A Students Guide to Landing an

Orthopaedics Residency Spot

Version 1
Prepared by Orthopaedic Applicants from the Class of 09

Introduction:
Applying and matching to a position in an orthopaedic surgery residency program can be
a challenging and frustrating process. Along the way you will receive plenty of advice (some
good, some bad) from other students, residents, mentors, and academic advisors. Our purpose in
preparing this guide was to compile the advice from 4th year students who have successfully
matched in order to give you a head start on the process. We have done our best to be honest and
thorough in our summary, while recognizing that we have certainly missed a few things.
Hopefully you will find this guide a useful resource as you move forward in your training and
please update this guide for future generations as you see fit. There is no magic bullet that will
help you land a spot, but hopefully the tips provided in this guide will help you reach your goal.
If you picked up orthopaedics a little later on in your third year, feel free to ignore the first part
of this guide and move on to the later sections.
Thanks for reading and best of luck!
The Classroom Years:
The five of us could likely debate the importance of the first two years in terms of your
application to orthopaedics for hours and not come up with a single right answer. You will likely
hear many different viewpoints from your peers and advisors during your training. Until we sit
on admissions committees down the road, we wont know the truth. On the interview trail, we
did not encounter any interviewers who seemed concerned with or even asked about grades from
the first two years. This included courses that would seem relevant like anatomy. We can say
that every program has a different formula for ranking candidates and a few of these may factor
in grades from the first two years. The Deans letter lists the courses you honored in during the
pre-clinical years, but does not list the courses that you didnt honor. However, schools do
receive a complete transcript.
Even though programs may not look at pre-clinical scores doesnt mean that they arent
important, and heres why: USMLE Step 1 and Junior AOA. Studying hard and learning the
material is vital as you prepare for USMLE Step I at the end of your second year. There are
studies linking performance during the pre-clinical years to performance on Step 1. As well, you
will be doing yourself a service when it comes time to study for Step 1 if you paid attention
during the previous 18 months. In addition, Junior AOA is determined, in large part, by your
pre-clinical grades. If you honor all of your courses, you will be in the running for Junior AOA.
The committee typically selects six students for Junior AOA and must choose from a group of
10-15 students that honored all of their classes in the first two years. This means that your
grades help you make the cut, but decisions will also be based on your research, leadership work
and community involvement.
Also consider taking the orthopaedics elective in your first two years. This course is a
weekly lecture series by faculty from various orthopaedic subspecialties. Not only will you learn
a little about orthopaedics, you will have the opportunity to meet faculty members you can
approach about research opportunities or a foundations preceptorship.
USMLE Step I:
USMLE Step I is probably the most important test you will take during your four years at
CU. Residency programs use Step I scores to screen candidates and they may decide not to

interview candidates below a certain score. Top programs may use a higher cut-off like 235-240
while others may look for a score above 220-225. These numbers are purely speculation on our
part programs dont advertise their cut-offs. Each year the student affairs office sends out a
report on the match statistics that serves as a useful guide. To give you a general idea, the
average board score for candidates that matched into orthopaedics was 236 (2008 numbers).
If you are reading this guide, there is a decent chance that you have already taken Step I
and your scores are set in stone. Lets say you didnt score as well as you had hoped and you are
sitting in the 220s or low 230s- dont freak out and begin contemplating a career in family
medicine. There are many CU grads who successfully landed an ortho residency position without
stellar Step I scores. These folks emphasized the importance of doing well on Step II CK as a
way to improve your competiveness. Take this test early on in your fourth year- your third year
clerkships will still be fresh and you will be able to get the scores out before you apply to
residency. Consider taking the month of May off to prepare and take the exam. Be aware if you
choose to release your score and do poorly it will absolutely hurt you, despite what you may hear
from advisors regarding Step II carrying no weight. You can also strengthen your application
through research work, publications, doing well in Sub-I rotations and strong letters of
recommendation.
We could write a lengthy segment on how to prepare for Step I, but this would duplicate
what you will hear in various forums. You will have plenty of practice exams, study sessions,
and panels on the topic as you get closer to test time. Our advice is to work on your own
timeline and do your best to ignore your frantic classmates. Also consider purchasing a couple
of board review books mid-way through your first year and use them as a guide to determine
what material is really important. Clinical instructors often give a little too much detail or may
miss a couple of key points. In addition, it is beneficial to familiarize yourself with the review
books (and maybe even add some notes to them) early on so reviewing them later will be easier.
Potential books to purchase may include FirstAid, BRS Pathology and Physiology. Additional
practice tests that you can purchase (and take) through the NBME are also helpful. Also
recommended are the Goljan pathology lectures (if your classmates havent started talking about
them, they will) and book. Great to add to your ipod playlist and start listening during your
second year, especially if youre not a book learner.
Third Year:
First, congratulations for surviving the classroom and starting what will hopefully be a
more rewarding period of medical school. Second, you have now hit the point in your training
where orthopaedics programs will be paying close attention to your performance. Doing well in
the clinical years can be challenging because the grading process seems so subjective. You dont
necessarily need to honor all of your rotations, but there are several courses that you should work
hard to excel in. Surgery and medicine are clearly the most important. Some may tell you that
OB-Gyn and Pediatrics may be important depending on the residency program. For example, the
chairman at Brown is pedi-ortho and his formula for ranking candidates includes your grade in
pediatrics.
There is more to third year clerkships than just that honors grade. Comments by the
faculty and residents on your evaluation sheets are also very important since they show up on the
Deans letter too. Programs will certainly be looking at these to determine if you work well with
others and were respected by the team. You should also start to think about letters of
recommendation during your third year as well. Many orthopaedics programs request or allow

you to include a non-orthopaedics letter. If you have a great surgery or medicine experience for
example, definitely think about asking for a letter of recommendation. It often benefits you to
get that letter sooner while you are still fresh on the mind of the faculty member.
As part of your pediatrics rotation, there is a two-week block of musculoskeletal where
you can chose between orthopaedics or PM&R. Though brief, this rotation is a perfect
opportunity to explore orthopaedics with very little pressure and hopefully make some
connections that will be valuable later on. The course mostly involves work in the clinic, but try
to sneak into the operating room as much as you can. Denver Health and the VA may be better
rotations to try to sneak a little OR time. It may be helpful to brush up on the basics of physical
examination prior to the rotation (hip, knee, hand and shoulder). Also review your anatomy.
Your real objective here should be to figure out of orthopaedics is the best fit and to get to know
residents and faculty. Like any other rotation, consider the following when evaluating
orthopaedics as a potential fit: the people you will be working with, the medical problems, the
anatomy, the procedures, lifestyle and length of training. Spend as much time getting to know
the residents as you can. Volunteer to take a night or two of call while on the rotation. It should
be a fun experience and you will get a better sense of what your life will be like as a Sub-I and
resident.
Unfortunately it will be difficulty to get much ortho time outside of your musculoskeletal
block because you will be so busy on rotations. There is an opportunity to work with a preceptor
for foundations in orthopaedics if you havent already. Consider working with a faculty member
that you know through research or clinical work. The better you get to know them, the stronger
your letter of recommendation will be. If you are really leaning towards private practice, you
may want to consider working with someone in the community. This may be one of the few
opportunities to do so since not all residency programs have you spend time in a community
practice. The downside is letter of recommendation situation. As we understand it, letters of
recommendation from the community are nowhere near as valuable as those from faculty (unless
the private practice person is really well known or has academic ties- e.g. are you applying to
their alma mater?).
Senior AOA is determined by a combination of your grades from the first three
years of medical school. The top 25% of the class will be looked at and the Junior AOA
(your classmates) will decide who receives Senior AOA. They will receive a list of how
many honors points you have received through the first three years, and as of this writing
HP is not figured into the honors points equation. Beyond that, they may decide that
someone with 85 honors points is more deserving that someone with 90 because of
involvement in the school, community, and research. The number of honors points you get
from a course depends on how many hours the course has, so medicine, and surgery will be
weighted more heavily than neurology. AOA is certainly figured into the match ranking,
but it will certainly vary from program to program. During my interviews several
programs would have a standardized evaluation sheet and AOA was definitely a part of all
the forms I noticed.
Research:
Research has always been an optional component of your residency application, but we
would argue that it is becoming mandatory as orthopaedics becomes increasingly competitive.
While interview for residency positions, each school usually has a research-oriented interview so
it is always helpful to have something to talk about. The majority of your peers will have been

