2011 Match Results

Med School]Top 10 USNWR
Boards]Step 1: 239, Step 2: much worse, but didn't submit
Rank]Somewhere in the middle
AOA]No
Preclinicals]2 Honors
Clinicals]Honors in surgery and psych; High Pass everything else
Ortho]3 home and 2 away (felt pretty good about the difference between a tension band plate and buttress by the end)
Research]nothing in print, but 4 submitted papers, 2 posters, and a couple projects in the pipeline
Extracurriculars]D1 sport as undergrad, but now napping, golfing and going to the race track.

What I was looking for in a Program]
- Strong trauma
- Good didactics
- Fun place to live

How many Programs]
Applied to]48
Offered Interviews] ~18
Attended]12

Tier 1] (alphabetical order)
Brown] Despite the sixth year, I thought this is one of the best residencies. Dr. Ehrlich tries hard to convince you how great of a program is, but he's right and clearly dedicated to resident education. With Dr. Born backing you up as a junior attending, you are going to feel very confident taking trauma call.
Duke] I didn't rotate here, but was blown away by the interview day. As already mentioned they already can put your name to your face before you show up, which was really fun. Residents get to be the team physician for basketball in 4th and 5th year. Former resident created Wheeless. When I left the interview, this was my top choice. The revisit was less fun and ultimately I didn't think I could live in Durham without being married.
Penn] Lot of history with this program and despite the turnover in attendings, the new chair, Dr. Levin is clearly committed to turning this program around. Residents seemed very happy and for peds, there's probably no place better. I rotated here and loved it.
UCLA] I rotated here as well and enjoyed every minute of it. Clearly not the operative experience that you will get at other programs. But the residents here enjoy their life and aren't ashamed to say it.
UW] I was sold when the program director invited us to his floating home the night before for sushi! Their is obviously no better place for trauma and the residents seemed really laid back despite how hard they work as juniors.
Wash U] Another amazing residency program. Their didactic curriculum was very impressive and the away elective sounded awesome. Obviously a great program for fellowship as well. Not surprisingly, a lot of residents go into hand.

Tier 2]
Rush:This really is a tier 1 program, but I missed the dinner 2/2 weather and for no good reason didn't rank it very high. The attendings here are phenomenal and the residents love being here.
USC: Lots of trauma and the residents love it. Not enough didactics for me.
Drexel: I've never seen residents get along with their chair as well as they do with Dr. Johanson.
Georgetown: Interview with Dr. Delahay was the highlight of the interview trail.
Harbor-UCLA: USC with less research and closer to the beach.
San Antonio: Best food on the interview trail: breakfast tacos and BBQ.

Matched at: My top choice.

My advice to future applicants:
- Don't sweat scores in the 230's.
- Choose good aways. I rotated at two very different programs in terms of trauma experience and competitiveness. Be ready to explain why you rotated where you did and how that relates to whatever program you are interviewing at that day.
- The revisit is tricky and annoying, but I'm glad I did it.
- LORs are the x-factor. I truly believe that's why an average candidate like myself got interviews at WashU, Duke and Brown. Unfortunately, it's hard to get a good sense of the strength of your letters until you already apply. Nevertheless, work your behind off to get good letters from well known people.

What I was looking for in a Program: Great PD, RD, residents. Great training. Good location.

Alphabetical, with some of my thoughts.
Every program says they operate early, 99 percentile on OITE, and are happy. Talk to the rotators and people from that program to get a good feel of the program.

Banner – Great residents! We went to a Suns game for the social which I thought was great. Really liked this community program and felt as a newer program you would get great training.

Grand Rapids: Definitely a hidden gem. Really liked the residents and thought I got to know all of them well. They even knew you well by your application. Surprisingly a lot of places don’t don’t. They have a post interview social at one of the residents house which was a great way to see if you fit. Have a day float/night float system which works well. Can moonlight later in your residency.

Henry Ford – Almost canceled this interview, but was glad I didn’t. Very nice staff and residents. It is in downtown Detroit, but most people live in the suburbs. Do peds rotation at MN which is one drawback.

U of Indiana – PD is stepping down.

U of Kansas – Hard to get a good feel of this program. No presentation, but was impressed with most of the people I interviewed with. They do also do a lot of flaps which is unique.

Minnesota: Large program, 8 a year. Trauma heavy, but seemed to get great training. Just had a turnover in RD, but I liked the new guy. Lots of MN grads in the program. Very female friendly program.

Mount Carmel – Probably the most cush residency in the county. They don’t work on Sunday and have to be gone by 5 during the week. Have PAs and NPs do everything. Seem to operate a lot and can moonlight. Although, the moonlighting was nice it may go away now that it has to be added to the 80 hour work week. Debated if I would get good enough training with how easy this training seemed.

Nebraska – Solid program, good residents. A few non-traditional residents in the intern class, but were great guys.

Summa – Gym by the call room!! I liked this place, thought it was the better of the two Akron programs. Saw Akron general residents here when I was interviewing. I believe they were building a new ortho hospital, but not for sure on that. Residents seem like good guys. The residency director was a great guy. Young dude and easy to talk to. Interview 2-3 at a time and I watched a 3 do a total knee by himself.

Toledo – Unimpressed.

William Beaumont – Read good things on here about this place and expected a lot, but this place was terrible. The staff showed up in jeans and sweatpants. One guy even had on slippers. The residents were very cocky the night before at the social. I got asked very inappropriate questions in the interview and have heard others having the same experience. Would not recommend this program especially if you are female. PD was an old dude… reads your application as he asked you about it. Very strange interview.

U of Wisconsin: Amazing residents… best group of guys that I had met on the interview trail!! Dr. Squire, RD, great guy. Dr. Z, PD, is a huge name in spine. Talked with rotators on the interview trail and all seemed to love this place. Residents operate a lot and get along well. The staff will take you out on the lake to ski and wakeboard!! Really loved this placed and couldn’t see any flaws.

Vanderbilt – Great residents… Seemed like a solid program. Call was q10. Rotators had good things to say. Amazing new facilities. Would have been happy here.

Just mentioned a few of the places that I really liked

Med School: top 10
Boards: Step 1: 240s
Rank:
AOA: N
Preclinicals: (Honors, HP, E, P, what ever your school uses.)
Clinicals:
Ortho: (Home and Away rotations and grades you received.)
Research: had some publications
Extracurriculars:

What I was looking for in a Program:good work environment, location, great training


How many Programs:
Applied to: 40
Offered Interviews: 18
Attended: 9

Tier 1:
Vanderbilt: This place was awesome. Great group of residents, fun affordable town, nice facilities. Everyone works really hard but seems to be enjoying themselves.

