2011 Match Results

[ortho250]

Med School: Small Primary Care Med School in South
Boards: Step 1: 227 step 2 235
AOA: no
[b]Preclinicals: my school does letter grades, i got 2 A, 2 Bs, 2 Cs
Clinicals: honors in surgery, family, pediatrics
Ortho: 3 aways, honors

Research: not really, one case report that was published
extracurricular: alot, i did 4 international medical trips, helped to raise thousands of dollars for clinics out in Haiti, lots of volunteer work

what I was looking for in a program: a place where I got along with residents, this was very important to me as a double minority. I interviewed places where I was ignored at resident dinners...

How many Programs:
Applied to: 42
Offered Interviews: 7
Attended: 7

I ended up ranking 5 out of 7 interviews, because I did not want to be in residency at those two other places. I believe in placing yourself in an environment where you will flourish and be happy.

I matched at place where I wanted to be one of my top 3 programs!!

My words of advice, stay humble, trust in God, and dont change who you are during this process to "fit in"

[CC2011]

First of all I want to say that I learned a lot from these threads over the last few years. Personally I dont think posting scores/grades/research exploits is important, so I'm not going to do that. I think these threads work best just to get applicants impressions of programs and then help you figure out where you want to rotate/apply/cancel when you have overlapping interviews.

Everyone lists the same programs differently because of what their priorities. My priorities were a program where I would get good hands-on technical training as a resident but also where there are plenty of research opportunities and people are happy (this was what I considered the "total package"). Just getting a "big name" was not that important to me although I am interested in going into academics.

General advice (in no specific order):
1. Rock Step 1 (obviously) - this will get you interviews
2. Write a good personal statement - cant tell you how many ppl brought up stuff from my PS
3. Have interests outside of medicine and put them on your app- talked a lot about these at most interviews
4. Research - Do it and be able to talk intelligently about it on your interviews
5. Get good clinical grades
6. The biggest "name" programs dont necessarly give the best training (although your grandma may be impressed that you are a resident there).

I applied to 30 programs, got 15 interviews and went on 14 of them. I'm going to copy/paste all of my notes/impressions that I wrote out immediately after my interviews/rotations, so this will be a very long post.

I broke my list up into just 2 tiers:

Tier 1: Programs that I would be elated to match at (in alphabetical order)

Mayo Clinic - The facilities and resources are mind-boggling. They have a very different program structure. There is a preceptorship model where you spend 3 months (quarters) on a service (each attending has a service) and learn how that attending works. Over the course of the quarter, the resident slowly becomes more and more independent. I thought the residents were at least on-par with other places and about one-third of the chiefs were going directly into private practice without doing a fellowship, so they seemed to be confident with their abilities. Lots of support personnel, every attending has his own PA and there are surgical techs to help with closing cases and putting on dressings so that residents could get work done and go home. They did admit that arthroscopy/sports was a bit of a weakness. Almost all rotations are one-on-one with the attending, the exceptions are Trauma and as a PGY-2 when you are a junior on Hands and Joints, commonly with a fellow. Each resident spends a certain amount of months on each type of service per RRC requirements, then they have 9 months of elective time as a PGY-5 to choose which services they want to be on to polish off their training. You can also do a year of research as a PGY-2 and still graduate in 5 years by being placed on the higher volume services and end up doing the same number of cases as someone who didn’t do research. I thought the didactic structure was the best I saw with 6 months of protected afternoons during PGY-2 for didactics and labs. This time included scope labs, microvascular labs, anatomy labs going over approaches, and traditional didactic lectures. This was supplemented by rotation specific morning conferences that are spectacular with leaders in the field going over cases and/or journal clubs with residents presenting them. I thought the residents were very well versed in orthopedic principles and basic knowledge. The program is large (12 per year) and this has its plusses and minuses. Plus: there are a ton of residents in the call pool, which leads to not having to take call very often. Minus: a non-uniform resident experience where they don’t necessarily get to work with the same attendings due to the structure of the program. (was told by an attending that there is an "A and B Track" for residents.) PD admitted it was a non-uniform experience but said with the 9 months of electives, residents got to get a very personalized experience. Residents also admitted that there are also attendings that are more difficult to work with and can lead to an unpleasant 3-month quarter. The residents seemed very happy and their lifestyle seemed great (no work-hours problems here). Also, a lot of thought has gone into the program design to maximize the resident experience. For example, you are always post-call on a clinic day (therefor never miss out on OR cases). That being said with all that free time, you have to spend it in Rochester. I actually found the city to be not too bad; of course I was there in the summer and spent a lot of time on the running trails and enjoying the outdoors (not an option for some of the year). I thought there was a reasonable social scene in the “downtown” area of Rochester. They twin cities were about a 1.5-2 hour drive away. Mayo also had the best gym facilities that I have ever seen. Overall, I thought it was a great program with an unrivaled ability to personalize your residency (ie 9 months of elective time, and research versus no research) but you have to ask the question whether you can handle living there for 5 years. I was also worried as to not knowing what rotations that I would or wouldn’t get in my 5 years there. Note: a great place to do an away because you get lots of one-on-one with famous attendings for a letter.

University of California San Diego - This is a program where residents are very happy. I think the training is pretty solid, with multiple VA and navy rotations. The faculty at UCSD is smaller than most, but this does not include all of the staff at Navy and VA. There is a strong trauma experience throughout the year due to the weather, the PD is the main trauma attending and is a strong resident advocate. They have a very strong spine experience, the chairman is a big-name spine attending. There is only one UCSD sports attending, but a lot of the sports/scope exposure the residents get is on the Navy rotations, which people claim is one of the more hands-on sports experiences out there. Rady Children’s is one of the best peds ortho experiences in the country, but per the residents is a difficult rotation. The hand department is pretty strong, with multiple attendings. The residents claim to be comfortable with all of general ortho when they finish here. All residents do a research year during PGY-2 that is spent in a lab. They have very strong orthopedic research, with almost all of their investigators having won the Kappa Delta award at some point. Residents generally get multiple pubs from this year, which helps with fellowships. The fellowship match is impressive with residents going to strong fellowships. San Diego is amazing; it is much more affordable than the rest of the big California cities. The weather is perfect, I spent a week here in beginning of February and it was 65 and mostly sunny all week. I could see how SD could be a bit of a distraction during residency though.

University of California San Francisco - Very trauma heavy, but probably one of the most operative heavy programs in the country. The tradeoff for this is there is 4 months of trauma at SFGH every year in the program. Also, the spine and arthroplasty services are very busy as well. PGY2 seems to be the most difficult, like most other programs. PGY4 is the most chill year. The faculty seems to be very dedicated to teaching and residents say they are doing entire cases with faculty taking them through them as a PGY2. The residents rotate at hospitals all over the bay area and have a block at the Shriner’s hospital in Sacramento as well. Per rotators there was a lot of paperwork and inefficiencies in the system, especially at SFGH that frustrated residents. Residents are over work hours rules when at SFGH, but the hand/sports/foot and ankle rotations, as well as the VA and private practice rotations are well below, so there is a balance. In addition to seemingly excellent training, there is the academic side of UCSF and the research and career opportunities that comes along with that if you are interested in academics. There is one 6-year research track spot that does a year of research after PGY-2. The entire year is protected research time and the resident seems to do very well as far as publications in either basic or clinical research. A very fun group of residents here. I heard the term “work hard-play hard” so many times in the weekend that I can’t even count. San Francisco seems like an awesome place to live, but also very expensive. Really liked the program, but thought that it was a little too crazy for me and rotators said that the residents didn’t seem as happy as they made it out to be on interview day.

University of Iowa - Another program with very happy residents. They have an incredible orthopedic tradition. Very down to earth and approachable attendings, even the most famous among them. They do each rotation as a junior and senior resident and employ a team-based model. The residents seem to be confident in their skills, some even go right into private practice without fellowship. They have one of the best call schedules of any program and PGY3-5 is mostly home call. They have an excellent didactic structure and the resident and attending have fun together during these sessions. There is protected research time during PGY 3 and PGY 4 for research and residents have to do 2-3 projects before they graduate. Iowa city is a relatively small college town with a large big-ten university in it. They have all the amenities of a large university, like big time college sports and co-eds. It gets very cold in the winter and they see plenty of snow. Residents can afford to own homes and many of them do. There are not many single residents and many of them have children, the interview social had dozens of kids running around. Coming from here they pretty much get any fellowship that they want and residents seem comfortable enough to go directly into general ortho showing they get a really good hands on experience during residency.

University of Utah - This program has the happiest residents that I met on the trail. I think it is very similar to WashU meaning that it is a program with fellows, but the focus is on resident education. The attendings were very cool and down to earth and got along very well with the residents, almost couldn’t tell the residents and attendings apart, even the chairman. The facilities are beautiful, with a brand new orthopedic center. They are a large Level 1 trauma center and also have a VA, a Shriner’s hospital and a tertiary care children’s hospital. Residents do each of the subspecialties as both a junior and a senior resident. I know one of the residents here and he says training is very hands on in the OR. Residents seem very happy with their training and get good fellowships. Rotators seemed to absolutely love their experience here. They have a night float system that covers the main hospital. Intern year was supposedly pretty cush. Most of the residents are married and many own houses. The wives seem to have a close social network. SLC is a very affordable place to live. There are more outdoor activities than you could ever do with world class skiing, hiking, mountainbiking, etc. Seem to have good clinical and biomechanics research opportunities and are starting a patient outcome database which should facilitate even more opportunities in the future. Also, there is the option for a month-long international rotation in PGY-4. Again, couldn’t believe how happy the residents were here.

University of Virginia - This program is a good mix of academics (UVA) and private practice (Roanoke) experience. They are very motivated to train academicians. This year they stopped matching the 6-year academic track because the NIH told them it should be a 7-year track to truly train physician scientists in their grant renewal. They are currently retooling this program. They have a great PD and all of the staff seem to be very excited to teach. There was great congeniality between residents and attendings. Possibly the best sports experience anywhere and an excellent Hand/upper extremity experience as well. There is plenty of research being done by residents (250 resident pubs in last 2.5 years). They spend 20 weeks of PGY-3 and PGY-4 in Roanoke doing trauma and getting a community/private practice experience and you are the only resident or fellow there and get to operate a lot. Charlottesville is a charming city with lots of college sports, concerts and other things that come along with being associated with a 20,000+ student state school. Residents can afford to rent or buy nice places and all seem to be very down to earth and have a good time together. I think this is really a good program that will train you as well as almost any program in the country and you’ll have fun doing it.

Vanderbilt - This place really surprised me on interview day. Everyone that I talked to that rotated here said that they loved it. They universally said that the chiefs here were the best, most skilled residents that they saw in the operating room. In addition to the great operative experience, the program is very involved in research and is motivated to train academicians. Vanderbilt is a busy level-1 trauma center and has three hospitals (Vanderbilt med center, a childrens hospital, and a VA) that are all essentially in the same complex. The PGY-2 year is very difficult, as is pretty standard. PGY-2 and PGY-3s take the in-house call and do 3 primary calls and 3 backup calls a month. Residents said that you don’t do call that often, but you are really busy when you are on. Senior residents are on home call and only come in to do cases. They do each rotation as a junior and senior resident and have one 3-month research block in PGY-3 and one elective block in PGY-4. The residents seemed to be across the board very happy. The chair gave a presentation along with a chief resident and there seemed to be a great camaraderie between the staff and the residents. The fellowship match is impressive, they literally get any fellowship that they want anywhere in the country. In addition to it being great training, it is in Nashville which is a very fun affordable city with pretty good weather to boot.