involved in some type of research so getting involved will help you keep pace while publishing
or presenting at a conference will help you stand out. The Department of Orthopaedics will
likely help sponsor your trip if you are invited to present at a conference. Make sure you are
very familiar with your research work before you head out on the road. Interviewers will want to
know about your role, outcome of the project, etc.
One of the keys to research is getting involved as early as possible. Many of the projects
take a while to complete and set up. An early start will allow you to publish and include the
paper in your residency application. The summer between first and second year is an excellent
time to begin a project. Dr. Wolf (UCHSC), Dr. Hak (Denver Health), Dr. Chang (TCH) and Dr.
Dayton (UCHSC) are all excellent resources for potential projects. Also consider contacting the
faculty at the VA or Childrens hospital. There is always a ton of work available; the challenge
has been finding it. It would be wise to encourage the orthopaedic interest group to track down
and organize the project opportunities so folks arent duplicating efforts. Dr. Wolf keeps a list of
potential research opportunities throughout the department and the professor involved, this may
be a good place to start. Also consider looking into research scholarship opportunities, like the
scholarship offered to medical students by the Orthopaedics Research and Education
Foundations, which may help fund your project and looks great on your CV.
There are two more things to think about when evaluating research projects, your role
and the type of project. Obviously we would all love to be involved in a randomized control
study because it is the gold standard, but the reality is that this wont be possible in your four
years of medical school. Most of the projects will involve retrospective/database work. You
may also consider getting involved in case reports and review papers. Just beware that many
interviewers on the residency trail dont consider case reports or review papers true research.
Also, make sure to iron out your exact role in the project ahead of time with the principal
investigator. The more involved you are, the better it will sound to residency programs. The
tradeoff is that you will likely need to put in more time, which may be difficult to do during
classes or clinical rotations.
Fourth Year:
Schedule- You will schedule your fourth year rotations online in conjunction with the student
affairs office in Jan/Feb of your third year. The schedule system is online and allows you to put
in the courses that you want and assign priority to the more difficult to obtain courses. The first
course you need to get scheduled is your Sub Internship. If you are really interested in staying at
CU, we suggest taking your ortho Sub-I in July (i.e. the third block is best) so you are able to
work with the new chief residents. After all they will be on the residency selection committee
and will be resources for your Chairmans letter. If you do schedule your sub-I third you will
have two blocks prior to that rotation. If you need to take Step II CK early to make up for a poor
Step I score you should take it during these months. If you have a solid Step I score, use this
time to prepare for your Sub-I. A couple of good classes to take before the Sub-I were radiology
and sports medicine. These courses are not intense, so you get some break before hell starts, but
you also get some exposure to imaging and the orthopaedic physical exam that is invaluable to
know before you begin your Sub-I. Note: Radiology and especially Sports Medicine were tough
rotations to get early on so you may want to rank them the highest and have a backup plan. The
time before your Sub-I may also be used for research, as we mentioned above it is best to start

this research as soon as possible and hopefully you could use a research month to wrap up and
write the paper. Whatever you do with this time, make sure you are prepared for your Sub-I.
This means spending time reviewing anatomy and the key components of the physical exam.
Not all of us took our Sub-I in July, roughly half of us signed up for June instead. One
advantage of taking your home Sub-I sooner is that you can hit the road sooner for externships
and potentially do more externships or have more time for other things (weddings, applications).
Think about what is important to you in the process and chose accordingly. You will definitely
be at a slight disadvantage when you apply to CU since you havent worked as much with the
new chiefs, but the reality is that there are tons of programs out there and many of them will be a
better fit than CU.
When we applied for externships each school had a separate and sometimes complex
application. Be prepared to get unnecessary vaccinations, antibody titers and needless
paperwork in order to complete these applications. The VSAS is now being used and may make
this process easier. Start to figure all of that out in January because it can take several weeks to
get it done, especially when you are on clinical rotations. Also, start talking to students ahead of
you and advisors to figure out where you want to rotate. Know that some programs will really
only interview rotators (Northwestern) while other programs dont necessarily guarantee you an
interview if you rotate there.
Finally, if you have not yet taken Step II make sure you make some time to take this
exam as it is required before Nov 1 (unless you get an extension from Dean Garrity- in that case
you will have till the end of December to take the exam). Two weeks of studying should suffice.
Also make sure to schedule December and January off for interviews or take a class that will
give you the flexibility to travel when and as often as you need to.
Sub-I
Prior to your Sub-I rotation, you will want to make sure you are appropriately prepared in
terms of your knowledge and resources. The majority of questions that faculty or residents will
ask are directed towards your knowledge of anatomy. Being able to provide the right answer
quickly will go a long way and often they wont ask you any additional questions if you get the
first couple correct (they will assume you know the rest). Since your anatomy course ended
roughly three years ago, it might not be a bad idea to spend time reviewing things in the month
or two leading up to your rotation. There may be some questions related to specific diseases,
especially when you are on specialty services like hand or spine at other institutions.
There are several great resources available that will help you succeed on rotation. Being
able to quickly read about a particular fracture pattern prior to seeing a patient can be extremely
helpful. Here is a quick summary of several popular texts that students carry with them:
Netters Concise Atlas of Orthopaedic Anatomy: This is a great pocket reference that
comes in handy as you review anatomy and prior to heading into the OR. Unlike the
full Netters, this version focuses on the relevant orthopaedic anatomy while also
covering common injuries/ailments and diagnosis.
Kovals Handbook of Fractures: This text is another must, especially while you are
rotating at Denver Health. It describes the common fracture patterns in adults and
kids for just about every region of the body.
There are tons of other great orthopaedic texts out there that you may consider. Many students
shelled out the big bucks for Hoppenfelds Textbook of Surgical Approaches. While this is a

great resource, you can usually find it in the orthopaedic library or residents room. Why pay
$220 for a book your residency program will give you in a year or two? The same applies to
many other great texts like Greens or Skeletal Trauma. These books are extremely expensive
and most residency programs offer a yearly stipend for books. Save your money for things like
interview travel, youll need it!
In addition to the books mentioned above, you should also buy some trauma shears. As a
Sub-I, you will be doing lots of dressing changes and splint removals. Doing this without shears
is a real pain and you will drive your resident nuts if you are constantly asking to borrow theirs.
Along with your shears, pick up some tape on your first day and keep it with you. On morning
rounds, make sure you have some basic bandaging material with you so that you can help out
with dressing changes and dont have to be running to the supply closet right off the bat.
So now you are appropriately equipped for your rotation and you know your anatomy
cold. The last words of advice are captured in a list of does and donts for your rotation. Many
of these are pretty logical, but we thought we would list them out just in case!
Do show up early and be ready to go
Dont ask to leave early or take an extra time off
Dont call in sick unless you are calling from a hospital bed
Dont kiss up- faculty usually see right through this (especially Smith)
Do read ahead on your surgical cases and clinic patients (this second one isnt possible
everywhere)
Dont talk poorly about your fellow student rotators, residents or faculty
Dont drive faculty nuts with questions in the OR
Do see patients and write notes in the morning without being asked
Do fill out H&Ps after seeing a patient
Do get casting, splinting, or suture material together before the resident comes down to see
the patient
Do offer to go get started on a consult if your resident is busy
Do offer to write up the case report on the interesting patient
Do stop by all of your patients for a post-op check even if you arent asked. Write a note if
allowed and give it to your resident to sign off on.
Do carry extra H&P and surgical consent forms with you on call nights
Think of your ortho rotations as a job interview. Both faculty and residents are looking for
students that they would want to work with 80 hours a week for five years as a resident. You
dont learn a lot about orthopaedics during your first three years of school (other than anatomy)
so working hard and being easy to work with goes a long way. Nobody wants to work with a
complainer or someone who cant carry a conversation.
Externships
Externships are another must for the orthopaedic surgery applicant. At almost every
interview you will have someone ask you where you did your away rotations, and youre
expected to have an answer and be able to talk about the program. This is your job interview and
all of the advice above applies. Most applicants do two externships, but this is certainly
dependent on what youre looking for in terms of residency. If you know you can stay in