Rush: Another really great place. Brand new clinic space and a new hospital that will be completed within a year or so. Residents are all friendly and easy to get along with. Solid didactics, huge names in the field to learn from, and research opportunities that must be some of the best in the country. Of note, there was a recent lawsuit brought against Rush that was frivolous and ended up being dropped. I did some research and found that it really was a totally ridiculous lawsuit and it will not affect the program in any way.

UCSD: Everyone seemed really happy here. Obviously everyone works hard, but it definitely had a little more laid back feel to it. Mandatory research year, but everyone said it was a productive, useful year. I did a sub-I out here and had a lot of fun.

Stanford: The residents get treated pretty well out here, which was definitely appealing. The chairman is great, and it seems like you get quite a bit of hands on experience. Beautiful area of the country.

Columbia: Dr. Levine, the chairman, is the man. If you can deal with NYC, this is a superb program. The advocacy and support the residents get from the department is impressive and they all leave very well trained.


Tier 2:

Tier 3:

NOT RANKED

Matched at: Top Choice

My advice to future applicants: Work hard and treat everyone with respect

Says the guy with Northwestern, Jeff, Miami, and HJD at the top of his list. LOL.

Med School: private, northeast, not top 50
Step 1: 240s
Rank: Top 1/3
AOA: Senior AOA
Preclinicals: mostly honors
Clinicals: Honors: Family, Peds, Psych, Ob/Gyn, Ortho, HP everything else
Ortho: 2 away rotations, plus home
Letters: home chairman, home program director, home well-known spine surgeon, 1 non-ortho from 3rd year medicine rotation. All letters were pretty strong, but I have a hard time believing someone will write a letter that is weak for any student. Name matters a lot and I was consistently asked about my letter writers.
Research: A very important part in my opinion. 2 papers in print, 2 submitted, 1 book chapter, 5 abstracts (1 accepted, 4 submitted). 6 of these were 1st author, rest were 2nd or 3rd. Work hard here, it’ll pay off later.
Extracurriculars: leadership roles in a professional club, a service club, and student council.

How many Programs:
Applied to: ~80 (overkill in hindsight, but better safe than sorry)
Offered Interviews: 24
Attended: 17
Did not attend (mostly conflicts): BU, Indiana, Maryland, Maimonides, USF, SUNY Upstate, Campbell Clinic

What I looked for: Good mix of academics and operative experience. No deficiencies (ie need strong mentorship in departments in case you want to go into a particular specialty). City location (single scene, activities). Strong resident camaraderie. Good leadership but down to earth faculty also. Needs to be strong in things I’m interested in (spine, joints, peds, sports).

Tier 1a (aka would be ecstatic to go to any of these)
1. Northwestern: rotated here. Great program with a great location in a great city. Big program (9) with residents that I got along with. Faculty are very supportive. Didactics every morning, and residents are committed to learning from the books before learning with the knife. World-class facilities. Only downsides: recently tumor surgeon and future chairman unfortunately passed away, faculty are dedicated to education but academics is not very pervasive here for some reason despite all the resources, trauma-light (could be considered as a pro also), operative experience was average.

2. University of Miami: My favorite program all together. Did not rotate here. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was blown away by the interview day. Loved that the program had no deficiencies in any department, resident camaraderie was very very strong, great Miami location, faculty were all down to earth. Very strong in Spine, Trauma, and Tumor. Residents also hang out outside and enjoy Miami a lot. Also, residents operate like crazy, and from what I understand, they get top fellowships for this reason as well as the strong leadership from their chairman. Cons were getting killed as a PGY2 (which is at every program), work hard/play hard may not be for everyone, Miami was far from home.

3. UCLA: rotated here. Close to home, so very tempted by its location. Great academics. Faculty is dedicated to teaching and well-represented in every field. Biggest knocks were very very slow trauma service, operative experience rumors (I thought it was average, others said it was not…this is a program where you learn properly how to operate from teaching but not from repetition). Bottom-line: great academic name with a great location but average operative experience.
Tier 1b(aka would have loved to match here)
4. NYU: strong program in awesome location. Big (12 residents), cool residents, mixed personalities due to size. Faculty are supportive, but lots of staff means mixed personalities. They operate a lot and have a strong academic profile. Didactics were pretty good. Cons were NYC unionized nursing system can be a hassle and rumors of malignancy (not sure how true these are).

5. UCSF: most balanced program I saw. Once again, great academics, good location, cool residents. Something with the vibe didn’t fit well with me. Cons: SF is not for everyone, expensive, rumors of malignancy? (not sure again)

6. Jefferson: Rotated here. Strong program in Philly with especially strong spine, joints, and shoulder/ elbow. Program is creating a larger trauma/ tumor base, so it should be even better in coming years. Cool residents who match well into fellowships. Huge volume = less time to learn from your mistakes in the OR. Very busy. Would love to do a fellowship there, but for residency I wanted a program more focused on education.

7. UCI: Very impressed on interview day. Complete, no deficiencies, strong leadership, great fellowships, operate early and often. PD and chairman will vouch for you down the line for jobs also. Residents were OK, mixed bag, some weren’t very social. Orange County is nice, but its very suburban, and I wanted a city.

Tier 2 (aka I liked all of these, ranked by location)
8. UChicago: Really wanted to live in Chicago if I didn’t match in my top tiers. Awesome chairman. Got a great vibe on the interview day, felt welcomed, and I fit right in. Very strong in tumor. Residents have to drive around a lot.
9. UIC: Wanted to live in Chicago. Nothing stood out, but nothing looked bad. Cush life for residents, but they operate a lot. All of them seemed to enjoy it. Lots of driving.
10. USC: SoCal location, and they operate like crazy. Cool group of residents who can handle anything. Maybe too trauma heavy for me which left less time for other specialties. Residents all loved it. Weak didactics. Big program (10, I think)
11. GWU: Strong program in DC. Residents operate a lot, and academics is pretty strong. Peds exposure starts in PGY4, which was a big downside. Chairman is old-school, but an advocate nonetheless. All-in-all, well-balanced and DC is a great town to live in.
12. UMDNJ- NJMS: No program operates as much as UMDNJ. Faculty are all very supportive. Residents were friendly. Newark is not a desirable location for me…close to NYC but not in it.
13. Drexel: Trauma-heavy Philly program. Complete, no deficiencies. Residents liked being there. Hospital is a bit run down. Lots of driving.
14. Ohio State: A very strong program. New chairman has really turned things around and this will be a powerhouse in coming years. Promises are not guarantees though. Beautiful new facilities. Columbus is a college town, but still has a metropolitan feel. Location was the key that made me drop it down.
Tier 3:
15. SUNY Downstate: Operative-heavy Brooklyn program. Hospital gets a lot of dump-off cases from other NYC hospitals and many unique cases. A bit run-down, but residents come out ready to handle anything. Not much academics.
16. Loma Linda: Great program for operative experience. Not my cup of tea in terms of 7th Day Adventist feel and suburban setting.
17. Wayne State: Relatively new program. Cush life, not too busy, operate a lot. Detroit suburbs was not cutting it for me despite having some family nearby.