Washington University in St Louis - This is a very well balanced program with really no weaknesses. They are dedicated to resident education, from the clinic to the OR to the didactic teaching. There were some of the best lectures here, Tue-Thu in the AM with grand rounds after on Wednesday, Monday or Friday were rotation specific conferences. Most lectures are faculty-run but very interactive. The residents operated quite a bit and were proficient as seniors. Some rotations are tough (ie Trauma and Night Float) and the residents work hard, but it is not malignant and is probably about the national average. It’s a busy Level 1 trauma center and the residents were comfortable with anything that came into the ED by the end of PGY-2. There is a very nice new outpatient center where you efficiently plow through cases on sports and hand and get a quasi-private practice experience. Residents seem to get along, there are 6 per year and they could certainly have more, but would rather keep the experience uniform than grow the program (per PD and chairman). There was a great relationship between the residents and attendings, but there was certainly a “yes-sir/no-sir” attitude towards some of the attendings. St Louis could be a downside for some, the Central West End was very nice as well as the park right next to the hospital, but certainly not a Boston/NYC/SF if that is what you are looking for. Great research opportunities including protected research rotations and an international rotation for everyone. This is really a top notch program with few if any weaknesses. They interview a ton of people (100+) and have a ton of rotators, so it’s certainly difficult to get in here.


Tier 2: Programs that I would not be elated to match at but would be happy that I was going to be an orthopod (in alphabetical order)

Cleveland Clinic -The residents get to operate a lot here, but it is very much a tertiary care setting. This means that there is very little trauma exposure here. The residents do two months at Metro during PGY-2 and PGY-3. Personally, I didn’t think this was enough of a trauma experience for my liking, because during the rest of their residency all call is done at CCF, which sees very little trauma in the ED. Otherwise, there is a ton of volume in the other subspecialties. There are a lot of fellows here (18 I think). There only service where fellows rule seems to be the sports service, but there are enough attendings and volume to go around. There are multiple anatomy/cadaver/scope labs to get lots of good hands-on practice. Residents operate early and often and are taken through total joints as PGY-2s, much like all places this is very surgeon dependent, some are more hands on than others. That being said, there is no VA experience, or county experience where you get to run your own service. Clinic is clinic and there seems to be enough teaching going on although this deceases slightly on busy clinic days. Research opportunities are there for those that are interested in them. Any resident can do a year off for research after PGY-3 if they wish, this used to be a 6-year program so the infrastructure is there. The faculty is incredible, they are down to earth and approachable and there is a great rapport between staff and residents. Didactics were done by residents, which was a minus for me. There are big names in multiple subspecialties, which is helpful for getting good fellowships. The residents were okay, about half of them I really liked but there was a subset that I just really didn’t get along with. Cleveland is the big downer for this program, it’s an okay city and they try to sell it, but I just wasn’t buying. It’s cloudy from November until March along with the cold and the snow. So in summary: mostly good training but weak in trauma, good research, mostly a good group of residents, all in a blah city.

Harvard Combined Orthopedics - The program is enormous. It consists of Mass General, the Brigham, Beth Isreal Deaconess, and Boston Children’s and has 12 residents per class and 120+ attendings. The rumors are out there (ie limited operative experience, stuffy atmosphere). They tried to dispel them on interview day, but I think the operative experience is much less than at some programs. A recent HCORP grad told me “yea, I didn’t operate that much as a resident.” The recent curriculum changes may have improved some of the weaker aspects of the program. For example, resident and fellow services were split so that residents wouldn’t be taking their time doing paperwork for patients that fellows operated on and rotations were lengthened to improve the operative experience. All residents say they are still pushing for more NP/PA support for floor work and other less educational activities. The faculty is very receptive to resident feedback and they make changes based upon what the residents say. The intern year is currently up in the air. It was traditionally that 4 residents each did a year at one of the three hospitals. Now, it may switch to each intern doing 4 months at each hospital. The operative experience is “top heavy” with chiefs on some services running their own rooms. There is a preceptorship model where you work in concert with one attending most of the time except on the trauma services. As a resident, you work with approximately half of the attendings during your time in the program. There is unmatched breadth and depth of coverage in all subspecialties in the faculty at these 4 hospitals. There is a nightfloat system at MGH and Brigham. Didactics are excellent and mostly given by the staff. The residents I met were very cool and down to earth. Attendings seemed approachable and the residents got along well with them. There is only one month of protected time for research during PGY-4, but there is plenty of research to be done if you want to use your free time to do so. Lots of perks: free books, tickets to Boston sporting events from faculty, free loupes, and subscriptions to JBJS Am, JBJS Br, AJSM, and JAAOS, among others. The residents literally get any fellowship that they want through phone calls by the faculty, same goes for jobs after fellowship. Boston as a city is very cool with lots to do and many nice neighborhoods to choose from. It is expensive comparably, but salary starts around $55K. Would have loved to be in Boston and get the Harvard name, but just didn’t think the operative experience was good enough here.

NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases - Very strong program in the heart of NYC. They have very much of a military/hierarchical atmosphere here (also very jock type culture) ie lots of egos. Everything is team based and they have rotations at Tisch (NYU), Bellevue, Jamaica Hosp, the VA, and HJD. Residents have a more hands on experience at Bellevue, where they run their own services versus HJD where it is a more academic center type experience. They also have lots of anatomy labs/scope labs with cadavers to work on their skills. They get very strong training and the chairman (Zuckerman) and PD (Egol) are very into resident education and research. The PGY-2 year is very difficult and heavy on call. All of the hospitals are within walking distance of each other and most residents live on the lower east side. Being in NYC there is obviously plenty to do. There is a limited amount of subsidized housing through NYU, but they get a very high starting salary to make up for it and have plenty of moonlighting opportunities starting in PGY-3. Great place to train if you can deal with the culture of the institution/program. Didn’t interview at HSS or Columbia, but I understand why my chairman said this is the best resident experience/training in NYC. Is the largest program in the country, along with Harvard and Mayo at 12 spots per year. They fill two 6-year spots outside of the match with phone calls and contracts, was offered one of these spots and declined which bumped it down my list.

Pittsburgh - Pitt is definitely a research and clinical powerhouse. The interview day shows off the sports complex and research labs. As a resident, unless you do a research year, you won’t have much to do with either of these. It seems like the residents get to operate a lot here, mostly in years PGY3-5. The PGY2 year is very difficult. The PGY2’s are on essentially Q4 call most of the year and are also responsible for putting together all of the powerpoints for conferences, so this year is brutal. Rotators said that during the PGY2 year there is utter disregard for work-hour rules. It is made up for with a great operative experience and less call responsibilities PGY3-5. Pitt has great facilities including a brand new children’s hospital and lots of renovations at the main UPMC campus. Call rooms and study areas were pretty nice, but it didn’t seem like there was a place, like a lounge, where residents could relax a bit while at the hospital. Obviously, any research project is possible here. Four residents do the 6-year track where then spend the 2nd year in the lab, while the other four do the 5 year track. Residents get great fellowships. The program is definitely a dictatorship with Dr Fu making all of the calls, including choosing the residents per one of my other interviewers. He’s very charismatic and seems to really care about his residents. I met a couple of nice residents, but for the most part the residents were not very approachable at the social and I couldn’t tell whether they got along with each other. Overall, I thought this was a good program and that you get good training here, but was not sure if I would be truly happy in the Pitt environment.

University of Minnesota - These residents work very hard. They cover 2 level one trauma centers and 4 hospitals around Minneapolis/St Paul. They have the largest VA in the country, which has 2 times the volume in ortho of any other VA in the country. Spend time there as an intern, 6 months as a PGY-3, and 3 months as a chief. The chiefs run the services at the VA and residents get a lot of hands on experience here. The sports experience here is at TRIA, a large high volume sports experience. The residents are well protected from scut/paper work in all parts of the program, with lots of mid-level PAs/NPs. That being said some of them said the experience was “like drinking from a fire hose” as a PGY-2 and PGY-3 because of the incredible volume of cases between all of the sites that they cover. There seems to be a great relationship between the residents and the attendings, with the attendings being very dedicated to the program and to education in general. 40% of residents from this program go straight into private practice but some do fellowships. The ones that do fellowships get pretty good ones, especially in spine, trauma, and shoulder/elbow. There are research opportunities that are encouraged for those that are interested, every resident has to do one project and it is not shoved down the throats of people that are not interested. Minneapolis seems awesome as a city, but it is also cold (it was -14 degrees F on the morning of my interview). I hear the summers are beautiful and there is a thriving downtown with lots of new buildings/condos and a very young nightlife.

Yale - This is a smaller program of 5 residents per year. They have a nice mix of academic and private practice attendings/rotations. Nice hospital facilities. Yale is an adult and pediatric level 1 trauma center. The residents work hard but seemed very happy. They really push the fact that they have no fellows (except spine) and therefor the department is very resident focused. Attendings for the most part are very hands off and allow the residents to get their hands dirty early and often. It seemed like a very stable program with a great PD and Chairman. Eight months of protected research time (10 weeks PGY 3-5) but it seemed these could be spent doing more clinical things if that is your cup of tea. New Haven seemed nice, on LI sound about 2 hours from both NYC and Boston. I thought it was an east coast program where residents could afford to buy a house and was a very livable place, although some of the city seemed pretty rough. Great fellowship matches, seems like a lot of residents do sports or spine. I thought it was a good program that will train you to be a good surgeon and will open doors for an academic career if that is your chosen career path. I was a little worried about the fact that it seemed like there was a lot of double-scrubbing going on here, with both a jr and sr resident on each case.

Hope this helps someone!

[Agent13]

[quote="ortho250I ended up ranking 5 out of 7 interviews, because I did not want to be in residency at those two other places. I believe in placing yourself in an environment where you will flourish and be happy.

"[/quote]

It's really kinda scary that people like this post in the match thread and give this kind of advice to future applicants.

For those of you who will be applying soon: it's nice in an ideal world to be able to only rank the programs where you will be happy and "flourish" like the unique snowflake that you are. The reality of orthopaedic residency is that the competition for spots is so intense that you rank EVERY PLACE you interview at WITHOUT EXCEPTION. You are at you're most competitive and marketable as an applicant when you are a fourth year medical student. The question you have to ask yourself when you rank these programs is "would you be happier not ever being an orthopaedic surgeon than training atr this program?" If the answer is yes, then by all means. But I think for a lot of us, that's absolutely false.

So just rank every place you go so you spare yourself a lot of regret (possibly) 10 years from now.

[luluortho]

ortho250 wrote:

I interviewed places where I was ignored at resident dinners...

I ended up ranking 5 out of 7 interviews, because I did not want to be in residency at those two other places. I believe in placing yourself in an environment where you will flourish and be happy.

Agent13 wrote:

It's really kinda scary that people like this post in the match thread and give this kind of advice to future applicants.

For those of you who will be applying soon: it's nice in an ideal world to be able to only rank the programs where you will be happy and "flourish" like the unique snowflake that you are. The reality of orthopaedic residency is that the competition for spots is so intense that you rank EVERY PLACE you interview at WITHOUT EXCEPTION. You are at you're most competitive and marketable as an applicant when you are a fourth year medical student. The question you have to ask yourself when you rank these programs is "would you be happier not ever being an orthopaedic surgeon than training atr this program?" If the answer is yes, then by all means. But I think for a lot of us, that's absolutely false.

So just rank every place you go so you spare yourself a lot of regret (possibly) 10 years from now.

Um, I believe that by telling us was they were ignored at some resident dinners and telling us that they did not want to be at those 2 programs, this person had indeed asked and answered the very question you suggested. Plenty of people here have done the same in match threads from years past. This person just phrased it in a different, albeit flowery, kinda way.

[Agent13]

ortho250 wrote:

I interviewed places where I was ignored at resident dinners...

I ended up ranking 5 out of 7 interviews, because I did not want to be in residency at those two other places. I believe in placing yourself in an environment where you will flourish and be happy.

Agent13 wrote:

It's really kinda scary that people like this post in the match thread and give this kind of advice to future applicants.

For those of you who will be applying soon: it's nice in an ideal world to be able to only rank the programs where you will be happy and "flourish" like the unique snowflake that you are. The reality of orthopaedic residency is that the competition for spots is so intense that you rank EVERY PLACE you interview at WITHOUT EXCEPTION. You are at you're most competitive and marketable as an applicant when you are a fourth year medical student. The question you have to ask yourself when you rank these programs is "would you be happier not ever being an orthopaedic surgeon than training atr this program?" If the answer is yes, then by all means. But I think for a lot of us, that's absolutely false.

So just rank every place you go so you spare yourself a lot of regret (possibly) 10 years from now.