Colorado and want to, then maybe one away would suffice just to expand your knowledge of
whats out there.
Think carefully about where you apply and how many applications you send out. If you
send out ten applications and only accept two externships- you may be burning bridges at 8
schools that you really might like to interview at. Before applying, give the coordinators a call to
ask if their program typically accepts all interested students and how many students they
typically take each month. You may want to think twice about rotating at a program if they take
a ton of students each month because you will have a hard time standing out from the crowd (or
getting involved).
The rotation will vary according to institution and you will likely be with a number of
people from across the country. Do your best and be supportive of your fellow rotators and
residents. You want to be appropriately enthusiastic without being too overbearing. Help out as
much as you can, but try not to step on anyones toes.
Make sure to ask for a letter of recommendation from each program you rotated at if you
think you can get a good letter. Residency programs put a great deal of weight on letters outside
of your home program. Many directors feel that you any student can get a good letter from
someone in their home program so they really like to see that you were well liked everywhere
you went. Externship letters of rec can also carry a great deal of regional weight as well.
Here is a list of programs we have rotated at:
Stanford:
General: The program was on probation about 4-5 years ago, but is on the rise. Their new
chairman Maloney is a pretty big name in joints and came from WashU. The program is rapidly
expanding and has recently taken most of UCSFs sports department, along with their chief of
sports (the team docs for the 49ers).
Faculty: Great faculty and are continually expanding. In a discussion with Dr. Maloney, he says
that hes looking to add more trauma and foot and ankle soon. They are probably strongest in
spine, sports, and joints. They also have great coverage in hand, foot and ankle, and trauma.
Residents: The residents have a pretty typical laid-back California feel. Most of them are
extremely smart and relaxed, though they did take a few residents from a program that closed
down a few years back, who may not be as sharp as the others. They are very tight knit and hang
out outside the hospital. While rotating I was able to go out to a bar with residents several times
and even go paintballing.
Program: The program is academic and will prepare you well for any career you want. They
cover Stanford, Santa Clara Medical Center (like Denver Health), Lucile Packard Childrens
hospital, VA, and are adding another community-type rotation. Didactics are excellent, every
Wednesday morning they have lectures on all topics of orthopaedics and board review questions
with answers prepared by all the residents out of current literature.
Operative experience: Operative experience at Stanford is excellent, however, this may vary a bit
depending on service. At the University residents operate early on trauma as interns and second
years. The junior is typically involved on almost all cases, but this may change a little if they are
early in the year and involved on a pelvic fracture. The VA has second years putting in hip and
knee replacements and doing knee scopes. They are 1 on 1 with an attending. The chief is
typically in another room doing a similar case. Shoulder scopes are more often the chiefs
territory.

Call: Stanford is all home call. This can be good and bad. They dont often have to come in, but
may be up all night letting people know that a temp of 37.9 isnt a reason to come see a patient.
With home call the 80-hour rules dont apply and they may be back in the hospital the next day.
Brown:
General: Brown is a well-established program that seems to be very highly respected. The
program offers very balanced sub-specialty coverage and the only major drawback to the
program seems to be the sixth year. The Chair is very interested in research and works hard to
provide unlimited research opportunities for residents. This program a six-year program, but is
unique in terms of how it is structured. Unlike others where you do a research year, after
completing the program at Brown you are also awarded a trauma fellowship. As a 6-year resident
you are junior faculty and get paid as such (around 120,000).
Faculty: The faculty at Brown are excellent and are great resident advocates. Dr. Ehrlich, the
chair, is a very well known pediatric orthopaedic surgeon and has been excellent in getting
residents into coveted fellowships across the country. As a rotating student, he will take the time
to sit down with you and give you feedback on your CV and personal statement. Dr. Digiovanni,
the new program director, is another great resident advocate. The program is also very strong in
hand particularly and has good coverage of all other subspecialties. The faculty group as a whole
love to teach and work with residents. Dr. Ehrlich works hard to ensure he brings in faculty that
allow the residents to operate.
Residents: The residents are all very bright and get along well outside the hospital. There is a
good mix of married and single residents.
Research: Research opportunities are world class, Brown has a lot of money to throw at projects
and you have time budgeted into your schedule as an upper-level resident to complete
meaningful projects.
Operative experience: As a junior resident on trauma, you essentially run the ED and prepare
cases for your upper level residents. On other services junior residents get their hands dirty, but
the trauma experience may be a bit frustrating as a 2. The flipside is that you get a ton of trauma
operative experience by the time you graduate, especially as a 6 where you are running your own
cases. The residents that I worked with seemed very skilled in the OR.
Didactics: Brown has a very strong didactic program to prepare you for OITE and Boards. They
also have regular talks by visiting faculty that exposes you to world-class specialists from around
the country (very helpful when you are applying to fellowships). Also a daily morning fracture
conference.
Call: Call is typically very busy and you are on Q6 as a junior for in-house call.
Location: Providence is a more affordable place to live in the northeast. Get plenty of volume
without living in a big expensive city.
Davis:
General: Davis well-known strength is trauma, and youll see a ton of it! They have a young,
enthusiastic trauma staff, who are eager to teach. Morning fracture conference was a great
experience because of the teaching involved, followed by an hour of formal teaching. A note of
caution: they tend to take on a lot of students. You can get lost in the masses, especially on
trauma service. You may want to request to rotate on a different service, such as spine,
pediatrics, or sports.
Faculty: Great trauma faculty, they will push you on knowledge.

Residents: Nice group with a somewhat laid back group of guys. They are happy to teach, but
you need to want it.
Research: They offer one 6-year program spot that includes a year of research following the second
or third year.
Operative experience: I (Jenna) rotated on the Sports service and had a ton of operative time.
The operative experience wasnt quite as good on the trauma service because you were splitting
time among four students. In addition, you didnt get to do much because there were usually a
ton of people scrubbed on each case (attending, fellow, chief, and a 2 or a 3).
From another rotator:
General: This is thought of as one of the strongest programs in California- though our CU
rotators might disagree. It is not as academic as UCLA or UCSF. We heard that it was really
strong hands on training but were disappointed with the level of involvement of faculty and
fellows in cases on the trauma side. It is extremely well known for trauma and pediatrics.
Trauma heavy like CU, but doesnt seem like you get as much hands on operative experience.
Overall would say that the program is similar to CU so might be best to rotate at different
program to have a new experience (unless you are really interested in UC Davis of course).
Faculty: Well known Chairman, DiCeaseare, from HJD. Trauma faculty are top notch.
Currently they do not have a tumor surgeon and have just newly acquired a foot/ankle surgeon.
Residents: In my opinion they were worst part of the program. Two of us rotated at UC Davis
and we had some conflict with the residents. I felt they were overworked and their fund of
knowledge stunk. They didnt seem very motivated to prepare for cases and really learn the
material. The residents lead two of us to turn down interviews at the program.
Program: The program is a nice mix of academics and hands on experience. They cover the
University hospital (a level 1 trauma center) and Shriners Childrens Hospital.
Operative experience: This depends on which service you are on, but in general it is good. There
are two trauma fellows that take the majority of the cases, which is a bad thing. Often a junior
resident is standing and watching the fellow operate.
Call: In house call for junior residents and home call for senior residents. Call is very busy and it
is rare you get much sleep.
Wisconsin (Madison)
General: Very well recognized Midwest program. Strongest in Spine and Sports. Gets enough
trauma, but definitely not a trauma heavy program. (They get a lot of farm trauma instead of
urban trauma like DH). Program is very highly regarded by most everyone we met in the
country and Madison is a great place to live. Program leaders are straight shooters and well
connected to residents.
Faculty: Well connected faculty (especially in Spine). Overall the faculty is very resident
friendly. The Chair and Program Director are really advocates for the residents and make sure
that any malignant personalities are shielded from residents.
Residents: 5 per year. Definitely a strength of the program, I didnt run across any resident that I
thought was a jerk and/or incompetent. Tight knit group of residents, most are from the
Midwest. About 50/50 married w/kids vs. single.
Call: Night float as an R2, in house call on weekends for juniors and home call for seniors. Call
is busy in the summer, relatively light in the winter.

