choose the programs you interview at carefully. my favorite program was the 3rd to last program I interviewed at and all programs seemed to pale in comparison and I wished I would have chosen more carefully, or at least thought about it more.

Advice for 1st/2nd year students (quoting someone I saw write this).....
----stop ready orthogate and start studying for Step 1 or your classes, it really does make your life much easier and opens so many doors if you do well (and gives you a great deal of confidence, and a leg up in preparing for shelves, which I think helped me do well in rotations)



PLEASE DO NOT JUST READ THIS......POST, esp average applicants that were successful/unsuccessful to give hope to current/future average applicants......AND, let them know what you did (or which you would have done, or might have done wrong) that gave you a foot up and helped you match!!!! Thanks

Good luck to all future applicants and congrats to all those that matched, to those that didn't, keep your head up and follow your heart and guts.

p.m. if you have any questions, I promise to respond.....any questions at all.

I'll preface this post by saying that I have a family, and I was looking for a program with great operative experience in a family friendly city. I didn't apply to any of the "big name" programs.

Med School: Midwest Program known for primary care
Step 1: 241
Step 2: Took last week
AOA: Yes
Clinical Grades: All A's (no honors at my school)
Sub-I's: 1 at home, 1 away. Three 2nd looks
Research: 1 ongoing project, no pubs
Letters: 2 ortho attendings, 1 non ortho attending. All were from my home program, and none were big names.
Other: Former college football player


Applied: 63
Offered: 14
Attended: 11

Tier 1(in no particular order): I felt great at all of these programs. All of these could have been number 1 on my list. Location was the ultimate determinant for the exact rank of these programs.

Toledo: Great facilities and great residents. The attendings that I met seemed very approachable. I was also impressed by the number of publications that the attendings churn out. The residents here seemed to operate early and often. I liked the city and the surrounding area, because it is great for a family. All of the subspecialties are covered besides peds. The only downside to this program is the fact that you have to do your peds rotation away from Toledo.

Hamot: Residents take 10 months of ortho call during the intern year. The chairman was a great guy, but some of the other attendings didn't seem as personable. Good bread and butter ortho and great peds experience. The residents all seemed nice, but the atmosphere seemed somewhat "cultish." I felt like they were trying too hard to convince me that Erie didn't suck. Erie seemed like a great place during the late spring and summer with beaches and lots of festivals. However, the winter months seemed pretty dreary.

UT-Chattanooga: All of the residents were normal guys that were fun to spend time with. Great trauma and sports experience. Peds experience seemed pretty weak. Chattanooga is a great city with affordable housing. There are lots of things to do in Chattanooga. The only downside to this program is that they are going to be getting a new chairman. I was unsure as to what direction the program would go with the new chairman. I never met him, but heard he was an outstanding guy by all accounts.

Mt. Carmel: Ultimate country club program. Home call and prolific moonlighting opportunity. Good bread and butter general ortho. Some subspecialties like sports seemed weak. The chairman was the nicest guy I met on the interview trail. The younger residents and the 5th years all seemed like great guys. Some of the 3rd and 4th years didn't seem so great. Columbus is a nice city with lots of things to do.

Tier 2: I would have been ok if I matched at these programs, but not thrilled.

Campbell Clinic: This was an amazing program with great operative experience and research opportunities if wanted. You would be well trained here in all aspects of ortho. The program was a little big for me, and Memphis isn't the safest city for a family.

Marshall: Spent a considerable amount of time at this program because it is pretty local. The residents are all great guys. They are good in the OR, and they are good people. All of the attendings were great, besides the chairman. I got the impression that he is a pretty fake and cocky guy. In addition, he only trains you to do computer navigated knee replacements. He does 0 jig based TKA's. I never felt like he was telling the truth when I talked to him. This seemed to be the impression of the other guys I talked to that rotated there. I think this is a pretty new program, but you would be well trained here.

St. Luke's; Bethlehem, PA: I enjoyed my interview here. The chairman and the other attendings were great. I didn't care much for Bethlehem, but the hospital was impressive. It scared me a little bit that this was a new program with only 1 class of residents.