Um, I believe that by telling us was they were ignored at some resident dinners and telling us that they did not want to be at those 2 programs, this person had indeed asked and answered the very question you suggested. Plenty of people here have done the same in match threads from years past. This person just phrased it in a different, albeit flowery, kinda way.

If you are not ranking a program because you caught feelings at a interview dinner then that really speaks volumes. Personally I think picking my career based on doing what I want to do for the rest of my life is a little more pragmatic but maybe I'm mistaken.

[luluortho]

If you are not ranking a program because you caught feelings at a interview dinner then that really speaks volumes. Personally I think picking my career based on doing what I want to do for the rest of my life is a little more pragmatic but maybe I'm mistaken.

*sigh* Really? You really think someone would actually give up 2 spots JUST because of that? I'm sure there were alot of steps between the dinner and arriving at the conclusion that they did not want to go there. Every year someone posts their ROL and says that they would rather not match than go to a particular place because of their interview day experience where they met some douchey PD or were rubbed the wrong way by an interviewer. Somebody on page 1 of this thread didn't rank all the programs they interviewed at but they didn't say why. Another person said go where you like the people and don't let anyone pressure you. What makes this person so different? The language they used? The reasons they divulged/didn't divulge? I personally don't think I could risk doing what the poster did, as do most people that frequent this site, but to each his own.


Anyways, where are all the rest of the 2011 Matchers? I need current info while I begin my year-long freakout ahead of next years match.

[Agent13]

The fact that it's not the first time it's been done doesn't make it right.

But go ahead and dismiss my statement. It's not like I'm several years ahead of you and have a couople years of experience on both sides of the ball.

[luluortho]

The fact that it's not the first time it's been done doesn't make it right.

But go ahead and dismiss my statement. It's not like I'm several years ahead of you and have a couople years of experience on both sides of the ball.

Never mind...

[vasyaiya]

Thank you for great comments and program reviews.
If matched students can keep this thread going and continue posting, it will be greatly appreciated by the upcoming 4th year medical students, planning their match this season.

[orthokitty]

Med School: Northeast. Private. Not Top-50.
Boards: Step 1: 250's. Step 2: 240's.
Rank: Top 10%
AOA: Yes
Preclinicals: MS1-mostly honors MS2, MS2-mostly high sat's.
Clinicals: honors: surg, peds, internal med, family med
Ortho: 2 aways + home.
Research: several papers, presentations but all pre-med school basic science stuff
Extracurriculars: lots, mostly non-athletic

What I was looking for in a Program: all sub-specialties represented, balance between didactics and operative experience, likeable residents, middle-to-larger cities for social reasons


How many Programs:
Applied to: 55
Offered Interviews: 17
Attended: 15

(In no particular order):
Yale
U of Rochester
Penn State
Pitt
Mayo
Drexel
Allegheny General
UT Southwestern
Loma Linda
Baylor
Temple
UC Irvine
U of Illinois
Monmouth
NYU-HJD

Not interviewed: 2, due to date conflicts

Matched at: Not at my top 3, but happy nonetheless.

My advice to future applicants: Work hard, stay positive. Choose aways carefully. I was asked at every interview about them and why I chose them. And be realistic about who you are, stat and personality-wise. The fit and feel of a program is important, especially if you don't fit the demographic. Also realize that you'll be well-trained in almost every program. One thing I found on many of my interviews is that no matter how big or small the program, the residents seemed able to get good fellowships.[/i]

[Qwert]

For all you student applying to ortho,stop worrying about fellowship placement. you will get good fellowship from virtually every program, What they look in fellowship candidates is far different from just stats or name, its a person that is commited, attendings can get along for a year,. I came from unkown (beleive me ) program and my class got into shoulder/elbow, top hand and spine fellowships. Really top programs. so concentrate more on getting into an ortho program that you like, fit in, you are sure you will operate and prepare yourself in case you don,t want to do fellowship. Only 9% of you guys will go into academics. Patient in the real world do not care if you came from HSS, Mayo or Tampa or Univ of nowhere; they just want a compassionate doctor that will provide them with good quality care.

[ortho1632]

I will post my stats because I think it helps for a comparison standpoint, although I will admit there was a great amount of randomness to this whole process. When I was on one interview, the chairman asked me if I got an interview to another place. I said no, he said, "well, that just tells me they're not reading applications and don't have a good system". I won't type out what I thought about every single place, because that is a lot of typing. I think these threads are most useful to help you figure out where you may stand (even though there is randomness), so you can get an idea of where to apply and get an interview. Once you get them, go on them and formulate your own opinions of the places.

Med School: Not top 50, Southeast
Boards: Step 1: 240, Step 2: 224 (took it a week before my wedding [bad idea] it never was brought up in interviews [thank goodness])
Preclinicals: Mostly A's, two B's in smaller courses
Clinical: H Surg, HP other big ones, H all ortho rotations (one home, two away)
Class rank: Top 25%
AOA: nominated, not received
Research: some ortho pre-med school and some during one summer, one pub as author in the middle, one JBJS first author with podium presentation at academy
Extracurric: a lot of leadership stuff in med school

Applications: 49
Interviews: 20
Attended: 15 (conflicts sucked)

Places I was invited in order of interview date:

Duke
Wake Forest
Emory
Tulane
Loyola
Pitt
UNC
CMC
Greenville
Maryland
Tufts
Northwestern (non-rotator)
Brown
HSS
Stanford
Rush
Temple
Jefferson
UCSD
UF- Jacksonville

Good luck to everyone and feel free to send a message with any questions. Keep your heads up!

[Jeeper95]

Med School: middle of the road midwestern school
Step1 250-255, step2 no one cares
AOA: no
Preclinicals: 1/3 H, 1/3 NH, 1/3 P
Clinicals: Almost all H including orthox3
Research: one project leading to publication and presentation
Extras: family, carpentry, outdoors

What I wanted: enjoyable place to work with nice people, a lot of one-on-one time, nice town for my family, opportunity to do whatever I want at the end of these five years

Applied 39
Offered 15
Attended 13

This is a list of pros/cons I wrote shortly after each interview in chronological order. These were written for my use in forming my rank list so others may disagree and that is fine, I just wanted to put this out there since I read and re-read the previous years' threads in all the anticipation leading up to my own rank list.

Mizzou:
•Pros: great leadership by chairman Dr. Stannard, friendly faculty, brand new Missouri Orthopaedic Institute (dedicated ortho hospital where residents do most rotations), resident education focus, great recent improvements with leadership change, night float, low cost of living, good op exp reported, increasing involvement with Mizzou sports teams, everything located in close proximity, laid back work hours (50-60 as senior), some Rs with children
•Cons: college town in the middle of Missouri, brand new didactic schedule, one peds guy (looking for another), KC peds rotation (looking to drop this with an increase in volume in Columbia with new Women &Children’s Hospital), no tumor (attend a course in Florida), Jeff. City rotation (might be discontinued soon), not much microvascular exposure
•Gut: good place on the rise with an excellent chairman, but located in a not so exciting place

Nebraska:
•Pros: Personable faculty, Omaha seems like a family-friendly city with nice downtown and affordable housing, 6am didactics kick-off each day (everyone rounds after this), active biomechanics lab, formal research timeline, extensive VA time, good pay, 20 working days vacation, private exposure, multiple Rs with children
•Cons: don’t cover all subspecialties twice, all three month rotations, some rotations seem to be vague in nature, closer to one standard deviation below national average in almost all case types (very low hand), no spine trauma
•Gut: decent, stable program in a pretty good city, family friendly

Ohio State:
•Pros: a lot of building taking place, chairman “striving for eminence and excellence,” great mix of academic and private exposure, ample moonlighting, Columbus seems alright, OSU sports are the biggest thing in town, cover everything twice, night float, peds fellow
•Cons: midwest city, on probation (site visit not until after match), perhaps too academically driven at this time for me, self described “tough love” amongst residents, few Rs with children
•Gut: growing program with aspirations of greatness, alright group to work with (although I know some applicants thought the residents here were the best bunch they came across so it just depends on your own feelings)

Wake Forest:
•Pros: Winston-Salem seems like a great place for a family, mountains one direction and beach the other direction, great hand/micro experience, VA rotation recently added (but 40 mins away), some residents were pretty fun (others a little strange), adding appropriate faculty, cover everything twice, night float
•Cons: everything is within one large hospital (including peds), very hierarchal atmosphere, attendings not as personable, VA is 45 mins away, sort of weird vibe from some residents, call schedule and floor coverage somewhat confusing (seems like a lot of cross coverage where you could be doing spine one day and hand the next), recently lost their big name trauma doc with no current plan as to how to fill that void, few Rs with children
•Gut: didn’t like it as much as I wanted to, would be great for academics or hand

Penn State:
•Pros: great feeling from top to bottom, cover everything twice, peds hospital to be completed 10/12 with possible addition of peds fellow if volume and complexity increase enough, not many fellows to interfere with resident education, resident driven department, great small town in a beautiful region, strong trauma exposure (everything between Philly and Pittsburgh), all areas covered well, all facilities fairly close to each other, private rotation, night float, shoulder/elbow rotations as well as hand, nice clinic and outpt surgery facilities, extremely family friendly (many Rs with children)
•Cons: intern ortho isn’t very exciting (two months of day coverage), don’t cover Penn State sports (all sports fellows stay up at State College), far from family, lower volume than other places (but increasing)
•Gut: high on my list, great people, great place, great training, but far from my family

Utah: rotated (#1)
•Pros: great exposure to all areas, cover everything (other than tumor) as a junior and a senior for 10wks each time (do 40wks of trauma total), night float, good trauma catchment area, many fellowships there (they’re happy to take their own so you could stay for 6 yrs), awesome outdoors activities, good housing, all facilities (U Hosp, Primary Children’s, Shriner’s, ortho hosp, VA) very close to each other, dedicated ortho hospital (about ½ of the rotations spent there), excellent and friendly staff, great group of residents, international rotation if research finished by 4th yr, small moonlighting opportunity as senior, some Rs with children
•Cons: many fellows (didn’t see them steal much work from residents though, there appeared to be a really good relationship with them), multiple computer systems to sort through at Primary Children’s, I honestly had a hard time coming up with negatives for me
•Gut: I loved every single day of my rotation, truly an amazing program in every aspect, easily #1 for me for many reasons (very well rounded, great people to work with, beautiful surroundings, near family, great peds experience)

University of Washington:
•Pros: top name faculty, unique and outstanding trauma exposure (both volume and complexity), go wherever you want for fellowship, everything covered, friendly residents (couldn’t have met more than half of them though), mountains and family/friends close by, multiple Rs with children, some general ortho rotations
•Cons: Seattle is too big for me (but many people love it), back-loaded operative experience (I actually had an R4 trying to explain to me why he really enjoyed the fact that he hadn’t operated very much until that year and now wished he could go back to watching more), received the impression that fellows steal cases from residents here (especially on trauma), most expensive city I interviewed at, traffic in Seattle can be bad, multiple sites throughout the city, pay for your own parking (an example of the added expenses there)
•Gut: very academic place which would provide great opportunities but Seattle wouldn’t be ideal for my family

UCSF-Freso: (#3)
•Pros: friendly faculty very invested in making this new program successful, opportunity to shape the program, I think Fresno might be a cool place to live (1 hr from the front gates of Yosemite and Sequoia), great school district in nice adjoining city (Clovis), very helpful ancillary staff (PAs), mix of academic and private exposure throughout residency, busy peds hospital, #2 trauma hospital in CA, great Spanish opportunity, very friendly and honest residents who are working hard to set a good precedent for those to follow, most faculty did fellowships at great places for their subspecialties (ie peds at UCSD and Texas-Scottish Rite, trauma at Tampa and UT-Southwestern)
•Cons: second class matching this year (2011), unknown fellowship placement (PD says they have many national connections and anticipate good placement), some logistics seem to be up in the air still (ie how call will work in the senior years, didactic schedule), perhaps too many general ortho rotations (enough complexity in the subspecialties?), facilities are somewhat spread-out throughout the city although not too bad (about 15-20 minutes to everywhere), go to SF for 3 months of tumor (apartment provided)
•Gut: my biggest surprise on the trail, I really enjoyed my day there and wound up ranking it highly despite the few unknowns that exist because I felt so good there, was intrigued by the opportunity to shape a new program and the geographic/family opportunities