Matched at: Tier 1a and I’m very very excited to get started.

My advice to future applicants:
1. Pick your aways carefully, go where you would like to go for residency and not where you will get a strong letter. I didn’t use a single letter from my aways.
2. For your aways, be helpful but also be a human being. They want people who they can get along with and a share beer after work with. Know your stuff in the OR. Don’t try to show-off.
3. Letters matter a good amount, but the content will not be terribly different from one to another. Get letters from people who you know will support you if they receive a phone call from a PD at a program you interviewed at. Having people who will make calls for you down the stretch is key also.
4. Research matters and I think it was a good reason I got some interviews. The more the better, but the key is to have something to talk about during your interview.
5. The interview matters a lot. Be yourself, be personable, smile. I cannot emphasize this enough. This is an interview for them to see how you are normally. Don’t try to be overly serious, but don’t try to be too loose either.
6. Be humble and apply broadly. Interview broadly. You don’t want to mess things up when you’ve worked so hard for 4 years.
7. In my opinion, 95% of programs will train you well. Know what you want in a program and don’t let reputation or academic name cloud your judgment. Every program matches well into fellowships.

Hope this helps!

There seems to be a paucity of posts about west coast programs, anyone with input about California programs, Oregon, or Washington. Thanks, for your help.

Med School: private, northeast, not top 50
Boards: Step 1: 241, Step 2: 249
Rank: school doesn’t rank us
AOA: no
Preclinicals: majority pass, a few honors
Clinicals: Honors: Family, Peds, Psych; High Pass: OBGYN, Surgery; Pass: Medicine
Ortho: 3 away rotations, plus home; honored all of them
Letters: one of the most important factors, I was repeatedly complemented on strong letters so I think they really helped me to get interviews
Research: one project in the process of getting published
Extracurriculars: nothing too exciting in med school, D3 college athlete

How many Programs:
Applied to: >100, shotgunned it because my school has had trouble matching people into ortho
Offered Interviews: 32
Attended: 19; I cancelled mostly due to conflicts, ranked all programs I interviewed

Tier 1: (alphabetical order) All of these places could have been my #1 choice.

Georgetown: Old boys club. Has the operative experience of a high volume community program, but a good name and excellent didactics. Delahay really takes care of the residents and students. Rotates through Washington Hospital Center and Fairfax Hospital.

MCW: Amazing program. Well rounded, with every subspecialty represented, including 3 tumor surgeons. It is the only program in Milwaukee so it gets all the orthopaedic cases from a large area, giving you such a balanced experience. The attendings and residents are all great, it is the Midwest afterall, and excellent surgeons. Milwaukee is a great town as well, inexpensive, plenty of beer, and right on Lake Michigan so you can do any kind of water sport.

Tufts: It has the best of all worlds. They have a good name, Boston is a great town, and good training. At Tufts (New England Medical Center) they have a one on one mentor experience, at Newton Wellsley they get a high volume community experience, and at the Baptist they work at a huge name place with big name people. The residents all seemed happy as well.

University of Michigan: Probably has the best name of all the programs I interviewed at. They seemed to have a pretty good lifestyle since there are so many residents and just a few hospitals to cover on call. They have a lot of research going on, get tons of NIH funding. This year they are taking 8 residents instead of 6 and starting to rotate at St. Joseph’s hospital in Ann Arbor, so some new things going on. Cover any Michigan sports you want.

University of New Mexico: Great program. The people and the city make this program. The residents and attendings were all awesome guys. The program director literally had my personal statement memorized and started talking all about the things I wrote. He is big into the outdoors and Albuquerque is a great place to ski, mountain bike, pretty much anything. If that is your thing definitely apply here, during intern year they spend a month doing wilderness medicine. The orthopaedic training is excellent as well, with all subspecialites represented. Also like MCW where it’s the only show in town, and only Level 1 trauma center in all of New Mexico so they get plenty of interesting cases.

Tier 2: sorry too lazy to write about each program
Albert Einstein Philadelphia
Akron
Allegheny General Hospital
Drexel
Geisinger
Henry Ford
Long Island Jewish
Monmouth
Seton Hall
St Luke’s / Roosevelt
SUNY Stony Brook
Temple
UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson
Wayne State

NOT RANKED: none

Matched at: top tier

My advice to future applicants: Pick your aways carefully since they are the most likely places you will match, even though I matched at a place I did not rotate. Be realistic as to your competiveness, the major mistakes people make and thus not matching is doing aways at places which are out of their range or not applying to a wide range of programs. Most programs provide excellent training, its all about matching. Step 1 scores get you in the door, but I think letters of recommendation play a huge role in getting interviews as well. To get good letters obviously work hard, know your stuff, and don’t be a douche, but there is obviously an element of luck and developing a good relationship with the attendings.

I am not gonna be as wordy as everyone else on here about every single detail but I did find it helpful when I was a 3rd year nervous about the whole process. As you might tell I was not very picky about what I wanted, I just really wanted to match in ortho. I'm an average joe who actually couples matched (wife to primary care, I posted about this elsewhere)

School - nothing special
Step I/II - 240s
Research - nothing in ortho, two posters, some undergrad stuff too
Letters - one from home program Chair, one from general surgeon, one from private orthopod, one from away rotation PD
Clinicals/Grades - about half honors, honored surgery
AOA - nope
Applied - 47
Interviews offered - 16
Interviews attended/ranked - 14 (turned down one 6 yr program and weather prevented my flight to the other one)

Programs in no order or tiers:

UT-Houston - great program, great city, awesome attendings, only taking 3 residents a year which is crazy with the amount of workload but are about to expand to 5 (with 2 MSII spots expected to be open next year), tons of trauma, great sports, LBJ hospital service is very resident dependent where a lot of growing up happens

UT-San Antonio - big program, great city, cool residents. I liked the way the trauma service was set up with the 12 on/12 off system and that when you're off service you're truly off service and not covering call every now and then, legendary old dogs still with the program as well which would be useful in fellowship hunting

Oklahoma - just recently expanded to 6 residents, I really like OKC, great residents, good moonlighting opportunities, solid program

Mississippi - was on probation at the time but for hours problems from the past which I didn't really care about, I'd never been to Jackson and it was a pretty cool little town, pretty nice hospital, great residents

John Peter Smith Hospital- cool community program, 4 residents a year, lots of trauma service, work a lot with community orthopods, their PD is the nicest guy in the world