UK: I love Lexington, and I was looking forward to this interview. The interview as quite weird with Dr. Wright, and the chairman seemed to really love himself. The other attendings were nice guys. I didn't talk much to the residents, so I don't know about them. Sports and trauma seemed to be strongpoints. Peds is also strong here, because there is a Shriner's Hospital in Lexington.

VCU: The residents seemed pretty overworked and tired. They didn't seem to be a cohesive group. All subspecialties are covered and training seemed to be good here. The residents said that you wouldn't seem much OR time until you were a PGY-3. This was a major turnoff to me. Richmond was a decent city. I may have liked it more if I would have explored more of it.

Tier 3: Would have been scared to match at these places.

UIC: The program was great, but Chicago just isn't a good fit for me or my family. If this program was in a smaller city or if I were single, it may have been number 1 on my list. The attendings seemed great. Operative experience here was good too. Seemed to be a good mix of residents. They are on probation, but I suspect that that will be lifted soon.

LSU-Shreveport: One of the residents at the social told the group I was with that we shouldn't consider going there. They are understaffed and on probation because of it. Few subspecialties are covered. Shreveport seemed like an ok city, but I just didn't have a good feeling when I left here. They just hired a new chairman from Baylor, so things may be looking up.


I matched in my first tier and am excited to get started. Good luck to everyone who goes through this process next year.

Reapplicant following a research year.

Med School: Top 40 Private
Boards: Step 1: 230s, Step 2: 240s
Rank: No class rank, but about top 1/3 by GPA I think
AOA: Nope
Clinical Grades: All Honors except High Pass in Psych and OB/GYN
Sub-I x2: Home program and one away. Didn’t do any additional Sub-Is during research year.
Research: 20+ publications, abstracts, presentations, most ortho, including 5 submitted/accepted ortho papers from my research year.
Letters: 1 home chair, 1 home PD, 1 home attending, 1 research chair, 1 research PhD, 1 non-ortho letter. I only sent programs that requested a chair letter my home chair letter because that one was probably the least personal (although I don’t know that for sure). The non-ortho letter only went to those programs that specifically asked for it (UCSF, Tufts, and maybe a few others).
Other stuff: College athlete

Applied: 140
Offered: 42
Attended: 17 (UAB, U Conn, Yale, Emory, AMC, Hopkins, Wash U, NYU-HJD, Rochester, Cleveland Clinic, Case, Brown, MUSC, Orlando, New Mexico, Mizzou, and Wayne St)
Canceled: 25 (UCSF, UCLA, USC, Harbor, Kentucky, Dartmouth, Stony Brook, Cincinnati, Ohio St, WVU, MCW, Shreveport, DMC, Grand Rapids, Seton Hall, Albany, Downstate, LIJ, Lenox Hill, Upstate, Wright St, St. Luke’s, Hamot, JPS, and Marshall)
Most cancellations were due to date conflicts, but 5-6 were cancelled because I was simply burnt out.

Ranked 17: Did not rank one program, ranked one 6-year research track.
Rank criteria: want to do academics (ie. research/reputation), location (near family), cost of living (afford single family home), operative experience (broad exposure, early operative experience), lifestyle (prefer night float), rotations (prefer no away rotations, minimal clinical sites), felt like my personality fit well with faculty and residents, collegial attitude between residents and faculty.