KU-KC:
•Pros: good history of fellowship placement to specific fellowships, peds hospital in KC where residents from various programs rotate, no fellows, friendly staff and residents, very family friendly, good schools on the KS side, new facilities being built, KC seemed like an alright place to live, many Rs with children
•Cons: nothing really stood out as excellent, no moonlighting, all home call
•Gut: would be an alright place to train but nothing really drawing me there

Mayo: rotated (#2)
•Pros: amazing facilities, many residents with families, mentorship allows early progression according to individual skills, ample moonlighting, light call (allows you to take advantage of moonlighting opportunities), 6 months of afternoon didactics in second year, no fellow interference given the mentorship model, entire clinic is a well-oiled machine (everyone has a job and they do it well), friendly and professional atmosphere (though a bit on the serious side), the name opens a lot of doors after residency, work with leading surgeons performing cases not done everywhere else (but the resident obviously doesn’t do much on those), great research opportunity second year (do research entire year, receive a master’s and still graduate after 5 years), both hospitals very close together with frequent shuttle service between the two, low cost of living
•Cons: carry your consultant’s pager 24/7 and they have a very limited range (residents cover for each other if heading out of town), in the middle of a corn field, not a whole lot to do in or around Rochester, obviously very cold and long winters (buildings downtown connected by tunnels), some away rotations in FL (peds and/or sports), no dedicated peds hospital, perhaps light on trauma, with 12 residents per year you probably won’t become best friends with everyone but everyone was very friendly (every month the intern on rheum hosts a party at their house entitled “rheumaholidays”)
•Gut: excellent training with wonderful people, the big downer is the city and surrounding area, but still wound up very high on my list

Saint Louis University:
Pros: recently hired new staff so everything is covered by multiple attendings, everything pretty close together (except one private hospital about 20 mins away), pretty nice peds hospital (one peds attending was very cool), good trauma experience (big names in trauma), cover most things as junior and senior with decent one-on-one time, research year seemed to help chiefs land great fellowships, pretty fun and honest group of residents (some married, some single)
Cons: obviously the extra year of research after intern year, not many Rs with kids, would have to live a little ways away in order to be in a good school district, hospital isn't in the best part of town but it wasn't horrible and improvements were being made in the area
Gut: pretty solid program with the obvious downside of being six years, would have been higher if it weren't for that extra year

UT-Memphis (Campbell Clinic):
•Pros: a lot of one-on-one time with well-known staff, many opportunities after residency (the clinic keeps close tabs on all their graduates throughout the rest of their life), brand new peds hospital, out-patient surgery center, non-trauma call is at private hospitals and reportedly not bad, low cost of living, well taken care of by the program, impressed that during multiple interviews faculty stated that they wanted the residents’ priorities to be faith, family, then orthopedics, faculty and residents were friendly, many Rs with children
•Cons: Memphis was a bit of a drag, no outdoor activities that I like around, facilities spread out all over (but no driving between facilities during the day), lectures are Monday nights due to the fact that everyone is spread out over the entire city (snacks are provided), at least 3 months of trauma every year where you get hammered (6 months second year)
•Gut: good people and good training in a city that is a turn-off and requires a lot of driving


Like I said, most of that was written for my benefit, but I tried to adjust it to be more applicable to more people, so I hope someone benefits from this. Since I have an interest in peds I made mention of that frequently. As the interview season progressed I was surprised by how geography became more and more important to me, but in the end it couldn't completely trump the training opportunities at a given program.

As you plan your aways find out as much as you can about the few programs you're really interested in so you use those months to give yourself the best chance at those two or three programs. Then, once you've had a few months working in ortho programs sit down and think about what things are really important for you so you can keep track of those things for each program and then write your thoughts down shortly after each interview.

When interviews start coming in I scheduled the earliest the date possible for each so I could try to keep the busy middle weeks available for the programs that like to interview during those days to weed people out. Have fun while you're on the trail, talk to as many people as you can and just be honest about yourself and what you're looking for without being a jerk or putting any programs down. When the time comes for interview invites to be given out try to relax and not worry about what others are receiving (but that can be difficult, that's why I said to try). I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have, especially about any of my top three.

[ortho2737]

Step 1: 265
Step 2: Not Taken til march.
Bench Press: 85lb (3 Reps)
Awards:
Junior AOA
Gold Humanism Award
Pre-Clinical Grades: Mostly Honors (*these don’t matter)
Clinical Clerkship Grades: All Honors
Med School: Midwest Middle of the Road
Research: 0 publications, 1 project currently working on.
Total Applications: 77
Interview Invites: 54
Number of seconds I can keg stand: 62
Total interviews attended: 18
Ranked 20 (2 6 year programs)
Thank you Notes written: 154
NCAA Basketball National Championships won by my School: 4
Number of points I scored in NCAA Championship games: 0
Orthogate Posts I’ve ever Made: 1…2…well now 2.


General Advice: Take it all with a grain of salt, you are going to hear some crazies saying all sorts of goofy stuff here, so keep your mind open and don’t believe it all.

If you are a first year med student, get off orthogate and go study for your classes, first and second year grades don’t matter in the slightest, but if you rock your classes you will rock step 1.

If you are a second year med student, get off orthogate and go study for Step 1. You can match with a 210, but it’s a whole lot easier with a 260.

If you are a third year, start figuring out where you want to do your away rotations in jan-feb of your M3 year, so you are ready to apply when you can. Get your resume ready, start writing your personal statement, and get organized. Make a computer folder of each place you want to possible do an away, make an email folder of the same, and keep yourself organized. This is going to be a long and confusing process with a whole lot of details to keep track of, don’t be the guy that loses stuff.

What I was looking for in a program: Above all I wanted good people. I want to work with nice people, dedicated to their patients, and also to excellence. I am not someone who will put up with rudeness to ancillary staff because someone supposedly “is a good surgeon”. Truly great surgeons are also great people, so I wanted a place where everyone from the chairman to the janitors treated everyone else with respect. I just want to learn, have fun and help some folks., I don’t need egos, instrument throwing, tantrum having, inter-departmental fighting, bad-mouthing, sh#& talking, sucker punching, belittling crap. My attitude was “Judge a man by how he treats his supposed inferiors, not his equals or superiors.” This was the standard by which I judged programs.

Operative Experience Caveat: You are going to see everyone post about “operative experience” or specifics, but really unless you have been a resident there or rotated there its pretty hard to tell. I will not comment on operative experience unless I have some footing to do so i.e. rotated there. I just wanted to give you a flavor of what these different programs are like from the perspective of the attitude and feel of a place. You can look up specifics on each of their websites because I don’t remember them all. Hope that it helps.

Thank you notes: I didn’t write them to program directors unless a resident told me specifically that they expected it (CMC being the only one). I wrote them to a lot of the coordinators/secretaries. They are doing a ton of work, to get you an interview and getting recognized for it will make their day. Also, more importantly when this whole thing is said and done, I sat down and wrote 154 thank you notes to everyone who was involved in helping me along the way. Keep a list of attendings you got letters from, former students you got advice from, residents who helped teach you something on an away etc, secretaries who helped you get your letters in, old-timers who advised you, thank all of these folks. I don’t think its going to matter one way or the other to a program director, but as far as keeping up good relationships with the people around you, and being a good person, it’s the right thing to do.

Things you need to do:
1 - Get a smart Phone: When you get interviews, you are going to have to respond within minutes in order to get the date you want. You need constant access to email. I was in one interview, and received the invite to interview from another program and ended up with the worst date because I responded 5 hours after it was sent out.
2 - Have a beer: relax man, you will match, most people do.
3 – Get yourself organized
4 – Read my posts about schools, because they are most certainly the be-all end-all best source of information you could ever hope to find. EVER.



Programs: ( Put a little summation in quotes before I described each program. This was in the order of my rank list.

Mayo Clinic: “Dedicated to excellence in everything they do.” When I walked in the door, I could tell that this was a great place. From the way the interview day was organized to the people I met, to the facility itself everything about this place is exceptional. It just feels big league. During interview day I met with two big name attendings who had read my entire application, knew something about me, asked insightful questions, and seemed genuinely happy to meet me. Mayo has an incredible reputation both nationally and internationally. All of the residents that I met were nice, social, and interested in getting to know the applicants. In addition to the excellence of training and the people, There are a few unique things about this program that separate it from the rest.
1 - You can do a full year of research and still only do a 5 year program, they just have so much volume that you can make up your case load in the other 4 years. They have a research database and ancillary staff to do any research project you can think of. There is a guy to pull your data, a stats guy to analyze it, a professional writer to write it, and a professional submitter to submit it for you. Its basically like waving a magic wand and research gets done.
2 - They also have a fully stocked cadaver lab that you can order up a fresh cadaver and practice your skills if you feel like it. There are restrictions on this as far as how often you can do it etc, also , Iowa has it too., but its awesome.
3 – They have a real curriculum. Your second year, you have a 6 month course in the afternoons, so you are excused at noon every day from clinical responsibilities and have arthroscopy labs, lectures, prosthetics labs, sawbones, cadaver dissections, etc in the afternoon for a solid 6 months at the beginning of your second year. I think this will really prepare you for getting into the OR and knowing what the heck you are doing right off the bat.
4 - They are a one on one mentorship system, so each attending is paired only with one resident other than on the trauma service. The rotations are 3 months long. You get to work one on one for 3 months with a huge name in orthopedics, which gives you enough time to really learn his way of doing things correctly. No seniors stealing cases, no double scrubbing, no fellows, just you and the man operating all day long.
5 - you get to do 2 3 month long rotations in either the clinic in Arizona or Florida.. all expenses paid., so potentially 2 winters you aren’t even in Minnesota.
6 - The fellows also only work with the interns and first half of PGY2 year, while you are on basic sciences then the residents don’t see them or work with fellows at all.
Rochester is a small town, lots of the residents are married and have kids, but it is very affordable. You can buy a house. This was my number one choice.

Utah: “amazing balance, depth, lifestyle, and educational experience” I loved this program. The residents were super cool, we actually went to a bar in the afternoon on the interview day instead of doing another boring hospital tour. The chairman is truly a great educator scholar surgeon. This guy is super dedicated to training residents, and is a really cool guy to boot. He spent 20 years at Iowa, so there are a lot of similarities between the two as far as feel, which is a very good thing. All of the specialties are well balanced and represented. They reported that their average OITE scores were like 97%ile or something crazy like that. Their intern year is very do-able by comparison to a lot of other places. The interview day was great, they gave the attendings as much time as they wanted with each applicant, so it took a long time, but you didn’t have the artificial tiny time limit imposed on you if you were getting along with someone well. I would have been very lucky to match at this program. The salt lake city area is awesome for outdoor sports, and a lot of the residents did a fair bit of skiing. I have nothing but good things to say about this place.

Northwestern: “great location, great lifestyle when you are at the top of the pyramid” I rotated here and had a great experience. They work you hard, and its one of the few places where you actually have a well defined role as a rotator. You have real responsibilities, and if you are on a difficult service, prepare to get slammed with work. You are expected to stay post call, and there are Saturday conferences on some days. This program as far as lifestyle was hard to beat. It’s a mentorship model, one on one with attendings., so the 2s get into the operating room all the time, and what they get to do is attending dependent. Their didactics and educational system for the PGY2s is incredible. It’s well structured, and as such their 2’s had incredible book knowledge. This does make for a bit of a hierarchy, and very much a place where the 4’s and 5’s go home at 3 PM and take the weekends off, and the 2’s are left with a lot of work. By the time you are a 4 or a 5 though, the lifestyle cant be beat. It is in the most desirable area of what I believe is the best city in the country. If you are a single guy/girl looking for a place with good night life, tons of young professionals to meet in a safe place with good training, NW is a great option. These are the type of guys/girls that go out to bars/clubs often, and you wont find many married residents. As far as fellowships and prestige go, I think they have to work a little harder for their fellowships than some of the other big name programs, but getting good fellowships is certainly do-able. I think their loss of Evanston north shore hospital is a loss to the program, they did a lot of operating up there, and now U Chicago has it. Also, they are in the process of hiring a new chair, so its tough to know what direction the department is going to take.