Banner Good Samaritan - in Phoenix which is a great city, awesome interview trip, very research heavy (you are expected to complete a research project every year) so you will have a stacked CV by the end of residency, work a ton at the Mayo hospital in Scottsdale and use the so-called "Mayo model" where you work one-on-one with the attending

Greenville - Great well-balanced program, awesome attendings (Dr. Hawkins is a great guy), awesome residents, I loved this city

Atlanta Medical Center - Atlanta is awesome, I viewed this is a rising star with their relatively new PD/Chair, great exposure to everything as you work at many different hospitals in the city

KU-Kansas City - I had a good time in Kansas City, very good sports experience it seemed as they are the team docs for the Royals and Chiefs, nice hospital

KU-Wichita - the attendings were all very down to earth nice people and the residents were way laid back, they do have a 6 month peds rotation in St Louis during 4th year

Texas Tech - another very chill program in a city where you are the only facility in like a 6 hour radius so plenty of work going on there, residents were awesome, will start going to Cook's Peds Hospital in Ft Worth for Peds rotation

South Alabama - another laid back program, interesting interview day, work between 3 hospitals in town, didn't get to tour them but they basically told us that was for a reason, ha, nice chill city

Louisville - excellent program in Midwest, great trauma/hand/spine exposure, very research heavy as well (I think 3 projects expected to be completed)

South Carolina Columbia - small program (2/yr) but very nice setup/town/hospital, you'd think with such a small program that you'd get slammed on call but that isn't the case, they care a lot for their residents

I don't know how useful this was and it's been a long time since I interviewed at all these places. I did match with my wife and I'm excited about it. Like I said I was nervous about it all and these forums helped me make some decisions. I guess I'd say don't overthink things or think you have to play games with programs to get ahead. If you are interested in a program, rotate there. If you want to apply somewhere that is far out of your region, who cares? Apply there. The process really is a crapshoot and makes no sense how this all happens but I guess it's worked for however long they've been doing it this way. I feel bad for those those didn't end up matching but I also have known many successful stories from the trails of people that ended up matching their second time around. Just BE YOURSELF on the trail, during rotations, and throughout the entire process. Apply where you want to end up. Everything will be FINE. Have fun everybody

All of your responses are very helpful.
I would encourage people that have not posted on this thread yet, to do so.
I am sure you all remember reading this thread last year and thinking it was great to hear a few first hand words about the programs.
So please contribute.

Just wanted to comment on the above post with regard to Rush. My interview was nothing like the above, and was actually a great experience (as great as any interview can be). I was also on the rotator day, and found the interviewers to be interested in me and asking me about things I listed on ERAS as well as my life outside ortho. I did get asked about other programs I rotated at and how I liked them, which is something I got asked about at every single interview - definitely not unique to Rush. I did NOT get asked to rank/compare other programs to Rush. A lot of the residents were present at the social event the night before as well as during the interview day, and they were all super chill, not at all arrogant like the reviewer above is suggesting. They are actually some of the most humble, fun guys I've met throughout rotations/interview trail. Finally, would like to comment on the "legal battle" also mentioned above. Clearly the reviewer above did not do his/her homework, as while there was a lawsuit about supposed billing issues, the lawsuit was dismissed in its entirety in November for having absolutely zero merit and was completely frivolous to begin with. I actually asked the chair about faculty movement during my interview, and it seems like if anything, they are looking to potentially add, and no one is looking to leave. Rush has a lot of stability. Please see my complete rotation review (posted today) for more info.

I'm pretty sure there are 4 trauma fellows currently, but when I interviewed there Sagi said they were getting rid of 1 of them to increase the operative experience for the residents. It is true that there is a local DO program that has at least a couple residents there and also the Navy has residents that rotate there as well. They all work as a team for the most part though. I would have been pumped to match there.

Spent a lot of time at USF and here are my thoughts.

Pros: Excellent staff support of residents - Dr. Letson and crew are very much advocates for the residents' experience. He will go out of his way to make sure changes that need to happen get done. Well-balanced. Excellent research opportunities at FOI. Tumor experience is awesome. Location couldn't be better. Lifestyle is probably the most cush of any program I saw as well; however I felt this came at cost (see below). FOI has some of the best fellowships around and these guys could probably help with your fellowship application. Nice facilities if thats your thing.

Neutral: The residents I met were mostly very laid back and informal. There were a few that I found to be perhaps too laid back in the sense that they were like "hey come here! we only work 40 hours per week! ... don't go to program X, you'll work too much" I feel like you get what you put into your surgical training and this attitude, while not necessarily bad for some (was kind of tempting), it was not how I was going to approach my training, per se. Reputation is neither good nor bad either as it is a relatively new, re-start program.

Cons: Relatively light operative experience. Spend 1/3 of the time at local private practice (not FOI) attendings (again, some may view this as a plus, I didn't). Trauma experience is weak, despite the HUGE trauma names you could potentially work with. Because the TGH/FOI Sanders/Sage trauma fellowship has been around forever and is arguably the best in the country, there are residents from multiple programs that vastly outnumber the USF residents on trauma (there is one junior and one senior USF resident on trauma). This relationship between Drs. Sagi / Sanders and these other residency programs is long-standing and likely will not change anytime soon. Also there are 6 trauma fellows (I think), which can somewhat dilute your experience as well.

Bottom-line: a rising program that will continue to rise, but currently has a few issues that you should take into account. perhaps these have been / are being addressed, I cannot speak to that.

We appreciate all your comments.
As you know they are extremely helpful to escalate prematch anxiety to a new level. So please, keep them coming.

Anyone interview at USF? curious to hear thoughts about the program

Reapplicant after research year

Total Apps: 126 - (Ya it's a ton, but I matched so it's worth it)
Interviews Offered: 11 (10 new, 1 repeat, not interviewed at home institution and 1 away from previous year)
Interviews Declined: 0
USMLE: Step I - High 230s, Step II - mid 210s (taken February of senior year and should have cared more
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)
Grades: Preclinical - No grades; Clinical - Mix of H/HP with H on Ortho Aways (although my home institution still hasn't given me my final grade on ortho)
Med School: Top 25 USNWR
AOA: Nope
Rotations: 1 home 2 away before applying, 1-2wk after not matching as a student and 1-1wk "shadowing experience"
Publications (all are ortho): 1 paper published, 1 in submission, 3 more being drafted, 2 podium presentation, 4 abstracts/poster presentations, 11 new projects from research year
Letters: 8 total, 7 ortho (1 home chair, 1 research chair, 1 research mentor, 1 home attending, 2 from 2wk rotation, 1 ortho from senior away) 1 from non-ortho-- all are new except for the 1 ortho letter from my senior away.