10

Research: Madison is considered more research/academic than the Milwaukee program. They
publish a lot of spine literature. Research is emphasized in their interview, I think there are
opportunities to do as much or as little as you want.
Operative experience: Very few fellows around to steal cases (just 1 spine and 1 sports fellow,
there didnt seem to be much overlap with the residents). There is enough case work to go
around and everyone seems to get enough experience. Faculty were pretty hands-off in the OR.
New Mexico
General: Pretty under the radar program as far as national reputation, although seemed to be
gaining respect from other places I interviewed at. The program continues to improve under new
leadership and is definitely gaining respect. The faculty that are there seem to be in academics
for the right reasons. Similar patient population to and case load to Denver. University Hospital
is only Level I in the state, and they actually get a lot of trauma flown in.
Faculty: The faculty are awesome. A lot of younger faculty who relate well to the residents.
The Chair, Dr. Quinn, is really involved and is an awesome guy.
Residents: I thought New Mexico had the happiest group of residents I had been around. They
really look out for each other seem to have fun outside of the hospital. The residents really sell
the program to the rotators. The ortho intern covers all the floor stuff, which is nice for everyone
else.
Call: Night float as an R2. Otherwise its in house on weekends for juniors and senior are home
call. Pretty reasonable schedule unless you are on trauma. Typical schedule is 6:30 am to 5 pm.
Research: Didnt get a great sense of how much research is done. I dont think it is a huge
emphasis of the program.
Operative experience: Surprisingly a lot of cases to do. No fellows around and lots of attendings
who want to have residents in their cases. The juniors get to operate early and often. One nice
thing is they have a Super-chief rotation as an R5 where you basically have no specific service
and just scavenge interesting cases from other services. This is nice because it allows you to
strengthen areas of weakness or improve areas of interest as you are completing residency.
Other Recommended Classes
There are tons of classes that you can choose from in your fourth year. The key is to
make sure that you have a little fun because you will be working hard during your ortho rotations
and during residency of course! Radiology and sports medicine rotations are certainly valuable.
Sports medicine can be a great prep course for your Sub-I as you learn the physical exam or later
in the year as you are looking for fillers. A SICU rotation would be valuable as well.
Definitely take advantage of research months if you can. The expectations are often very
low and you can wrap up any project work that you need to. You are allowed to take up to three
research months in your fourth year. Also consider a SICU month, a month in private practice or
rheumatology.
Step II CS/CK
The timing and intensity of step II should be based on your Step I scores. If you didnt
ace Step I and need to make up ground, consider taking May off to study and improve your
scores. Your third year clerkships will still be fresh and you will be able to include your score in

11

your residency application. If you did well on Step I, feel free to enjoy your summer and think
about taking step II later on in the year. Dean Garrity will let you take the exam as late as
December if you have done well so far in school and you get her blessing. Step II is much easier
than Step I and as such the time you need to prepare is less. People averaged two to three weeks
of study time. Most people used First Aid and Step II secrets as review books. Reading these
through a couple of times is plenty of preparation for the exam. People also used either the
Kaplan Q Bank or USMLE world (cheaper option) for questions.
Sign up early for Step II CS as spots disappear quickly! Dont hesitate to take this one
early while you still remember thinks like the cardiovascular exam. I would recommend that you
get this done before interview season starts in November. Your interview schedule will be
exhausting and the last thing you want to deal with is an extra trip to take this exam.
On your application, you will have to decide whether or not to release your scores before
you see them. It might not be a bad idea to get the score results back first just in case things
dont go quite as well as you had hoped.
The Female Applicant in Orthopaedics: by Jenna
First Id like to refer you to the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society. They have a great guide
available for cheap on their website (www.rjos.org) that addresses many different issues facing
women in orthopaedics.
Sodo you think you have it easier than the boys for getting accepted into an ortho residency
because they need a token female and the pool of female applicants is smaller than the pool of
male applicants?
(Please let me know if you DONT get this question at least once because I will be amazed)
Ladies, the tide is turning in ortho, as in medicine, but perhaps a wee bit more slowly.
Orthopaedics is still one of the medical subspecialties with a significantly lower number of
women. This presents the female applicant with the following unique situation: you are either
viewed as an asset to an evolving program or a liability to programs who are not quite as
comfortable having women in the OR. I think we can all agree that goal would be to view as an
applicant not a female applicant. Trust me, there are programs that have gotten to this point,
which is awesome! There are programs working on being more comfortable with women,
admirable. There are also programs who arent there at all. Dont worry, they just wont
interview you.
I dont bring this point up to debate the morals and ethics of women in surgery, the good, the bad,
and the archaic. I bring it up for you to raise your antennae during interviews to get a sense of
where the program you are interviewing at stands on the issue. The first step is to decide where
you stand on this issue and what you want out of a program. My stance was that I wanted it to
be a non-issue. While I respect the ground breaking work of the women who have come before
us, I think residency is going to be hard enough without the added pressure of trying to be even
better than the best because Im the girl.

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My advice: look and listen carefully during your interview. Are there women attendings and
residents? Do your interviewers ask you about being woman in ortho? How do the male
attendings and residents talk to you at the dinner? I wanted to see that I would have female
mentorship within the department, both in residents and attendings. I paid attention to resident
interactions with each other, male to female, and with me.
I absolutely cannot and will not tell you which programs are women friendly, both due to my
limited experience and the political implications this may have for my future career. Sorry.
A note on a few obvious issues. Im not going to address relationships, flirtations, etc that may
arise because Im going to expect that you all can appropriately carry yourself in the professional
work environment. No, you arent as strong as the boys, but you can do anything they can do
with a little leverage and good technique. ASK FOR A STOOL. Use your entire body to retract,
not just your biceps because they get tired fast. Be empathetic, have a great bedside manner,
were female its our strength, dont abandon that! Dont ever ever let anyone speak to you in a
disrespectful manner, make lewd comments or inappropriate jokes at your expense. Its up to you
to decide how to handle a situation like this, but bottom line is you dont have to take it and you
dont have to end up at a program that allows that behavior. Youre the consumer here, looking
for the right residency for you, dont forget that!
Finally, one question to consider before interviews, because you will get it: do you plan to have
children during residency? I actually argue this is a reasonable question for programs to ask, and
here is why. Ortho programs are SMALL. Losing a resident in a 5 person surgical program to
maternity leave has a much larger impact on other residents and attendings then it would in a 30person program. I cant tell you how to answer this question, what the right answer is or that you
should lie, because I think all of those things are personal decisions. Just think about the
questions and answer honestly in relation to your given circumstance.

Dont Get Discouraged! A note on being an atypical applicant. By Jenna

Before we get to applying, if youve read this far you are either mentally checking off the
boxes you have successfully completed or reprimanding yourself for your failures. Put down the
whip, stop the self-abuse because we are all far too hard on ourselves in medicine anyway, take a
deep breath and listen. As someone who doesnt fit the mold when it comes to pre-clinical
grades, Step 1 scores, and Junior/Senior AOA, I want to point out there is more to an applicant
than grades and scores. While you may find some programs dont like what doesnt fit in this
tightly pre-wrapped orthopaedic applicant package, some love it (something I didnt know until I
hit the interview trails)!
First, let me be clear that you must, in some form or another, be outstanding. Whether
this be academically, as a community leader, as class president, clinically, in research, you need
an area in which you shine. Then you need to capitalize on it. No one gets into orthopaedics by
being a slacker, but where you choose to exert your energy is your choice. If you love politics
and health policy, get involved with the Colorado Medical Society, if you have a masters degree
or want one, go do it for a year, if you have a biomechanics background, get in the lab, volunteer,
coach, tutor, the options are endless. Feel free to break the mold, in fact I encourage you to. I

13

only caution you to do so with sincerity, not for resume building. Interviewers love having
something new and different to talk about with an applicant and if you are honestly enthusiastic
about what you have to offer they will take notice.
Secondly, get people in your corner. Never underestimate the power of a well-written,
personal, letter of recommendation. Build a relationship or several with faculty members. Work
hard, be enthusiastic, this shouldnt be a stretch since this is what you want to do.
Third, you must have at least one kickass USMLE Step score. If Step 1 didnt go well,
do whatever it takes to raise your Step 2 score. These scores are printed side by side in your
application. Get it done well and early so every program will see your improvement.
Lastly, be a team player. Start during your clinical years. Dont dupe other students out
of OR time, dont answer questions over other students, dont bring breakfast in every morning.
What I mean is work hard, in every rotation, every service. You are first and foremost learning
to be a doctor. Prove that you have the ability to work hard and learn in any and all
circumstances, any topic, anytime. Show up on time, be enthusiastic, be someone people enjoy
working with. Your hard work will be reflected in the comments on your MSPE letter. A strong
and long MSPE full of positive feedback will boost your desirability immensely! Programs
really care that you are someone they want around for the next five years. Orthopaedics
knowledge is teachable and programs know this, people skills are not!
Remember, never, ever, ever give up!
Applications:
Timeline
Try to get your application in as early as possible, even if this means that you turn it in
before all of your letters are completed. Start your CV and personal statement in the spring
(March/April) so that you will have them completed prior to ERAS opening up. This will give
you plenty of time to talk to advisors to get feedback and finalize things. You will also be able to
hand out your CV and PS to letter writers. You are basically going to be loading your CV into
ERAS, but be careful because some symbols dont necessarily copy well.
Personal Statement
Your personal statement is definitely important, as this is a great way to
differentiate yourself from other applicants. Dont go overboard, but certainly discuss anything
that makes you unique like another degree, where you grew up, or a special project you have
been involved in. Make sure that you and 15 of your friends proof read it a million times so that
there are no errors- this looks really bad if you screw things up. Dr. Wolf and Terri Belvins can
help you brainstorm ideas. Be concise as well unless you have a really fascinating story. Shoot
for of a page or so.
Also try to customize your personal statement if possible for each region or school. If
you can mention why you have a specific tie to a location or are really interested in a program,
your application will likely stand out from the 400 other generic personal statements.
Letters of Rec
This is a tough thing to sometimes ask for and get delivered on time. Think about
who knows you well and could write a good letter on your behalf. Take the time to set up a