University Of Chicago: “great chairman, lots of driving” I am going to repeat what a lot of people have said on this forum. The Chairman Dr. Peabody is one of the greatest guys I have met in the orthopedic community. He’s a great resident advocate and from what I hear, a top notch teacher. I was told that there is already a line of 3-4 years for his fellowship in ortho onc. The program seemed great, but the one major drawback is the fact that it is very split up. You operate at two hospitals. University of Chicago Hospital is south side, and Evanston northshore. You get great operative experience as a result of this acquisition, but there is no good place to live. Either you live in the middle and commute 30 mins to work and 50 minutes home each day, or you live near one and commute 0 minutes half the year, and 60 minutes to work and 120 minutes home. I really liked these guys, and the training seemed very good.

Carolinas Medical Center: “Like playing the back 9 of augusta” This place is like a southern country club! You get a big oak locker, they serve fillet mignon in the cafeteria, and you get treated like an attending. They told me that the place is designed to run without residents, so the residents only job is to learn. They have a ton of attendings, and a ton of operative volume. They are churning out papers like crazy, and this is certainly to me a top notch place. Charlotte is a pretty affordable city, and a nice place. The people had a bit of the “southern boys club” feel to them, which isn’t neccesarily bad, its just gotta be your type of thing. The chairman is sort of an abrasive dude, but the residents seemed to love him, so maybe he just takes some time to warm up to., program director seemed like a fantastic guy. At one of their hospitals you are like an attending, the nurse calls you up when the patient is draped and asleep, you go in, do the procedure, leave and then the pas and NPs do your paperwork and put in orders, and that’s it.

Yale: “You are in control of your own destiny” Yale medical school doesn’t give grades. The residency program is kind of the same thing. No one is going to tell you what to do, or yell at you, or check up on you. You basically just do whatever you want, if you want to read all the time and get 99% on the OITE, great. If you want to play madden all day and never pick up JBJS, well, that’s cool too. Its very self directed. The cool thing about it for me was they get 3 blocks of 10 weeks their 3rd 4th AND 5th years for research. These can basically be used to do whatever you want, travel, electives, abroad, research, whatever. Residents were very happy, did a lot of laughing during the presentation. Interesting mix of private and academic, as they operate at a hospital with private attendings some. Plus they serve carved beef tenderloin at the yale club for dinner., which was the best on the trail.

Iowa: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” That is the phrase I would use to describe this place. It is an absolute juggernaut of orthopedics., with the most humble people. Tons of volume, tons of huge name attendings. The chairman is a huge name, but is very down to earth soft spoken and humble. This is the type of place that lets their game speak. All team oriented. They have a history of calling up their top people and figuring out who they are going to get far before match day, so if this is one of your top picks, I would make sure to email the chair toward the end of interview season. Big drawback for me is iowa city. My girlfriend hated it, I hated it, and I don’t really have a good answer as to why. Maybe you will love it, just wasn’t my cup of tea. It would have been much higher on my list had it been located anywhere else. They have a history of training great academic orthopedists, and they get top people every year. From what I hear their operative experience is amazing for a top 5 academic ortho program., but I didn’t rotate so I don’t know from personal experience.

Wisconsin: “welcome to the team!” Very team oriented place. The residents all work in teams, the attendings are on teams with residents, they work on teams, play on teams, and probably sleep on teams too. There was a lot of high fiving, and people seemed to be in very high spirits. It made the group fun to be around. Seemed very well rounded, you get to do everything twice. I put it high up because the people were cool and fun. All of the residents were married, and last year the number of children outnumbered the number of residents. It’s a family oriented type of place in a great city. Madison is fun, and pretty cosmopolitan for a small city.

Hawaii: “Operate and surf” If you want to be an operating machine and live in a warm area, this is the place for you. They let their residents operate early and often. Only take 2 a year, 1 5 year and 1 6 year. Interview mostly people with a connection to Hawaii. I must have been the one random white dude from the Midwest that they decided to give an interview to for the heck of it. Research here is not a big focus,, and resources were limited for that type of thing. It is also a bit tougher to get a top notch fellowship coming out of here from what I heard. Their trauma guy reminded me of jimmy buffet, wore a Hawaiian shirt and had his feet on the desk when I interviewed. trained at UCSF and totally wacky, but from what I heard a brilliant surgeon who gives residents a lot of freedom.

Brown: (Mutate!) The chairmain is ridiculous! I loved this guy, he basically pitched brown as the best orthopedic program in the country for two reasons
1 – they have great highways with a lot of turns and blind curves, so they get great trauma.
2 – Rhode Island has a lot of people that intermarry from their own family and MUTATE (he said this really loud with a great hand gesture) so there is great congenital pathology.
If these two qualities don’t make you want to come to a residency program, I don’t know what will. It’s a 6 year program, seemed like they really got a lot of trauma experience. 6th year is a mini trauma fellowship where you make like 120k I think. Residents seemed like they worked hard, as it’s a trauma heavy place, but were happy. Providence left a bit to be desired for me. If you interview stay at the providence Biltmore. Its like 100 bucks a night, but the most comfortable bed ive ever slept in.


Harvard: “You’ve got Front Row Tickets!”. I rotated here at Mass General. It’s a big program, 12 a year, but to be honest they have to cover a LOT of hospital. MGH Brigham and BI combined could probably accommodate twice that many residents. I heard someone say while I was there “Mass General, 200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress” This is kinda the gist that I got. This is a lot more of an old school place. The interns are basically secretaries. I never saw the ortho intern on the ortho service get into the OR once in a month. On his only opportunity the pgy4 bumped him out and took the case. ( a wash out) They have a computerized record system, but still have paper charts and stuff all over the place. The 5’s were going on to ridiculous amazing fellowships, but I felt like they definitely needed them, because their experience at Harvard definitely didn’t make them super comfortable in the OR alone. I personally saw a trauma attending telling off a trauma fellow for not scrubbing in on a removal of hardware with a PGY5 and PGY4. (this is bad for a number of reasons, 1 does a 4 and a 5 both need to be scrubbed in to a ROH? I did this as a student with the intern and a 4 supervising from the hallways at my home institution. 2, why does the attending not trust his residents?) I also overheard a very famous hand attending complaining that the residents now-adays don’t have the technical skills necessary to operate, and then saw him proceed to do 4 cases without letting the resident touch anything, and having the fellow hold the suture scissors for him. (how are they going to get the skills if you never let them operate?) I think it’s a bit of a self fulfilling prophesy. I worked with a few fellows that had just graduated from residency at Harvard and I can only think of one word to describe them. Scared. That being said, people were excellent and very nice. All of the resdients were accommodating. Granted I was only there for a month, and only saw one of their hospitals. If you rotate here, don’t plan on taking the T to work, because it doesn’t start til 6:30. This is another one of those places dedicated to excellence, its just a little bit more watch and learn than do and learn for me. It felt to me like having floor seats to watch Lebron for 5 years. Would you be ready to go 1 on 1 with Kobe?

Stanford: (There are no bikinis here) Weather was not what I expected. Apparently san Francisco is always 59 and raining? Perhaps coming from the Midwest I had an unrealistic view of California likely thanks in part to a certain song by Katy Perry, but I saw 0 bikinis, which was particularly upsetting to me. The program itself seems to be rising up. The chair said basically “I told stanford I wanted 400 million to build this into a world class ortho department they said “ok” and we are halfway there” Lots of new faculty additions, residents seemed pretty nice, and this was one of my last interviews so I was a little checked out., sorry I don’t have much more to offer on that one.

Duke: “If you are lucky enough, you too can wear white hot-pants” I rotated here, and found it a bit too old school for me. This is the “happy land” of orthopedics. Everyone at duke is super pumped to be at duke, loves duke and anything to do with duke. If you can imagine nothing other than being at duke, then duke is the place for you. It’s a little more old school as far as hierarchy goes. The interns have to wear these funny white pants and short coats, one of them joked that she could go to her second job at TGIFridays and not have to change pants. They have in house call as a 5 q5, so the 5’s there seemed a lot less well rested and happy than the 5’s at any other program I rotated at. Eventually you gotta get sick of being on call forever, and these folks definitely were. If you are a rotator, don’t wear scrubs to anything ever. We did as rotators post call because the residents did, but toward the end of the rotation we were informed that everyone thought we were disrespectful for doing so, and had been talking about us for the last 3 weeks. Why they couldn’t have told us the first day, I don’t know, but that sort of passive aggressive stuff was a big turn off to me. Residents were going on to amazing fellowships, but I just wasn’t that impressed with their skills. I was in with a 3 who had never held the scope, and was learning how to hold it for the first time to do a diagnostic knee scope. It surprised me that he had never done that before, I mean, I knew which direction was up on the scope? But whatever. End of story is that you have to do a second look, and you have to tell them “you are my number one” They talk about getting their top 8 every year, well yeah, theres a reason for that, they only rank people who have guaranteed them that they are number 1 on their list. I wasn’t prepared to do this, as I wanted to keep my options open, so I ranked them a bit lower.

Henry Ford: “Seriously guys, None of the residents have been shot in like 7 weeks, Detroit isn't THAT bad.” All kidding aside, I was really impressed by this place. You think of Detroit as a crappy city, but royal oak is where all of the residents live and its pretty fun and a lot of young professionals. Dr. Parsons is really building this program up. The residents were a cool bunch, and they put you up in a really nice hotel for this one. They are ramping up their research significantly, but I think you still very much get a community ortho feel out of this place, lots of operating it seemed to me. Interview had some goofy questions, “what animal would you be and why? Etc” I would have been happy here, but the location brought it down a bit. Im a fan.

Pitt: “Dr. Fu’s Amazing house of orthopedics,” created by Dr. Fu. a Dr. Fu Production.
This place has a great reputation for orthopedics,, but I couldn’t get over how much they sold Dr. Fu. I am sure hes a great guy and all, but everything about the entire production was geared towards him, we went through a hall that is decorated with signed photos of him. He requires that you send him a personal thank you note, and that you call him and tell him personally that you are going to rank him number 1. Then you must come back to see him for a second look before you can even be considered to be put him on his rank list. We received a special eras update after the interview informing us that Dr. Fu had won another award for humanity. It was a bit too much for me. This was also the only place that I felt like the residents weren’t happy. I met a guy who I had met a few years before. He was the happiest, nicest, coolest guy you would ever meet. Hes a 2 there now, and you could just see it on his face how tired he was., he just sort of had lost a bit of that bounce in his step. I think that the 2 year there is one of the toughest around. You probably get incredible operative experience, but it wasn’t worth it to me. Also during the interview of which there are like 8 that are only 10 minutes long, I had no less than 4 attendings take a phone call and proceed to talk on the phone with someone for the entire time of my interview. Not a single person read my application, and basically people would flip through to the letters, look at who wrote them, and then talk about those guys and how great they were and how well they knew them. I was also told by the residents that none of these matter, Dr. Fu decides the rank list himself anyway. This kinda turned me off, but if you want a very highly respected program where you operate a lot, and can hopefully someday get a signed picture of yourself and Dr. Fu this is the place for you.

Rush: “…how do we compare to Harvard?” I got a last minute interview here and went, because it was close. I was on the rotator day, so I think they kinda assumed that everyone already knew what they were all about. I didn’t. The interviews were weird because they were obsessed with other programs. They asked me to rank them along with the other places I rotated, and wanted me to tell them what other attendings at other institutions had told me about Rush. It was really odd, like they were so obsessed with what everyone else thought of them they totally forgot to tell me anything about them, or ask me anything about myself. The residents seemed a little arrogant here, moreso than any other place I interviewed. I heard one saying that he was doing his fellowship at rush because nowhere else was of the quality of rush, so he didn’t want to dilute his resume by doing his fellowship anywhere else. I mean, it’s a good place, but really guy, get a grip. The other thing is that they have this legal issue going on. Some of their attendings are in a legal battle, I am not sure if it is settled, but they were accused of medicare fraud for running an attending 4 rooms at once and not scrubbing in or checking on them. If this surfaces, or comes to a head, it could mean the departure of a lot of their big name heavy hitting faculty. I put it last on my list, better than not matching, but not the attitude I was looking for.