Ranked alphabetical by tiers:
Tier 1: Programs with strong academic reputations, mostly in locations close to family and reasonable cost of living, with good operative experience.
Brown: The biggest drawback for most is it’s a 6-year program, but since I like research and want to do academics it was a plus. Moreover, Brown is different from most 6-year programs. You do not do a full research year between your junior years, but 6 months of a mini-trauma fellowship and 6 months of research at the end. Also, you get paid more like a part time attending during this fellow year than as a resident. The faculty and residents seemed very laid back and collegial towards each others. Well organized and faculty run didactics. Good location for me, reasonable cost of living for NE. No night float and residents said intern and PGY-2 year pretty rough with not much operative time to offset the pain.
Emory: Really seemed to fit in well with the residents and faculty. The operative experience at Emory sounds amazing. Interns do all their call during the year with ortho at Grady, meaning an impressive amount of OR time as an intern and even more as a PGY-2. The lifestyle seems pretty rough for the first couple years since most of it is at Grady, but at least you get to operate a ton. Later years have a better lifestyle with mostly home call. Atlanta is an affordable city with great weather, near family and friends. Apparently starting up a research collaboration with GaTech for mechanical and biomedical engineering projects which is awesome. The only real downside to Emory is they have many clinical sites spread around the city, which can be a pain with traffic. However, this is only for a couple specialty rotations with most time being at Grady or the Emory Ortho hospital.
Rochester: Number one NIH funded ortho department. A night float type call. Didn’t get a good idea if I fit in very well with the residents during my interview, but I was amazed at all the faculty just hanging out and chatting with applicants. Rochester weather sucks, but I have family in the area. Lots of volume, every specialty covered, only have to spilt time between a few clinical sites that are very close to each other. Very affordable and family friendly city.
Wash U: I’ll be honest, Wash U is up here because it’s Wash U and I pretty much knew I had no shot to match here (I requested email feedback and was not “highly competitive”). Obviously an awesome program. Has night float, every specialty, mostly centralized clinical campus, no away rotations, great didactics run by faculty. But I have no family or friends anywhere near by. I actually really liked St. Louis, good size city, affordable, family friendly, and weather pretty good for Midwest. The interviews were definitely intense, and didn’t really get a sense of how the faculty or residents interacted with each other. The residents were very nice, but I felt I was too politically incorrect to fit in well. Not to be sexist, but it could really have just been that I was unused to being around a program with so many women.
Yale: One of my biggest surprises of the season. Some of the happiest residents I met. Sound like they get great operative experience early as an intern and PGY-2 while also having tons of dedicated research time (2.5 months as a 3, 4, and 5). Good mix of faculty experience. Every specialty covered, but you do have one joint rotation about an hour away. Also spend a good chunk of intern year at a different clinical site 30+ min away. New Haven was a really the biggest minus. Cost of living not too bad, but no international airport would really suck for my wife’s family that would need to fly to visit.

Tier 2: Either less academic programs with a great operative experience in goof locations, or great academic programs with something missing.
AMC: Good location (see Emory above). Awesome operative experience with great trauma experience at main hospital and then community rotations with the best private guys in Atlanta including numerous physicians of the pro teams. Also rotations with Emory for tumor and possibly spine and trauma. The residents were real laid back with each other and the faculty. Nice new bioskills labs. The main drawback was the lack of research and academic reputation. However, it sounds like effort is being made to improve this.
Cleveland Clinic: Amazing program, really liked the faculty and residents I met, great academic reputation and research, but the two things that knocked it down were Cleveland (no friends/family) and the lack of trauma. I also didn’t like how many clinical sites you rotate through including 45+ min away for peds.
Orlando: Felt very similar to AMC. Good location, close to family and friends, good weather, and Disney World for the kids. But like AMC, not much research going on which they are also trying to establish with UCF.
Rochester 6-year: All the same as above, but an extra year of research. Don’t really want to spend another year just on research but would rather spend an extra year at a program in a location I want to be at than some of the programs further down the list.
U Conn: Close to family and friends in NE. Sounds like they have a pretty good lifestyle with a lot of mid-level support (no weekday call, covered by PAs!). Awesome bioskills and wetlab space. Seem to have a lot of research money with new faculty coming in. I met almost every residents during the social and interview day. I think it shows a lot if a program can basically give their residents an entire day off just to hang out with applicants. Hartford seemed okay.

Tier 3: Mostly big name places in locations I’d prefer not to be.
Case: Great name, great operative experience. Just felt most of the residents were not happy being in Cleveland.
Hopkins: I’ve been to Baltimore many times, and for some reason I just don’t want to live there. All the faculty and residents were very nice, but I had concerns about the operative experience, especially in trauma and the Shock rotation being dropped.
Mizzou: I think the attendings were the most down to earth and nicest I met. However, I didn’t feel like I fit in well with the residents. Moreover, I did not want to be in a college town and the program is going through a lot of changes.
NYU-HJD: Awesome name and research, Zuckerman is the man, the residents I met were cool, but there are so many of them I felt I barely grazed the surface. It just would have been a huge sacrifice of lifestyle trying to live in NYC. If I was 5 years younger and without kids, it would have definitely been in my Tier 1.
UAB: Good location near family and friends, I just didn’t feel I fit in with the residents and faculty. Plus there seems to have been a lot of faculty leaving recently, so that made me a little wary. But known as a strong program with great operative experience. Birmingham seemed like a very affordable and family friendly city.