14

meeting and sit down with them if they are willing to go through your application quickly. Bring
all of the necessary forms with you- the ERAS letter writer form, your CV, your personal
statement, boards scores, school specific forms (Yale, Vandy, Washington, and Wash U for
example all have their own forms), grades (yet another reason to finish your personal statement
and CV early), and an envelope with a stamp to mail it in to the school. Try to ask for your
letters as soon as possible, if you wait too long after your rotation you may be forgotten. Give
them plenty of time to get it done too. Dont necessarily shoot for the biggest name, the person
who knows you best will do a better job most likely.
Dont focus on asking just orthopaedics faculty. You will likely need a letter from
someone outside of orthopaedics as well. After you finish up your ortho Sub-I at CU, set up a
meeting with Dr. DAmbrosia (or whoever the chair is) to get a Chairmans letter. You are
responsible for this and several schools require it. It may take several weeks to get this
completed.
Letter writers may need a little prompting to get the letter out on time. Make sure you
keep in touch and make them aware of your deadlines. Send reminder emails, send thank you
notes for the letter, and send emails to ask them if they need any other information. Do whatever
you have to do because it is your tail on the line. Most of us asked for extra letters just in case
one didnt come through or if you need to use one for a specific purpose (like you are applying to
their alma mater).
Also try to ask for letters of recommendation during your away rotations too. These
letters mean a lot and can give your application a boost. Definitely ask early and even give the
person a heads up that you are looking for a letter.
Picking Programs
Figuring out where to apply is a challenge because you are often forced to decide
between programs with very little information. Start by considering your lifestyle and interests
outside the hospital- you arent going to be happy if you hate the rain but are applying to OHSU
in Portland. Residents, faculty and especially students ahead of you are all great resources.
Even students that you rotate with will be helpful because they can tell you a ton about their
home program. Orthogate has reviews by students and rotators, but these must be taken with a
grain of salt since you dont know the motivation or interests of the writer.
Think about what you are interested in as well. Do you want to go into oncology or
spine? If so, make sure to find programs that are stronger in that area.
Extra Information
First, make sure you are nice to the program coordinators prior to, during, and after
interviews. They usually will weigh in on admissions committees and no program wants a
resident that cant work well with all of the staff. Second, dont drive the coordinators nuts
checking on the status of your application. Feel free to contact them if necessary, but dont flood
them with emails or phone calls. Do consider sending them an email or giving them a call to
make sure your application is complete and they have downloaded all of your letters. When you
make that contact, let the coordinator know that you are really interested in the program and
would love to interview there.

15

If you are struggling to land interviews, consider calling programs in the week prior to
their interview date to see if they have any openings. Spots often open up at the last minute and
they wont bother offering them to waitlisted applicants so close to the deadline. Calling to
express an interest might land you the spot even if you didnt make the initial interview list. One
of our applicants two years ago was having trouble and ended up matching at the program where
he called in this manner. He found out three days before the interview date that there was an
open spot and said he could make it.
MSPE
The MSPE or Deans Letter is largely out of your control. You will receive (usually in
May) a questionnaire from Dean Garrity to complete. The information in this questionnaire will
be used to complete the unique introduction of your letter. So as you might expect you should
spend some time and do a nice job. Your job is much easier if your CV is complete and up to
date as most of the questions can be copied directly off your CV. You will meet with Dean
Garrity some time from June to August to review a draft of your letter. The rest of your letter is a
summary of your third/fourth year rotations with grade and attending comments included. Not
every comment is included, but all poor or less than stellar comments will be. Just another
reason to work hard and be well liked during your clinical rotations. Lastly, Dean Garrity will
email a final draft to you in October that you need to proofread. In our experience there is a ton
of mistakes in these letters (anything from wrong grades to misspelled words). Proofread,
proofread, proofread. If there are any mistakes or you think the wording could be stronger, be
sure to be aggressive and advocate for yourself. They will be automatically loaded into ERAS
for download on Nov 1.
The last sentence of the MSPE will include your class rank. Not a true numerical rank,
but it will list your performance into one of four quartiles. These rankings are assigned mainly
by honors points by a committee of faculty.

Interviews:
Scheduling
We will start off by saying that scheduling interviews really sucks. Not only will you
have to shell out the big bucks to interview around the country, you will also likely have some
tough decisions to make about which interview to accept. Orthopaedics programs typically
interview on Fridays and Saturdays with some exceptions. This means that there are only so
many possible interview dates for the 150 plus programs to pick and there will be a ton of
overlap. One helpful resource in this regard was a calendar put together by Dr. Levine, the
program director at Columbia, posted on Orthogate. This lists many of the anticipated interview
dates for programs around the country- buyer beware though as some of the dates may not be
correct. Even with this list, scheduling is quite challenging because you never quite know which
interviews you will land. Our recommendation is that you schedule each interview for the
earliest possible date. Dont be too nervous about back to back interviews either, it is likely
going to happen no matter how hard you try to avoid it. The key is trying to keep them in the
same region if you can.
A few other scheduling tips:

16

Check your email frequently. This is when a phone that can check email comes in extremely
handy. Programs typically offer only two dates so an early response will ensure that you get
the date that you want. In some cases you may have less than twenty minutes to respond to
an email before the date you want disappears (its true, happened this year at the University
of Washington, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, and many more).
Consider calling programs when you get that invite email. Sometimes the phone call will
allow you to move up the list and get the day you want because program coordinators wont
bother checking email till the end of the day.
Orthogate is a useful resource as you try to figure out what programs have offered interviews
and when those offers went out. Sometimes programs send out invites to home students and
rotators first so it isnt always accurate. Beware that checking orthogate may become habit
forming, we will talk about counseling opportunities later on.
Rescheduling- you are likely going to have to reschedule at least one interview at some point
and may be nervous about what sort of implications it will have for the interview that you are
moving. Dont worry, it did not negatively impact our chances and the program coordinators
were usually very helpful in making the switch for you. There are usually other folks in the
same boat who are looking to make the opposite switch. Call the program coordinators or
email them as soon as you know about the conflict! Dont rely on asking someone on
orthogate for a switch, however, this may work.
Canceling interviews- Hopefully you will all be in a situation where you have enough
interview offers that you will need to cancel a few. Please do your colleagues and future
applicants from CU a favor, cancel interviews as soon as possible. If you cancel at the last
minute, programs will likely not be able to fill your spot so some poor soul is missing out on
the opportunity. In addition, canceling the week of or the week before an interview reflects
poorly on our school. That program may be less willing to interview CU applicants in the
future if we cancel at the last minute. Some may say that three weeks is enough in advance,
but certainly cancel as soon as you can.
Travel- Most interviews start in the morning sometime between 5:30 and 8 am. The day is
usually over by 4pm at the latest. Typically there is a social event the night before. This
means that you will fly in the afternoon or evening before the interview and can fly out
during the afternoon on the day of the interview. There are plenty of exceptions though.
Wisconsin and Colorado interview in the afternoon and have the social that evening. At USC
or Utah your interview may go all day. If you are serious about a program, considering
spending a little more time in the area to get a feel for things. You can always ask to spend
the day after the interview shadowing residents to get a better feel for the program.

Preparation
Preparing for an interview can be challenging because there is often a limited amount of
information out there. Your best resource is usually the program website that will hopefully have
some details about the faculty, residents, rotations, call schedules. One key is to look for
anything out of the ordinary in terms of how the rotations or call are set up. If there is anything
unusual, your job on interview day should be to learn more and see if it is a good fit for your
training. Also look at the distribution of faculty, are all of the subspecialties well covered? This
is usually a good indication of how well balanced a program is. Try to figure out how many
hospitals the residents rotate at- are you going to be spread too thin or traveling a bunch for
different rotations? How many fellows are there and does this potentially impact the training?