I left a few out because I either didn’t remember enough about them to list anything of value.

I matched at the Mayo Clinic, and couldn’t be happier. Great people, fantastic institution and just what I was looking for as far as attitude and feel of the program. My advice is be a good person, don’t be a tool and you will end up matching at a good residency.

[doubledown]

Super stoked to have matched. Fair warning, like CC2011, I’m including my post-interview program reviews, so I wrote a lot.

Med School: unknown school in Midwest
Boards: Step 1: 250s, Step 2: 260s (taken in July, available for app)
Rank: Top 10%
AOA: Senior
Gold Humanism: never brought up; don’t think anybody in ortho knows what it is, yet
Preclinicals: avg grades in first couple courses (anatomy, biochem), followed by mostly honors; I don’t think anyone cared
Clinicals: all honors except family med
Ortho: Home, Campbell Clinic, Ohio State – all honors
Letters: home chair and PD; one from each away, including one “big name”
Research: weakness; one pub in another specialty (just a case report); one ongoing ortho project that gave me something to talk about at interviews but did not yield any pubs or presentations in time for interviews
Extracurriculars: strength; tons of stuff including student council, admissions committee, academic committee, lots of community volunteer work, special olympics coach, AMA junk, etc

What I was looking for in a Program:
I approached this year feeling that I’d be lucky to train ANYwhere. So, I really only had a few basic requirements:
1) Extensive, consistent hands-on operative experience. Didn’t care as much about an early operative experience. There’s probably enough to learn in my early years that a lack of early operative experience was not necessarily a deal-breaker for me. However, total case load was important, as was good amount of trauma; regardless of what subspecialty I pursue and where I end up, it will be my responsibility to take trauma call and know what I’m doing.
2) Perhaps equally important, I wanted to be with a group of cool, humble residents who enjoy working together; a good fit. Also, if I went to the social and the residents couldn’t bother to at least try to be social/hospitable to myself and/or my wife for an hour, then that was a huge red flag.
3) Location where my wife could be happy and find work. This definitely moved some “bigger name” programs down my list.

In terms of the whole academic vs. community debate, I felt that a community program environment was a better fit for my personality, and that was ultimately most important to me. No desire to be on faculty at HSS. That said, I do have some interest in academics, and I figured if I go to a community program and develop more of an interest, then I’ll just work harder to make it happen. At the end of the day, my rank list became a mix of academic and community programs, the order of which might surprise some people and only make sense to me.

Applied to: ~65; almost all Midwest and Southeast; avoided most of NE (including all NY), as well as West of Mississippi River (except Mayo)
Offered Interviews: ~25-30
Unable to attend: off the top of my head; VCU, Nebraska, Case Western, Hamot, Boston Univ., Albany, UMDNJ, WVU, Cincy

Alphabetical order by tiers
Tier 1A: Would have felt like winning the lottery to match at any of these places. All programs occupied the #1 spot on my ROL at one time or another.

BROWN – Gotta be one of the best all-around programs in the country. The only program for which I would be interested in moving to the Northeast. Can do absolutely anything that you want coming out of here. Dr. Erhlich is a legend and one of the most committed chairs that I encountered on the trail. He has regular sit-downs with his residents and seems truly invested in their training. At the interview he had a ton of handwritten notes on every single applicant; pretty impressive. He’s also very funny; makes for a lively orientation presentation. Dr. DiGiovanni (PD) and the rest of the faculty seem top-notch, as well. The residents seemed to be a cool, close group; definitely more laidback than you might expect from an ivy league program. Providence seemed like a great little town. Relatively short commute to Boston and NYC if you need the bigger city exposure. Residents spend most of their time at Rhode Island Hospital; community experience at Miriam; VA rotations with a lot of autonomy; Peds at Hasbro’s Children’s Hospital, which is onsite. Extensive research opportunities; recently became even more impressive as they received the NIH COBRE grant in 2007 – a cool $11 million to develop their multidisciplinary Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for Skeletal Health and Repair. The 6th year (Super Chief/Junior Attending/Trauma “Fellowship”) is a turnoff for many, and was definitely the popular topic of conversation among applicants at the social and throughout the interview day. Residents mostly endorsed the 6th year and said that the extra time was worth it, particularly if you have an interest in academics. They have graduates across the country that are serving as Trauma Chair (some on an interim basis) at big name places, despite being fellowship trained in another subspecialty; all thanks to the experience they receive in that 6th year. Super chiefs are paid ~$120,000 to partially offset the lost year of income.

CAMPBELL CLINIC – (rotated here) Another phenomenal program that will allow you go pretty much anywhere you want for fellowship. Perfect mix of community and private practice experience. Crazy good trauma experience at the Regional Medical Center (The Med), because the folks in Memphis love to shoot each other and run pedestrians down with their cars. As a PGY2 you do 6 total months of trauma, three months at a time. On one 3-month rotation you do two months of “desk doctor” (ER consults, rare operating, and you’re schedule is 24hrs on, 24hrs off) sandwiched around one month of nothing but operating. On your second 3-month rotation it switches so that you do two months of operating and one month of “desk doctor”. Also have trauma with in-house call each subsequent year of residency; mainly only to operate. Can pretty much handle anything by the time you graduate. PGY3 and beyond is pretty relaxed lifestyle when not on trauma, and to some degree, peds. All other subspecialties are covered, and there are big names around every corner, including Drs. Canale, Beatty, Azar, etc. Really liked every single faculty member that I met. However, as others have mentioned, they do at least appear to read your application for the first time in your interview, and I see how that could make a bad impression; especially with 8-10 min interviews. In addition to the above faculty, Dr. Richardson, a recent grad of the program, is the current PD and is very approachable. Associate PD Dr. Throckmorton is likewise a young, straight-shooting guy who has the responsibility of updating the curriculum. One recent change is the move from two nights of didactics per week to just one (good). I think they also added a PGY5 hand rotation. Beer and food are served after every didactics session. Spouses get together while residents are at didactics. This is a gentleman’s club for sure, with 40 residents and not a single woman. No ladies at my interview either. I really liked some of the residents, but never felt like I fit in very well, here. Somebody else mentioned the way that the residents basically kept to themselves at the social. This was pretty much my experience throughout my entire rotation. Couple of guys that rotated with me got a similar feeling. That said, I enjoyed working with each resident, individually, and the residents seem to get along and work really well with each other. The big negatives that everyone mentions are the city of Memphis and how much driving you have to do. Memphis has good and bad parts like any big city, and you have to be smart about where you go and when. Plenty to do around town, tons of culture, bars, BBQ, sports, jazz, etc. Campbell Clinic has offices/hospitals downtown, as well as 20 minutes East in Germantown and 30 minutes East in Collierville. Residents do have more driving than a more centralized program. Not a big deal. I think rotating medical students have blown this out of proportion. As a medical student you’re on a different rotation every week and have to drive to a variety of locations. As a resident on a 3 month rotation (trauma, peds, etc) there are much fewer places you have to be. As others have mentioned, this is a great place to do an away if you’re interested in the program. It’s very laid back; basically show up and operate or go to clinic. No real responsibilities other than read. Interview all of their rotators.

CLEVELAND CLINIC – An outstanding, big name program with fantastic opportunities and great people. I really enjoyed the interview day, and was particularly surprised by how down-to-earth all of the attendings and residents were. Really, one of the best groups that I encountered. Assistant program director, Dr. Goodwin, seemed especially awesome and asked some of the most fun, original questions I encountered on the trail. I’ve heard some individuals question the overall operative experience, and I can honestly say that I had a hard time determining when and how much these guys get to operate. I’ve heard every opinion from ‘the skills lab is a necessary resource for residents to develop their technical skills’ to ‘their operative experience is second to none’. Rotators said that it is very good, but perhaps a little ‘top-heavy’. Very strong in joints, weaker in trauma, solid in all other specialties. Residents lead didactics, which I wasn’t a fan of. Training is spread out around town; some community hospitals, as well as peds in Akron. Program has a hard time selling people on Cleveland and their 9 months of gray skies, but as a Midwest guy, I don’t think it’s as bad as some people make it out to be. Like Memphis, there are good and bad parts. Plenty to do with pro sports, restaurants, bars, etc. I got the impression that their lifestyle is pretty cush. They have an optional research year, and the # of residents who pursue this option varies. This results in a little unpredictability in each resident’s schedule from year-to-year. For example, if the previous class had 3 people opt for the research year and your class has 0, then your class will pick up those 3 and go from 6 to 9 people. Attendings state that there are more than enough surgeons/sites to accommodate the extra residents in such a scenario, and it doesn’t matter in the end, but some residents expressed concern. Residents say that there is no pressure to do the research year; it’s completely voluntary. Overall, the positives (big name, proximity to home, and great group of individuals) outweighed the negatives (lack of trauma in particular) for me, and I ranked the program very highly.

LOYOLA – An amazing program with a great combination of academics and operative experience. However, the thing that really blew me away about this place was the people. Every resident that I met seemed like somebody that I would love to work with - grounded, laidback, fun. Faculty seemed equally cool, with some taking time to play a little foosball with us after interviews. Chairman Dr. Light is a big name in the hand world. Spent much of the interview talking about his new iPad; he and the department decided to provide one for every resident. Also has a monthly chairman’s hour. Dr. Hopkinson (PD) seemed like a genuinely good guy; very easy to talk to, yet with his military background and corresponding personality, you got the impression that he could be a no-nonsense type of guy. Trauma is reportedly the strength here, but I heard rumblings from rotators that at least one of the trauma guys might not let the residents operate as much as they’d like. Not sure if it’s all cases, or just the complex pelvis stuff. All subspecialties are covered except for tumor, which is supplemented by lectures from the big name tumor folk at UofC. Bonus that they have a VA onsite, local community hospital experience, and an awesome Shriners rotation right in town. Another plus is that the academy headquarters is downtown and they can make it to conferences/skills labs if they have the time. Gotta love Chicago; my favorite city. Loyola’s location ~20min West of downtown means that you can live outside of downtown and have a little less traffic. Lifestyle seems decent. Night float as PGY2 & 3. Residents get solid fellowships. Thursday morning protected for didactics, which are strong. Onsite gym was awesome. 20-week research block as PGY3 that could be used to go overseas! Nice biomechanics lab. Research not as prominent as you might find at bigger name places, but residents assured me that there is more than enough; if you have a hard time saying “no” to attendings you’ll end up w/ more than you want. I would never make my residency decision based upon salary, but the fact that these guys start around $44,000 and still have to pay for parking, food, etc., AND find housing in the Chicagoland area was kind of a bummer. At any rate, this program spent some time at the top of my list, but was ultimately moved down in favor of programs I saw later in the season.

MICHIGAN – as a diehard Buckeye fan and longtime Columbus native, it pains me to say that not only is this a phenomenal program, but it ended up higher on my rank list than THE Ohio State University. This has to be one of the premier academic programs in the country, certainly the Midwest. Crazy impressive fellowship list shows that you can go pretty much anywhere from here. This combined with the cush lifestyle (thank you, resident union) makes this one of the best programs in terms of “gain-to-pain” ratio. ~19 PAs and NPs to relieve some of the work in clinic and on the floor. Awesome benefits, including $2000 stipend that is almost universally used to purchase loupes, 4 weeks vacation/year, holidays off or double salary for holidays, laptop to borrow, training simulator, etc. All subspecialties covered, big names in nearly every subspecialty, particularly big in Peds. A little weak in trauma. Rotators said that the operative experience can be a little top heavy on some rotations, particularly on trauma. Great new peds hospital onsite. Rotations at nearby VA, as well as ambulatory surgery center/sports complex at Domino’s Farms, where they get sports, hand, and foot/ankle experiences. Night Float for trauma as PGY3. Home floor call for other inpatients as PGY1&2; supposedly about Q5-7, overall. Just added nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital (5 miles away) back to the curriculum after a decades-long absence. This adds some private practice experience; 25 additional private practice orthopods. More importantly, it allowed the program to increase the complement of residents from 6 to 8, this year. Some residents stated that this was a good thing, while others seemed a little more skeptical. Speaking of the residents, they seemed like a great group, overall; very down-to-earth. Maybe a couple that were a little more rough around the edges. Abundant research opportunities with protected time during PGY3. Faculty seemed very approachable, particularly Drs. Carpenter (Chair) and Dougherty (PD). Ann Arbor (gag) seems like a decent enough city with a lot of culture for the size. Supposedly has a somewhat high cost of living. Of course, terrible sports teams. Ultimately, I decided that this program was just too good to let my pride (and 25+ years of loathing everything Michigan) get in the way of ranking it highly. Actually, I think I spent most of December to March preparing my family for the possibility that I might end up here.