Tier 4: Told me I was not a good fit for them, so…
MUSC: Some faculty and residents said I wouldn’t fit in because I wanted to do academics. Honestly, I was not impressed and almost didn’t rank them. But I figured spending 5 years in Charleston would be better than not matching.
New Mexico: Was told by PD I was too academic. Not sure why they invited me for an interview, but at least I got to eat some good food while there.

Not ranked:
Wayne St: New program, weird interview day (no tour, no social, only met a couple residents and faculty), decided I’d rather not match than live in Detriot.

I matched in my Tier 1 and am absolutely ecstatic!

Med School: Top 25 private
Boards: Step I: 252, Step II: 245 (took in November, did not care)
Bench Press: 10x225
Rank: Top 15%
AOA: hahaha...no one cares
Clinical Grades: Honors: Surgery, Medicine, Neuro, Peds, Rads, Ortho. High Pass: psych, fam med,
Ortho: Home and 2 aways
Research/Extra: 2 pubs in basic science from undergrad, lots of Ortho stuff
Letters: Chair, 2 ortho attendings,
Thanks you letters sent: 0

Applied: 40
Offered: 20
Attended: 18
Ranked: 15

Matched at #1...

When I began looking I wanted to go the best program (name, power, prestige, etc) but then I realized I fit in much better with typical Ortho jocks than the types at the super academic programs. I wanted a workhorse type program with normal guys. Every program I interviewed at had great things about it, but every program had a "feel" from resident interactions/socials/seeing the types of interviewees. That was huge for me. Put your head down, work hard, be normal and you will match.

Med School: Top 20 private
Boards: Step I: 241, Step II: 257
No class rank or AOA at my school
Clinical Grades: Mostly Honors with a couple high passes.
Ortho Sub-I x2: Did one at my home school and one away. Honors on both. Solid letters from both.
Research: 12 ortho publications and abstracts
Thanks you letters sent: 0

Applied in couple match

Applied: 25
Offered: 20
Attended: 12
Ranked: 11 - I had to not rank one where I interviewed because of issues with couples match

Rank List:

Brown - Loved this program. Have to like the 6th year trauma fellowship. Providence is surprisingly nice. The residents and faculty seem great.

Duke - amazing interview day. I think they ask too much from their applicants though. They want you to come back for a week long 2nd look and make the "You're my number one" call. Kind of a turn off for me. Resident their seemed really happy though and the location is phenomenal.

Georgetown - Seemed like a good program. I would have been happy here, but I didn't want to be in DC.

Harvard - Love Boston. Program is huge and very spread out. Residents seem happy. Obviously there is the question of operative experience with all of the fellows. I think this is probably overblown but since I did not do a rotation there its hard to tell. Ended up ranking Harvard very high for personal/location reasons.

HSS - Obviously a great name place. Residents quality of life is unmatched in the city. Nothing bad to say about this except my fiancee hates New York.

Miami - South beach and lots of plastic surgery in bikinis...I had a great time here. Might help to learn spanish before going there though...

NYU - Big program in new york city. As you can see from above I ranked this low because of location. I liked the residents I met.

UNC - If you want to do private practice this might be one of the best places to train in the country. The faculty is all about teaching and although they dont have the biggest names as some of the big academic programs you will get amazing training here. Chapel Hill is great...especially if you're single

UPenn - New chairman looks like he'll do good things for the department. I love philly. Residents seem awesome and very happy. This was also very high on my list.

UPitt - Huge name place. Pittsburgh was impressive. Sports complex is a shrine to Dr. Fu. Something about it didn't work for me, but the people there are very happy and seem to enjoy it. They are hands on with a lot of post-match communication.

Vanderbilt - This program rules. I cant say enough good things about it. 2nd year is really tough, but I loved the residents and program. Check this out and think about it really seriously.