17

Other resources may include faculty at CU or peers on the interview trail who may attend
or have rotated at programs of interest. If your colleagues from CU interviewed first, they may
be willing to tell you a little bit about their interview day and what to expect. Orthogate may
also have posts on programs from either interviewees or current residents that may be useful.
Questions
It is very important that you have a set of questions ready for each interview day. Most
interviewers will leave time at the end of the interview for your questions and a lack of questions
may be interpreted as a lack of interest on your part. In extreme cases, some interviewers may
not have any questions for you so you will be dictating the interview in this case. Below is a list
of potential questions that we used or heard on the interview trail. Think about which aspects of
a program are of interest to you and chose the appropriate questions. Your questions should stem
from your research on the program. If the program doesnt advertise research and has more of a
clinical feel, you probably dont want spend too much time asking about research opportunities.
On the other hand, if the program website mentions a unique call schedule or they run the ED
shifts differently, you will certainly want to ask about it and how the residents liked that
experience.
Questions for Faculty:
Do you anticipate any changes in program or department leadership?
If so, how do you think it will impact the residency program?
Will you be adding any new faculty or do you anticipate any leaving?
Are there any changes being made to the residency curriculum?
What impact if any do fellows have on a residents training?
Strengths of the program?
Relationship between faculty and residents?
How early do residents get operative exposure?
What is the overall case-load at graduation? Does this include reductions?
What are you looking for in applicants or what characteristics do you think will make
a resident successful in this program?
What percentage of the residents go on to do fellowships?
Faculty support for fellowship applications?
Availability of research projects?
What type of projects do residents typically do (basic science versus clinical)?
How do residents perform on Boards or OITE exams?
What is the departments reputation in the hospital? Do other services enjoy
consulting your service?
Questions for Residents:
Why did you pick this program?
What do you do for fun outside the hospital?
Do you spend much time with your co-residents outside of the hospital?
What is the call schedule like as a junior and senior resident?
How well does the program support you in terms of book funds, conferences, loupes,
lead, parking, and money for food?
What percentage of the residents are married or have kids?
Strengths of the program?
Any areas where you wish you had more exposure or operative experience?
18

What is your relationship like with the faculty?

Where are you headed for fellowship? Is that what you were hoping for?
Where do residents typically live?
Average home costs in the area and what percentage of residents own?

Evaluating Programs
Program evaluation is a personal process. We say this because it greatly depends on your
career goals. If you want to be a community orthopod with a general practice you will want a
well-rounded program with good trauma experience. If you want to go into research and or
academics, you want to look at more research heavy academic programs. If you already know
your subspecialty, look for programs with good mentorship and a good reputation in that field.
Another thing to consider is where you intend to practice. While you dont necessarily
have the freedom to choose the program and the region, ask questions about where graduates end
up. What is the programs reputation in the region/country? If you cant be where you
ultimately want to end up, can you get there?
Also think about your learning style. Do you prefer to study up on your own or do you
want a lot of scheduled learning time? Programs vary greatly in the conference schedules,
cadaver labs, and dedicated teaching time. Think about what fits your learning needs.
Gut feeling is ultimately going to be your guide. When it comes time to evaluate
programs, you already will have all of these aspects in mind. When you walk out of the
interview day, you will have a gut reaction. WRITE IT DOWN! You were likely analyzing all
of your priorities during the day without realizing it, leading to your final solidified reaction to
the program. Go with your gut. You know what you want, dont want, love and hate. Taking
notes can also help you sort out the programs on the bottom of your rank list.
Finally, take a personal inventory first. Before you hit up classmates, fellow applicants,
orthogate for the skinny on a program, think about it yourself. Dont be pressured by name,
reputation, others opinions of the programs because we are all-different and want different
things from a program. This is your career decision! Dont get sucked into the game (e.g.
ranking a particular program more highly because you know they like you)! Also, take all of the
overtures made by programs with a grain of salt. They may tell you that you are at the top of
their rank list, but this isnt necessarily true.
Second Looks
Second looks are a way of showing that youre interested in a program. They arent
necessary at most programs, but if youre hoping to go to Duke or Pittsburgh you likely have to
make the return trip. You can always ask the secretary if the program likes 2nd looks and they are
usually straightforward. Ditto for thank you letters. You usually contact the program
coordinator to set these up. Your goal should be to interact with as many residents and
attendings as you can. Hopefully you can sneak into the OR as well to evaluate the operative
skills of the resident and how much they get to do during cases. Second looks can also help you
land a spot at some programs because they want to match people that want to come there.
Rank List

19

Sit down with advisors before finalizing your rank list. Get their opinion on programs at
the top of your list. Consider having them make a call on your behalf if you know them well.
Some advisors may focus on names and which programs have a stronger reputation or wellknown surgeons. This isnt necessarily all that helpful, as you need to determine which program
is the best fit for YOU. Tell them about your interests and what you are looking for. A good
advisor should help match you to a program that fits your interests and personality.
Make sure you rank programs based on where you want to end up. It is very tempting to
rank programs that like you higher so try not to fall into this trap. While it may feel good to rank
in your top three, if one of those programs isnt the best fit you wont be nearly as happy.
Alumni
Be sure to take advantage of the CU alumni as you set out on the interview trail. These people
can be great resources (and advocates) as you interview at their programs. They may also offer
to put you up for the night or show you around if they have time. Since this is a new project, we
dont have any contact information for the folks ahead of us, but the school websites or program
coordinators will likely get you at least an email address. You may also want to check if the
surgical society has any of their contact information.
2009
Dale Cassidy- Brown University, Providence Dale_Cassidy@hotmail.com
George Chaus- University of Colorado, Denver George.Chaus@ucdenver.edu
Jenna Godfrey- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Eric Linford- Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee elinford@yahoo.com
Josh Sykes- University of Tennessee, Campbell Clinic
2008
Imran Choudhry- University of Cincinnati
Sarah Clutter- University of Kansas, Kansas City
William Kramer- University of Kansas, Kansas City
Jordan Schaeffer- Duke University
Michal Taylor- University of Colorado
2007
Bret Peterson Duke University
Pat Siparsky St. Marys/SFORP, San Francisco
Chris Espinoza- UTSW
2006
Craig Hogan- University of Colorado
Timothy Judkins- University of Colorado
Kelly McCormick- Hamot Medical Center
Christopher Vincent- Indiana University

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Orthopaedics Programs
Alabama
University of Alabama Medical Center Program
University of South Alabama Program
Arizona
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center Program
The Banner program is an old program, Maricopa, revamped and will be accepting its
4th class of residents this year. The program is based on an apprenticeship model, so
regardless of your year you will always be matched one on one with an attending.
Good exposure to different populations at both public and private hospitals. Program
director, Dr. McLaren is very hands on. Lots of teaching. Residents were very nice.
Required yearly research project. Advice would be to apply and use as a back up
school, but as they have yet to graduate a class it could be a risky venture.
Newer program (started in 2007), will have PGY1-4 in 2009. Program director is a
really nice guy who is super interested in education (he grills basic science into the
residents). Only program in Phoenix so there is a ton of cases available. Residents
all said the faculty are all pumped to have residents again. My thoughts were this
program will be really good in a few years but may have growing pains initially. My
general impression of newly started programs are the faculty are usually good, the
residents are a little sub-par because the program is forced to be a little less selective
based on the newness of the program.
University of Arizona Program
Arkansas
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Program
California
Loma Linda University Program
UCLA Medical Center Program
Heavy academic focus, may not get as much hands on operative experience
Havent had much success landing an interview there amongst our class
University of Southern California/LAC+USC Medical Center Program
Solid program in the heart of downtown LA. Very hands on program with tons of
hands on operative experience with a huge amount of trauma. Program takes ten
residents per year and usually has very diverse group of residents. Unique intern year
with 6 months of ortho (ortho onc, ortho id are examples). Seemed like an awesome
program if you are willing to work hard and like life in a big city. Coverage of subspecialties seemed solid though they had lost a big name on their joint faculty
recently.
Larger program with 10 residents per year located in downtown LA
Program is very busy as it is the only county hospital in the city and sees all of the
trauma in the area.
Residents arent quite as close as a whole because of the large numbers.
Lots of independence and OR time because of volume

21

Probably more balanced than CU with strong sports and joints.