What was different: Much more research (which was discussed a bunch), and I added more "beef" to my application this year which included some of the non-medical experiences, scholarships, and awards I recieved (which were also asked about).

What I looked for:
1. Solid Operative Experience
2. Good educational experience
3. Reasonable Cost of Living
4. Research opportunities
5. Medium size program (4-7 residents)
6. Matching

I am not listing my interviews in tiers because its dumb... my goal is to answer questions that some may have about programs they are applying to next year. So randomly, my interview notes:


Summa: residents only, great surgical experience didactics and comaradarie. also research opportunities w/ support staff. a little light on the more complicated cases, but fantastic training. Dr. Junko (PD) and Dr. Weiner (Chair) are awesome... residents call them by first name. Akron is not that bad. Nice perks, free food, treated well, everything you could ever want & more! Honestly a great place.

Marshall: strong, driven chairman, outstanding operative experience, nice perks, nice people, got to practice casting on the interview day... DPM teaching f/a (maybe it's an ego thing but I want an orthopod teaching me this; even though he was an awesome guy), have to go to kentucky for formal peds experience. Had to take a quiz about why you want to go to Marshall on interview day. Night before was at the chairman's house which was nice because it answered a ton of questions. West Virginia has nice mountains and outdoorsy stuff, but I'd have to drive to Cincinatti just to eat some falafel.

Cleveland Clinic: great balance amongst all specialties, exposure to big academics and community orthopaedics. see the sickest patients in america as well as some relatively healthy ones. cover sports team in town. book fund is generous/everyone gets ipads. unbelievable research opportunities. somewhat fellow heavy, but plenty to go around and chief residents run all services except for sports (but the sports fellows are checked by the chairman who is a sports guy and a resident advocate). you will be able to do a revision joint with your eyes closed by the end of 4th year. trauma is surprisingly better than everyone thinks. Cleveland is no Chicago or New York, but has everything you need.

Ohio State: strong staff that is quickly growing, driven chairman, great feel after interview, probation likely will be lifted, all subspecialties well represented. Residents are a cohesive bunch who all get along well. Solid operative experience, good fellowships afterwards. Dr. Mayerson (PD) is a cool guy. Columbus is nice.

Michigan: awesome staff, increasing to 8 residents, great balance, few fellows, good exposure w/o getting killed, well paid; also accomodates to residents' requests (reducing number of sports fellows because residents felt experience was diluted). I felt like they told everyone to do a second look if they were interested and didn't rotate. Ann Arbor is nice.

DMC/Providence: $2000/yr book fund, super busy trauma... big on joints, sports, trauma, peds. very light on the research, foot/ankle, hand (i don't remember hearing much about this). tumor experience is at a cancer hospital but there is no tumor guy; overall solid training and definitely got all the good stuff from the old Wayne State Program (and they were just purchased by Vanguard I believe, so that should result in some money being injected into the hospital). Detroit has nice suburbs... the city, not so much (but lots of falafel in Dearborn)

WVU: Good operative experience I guess, would have been nice to meet some of the staff because I was interviewed by the same resident 3 times. dpm doing f/a, dept w/ financial difficulties (with a chair who has an MBA) cannot send residents to conferences, and no salary increases for the last few yrs. Morgantown is nice when you are in college and looking to do college things, but again, closest baklava in pittsburgh

South Alabama: Very patriotic nickname (USA). overall a good program, staff are nice, facilities need some renovation, some financial difficulties, but happy residents w/ comaradarie. the peds attending interviewed 5 of us at once which was interesting, and trauma guy had us fiddle with some linked metal objects while we were telling him about our thoughts on Obama-care. Home call covering more than 1 hospital seemed crazy to me. Mobile is nice, but the oil spill still has some remnants on the economy. I did see some leprechauns after playing my grandfathers flute made out of toilet piping, but they ran away before I could get me some gold.

Baylor: gigantic facilities, if including the private staff, over 100 orthopods you work with, early and often operative experience, Houston is very nice and cheap... opportunities for some research but not crazy research heavy. Drs. Reitman (Chair) and Harrington (PD) are awesome, and all the folks I met were fantastic.

Temple: resident run program with only 1 trauma fellow. strong trauma, joints, sports, and hand; solid peds, spine: so so foot and ankle. have at least 1 fellowship trained guy in each sub specialty. Cool group of guys as residents, and very proud of their program. Improving research capabilities. North Philly is pretty thuggish, housing is cheap for east coast. Was very impressed with this program.

Hamot: Lots of operating, some research. no fellowship trained spine guys (only neurosurg). must do second look to be ranked highly. Erie is ehh, but has a nearby Casino hence almost mandating a solid trauma experience.

..........
Thoughts:
1. Gotta sell yourself at every interview! Make them think you are going to rank them number 1 (but only say you are ranking one place first, because ortho is a small community and people talk)
1a. Point 1 includes people w/ a >250 step 1&2 and 11 pubs. I know a few people w/ over a 250 from great med schools who did not match, so don't be that person because you are interviewing at a program you consider a backup (which btw backups don't exist)
2. Gotta have a champion (see my other post)
3. Don't be a d-bag
4. Don't flirt "spit game" at people you are interviewing with (you'd be surprised what happens when someone has a little too much Jose Cuervo)
5. At the night before events, if there are residents, go talk to them. They will own you for the next few years so you might as well get to know them.
6. Thank you cards. I sent them to all the programs I interviewed at and didn't match. I only sent them to some of the programs this year and matched. Does it really matter much? Well, if they mention it in the interview jokingly, then probably yes, but probably not as much as the quality of your interview. If they tell you not to send them cards, or that you will be ranked by the time you get to the airport, the don't waste your time.
7. Know yourself (don't put stuff on an application and forget about it; you will get asked about it)

You can look at all the past charting outcomes and see that people with low step scores can match... but it really doesn't give you a view of the overall application. Did they have awesome clinical grades? Outstanding research? Amazing extracurriculars...etc? to make up for those low scores?

Well, I just want to post another data point in a huge sea of unique applications.


Med school: average

Step 1: mid 230s Step 2: low 220s

Pre- and clinical grades: HPs and Ps... not a single H

Research: many non-ortho projects, no publication

Ortho rotations: 3 (home plus 2 aways)... only pass and fail for our 4th year rotations. I can't say for sure that I aced my ortho rotations, but I can say that I worked my ass off.

Extracurriculars: nothing extraordinary

Applied to 50+ programs

Offered and attended 2 interviews

Matched in my top 2
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So... I have pretty much sub-par everything for my application... but I matched! So, I guess the whole point of this post is that, hey, even if your stats are not so hot, and if you dream of ortho a lot, don't give up and give it all you got!

sorry for the late reply. hope someone finds all this helpful.