Yale - This was my first interview and it really impressed...New Haven leaves something to be desired but the program is phenomenal. The residents here are some of the happiest and best trained of any place I saw and they go on to get fantastic fellowships.

I am a guy with a family looking for a balanced program in an affordable and livable city. I suspect I will be a community orthopaedic surgeon and not an academician so operative/clinical experience was slightly more important to me than being able to perform research with big names.

Med School: Top 10 in the west
Boards:
- Step I: 242
- Step II: 247 took early because of school requirement and was on ERAS
Rank: no official ranking, but probably top 50%
AOA: no
Clinical Grades:
- Honors in Gen surg, OB/GYN, and two ortho rotations
- High Pass: Medicine, Psych, Family Medicine, Pediatrics

Ortho Sub-I: Completed one at my home institution and one away.
Research: two pubs from undergrad in unrelated field with some presentations, one ortho project in med school with an abstract and presentation.
Letters: 1 from ortho research advisor, 1 from home sub-I, 1 from away sub-I, and 1 from gen surg faculty who knew me well.
Extracurriculars: nothing special, background in carpentry
Applied: 54
Offered: 9. These were pretty random with no regionalism to them. Three of them (my top 3) came directly (I suspect) from either an away rotation or connections with letter writers and current residents from my school.
Attended: 8, one of them was really late and with short notice and couldn't make it.
Ranked: 9 (5+6 at one program)

note: each of my top three could have easily been #1 and each spent some time at the top. I would have been happy almost anywhere on my list. it came down to overall feel of program, family situation, and community.

My top three in no particular order:

Penn State (Hershey): I really loved this place. I liked the people I met, I loved town of Hershey, call me weird but I liked that there was trauma 1 center with a forest behind and open field in front. My wife enjoyed the town as well. Well balanced program with great residents, faculty, and program leadership. I would recommend this program to anybody with a family who wants a great ortho training experience in a rural setting.

University of Rochester: I cannot say enough good things about this program. I spent a month there and when I was making my rank list I kept coming back to how impressed I was with the residents. The chief residents especially were very knowledgeable and confident. They made decisive and confident decisions in clinic and were comfortable in the OR. they seemed like jr. attendings to me and I learned a lot from them. They are very balanced with tons of researchand well known faculty with a great operative experience. There is a great review on these forums written by a chief resident that I think is very accurate. As a family guy, I liked the town, but its not for everybody. Housing is cheap but property taxes are high.

University of Kentucky (Lexington): matched here I didn't know alot aboutthis place when I interviewed there but was very excited because mywife has family nearby. I liked what I heard and saw on interview day and feel like this is a great program that turns out good surgeons. I was also impressed with the senior residents I interviewed with. The residents seemed to have fun while working and I thought I would fit in. I wrote what I know about the program in these forums and don't know much else about it. The community of Lexington and the cost of living was a huge draw for me as well the fact that there is family nearby for my wife and kids. I matched here and feel extremely forunate to have done so.

The rest in no particular order:

University of Nebraska: I liked this place as well. what impressed me the most was how resident focused they were and how early they get the residents operating. it seemed to me that they will try to get the 1st or 2nd year doing some bread and butter trauma cases if at all possible. They also have a nice biomechanics lab with a very enthusiastic research director. You could get very involved, but some residents don't set foot in there, so it depends on your motivation. Lifestyle seemed nice with cheap cost of living, relatively high salary (48-49K i think), and home call most of the years.

University of Kansas (Kansas City, KS): nice residents and faculty. I think you interview with every faculty on staff! large operative volume. I wasn't able to make it to the pre-interview reception and was in and out of the city so didn't get a good feel for kansas city, but it felt a little big for my style.

Toledo: Would have been happy here. downside was the 4month away at U of Kentucky. its a good experience to be sure, but being a family man I had to put it lower on my list.

University of South Carolina: Small group of dedicated and friendly faculty, good operative experience, good residents. 4 month away rotation was a negative.

Case Western: lots of good things about this program, but it wasn't for me. they stated that there mission was NOT to train community orthopaedic surgeons but to produce the surgeons behind the podium. the 6th year "lottery" was a turn off for me. it rubbed me the wrong way as I placed more value on operative experience than academics and research. Cleveland was a little too big for my family (we like small towns)

Congrats to all who matched, good luck to all those that didn't and the upcoming applicants. Please contact me with questions about any of the programs especially UK as I will be more acquainted with the program in a few short months.