Hospital has brand new billion dollar county hospital
o University of California (Irvine) Program
o University of California (Davis) Health System Program
See above comments on externship. Very trauma focused, so if thats your
area of interest it is definitely a place to consider. Dr. Hak spent several years
there and is a great resource for this program.
o Naval Medical Center (San Diego) Program
o University of California (San Diego) Program
Very interesting interview day with 4 different panel interviews. Faculty seemed very
friendly and they are focused on finding the right fit. Program seems to be in
transition with lots of new faculty added of late. Dont know how this will impact the
culture or quality of training. San Diego is an awesome place to live and the residents
were extremely bright. The program gets their pick of applicants in part due to
location. Well known for pediatric orthopaedics, but this is the place to be for
fellowship and not residency in that regard. Dont get very much hands on time in
peds due to the fellows. Adequate but not overwhelming trauma experience. Overall
it seemed like a solid program with some very smart residents. Is a six year program
for all residents, everyone must do a research year.
o St Mary's Hospital and Medical Center Program
o University of California (San Francisco) Program
Malignant intern year in the gen surgery department
Strong program and very well balanced.
Numerous research opportunities.
Expensive to live in San Francisco, but a great area.
o Stanford University Program- see comments above
o Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Program
Colorado
University of Colorado Denver Program- you will get to experience this one for yourself!
Connecticut
University of Connecticut Program
Yale-New Haven Medical Center Program
Program was interesting because of the focus on private practice as part of the
training experience. Apparently the program has had difficulty retaining faculty due
to salary issues so many leave for private practice, but continue to teach. Really
friendly faculty and a close-knit group of residents. Residents regularly spend time
with the chair outside of the hospital. Very little didactics work during the training
here. The program director emphasized how this program is really oriented towards
self-motivated residents who seek to learn on their own. Make sure you dont miss
the pre-interview dinner; it was one of the best on the trail.
District of Columbia
George Washington University Program
Georgetown University Hospital Program
Howard University Program
Florida

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University of Florida Program

University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville Program
Jackson Memorial Hospital/Jackson Health System Program
Orlando Health Program
University of South Florida Program
Georgia
Atlanta Medical Center Program
Emory University Program
Really solid program that you likely havent heard about. Get a ton of hands on trauma
starting as a two when you work at Grady. Like CU, residents cover several hospitals and are
spread out around town. This means that you will take more call and work harder, but
residents really seemed to love their experience. Thought the residents all seemed very
bright and enthusiastic. Very good spine and tumor experience as well. Definitely a southern
feel. Externship students do their interviews during the rotation and dont need to come back
during interview season. It is hard to say too much negative about this program other than
the location.
Medical College of Georgia Program
Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center Program
Hawaii
University of Hawaii Program
Tripler Army Medical Center Program
Illinois
McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program- Dont interview non-rotators
Rush University Medical Center Program
Gentlemans program
Light on hours
Fellows teach in some rooms instead of attending (attending run 2 rooms)
University of Chicago Program
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago Program
On probation (09)
Go to a wide variety of hospitals >6ish
Not service oriented (may do hand in the morning and finish with spine with some
joints in between)
Loyola University Program
Southern Illinois University Program
Indiana
Fort Wayne Medical Education Program
Indiana University School of Medicine Program
Iowa
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Program
Excellent program
Iowa City is a drawback. Almost all residents are married with kids.
Trauma poor
Huge names in all other subspecialties.

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 Numerous research opportunities.

Kansas
University of Kansas School of Medicine Program (Kansas City)
Great program with many CU alums. The attendings were incredibly nice on
interview day with a good mix of attendings who had been around for years and some
excited young faculty in trauma and sports. Seemed to be a very well rounded
program with no strong emphasis on any one area. Kansas City has 2 programs, this
one being the strongest with the better reputation. Residents very friendly and happy.
Highly suggest checking out this program, consider rotation here as well.
o This is the good program in Kansas City (See UMKC review below)
o High volume of cases, little emphasis on research
o 2 CU alumns there
o Residents said hours are relatively easy
o Overall seemed like a relaxed group of attendings and residents
University of Kansas (Wichita) Program
Kentucky
University of Kentucky College of Medicine Program
University of Louisville Program
Louisiana
Louisiana State University Program
Ochsner Clinic Foundation Program
Tulane University Program
Louisiana State University (Shreveport) Program
Maryland
Johns Hopkins University Program
Union Memorial Hospital Program
University of Maryland Program
I think the best program in Maryland
Trauma Heavy with Shock Trauma. As a chief you act as a fellow at Shock trauma.
Great program with good group of residents.
Very strong in joints and trauma.
National Capital Consortium Program
Massachusetts
Boston University Medical Center Program
Malignant program with limited early operative experience.
Trauma heavy, but limited OR time for junior residents.
Harvard Combined
Tough program because you are very spread out and you wont get to know a large
percentage of your fellow residents as a result. Take a large number of residents.
Tufts Medical Center Program
Very much a private practice feel to this program. Residents arent required to do
much of the dirty work thanks to NPs and PAs so they get more operative time. The
downside may be that they wont be as strong managing their patients down the road.

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Well known for strong joints experience at the Baptist but really lack good trauma
training. Sports seemed strong here as well. They spend three months at Brown in
order to see any level 1 trauma. Tufts hospital is only a level II.
University of Massachusetts Program
Michigan
University of Michigan Program
Very well rounded program with very strong sports and pediatrics training. On your
sports rotations you dont take any call and get to cover the Michigan sports team of
your choice. If you pick football, you will be on the sidelines during games. Located
in a great college town about 45 minutes outside of Detroit. Very competitive and I
was told that their board cut-off score was more like a 250. Residents seemed to get
along well and were very happy with their training. Didnt hear really any negatives
about this program while on the trail.
Detroit Medical Center Program
New program with a lot of baggage from a bad breakup with Wayne State and
subsequent shut down.
Strange group of residents, but they seemed happy
In downtown Detroit, they see a ton of trauma but you have to be in a pretty sketchy
area of the city
Everyone on the interview day was straightforward about the shutdown and how
things are better now, but I thought it was a pretty risky place to go. Some of the old
residents that transferred when the program was shut down posted on orthogate that
the chairman (still there) stabbed them all in the back and wouldnt help them find
new programs etc. etc.
Henry Ford Hospital Program
McLaren Regional Medical Center Program
Pretty interesting community program in Flint. Small group of residents (2 per year),
most with ties to the area. They have a ton of volume and everyone seemed pretty
happy.
One bonus is moonlighting is built into the call schedule so upper levels clear close to
$100,000 per year
Flint is just about the most depressing place Ive ever seen
Grand Rapids Medical Education and Research Center/Michigan State
Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies/Michigan State University Program
William Beaumont Hospital Program
Awesome community program in Royal Oak (north of Detroit). Facilities are
amazing (they have 12 dedicated ortho operating rooms) and the hospital is a plush
private hospital. This was the best community program I came across. Residents have
a concierge service to get them food and whatever else they need.
Really good reputation in the Midwest, they have a ton of cases because most of the
area North of Detroit gets sent to them
Only downside is you get killed as a 2, but otherwise the schedule is pretty cushy
Minnesota
University of Minnesota Program
Excellent program with several past presidents of the board
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 Great trauma experience with two level 1s that residents operate early and often
Only invite around 40 for their 8 spots
College of Medicine Mayo Clinic (Rochester) Program- see comments above
Mississippi
University of Mississippi Medical Center Program
Missouri
University of Missouri-Columbia Program
University of Missouri at Kansas City Program
o NO!!!! Program director is truly a crazy asshole, which he will say within the
first 5 minutes of his intro on interview day. Awful vibe here, backed up by
KUMC program residents and staff who will tell you the residents at UMKC are
miserable! Just say no!
St Louis University School of Medicine Program
Washington University/B-JH/SLCH Consortium Program
o Very strong program with, what seems like, fairly early operative exposure
o International experience during 5th year
o Excellent didactics, for what thats worth
Nebraska
University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine/Creighton University
Program
New Hampshire
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Program
o Very solid program in a very, very small town in New Hampshire. If you love the
mountains and want to work in a beautiful hospital, this program is for you.
Residents described the program as somewhat joint heavy though this has leveled
out somewhat in the past couple of years. Level I hospital, but dont see a bunch
of polytrauma due to location. Also, not the best sports experience with no true
dedicated joints faculty. Make up for this with four faculty who all do some
sports work. Residents still seemed to be able to land top-notch sports fellowship
though due to strong faculty support. Faculty were very friendly and they have a
very strong (plus informal) relationship with the residents. Residents were
extremely knowledgeable of the literature. Very family oriented program, almost
more ortho kids than residents here. Four spots per year- two each year must do a
1 year masters program in outcomes research. Very cool option if you like that
kind of stuff. Do 6 months of rotations in Boston (peds and oncology) plus a
three-month rotation an hour away in Vermont that is private practice.
New Jersey
Monmouth Medical Center Program
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Program
UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School Program
Seton Hall University School of Health and Medical Sciences Program
New Mexico
University of New Mexico Program