Total Apps: 39 - (East Coast only)
Interviews Offered: 5
Interviews Declined: 0
USMLE: Step I - 200s, Step II - 230s
Grades: Preclinical - All H; Clinical - All H (including 4 ortho), except HP Med and Neuro
Med School: Top 20 USNWR
AOA: Nope
Away Rotations: 3
Publications (all are ortho): 11 papers published, 4 in submission, 2 podium presentations, 17 abstracts/poster presentations
Letters: 5 ortho

What I was looking for in a program: Aside from wanting to match, period…I wanted a great operative experience with good people. I approached every away by saying, do I want this resident to operate on my family? I compared the operative skills of the 4s and 5s. I looked at whether the attendings were hands-on or hands-off in the OR, whether they trusted their residents, and how well prepared the residents felt for fellowship. Very important – always ask if there are residents who don’t do a fellowship and go straight into practice – usually indicates how confident they feel in their abilities. I think residency is where you should learn how to operate, where you can make mistakes in a relatively safe environment, and where you get exposure to the broadest case load you will ever have in your life. In my opinion, it should not be just a stepping stone to fellowship, and fellowship is definitely not where you should be really learning to operate. I want to come out of residency confident that I can take call at a level I trauma center as a new attending and handle most of what comes in (with in reason…obviously I’m not talking about crazy pelvic/trauma stuff). I always polled residents about this and when I rotated, I also evaluated this. Also, as a married future-resident, it is important that the program has a good mix of women, married residents, and singles. I feel that diversity helps everyone keep a perspective on what they are doing – it reminds people that we all have a life outside of residency. It was important how the residents treated each other and how they treated the RNs and Pas – I want to work with nice, respectful people. Furthermore, I know I want to do academics. So I want a program that has great academic opportunities but allows me the opportunity to really operate. Research is important to me and I want the support to run studies and be involved. Lastly, and most importantly was location. The east coast was very important to me because of my spouse.

Additionally, I agree with the above posts – orthogate is helpful to a point, don’t go crazy on this site and don’t believe everything you read. Get a smart phone – will make your life so much easier. Stay organized. I did write thank you notes. I did tell my number 1 that they were number 1. Make sure you are VERY respectful and courteous to the coordinators/secretaries! And of course, most importantly, the number one, best thing you can do for yourself is do to smart away rotations. Go rotate where you want to go. And do as many as you can…they are a great way to overcome a weakness in your application and get an interview somewhere! Be smart about your application. Work your butt off.

I didn’t get a ton of interviews…or actually even two-handfuls. So don’t screw up step 1 like me. But, thankfully, I made smart away rotation decisions and places were able to look beyond 1 black mark on my application. You can match with a bad step 1…but it’d better be the only thing wrong with your application.

Alphabetical order:

Duke: I don’t think I need to repeat what ortho2737 and Bone4Brains already said. Much of what they said is true. That being said, I was very impressed by interview day…the residents and faculty were very personable, knew everything about me (that’s their interview modus operandi though), and seemed to genuinely love their program and peers – which was very appealing. It was academic but it sounded like the residents got a great operative education. I can’t speak to the true operative experience, because I didn’t rotate there though. However, the duke, duke, duke, felt forced at times. The 2nd look was definitely a turn off. So I didn’t do it. In the end, I thought this was a truly great program. I mean, it’s Duke, come on! I think I would have been very happy here and I would have gotten an outstanding education. However – location is vital to me and my spouse and NC just wasn’t optimal. Still I ranked it high.

LIJ: it felt like a much more community based program, but has some strong research going on. Takes 4/year. By the end of 5 years, the guys definitely know how to operate. Personally, I didn’t like the learning style. It just wasn’t for me. At both LIJ and NSH, you are on an “adult” service and operate on whatever comes in that day. In one day I did an elbow fx, a total knee, a posterior spinal fusion, rotator cuff, ankle fx, and washout. Hard to read before, since you don't know what you're doing the day before. You really aren’t on a “service” per se. The exception is if you’re on hand or peds. I like to focus on one thing and learn to do it well, then move on. This just seemed way to disjointed for me. I rotated here. The residents are nice guys. Most of the attendings are also really nice guys. Like I said, they learn how to operate a lot. And they get great fellowships. I just don’t think I would have flourished here.

Mount Sinai: really loved this program. I rotated here. The residents are an excellent bunch. And they know how to operate. I would say they have the best operative skills of any program that I saw. Research is available if you want it and is only growing stronger. Great fellowships. Pretty much if you look at what I was looking for in a program above, Sinai has everything in spades.

NYU/HDJ: also really loved this program. Very different from the others on the list. I also rotated here. Big, big program. And thus, that’s where I had my concerns. No doubt you make amazing connections and get wonderful fellowships, but while I was there I compared the 4s and 5s with other places. Some of them were great, some of them were not great in the OR. They knew all the theory, but operative skill-wise, there was something lacking. I just felt that this would be a great fellowship place, but not necessarily the best place for me for residency. I felt like I might get lost in the mix. Residents are a great and wonderful bunch, though. They just stack ‘em too deep for me. But that’s in a perfect world – I had 5 interviews, obviously I ranked NYU high and I would have been thrilled if I matched here.

Stony Brook: what a surprise! This was a phenomenal program. Way out on long island, but the trauma…wow! If you want to do trauma and operate your arms off, stony brook is for you. The 4s and 5s were absolutely outstanding in the OR. They really knew what they were doing and they got great fellowships. The research was lacking, but if you can do an acetabular fracture on your own as a 5…I’ll let it slide! Great bunch of residents. Really, the only negative was location. Kind of a ways from the city. Well, that and you have to drive to several other hospitals across long island. Still, you would come out of this program as a very strong surgeon. No doubt you could walk into any ER in the country and a junior attending and handle whatever rolls in the door without breaking a sweat.

Matched at my #1!

Med School: Not top 50, Private, NE
Boards: Step 1: 253, Step 2: 259
Preclinicals: Mostly HP, a few H
Clinical: Mostly H (including gen surg and ortho x3)
Class rank: School doesn't rank
AOA: no
Research: heavily involved in one ortho project with a few posters/presentations that I was 1st author for, no journal publications to date.
Extracurric: sports, leadership, the usual
Applications: 60
Interviews: 17
Attended: 12

NOTE: I couple's matched (successfully thank god), so my low ratio of interviews attended was because I did not interview at programs where my SO did not get an interview.

Also of note, my final rank list did not necessarily reflect my preference of programs, as some sacrifices had to be made re: couples match, but here are my thoughts on the programs at which I interviewed in no particular order:

Carolinas Medical Center - seemed like a great academic-ish community program. Rumors of being strongly affiliated with UNC in the near future. Great facilities, great OR experience, cool residents. Charlotte is a great city. All around not too many drawbacks, but research seemed to be light.