ORLANDO – This was one of my last interviews and I made the trip not really knowing what to expect, as there is not a lot of info here or elsewhere. I was absolutely blown away. Sure, the location is great. But even without the great weather, this program has a lot to offer. First, EVERYBODY associated with the program was awesome. Best group that I encountered. There was a great showing of residents at the social and all were cool and easy-going; most had obviously read/studied each applicant’s file. Faculty was fun to talk to and extremely down-to-earth, including the chair, Dr. Haidukewych, who trained at Mayo and was the former trauma chair there. Dr. Koval (Handbook of Fractures) just joined the faculty from NYU via Dartmouth, and with Dr. H, will further increase the research opportunities and academic presence of the program. Outstanding trauma experience as their catchment area is huge and nice weather means motorcycles, etc are out year-around. All other subspecialties covered, including optional tumor experience via an away elective at USF with their chair, Dr. Letson. Residents have a lot of input on rotations; program only retains the community faculty that let residents operate. Volume, volume, volume; would probably get to operate more here than almost anywhere else on my ROL. No night float. Buddy call first half of intern year and then they give you the reigns the rest of the way. Second half of PGY3 and onward you are second call (home). Solid fellowship list including foot/ankle at Union Memorial, spine at OrthoCarolina, Onc at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Fully expect even more impressive fellowships to come, thanks to newer faculty. Fantastic hospital system, all in one location. All of the other benefits of a community program, including food, parking, etc. Rotators raved about how well taken care of the residents are. Certainly not a reason to choose a residency, but nice to know. Yes, the location IS awesome and there is a ton to do, both indoors and outdoors. If you’re interested in this place, make sure you take Step 2 in time for ERAS, as it’s a requirement to get an interview.

Tier 1B: Would have been out-of-my-mind happy to train at one of these places

MAYO CLINIC – What can I say - it’s the Mayo Clinic. By far the most amazing facilities and resources that I saw on the trail. The new Gonda building is ridiculous. Of course, the residents get any fellowship they want coming out of here, especially in hand and joints. Can’t beat the brand and the marketability that the Mayo name will give you when trying to join a practice, get patients. Dr. Berry (chair) came across as a good guy; made an effort to introduce himself to every single applicant and make small talk prior to interviews. “Interview” with Dr. Hanssen (outgoing PD) and Dr. Turner (incoming PD) was as a group of 20+, so little opportunity to ask many questions, but I spent a little time talking to them at the social and found them both to be very likeable. Dr. Hanssen seemed like a no-BS kind of guy in both settings, but was also very funny. Only two 30-minute interviews w/ people who really learn your app; seemed like they paired me with interviewers who have background similar to my own; coincidence? Majority of didactic learning occurs during 6-month block of PGY2, when residents perform clinical duties during the first half of the day, then have didactics in the afternoon. Probably no limitations to the research that you could do here. Amazing patient database that would allow you to answer any clinical question. Can do the clinician-investigator track that allows residents to take PGY2 off to do research AND still graduate in 5 years. Preceptorship model, working one-on-one with a “consultant” for 3 months – great if you are matched with a good consultant, may be miserable otherwise; either due to worse lifestyle, worse op experience, or both. Supposedly there is an “A Track” and “B track”; there’s even an ‘award’ given to the resident with the worst collection of rotations. Bunch of PAs and NPs; some PAs have been with their consultant forever and reportedly enhance the teaching experience in the OR. Residents do quite a bit of clinic and must wear a full suit with tie in clinic; people mention this a lot, but it’s really no different from wearing a white coat. Only got to meet with a handful of the residents; each seemed nice enough. Rotators endorsed them as a pretty solid group, as did the applicants who spent an extra night in town thanks to the blizzard. Carry pager 24/7. No Peds hospital – impact? Crazy awesome gym. Rochester in December was a huge downer. People say it’s great in the summer, and I’m sure it is, but again, the interview was during the blizzard that took out the Metrodome, and it made the cold, small city seem that much worse. Most of downtown connected by tunnels. Can do 3-month aways in Florida/Arizona; great in terms of weather, but sucks if have to leave family behind. Bottom line: if I was single this undoubtedly would have been my #1. However, I know my wife would have been miserable here, so it fell a little on my list. That said, the network for spouses here is supposed to be awesome. Essentially everyone in Rochester is there to work at Mayo in some form or another, so everyone’s kind of in this thing together.

MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN – Just an awesome “hybrid” program. Extremely well-balanced. All the perks of a community program, with somewhat of an academic feel; although, maybe only in the sense that they are associated with a medical school. Great group of residents; laidback; had a lot of fun interacting with them at the social (Lakefront Brewery tour) and throughout the interview day. Program seems fairly regional, occasionally taking multiple MCW students; 3/5 last year. Supposedly interview a lot of people for their 5 spots; didn’t pay enough attention to know. All subspecialties covered including tumor. They actually have enough business to have multiple tumor docs, which was somewhat of a surprise. They are actively recruiting another foot/ankle and spine surgeon to add to those already onboard; multiple docs in every subspecialty. Didactics might be a weakness, and if I recall correctly they are trying to make improvements in that area. OITE scores are average for whatever that’s worth. Research not abundant or emphasized, but can be found if interested. All interviews were 2-on-1 with faculty; very laidback and everyone seemed nice enough. Residents and rotators emphasized that the chair, Dr. Schwab, is a great leader who has their best interest in mind. Trauma is busy, but all other rotations are relatively comfortable. PD Dr. Schmeling said to be a great traumatologist and teacher. No night float. Back-up home call as PGY4 and PGY5. VA rotation with lots of autonomy as PGY3 (5 months!) and PGY5. 10 week elective of your choice at community hospital as PGY5. Honestly, not sure about their fellowships, as I never got/saw a list of alumni, and I couldn’t find anything online; got the impression that they do well. Milwaukee seems like an awesome city, especially if you’re already used to the cold and like beer and football. Great sports, restaurants, bars, etc. Main hospital is in a pretty nice part of town. Chicago is just 90 minutes down the coast of Lake Michigan.

MT. CARMEL– This might sound funny to some, but this was the most competitive place on my ROL. Seriously. This gem of a community program only takes 2 residents per year, leaving your odds at about 50:1 once you get an interview, and I met TONS of competitive applicants that put this program as their #1. Heavily favor rotators; should at least visit for a few days if you’re interested. Step scores are more important here; with only 10 residents, if one fails the boards they’d be in trouble. I know both of the dudes they got this year, and they were not only two of the nicest guys I met on the trail, but also both extremely well-qualified people that could have gone almost anywhere in the country. The program has an amazing group of people, from the Chair, Dr. Fankhouser, to the rest of the faculty and administrative staff, to the residents. As the program likes to say, they consider themselves an “academic program, just not a university program”. Research is available, although clearly limited compared to a large university program. Consistently amazing performance on the OITE. Very, very strong didactics. Half day of lectures every Wednesday morning, followed by half day of resident/chief clinic for uninsured patients, where all residents do clinic together, see post-op patients, and staff the consults with chief residents. Chiefs then do the surgeries. Another half day of clinic on post-call days. Chiefs essentially work as junior attendings, which is nice prep for practice. Rotations are 1-on-1 with an attending. No double scrubbing. Great overall operative experience; only weakness might be lack of complex trauma. Mt. Carmel is a level 2 trauma center; residents rotate at local level 1 trauma center as a PGY3 or PGY4. Most good trauma is shared by local level 1 centers; Grant > Riverside > OSU. Great peds experience at Nationwide Children’s hospital; shared with OSU and OhioHealth (DO) residents. I visited for a few days and saw PGY2’s doing knees skin-to-skin proficiently. Fantastic fellowship placement, particularly for being a smaller community program, with programs like Vandy, HSS, Cleveland Clinic, Pitt, HJD, Harvard, etc. on the list. Maybe the best lifestyle in the country between hours, scut (non-existent), and pay (extensive moonlighting opportunities starting PGY3). Again, a great, close-knit group of intelligent, hard-working residents. I might be biased, but I think Columbus is a great, mid-sized city with all the benefits of city-living without the negatives of substantial crime or traffic. Good cost of living. Great city for a single guy/gal or a family guy/gal. Excellent bars, restaurants, sports, concerts, etc. Most, if not all, of the residents are married, I believe. Would have absolutely loved to do my residency here. Only weaknesses for me were lack of complex trauma and small program size.

OHIO STATE – (rotated here) Admittedly, I entered medical school and the application process thinking that this is where I wanted to go for residency. Unfortunately, they were put on probation prior to this application year, and while I do not think the program is in any real danger, I couldn’t simply ignore it. With all of that said, I think this is a fantastic program, and the probation status has probably been a good kick in the butt that will eventually make the program that much better. In fact, Dr. Calhoun (Chair) aims to turn this place into a “Top-10” program over the next 5 years, and I do not doubt that he can do it. The University certainly has the resources, and Dr. Calhoun is a personable, ambitious leader who has encouraged the University to use said resources. Much money has already been thrown towards the department to hire new faculty (Spine, Joints) and build new offices for the faculty, staff, and residents. I think the new offices will go a long way to building resident camaraderie, as the residents will finally have a room that will fit more than 3 or 4 people. University also purchased a local VA ambulatory care center to turn into additional ortho facilities. More changes, additions to come. Residents are a really great group, overall. The PGY2’s and PGY1’s seemed particularly awesome, nice; losing some great folks in chief class; didn’t get to know the PGY3s and PGY4s as well. Relative weakness here is trauma, as I never saw a major case come in during any of my call nights, and I saw the night float (PGY2) resident pitch two no-hitters; my co-rotators had similar experiences. That said, I rotated in the late fall, and of course it is busier in the summer. All subspecialties covered, including tumor (2 drs). Spine was a big weakness, but again they recently added a spine guy who was previously at HSS; dude loves to teach. I’d say sports and foot/ankle are strengths. Residents start operating relatively early as a PGY2; as much as you would expect at an academic place. No VA rotation, but instead there is a Prison Service and Infection rotation done as a PGY2 and PGY4; provides a lot of autonomy in OR and clinic; in clinic you are essentially making clinical decisions on your own, with supervision if needed. Good community practice experience during PGY3 when residents work at Riverside Hospital. Most rotations are at OSU Main; sports and adult recon at OSU East (10 min across town); hand at very nice, new facility across the street from OSU Main. Didactics every Friday morning are strong. Some residents are able to call it a day after didactics, depending on the service they are on. Relatively great lifestyle; trauma is busiest, of course, but won’t kill you, and other rotations are pretty relaxed. These guys get great fellowships, including places like Pitt, Indiana Hand Center, Cleveland Clinic, OrthoCarolina, Wash U, Stanford, Harvard and HSS all appearing on the list in the recent years. Again, it’s a fact that Columbus and The OSU campus are some of the greatest places in the world… I’m sure there’s data somewhere to back that up. Ultimately, the probation status and lack of trauma kept this from being higher on my ROL. If you’re going to rotate here, consider doing trauma, oncology, sports, or “Chairman’s Service” (foot/ankle + infection) as that will give you face time with people on the residency committee. Trauma, Onc, and Prison Service have added bonus of being at OSU Main and giving you time with the residents. They interview all rotators.

