This has been discussed in piece-meal before.
In general, all would agree that Penn's program is a great one. Depending on who you talk to, you may hear top 20 or top 10 or in some cases top 5.
Some would site the recent money troubles of the university as a negative but that has stabilized. Some say that faculty changes (ie loss of Ionnatti to Cleveland Clinic to become Chair and affiliation of Osterman with Jeff rathern than Penn etc) have hurt the program. Adult spine and perhaps sports also needs to be bolstered. Also, as close as 5 years ago, the junior surgical experience was well-known to be suboptimal. Clearly that has changed. Just look at what the PGY-2s do now.
I would say the strengths include (1) breadth with depth. The dept is 2 or 3 deep in almost every service including tumor (but not adult spine). (2) There are some very big names including Lotke (one of the pioneers of total knee), Williams (trained with Rockwood and has taken over shoulder after Iannotti left), Brighton (soon to be emeritus editor of CORR) and the high-volume Booth-Bart.-Bald. group. (3) Association with the med school and university at large (4) Happiness of the residents and their surgical experience (evident in posts from last match and the fact that Penn goes to low teens to fill 8 spots) (5) research base that includes biomechanic and molecular labs (Penn ortho currently holds 3 NIH RO1 grants out of 10 or so nationally for ortho depts) (6) And for some, Philly (could be a negative for others).
My impression is that by academic reputation alone, the collective "best" are HSS, Harvard, Iowa, UW. The next group includes the likes of Penn, HJD, Pitt, Mayo, Cleveland, Case, NWU etc. Of course this is up to debate and will be different depending on what you want and who you talk to...
Please, US News for residency program info????
Rads: there are no published "rankings" that I know of. As I know it (wife matching in rads), top programs include (in no particular order):
East - MGH, BWH, Penn, NYU, Hopkins, Duke
Mid - NWU, Malinkrodt (wash u)
West - UCSF, Stanford
Hope that helps.
-FB