Albert Einstein (Philly) - Probably the most cohesive group of residents I encountered anywhere. Good sized faculty for the number of residents. North Philly not a good location at all, and hospital was not too nice. One attending asked me if I wanted to do research and basically answered for me that if I do I should go elsewhere.

Drexel - Seemed to have some attendings who were fantastic and loved resident education and others who were distant. Overall a very small faculty for the number of residents. Residents seemed really chill and loved being there. Lots of trauma. Facilities again were not great and research seemed very light.

St. Lukes-Roosevelt - weird interview day. They gave you a two hour block and that was it. Met only 3 or 4 residents total as if they were hiding something. Got pimped heavily in a couple interview rooms which seemed to not fit what they were trying to sell as a culture there. Amazing location and great resident housing make it very enticing, but I was skeptical about the program from the interview day.

Columbia - probably the best overall program I interviewed at, although it did not end up at the top of my list. Strong from top to bottom with top-notch residents who didn't take themselves too seriously. Levine is very energetic and inspiring; his reputation is well-deserved. Trauma rotation at Shock was a downfall in my opinion (having a significant other), although some might see it as a big plus. Overall a great program.

Ohio State - chairman seemed to really want great things for the program. Although on probation, seemed to be moving in the right direction. They were very upfront about their status at the interview and their honesty was much appreciated by me. Tons of money flowing into the hospital and the ortho program in particular. Growing faculty. Took only 5 this year, but I think plans to expand to 8 in the future years. If they can get past this probation status, it seems like a program on the rise. Columbus is a nice midwestern city.

Summa - very heavy in the OR. When I interviewed they had something like 10 ortho rooms packed all day with cases. The Crystal Clinic is a private ortho practice that has a weird relationship with Summa; it's hard to tell what is what. Chairman and PD were both great guys. Building what appears to be a beautiful new ortho hospital. Research seemed light but to be expected for a community program. Overall one of the stronger programs I saw but located in Akron, OH.

Akron General - Hard to distinguish this from Summa. While Summa has its own orthopaedic hospital, AGMC seemed to be the more well-rounded program overall. Really stressed the fact that they are university-affiliated and not a community program. Also placed much emphasis during the interview day about the research facilities and opportunities. New chairman was one of the nicest guys I met on the trail. Residents seem happy. Again...Akron, OH. Seem to have a little rivalry with Summa, residents kept saying how they beat them in OITE this year with a 96th percentile....whoopdie-doo. Pleasantly surprised by this program.

UC Davis - trauma-heavy UC program with great reputation. Residents worked really hard but seemed to love it there. Lots of big names (especially on the west coast) and good academics. Sacramento is an OK city in California, not the greatest, but it is close to SF, Tahoe, etc. Overall one of the best programs I interviewed at in terms of OR experience combined with academics.

UC Irvine - beautiful facilities, beautiful location, but just seemed to be missing something. About half the residents seemed really cool at the social/interview day and half seemed to not fit in with the rest. Didactics seemed to be weak for being a UC institution. Residents commented about how the PGY2 year is tough, but 3 and 4 you can coast. Residents also commented that sports/joints a little weak but hand/spine/trauma very strong. Some attendings seemed very friendly and passionate about ortho. Really odd interview day, came out of a couple of the rooms almost laughing, not because the interview was funny but just really odd/antagonistic. Didn't really get all the hate towards the chairman that I've read on this forum; seemed like he really wanted the best for his residents (and they echoed that).

Pitt - big name, residents overworked and not happy. Never seen a group of residents appear so beat down. Not really into the whole dictatorship thing for the next 5/6 years of my life. Not impressed by the showing off at interview day. I guess some people like that type of program but not for me.

Duke - old boys club for sure. Heard it helps to match if you are a white, former college athlete, so maybe that's why I got an interview. Seemed like a really nice program and the residents were happy, but not being from the south, I felt like I didn't really fit in. Was a nice touch that the residents knew everything about you before you arrived to the social. Overall, great place, not a big city but a nice area, and the ultimate old boys club. I didn't do the "optional" 2nd look, so I never really had a chance.



I ended up matching at a program that was in the top 1/3 of my list and in the same city as my SO. I was thrilled to have a successful couples match, and I would have been happy to match anywhere on my list in the same city as my SO. All the advice on here has been good. Step 1, don't be a douche, away rotations important, etc. I'll give my two cents re: couples match.

List on eras that you are couples matching. Came up in every single interview I had and was a positive experience. Apply broadly and curtail your expectations. Don't get disappointed when you have to eliminate a program that you liked because it's not compatible with your SO's desires. Keep an open mind about places. I ended up matching at a place that I really didn't know much about before interviewing and am thrilled to be starting there in a couple months. Hope this helps. Good luck to everyone applying in the future.

Med School: Not top 50, South
Boards: Step 1: 231, Step 2: 245
Preclinicals: Our school is P/F
Clinical: All Honors (except for P in gensurg [bad shelf])
Class rank: Top 30%
AOA: no
Research: 2 ortho papers submitted, some undergrad research, plastics case report
Extracurric: sports, leadership, the usual
Applications: 60
Interviews: 9
Attended: 9

Interviews:

Emory
Ohio State
Tulane
Atlanta Medical Center
Baylor
South Carolina (Columbia)
Mississippi
USF
Cleveland Clinic

Congrats to everyone who matched. You should be really proud of all the hard work it takes. However, this isn't one of those feel good stories. Sorry. Having attendings/residents/PDs say "youre going to match. it's just a matter of where" and then getting that email on Monday morning was a kick in the nuts.

My one piece of advice is to apply everywhere..i got interviews to place that i thought had i had no shot at and rejections from places i thought i would get interviews from.

best of luck to everyone in the upcoming year.

Sorry for the late post - its taken some time to sit down and type everything out. Thanks to the orthogate community for putting advice beforehand. I consider myself one of the more average applicants and I am so grateful to have been able to match. I would urge everyone that has not posted yet to do so. It will only help people get to where they want to go and it's worth it to pay it forward. Also I'm typing this out during work so hopefully the message is not too jumbled.

Med School: non-top 50 private school
Step1 246, step2 not submitted prior to ERAS (256)
AOA: no
Preclinicals: honored majority of preclinical year
Clinicals: mix between HP and P (including gen surg P)
Research: 2 papers (one first author, one second author), one textbook chapter, one ongoing project
Extracurrics: sports related extra curric
Matched

I had reservations about applying to ortho as it was a very competitive field and I did not perform well enough in my third year that it would help me stand out. I consider myself as one of the more real applicants on orthogate - some flaws but dedicated to ortho 100%. I was considering a research year to help me out but it would not truly offset my weaknesses; after talking to my family and my advisor, I decided to go for it. After having a great time in my fourth year rotations - I could never do anything else besides ortho.