Tier 2: Fantastic programs in slightly less desirable locations or programs with some question marks. Still would have been ecstatic to match at one of these places.

INDIANA - A really good, balanced program, that’s only this far down my list because the program seems to be in somewhat of a period of transition, and the programs above it are just that awesome. Most of the faculty seemed really nice, particularly the PD Dr. Loder. Residents appeared to be a great group, and IU med students I met on the trail endorsed them as such. IU medical campus is a great setup with University Hospital, Wishard (older trauma center), Riley Children’s Hospital and VA all nearby. Also rotate at some community hospitals like Methodist downtown, as well as IU North in Carmel and IU West in Avon. VA as PGY2, PGY3, and PGY5. All subspecialties covered, including tumor. Private practice rotation of choice during PGY4, elective time during PGY5. Call comes out to about Q6; always buddy call. Cover all 4 local hospitals (University, Wishard, VA and Peds) when on call. Solid operative experience. Decent lifestyle; ~60hrs/week. Indianapolis is a great, clean, mid-sized city with decent bars, restaurants and sports.

KALAMAZOO – Another great community program, which I found to be very popular among applicants on the trail. Currently associated with Michigan State, although, may one day be associated with Western Michigan, which is also in Kalamazoo. Faculty/Residents confident that this will not change anything within the program. Fantastic collection of people, from the Chair Dr. Rowe, to the PD Dr. Chess, the younger faculty, and the staff. Great mix of full time and community, young and old faculty. Some of the younger faculty - particularly the very energetic Dr. Sabesan (from Duke, shoulder & elbow fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, research fellowship at Iowa) - are trying to ramp up the academic presence and increase research opportunities for the residents that want them. Other young, interviewing faculty included a Kleinert fellowship trained hand surgeon and a Kerlan-Jobe and AO Trauma Switzerland fellowship trained sports surgeon. Residents are a great group, mostly married, many with kids, most owning homes. Huge emphasis on a collegial, family -like environment here, as the group is a close-knit one; applicants have to take an online personality test prior to interview. Also felt like the interviews were more obviously geared toward determining personality (that’s true everywhere, I know, but even relative to other programs); questions emphasizing growing up in a small community, going to a smaller undergrad, etc. However, don’t let that discourage you from applying here if you don’t fit that bill, as one look at their list of residents will show you that they have people from very big schools. Three months protected research time as PGY3. Away elective time as PGY4 allows you potential time to audition for a fellowship; not sure if/how long department funding will allow this. Very strong didactic schedule; 100% pass rate on boards thus far. Operative experience is extensive w/ essentially no double-scrubbing and tons of volume considering the # of residents. Most work done at two local community hospitals, Borgess and Bronson. Both are Level 1 trauma centers. One provides peds experience. One is newer and very nice, the other is older and we didn’t get to see it on tour. Call is home call all 5 years. All new consults are staffed with attendings first and THEN the resident is called. Some question how this affects the overall learning experience. Residents state that it’s a great cushion, as the BS consults are shot down by the attending and all legit consults are worked up by the resident per usual. Lifestyle is definitely a HUGE plus here, with very comfortable work hours, no scut, all the perks of a community program. Combined with the cases these folks manage to log over their 5 years, you get the impression that all they do is operate. Gotta love it. Also, impressive fellowship list including Kleinert Hand, Indiana Hand, UPenn shoulder, Carolinas trauma, Union Memorial foot/ankle. The only downside for me was the location. In particular, had some concerns about my wife finding employment and/or something to do. Downtown is being rejuvenated and isn’t too bad; big college presence with WMU, Kalamazoo College, etc. Two-hour train ride to Chicago is nice.

SUMMA – Huge congrats to GAdoc1982 for matching here, because it’s an awesome program. Especially considering coming out of Georgia, because there are a shit-ton of great candidates in the Midwest that would have killed people to match here. These guys/gals get outstanding training with extensive operative experience in every subspecialty. Their interview process is unique in that they interview one or two applicants basically every day from the beginning of November to the end of January. This is great in that you really get some personal attention during the interview day. Not sure if there is a particular reason that they do this, but I think it speaks to the character of the program and the emphasis they place on having a collegial environment with residents who want to be there. Dr. Weiner (Chair) and Dr. Junko (PD) seemed like genuinely great guys; very laidback, easy to talk to. Head downtown with a few residents for a nice lunch. Once your interviews and lunch are over you have the option of scrubbing in on cases, which is pretty cool. Downside to interviewing every day is that there is no social, so only get to briefly meet residents. Also, didn’t get to meet any other faculty, but nearly all of the 30+ attendings are fellowship trained; many associated with the nearby Crystal Clinic Orthopaedics group, which is very well known. For what it’s worth, Summa has been ranked in the USNWR Top 50 ortho programs for like 11 years running. Cover two different hospitals in town, about 5 minutes away from each other; the primary one has essentially become an ortho hospital over time. Must cover both hospitals when on call, which can be kind of a bummer if you have to drive back and forth multiple times. Supposedly, ortho-related injuries are supposed to be triaged to the primary hospital to avoid delay in care (and avoid on-call resident making trip to the other hospital), but mistakes are occasionally made by first responders, etc. Plans for a new ortho hospital is in the works. Share Akron Children’s Hospital with Cleveland Clinic, Akron General, and Allegheny General residents. No night float. Buddy call, about Q4-Q5. Surprisingly decent amount of research opportunities; protected research time as PGY2, 3, and 4. Elective time as PGY4 and 5. Just an all-around great program.

OHIO STATE 6 YR – I’ve heard that their research year is actually very productive, and therefore worth the extra year. That said, I would have rather trained at almost any of the other places for just 5 yrs.

Tier 3: Good programs with a lot of positives, but in even less desirable locations than my Tier 2 programs

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS – Great community program with a close-knit group of residents and a fantastic family-like environment. One visit to their website’s resident section will show you that. Felt that it was similar to Kalamazoo and Summa in that respect. Pre-interview social held at a resident’s home; very hospitable, social group. Most married; all but one own a home. Newer Chair, Dr. Saleh, has extensive academic history (including UVa, HSS, Harvard), and is VERY ambitious; has huge plans for the department. Can’t help but get excited about the program when he talks about his goals. Great mix of younger and older faculty; about 9 fulltime and 15 community, I believe. PD Dr. Gabriel rivals Mt. Carmel’s Dr. Fankhouser in terms of nicest guys on the trail. Rest of the faculty all seemed very down-to-earth, and they emphasize being supportive and approachable. All subspecialties covered. Great operative experience with virtually no double-scrubbing. Cover two hospitals in Springfield, average Q4 call. Unique float system for 2 months of PGY2 and PGY3, where resident works 11am – 10pm M-Th, Fri 10am – Sat 7am, then off weekends. Strong didactics; anatomy lab with juniors teaching anatomy, seniors teaching surgical approaches. Nice surgical skills lab. Research previously not emphasized, as I do not believe there has been any formal research rotation, but this is changing with the new chair. Solid fellowship list. Like Mt. Carmel, Kalamazoo and Summa, this is a very popular program to those who know it well; I met applicants at the interview who already knew they were ranking the program #1. Springfield was somewhat of a downer in December, but seemed to have nicer parts. Probably a great place to raise a family. Everybody in town is either in government work or health care.

TOLEDO – Very solid academic program. Dr. Ebraheim, Chair, is a very eccentric character; one applicant told me that his interview with him consisted of Dr. E offering him a piece of candy out of his pocket. That was it. Hilarious. That said, he’s one of the most (if not THE most) published ortho surgeons in the country, and the residents/students say he is a fantastic program leader. Also state that he is fearless in the OR and that characteristic rubs off on the residents throughout their training. Department also has a ton of pull in the hospital system thanks to him. Rest of the interviewing faculty seemed like a good group. Residents definitely come across as a guy’s guy, ‘work hard, party hard’ type of group; seemed like a fun bunch. Early and extensive operative experience. Strong didactics, great OITE performance, 100% board pass rate. Relatively robust research labs, set-up. Good fellowship list with this year’s chiefs heading to UCSF Spine, Beaumont Spine (Dr. Herkowitz), and Sinai Hand. Recently built a great, new orthopaedic center. Residents rotate through the UT Medical Center and Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center; both level 1 trauma centers. Have to leave town and go to Lexington, KY (Shriners) for peds; supposedly a great experience that the residents love. Personally, I didn’t want to be 5hrs away from home for 3 months. I have friends from Toledo and they love the city, but it just wasn’t working for me. One of the other applicants had his car broken into during the social. Definitely something that could happen anywhere, but when one of the residents exclaimed that it recently happened to him too, at the same place… may want to have your social elsewhere. Overall, very good training with some fun residents, which will result in a great fellowship, all in a blah location.

NOT RANKED
I really felt that any/all of these programs would have trained me to become an outstanding orthopaedic surgeon.

Matched at: My #1! I’m happy, wife is happy… looking forward to getting started!

My advice to future applicants:
1. Cannot emphasize enough the importance of just being a nice, polite, likeable, hardworking guy/lady. Yes, your scores and grades are important and will open doors for you. However, at the end of the day people just want to know that they can work with you for 5 years. Equally important, they want to know that they can TEACH you for 5 years. This means being humble and not thinking that you know everything. Similarly, this means realizing that you are NOT entitled to anything. Also, as somebody else pointed out, don’t compromise who you are in this process. Be yourself. Don’t be a kiss ass. Don’t feel like you need to do things like tell multiple programs they are your #1 in order to match where you want.
2. Step 1 – just do what needs to be done to kill this test. We all know it’s the first thing used to put people in the “no interview” pile. Err on the side of studying too much. It’s essentially 4 weeks for the rest of your life, and you don’t want to look back and regret not studying more. First Aid, Goljan audio lectures +/- the accompanying Goljan path book, a Qbank and paying attention the first two years of school is really all you need to get a great score.
3. 3rd Year Clerkships – research has shown that 3rd year honors/grades correlates best with resident test scores, and since that data has come out 3rd year clerkship scores have received a lot more attention. It’s the greatest component of the Mayo QCST and UNC scoring systems used by those programs to determine who gets interviewed/accepted. Columbia does something similar. I’m sure most programs do, now. Try your best to ace 3rd yr.
4. Step 2 – I would take this thing as soon as possible after 3rd yr. IF you worked hard enough during 3rd year to get honors/high pass scores, then you’ll be well prepared for the exam. Most people improve from their Step 1 score. Again, I believe that research shows it is a better predictor than Step 1 for resident performance on OITEs/boards. A few programs require it to give interviews or rank applicants. I’ve heard that more programs are trending towards this, but they’ve been saying that for a couple years now. First Aid and a Qbank are all you need.
5. Research – Need to get something under your belt to talk about at interviews. Summer between 1st and 2nd year is your best bet. Consider during lighter clerkships. Don’t accept a role in a project and then flake.
6. Aways – The biggest weapon in your arsenal. Probably intuitive that programs are more interested in students that they worked with for a month. However, it’s also backed by the research/survey done by the guys at NYU, which showed that it is the most important thing to program directors (above grades, step 1, etc). Aways should serve one or all of three purposes: a) audition rotation, b) get big name letters, c) gain exposure to a program different from your home program. Whatever your reason, just work your ass off; always be present, ready to work, take initiative… without being annoying.
7. Extracurriculars – heard a lot of debate about the value of these. Probably don’t mean as much in ortho, but the value is 1) something to talk about in interviews, 2) might factor into your school’s AOA selection criteria.
8. Try to get rotations in Nov./Dec. that will allow you to have access to your email at ALL times. Interview offers go FAST.
9. Keep track of your applications (offers, rejections, etc). Check program websites, as many programs have requirements above and beyond what’s in ERAS (like MCAT scores, undergrad transcripts, special LORs, etc)
10. Always have questions ready for your interviews… I felt like I was always running out.
11. Orthogate is a valuable tool if used correctly. Use it to find info about programs (do searches), find out when interview offers have gone out, when programs are interviewing so you can plan appropriately. Take everything you read with a grain of salt, including this post, as opinions are like a-holes and there’s a good chance that I didn’t get the best read on a program from a one-day visit.