I found these lists helpful, so now that I'm done, I'll contribute:

Med School: Top 25 private
Boards: Step I: 242, Step II: 257 (took in june, before my AIs, submitted)
Rank: no class rank at my school
AOA: nope
Clinical Grades: Honors: Gen surg, medicine, ob/gyn. High Pass: psych, fam med, peds, neuro
Ortho Sub-I x2: Did home rotation and 1 away (Miami), received Honors at 1, HP at the other. I thought the HP in my subI meant I was screwed, but read on...
Research: Molecular bench research done throughout undergad and med school, not orthopaedic at all, mostly oncology research... frequently asked about oddly enough; 1 publication from undergrad, 2 presentations
Letters: 1 ortho attending, 1 chairmen from home prog, 1 from PhD from my lab, 1 from a huge name that I was lucky to meet and have offer to write me a letter (this letter was mentioned frequently at interviews)
Thanks you letters sent: 0

Applied: 45
Offered: 15
Attended: 14 (because of scheduling)
Ranked: 15 (5+6 at one program)

1. Emory - Wonderful, well balanced program, great trauma, nice weather

2. Brown - fantastic program, one of the best in the country IMO, great trauma exp as well, undeniable research powerhouse, very academic focus, on the ocean

3. Miami - Solid program overall, rotated here, residents were great, got along well, fantastic trauma, nice weather AND near the ocean

4. U. of Virginia - extremely solid in every area, anyone would be lucky to train here, charlottesville is very nice

5. Mount Carmel - smallish program at 2/yr, but these guys are well trained and happy, a sometimes rare combination

6. Ohio State - rebuilding, but once they're rebuilt, look out, the hospital is throwing a lot of money at this dept., they will be a powerhouse

7. U. of Arizona - Some great personalities here, would have enjoyed this place a lot I think, more sunshine here than just about anywhere

8. Case Western - Should be higher on anyones list honestly, some fantastic people there, a real ortho powerhouse, everything you could want is there, great opportunities. cleveland didn't really do it for me

9. Kalamazoo-MSU - similar to mount carmel IMO, very happy, well trained residents coming out of this place

10. Med. College Wisc.
11. Akron General
12. U. Toledo
13. Wright State
14. Hamot
15. Virginia - 6 yr

Ok, I'm tired of writing about each program.

I think it's important to think about both the program and the location, as you can see from my descriptions. Sunshine and oceans are important to me, so they affected my rank list.

For future applicants: Control the things you can. Kill your usmle exams, because you can. You aren't always going to get honors, even if you earned them. AOA is a subjective gift, not an objective assessment, don't expect it, or care if you don't get it.
Away rotations? Some say this is key, but I only did one. It's good to see other programs to see what you like, but honestly, after my interviews, it became clear that each program was quite similar. So your call as to how important it is. My away was exhausting and expensive, and I'm glad I only did one.

The interview process is random. I didn't get offers from some "backups" (which do not exist in ortho), and received offers from places I had no connection with. I have friends who did not match ortho or were offered very few interviews. Apply broadly to increase your interview offers.

I matched within my top 4. PM for any details or questions. Hope this helps all the future ortho apps.

Congrats to those that matched! I too was lucky enough to get good news this week, and wanted to share my experience to encourage future applicants. I came from a Gen Surg program after 2+ years and attempted to switch to Ortho. It had some pluses and minuses, but worked out in the end.

Stats: Abysmal step 1, step 2; Exceptional grades; Exceptional LOR from Gen Surg; 10-12 publications + graduate school; One month on Ortho with 2 letters

Interviews offered: 2, at my Gen Surg program (Yale) and my Medical School (Jefferson)

Match result: Yale

Advice: Working with the Orthopaedics department was the most important factor I think in me matching. I got 2 letters, and was able to show how effectively I worked in the hospital. Having poor board scores definitely limited my options, so consider spending more time studying for Step 1 than I did. Always work hard and be nice to everyone, it goes a long way. Good luck next year!