What I wanted in a program:
#1 was to operate- there is no substitute for this experience and there is no time like residency to learn all you can - blunt trauma heavy programs were programs I were looking to go to. You need to be able to take general call and learn the foundations to orthopedics, and you're not going to get that by becoming someone's bitch for 4 years.
#2/3 supportive faculty - I wanted a place where the attendings would be respectful of residents and understand that it is their time to learn, treat them as colleagues, and make sure that the residents were improving
#2/3 great residents - hard to judge but this is something you just know
#4 location - decent sized city (single)
#5 reputation/fellowships - if you're an ortho program - chances are you're at least decent and most programs match into good fellowships (it's a different game when applying for fellowships and odds are in your favor) - this is the one category I thought was important but the more and more I think about it - it doesn't really matter. One of the fellows I talked to reported that his experience coming from a great institution compared to his peers was that his surgical skills did not match those of his peers because of his limited operative experience.

Applied ~80 (apply to as many as you want, you have nothing to lose - just be sure to apply to your home region first)
Offered ~15
Attended 13

These are my post-match thoughts - take with a grain of salt and talk to multiple people to get a good perspective. I am not putting my rank list order nor am I putting tiers. Different people are looking for different things in each program and I'm not out to sh#& on anyone's program - I also didn't post all programs as some I just don't have enough good things to say and some things tend to repeat themselves.

Jefferson: private practice Rothman Institute working with Jefferson hospital. World-class attendings seem more focused on getting patients in and out - time seems to take priority over education. Not much trauma (most trauma goes to Temple and Hahnemann). Residents all seem like great people. Chairman/PD interview you in a group - which was interesting but I felt spoke to the hierarchal nature of the program. Very strong in research (now requiring 2 projects before graduation). They just got a new oncologist from Harvard who seems like a very good addition to the program. Chairman talked of expanding program to South Philadelphia and building a bone palace. One of the biggest names in ortho.

Temple: Trauma-heavy (penetrating). 2's work in with 5's for trauma - a graduated experience from what the residents say. On interview day - emphasized the culture of the program. They seemed very focused on learning. About half residents married. They have a very heavy reading schedule and the 2's are worked very hard. It seems that they all graduate very confident and capable: I have seen the graduates work at other institutions and they are excellent surgeons. They also have a good research component with an in-house journal.

Hahnemann: They get the blunt trauma in Philadelphia. The program seemed a little bit weaker in spine. The residents seemed more diverse than at most other programs. I got the sense that the resident really enjoyed their program and it seemed that they had good training. I got the sense that they had to compete a little bit with the other programs in the city and were unfortunately placed between Temple, Jeff, and Penn. To me, the program did not stand out from others in any particular way.

Albert Einstein (Philly): Very resident driven program (taking 2 a year currently with plans to expand to 3). The resident interview was all of the residents in the room and you could not come out of the room without laughing. They operate like crazy and have great fellowship placement. The chairman and attendings know their residents and know what is going on in their lives. This program likes to talk about their OITE success (>90 percentile in the last 5 years) - I know it's a cliche on orthogate. They are situated in north philadelphia - a prime area for the knife and gun club (penetrating trauma) and they are not afraid of whatever comes in. Slogan of the program: "Does the residency exist for the practice, or does the practice exist for the residency?"

Emory:
I rotated here. There are 12 rotators and it was going strong for about 4 months; most residents have rotated there so it is very tough to get in without having done a prior rotation. Grady Memorial Hospital is one of the busiest hospitals around and the residents have everything to show for their experience there. They are on top of their game and know their ORs inside and out. Trauma heavy - q3 call while you're at grady. This was a great rotation for learning. Dr. Bradbury - the program director- was great to work with and he really has the residents interest in mind. Atlanta is a great city to live in - plenty of culture and outdoor activities for all. Residents hang out outside of work and they really get along with each other. There does seem to be a little southern-ness to the program.

Allegheny General Hospital: A great operative program that gets residents into the ORs early. Staff and residents were very easy to get along with - I thought they asked very interesting questions. Very well known program for hand/upper extremity, great experience in joints - however; people have matched into spine and other specialties from the program - and at very good programs at that, so I wouldn't worry about fellowship placement. They get a lot of trauma as they are situated near the highway, I've talked to students who have done more on this rotation than two other rotations combined (reducing hips, closing deep fascia, 'tabs, + all the reductions you could wish for). Most people I have talked to thought really highly of this program - it is a very well respected program by applicants, residents, and attendings, At the interview, the PD likes to test you and it seems his focus is on learning. The residents were proud of their experience - I think this program is located in a great and easily affordable city - unfortunately, seems overshadowed by UPMC.

Georgetown:
reputation for not being trauma heavy. There also seems to be a heavier political culture being that it is around DC. At our interview, Dr. Delahay and a resident sat 5 applicants down at a time to discuss political issues (sarah palin, cap and trade, immigrants). The other staff asked interesting questions that definitely gave the program a personality - some people like it, some people hate it. Some find it to be an overrated program situated right in DC. They are moving in the right direction and incorporated a stronger trauma rotation.

Geisinger: I thought very highly of this program. Attendings are all very friendly, residents get along well with each other and play intramural sports. At least half are married or are in serious relationships. This program is also on track to expand. They took 3 last year and are looking to go to 4. The program is based on a mentorship model with which you work with an attending for three months (similar to Mayo). This hospital is one of the major hospitals around for miles, so you get all kinds of great trauma. The major drawback was the location. You really need to spend time here to find out if this program is for you.

SUNY Upstate: Great trauma (blunt, moderately educated patient population) and great trauma attending. Spine seemed to be a strength as per residents - they get to place pedicle screws early on. There seemed to be a discrepancy between my interview experience and other people's. Applicants did not interview with every attending - some got a bad impression depending on which interview group they were in. Overall, conflicting information that made it hard to gauge this program.

I rotated at one community and one university program in addition to my home program. I matched into my community rotation and I could not be more excited. As far as away rotation selection, I was looking for operative heavy programs as I would have a chance to do more, see more, and contribute more to the team; and I felt these rotations catered to my strengths.

The guy above actually gave some pretty good advice as far as everything goes - I'm not going to add much more. Just some things:
Know your anatomy, and know fracture basics. Anticipate what the team needs to be done, and keep it moving smoothly. Don't complain, don't be a dick, and finally, be grateful to have the opportunity to rotate and interview for ortho - many people would love to be in the position that you are now.