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o Great program with strong CU ties. Program director, Dr. Quinn is relatively new,
having trained and worked back east (UConn, Mass General). He is very
committed to building a strong program; expect him to know your CV inside out
when you arrive. Quinn admits that UNM used to be more of a backup program in
the past, but this has changed in his time. Your dinner conversation with him is
essentially your interview so be ready. Well-rounded program with great trauma
coming in from the reservations in rural New Mexico. Residents very nice and
down to earth, residents and faculty enjoy a good relationship both in and out of
the hospital. There was an academic feel to the program with encouraged
research time and strong didactics but not overwhelmingly so. Definitely consider
applying and rotation at this program.
New York
Albany Medical Center Program
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Program
Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center Program
Maimonides Medical Center Program
SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn Program
University at Buffalo Program
New York Medical College (Brooklyn-Queens) Program
NSLIJHS-Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical
Hospital for Special Surgery/Cornell Medical Center Program
o Extremely malignant interview. Multiple panel interviews with pimping.
o No trauma, otherwise very well balanced.
o All home call
o Awesome facilities and top notch attendings.
o Subsidized housing for all residents.
Lenox Hill Hospital Program
Mount Sinai School of Medicine Program
New York Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia Campus) Program
New York University School of Medicine/Hospital for Joint Diseases Program

Well-balanced program.

Strong research opportunities.

o Chair is the new president of the academy
St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center Program
University of Rochester Program
o Truly exceptional program with top-notch research and orthopaedic training. The
program leadership is committed to training residents rather fellows and the
program is very well balanced. Residents loved the program and didnt have
anything negative to say. Have a unique set up for their trauma call experience
that you should evaluate for yourself. Rochester might not be the most appealing
place to live, but it is extremely affordable with plenty to do in the summer. Most
residents could afford a three-bedroom house and could support a family on just
their salary. Definitely worth checking out if you wouldnt mind living in the
area.
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 SUNY at Stony Brook Program

SUNY Upstate Medical University Program
New York Medical College at Westchester Medical Center Program
North Carolina
University of North Carolina Hospitals Program
o Preceptorship model
o I though the program lacked the academic feel and opportunities that other
programs had.
Carolinas Medical Center Program
Duke University Hospital Program
o Very academic program with CU alums. Excellent reputation in the field.
Program director, Dr. Hardakar has been the director for over 25 years. He will
know your name when you arrive and they have taken great care in selecting who
they interview and why. Lots of teaching/didactics. Plenty of OR time. Well
rounded, as they tend to have a strong reputation in many different areas. Great
residents. Consider rotating. This is one place where you should do a second
look if you liked it during your interview.
Really strong program, not much trauma but otherwise very well represented.
Chairman really tries to recruit people he thinks will fit in well. Faculty are
extremely well connected and residents get choice of fellowships.
Must do a second look and tell the school they are your number one choice to
match.
No trauma
You do have to wear a short white coat and white pants as an intern.
Still a division of general surgery, so the g-surg department still dictates a great
deal.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine Program
o If you are serious about research, they have a 7-year research track, which can be
a great in. They interview these candidates early so get in touch with their
research director now.
Ohio
Akron General Medical Center/NEOUCOM Program
o One of two (Summa is the other) private programs in Akron. They have about 30
interview days because they only interview 2 per day (they pay for the hotel).
Residents get treated really well with excellent benefits.
o Some question of operative volume, they compete with Summa for business
o Lebron James house is within 5 miles of the hospital
Summa Health System/NEOUCOM Program
University Hospital/University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Program
Cleveland Clinic Foundation Program
o Very good name and great fellowship opportunities afterwards
o I worry about operative exposure, one resident told me he felt like he had to
practice on cadavers for sports to feel comfortable with procedures
University Hospitals Case Medical Center Program
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o Two spots are six years, but you do not know if you will have to do a lab year
before you matriculate.
o Strong well-rounded program.
Mount Carmel Program
Ohio State University Hospital Program
Wright State University Program
University of Toledo Program
Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Program
Oregon
Oregon Health & Science University Program
Pennsylvania
St Luke's Hospital Program
Geisinger Health System Program
Hamot Medical Center Program
Penn State University/Milton S Hershey Medical Center Program
o Really strong program with great reputation
o Chairman is President of Orthopaedic Educators, really involved in resident
education.
o Hershey is tiny, Harrisburg is the closest city (10 miles or so away)
o Just added a 5th resident, when I was interviewed the residents said they were
spread pretty thin and felt a little overworked
o Most residents have families
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network Program
Drexel University College of Medicine/Hahnemann University Hospital Program
Temple University Hospital Program
Thomas Jefferson University Program
o Very fellow heavy program. This definitely impacts your training while working
at the main hospital, but spend a fair amount of time rotating elsewhere. Very
hands on with a tons of operative experience during away rotations- all the
residents raved about the trauma at Lehigh. Heavy focus on Spine and Joints at
the Jefferson hospital, felt a little like a factory trying to make money in this
regard. Rotate in Wilmington, DE for pediatrics. Typically only have one
interview day so be prepared to interview with a crowd.
University of Pennsylvania Program
Allegheny General Hospital Program
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education Program
o Excellent program with very enthusiastic chair. Very dynamic guy
o About as academic as you get with large number of fellows and research focus.
4/8 residency spots are 6 year with year of research.
o Fellows definitely get the better cases and impact your education
o Need to do a second look or rotate there to be strongest candidate

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o Work at several hospitals in town including several private hospitals owned by the
University.
o Crappy interview day since they interview 120 people in span of two days.
Means you feel like cattle as you are shuffled through 1:1 interviews. Everyone
gets 5 minutes with Fu and residency director.
o Make sure you write Dr. Fu a thank you note.
o If you did not rotate here you again will need to do a second look.
Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico Program- are you really going to apply here? Seriously??
Rhode Island
Brown University Program- see comments above. Contact Dale_Cassidy@hotmail.com
for additional info or with questions.
South Carolina
Medical University of South Carolina Program
Palmetto Health/University of South Carolina School of Medicine Program
Greenville Hospital System/University of South Carolina School of Medicine
Tennessee
University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga Program
University of Tennessee Program
Vanderbilt University Program
o Another very well rounded and excellent orthopaedics residency program. All
of the sub-specialties with the exception of spine possibly (they were looking
to add additional faculty) were very well covered. The trauma service is
especially strong with plenty of volume. They have a guy there who is well
known for his pelvis and acetabulum work if you find that interesting. Strong
relationship between residents and faculty, the chair is going to work as a
bartender at one of the residents weddings this summer. New chair in 2009guy was the residency program director for many years so there wont be too
much change. Definitely a southern, friendly feel. Hospital is staffed by the
most friendly nurses and staff ever. Rated one of top 100 places to work for
that reason. Residents are well liked and respected by other services. Work at
three hospitals (VA, Childrens, University) that are all within walking
distance of one another. The way call is set up, you take call for all three at
the same time. This means you get killed on call, but you only take call Q10
as a Junior so it isnt so bad.
Texas
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School Program
o New chairman (2yrs ago) with faculty still in flux. Only seven faculty currently.
o Strong trauma and pediatrics.
o Weak in everything else, unless you like doing your foot and ankle primarily with
podiatry
William Beaumont Army Medical Center/Texas Tech University (El Paso)
San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium (BAMC)
John Peter Smith Hospital (Tarrant County Hospital District) Program

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 University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals Program

Baylor College of Medicine Program
University of Texas at Houston Program
San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium (WHMC)
Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Program
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Program
Texas A&M College of Medicine-Scott and White Program
Utah
University of Utah Program
Virginia
University of Virginia Program
Naval Medical Center (Portsmouth) Program
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Program
Vermont
University of Vermont Program
Washington
University of Washington Program
o Great program in a fun city.
o Great trauma reputation, but six fellows here that may impact your operative
experience.
o Difficult panel interview format
Madigan Army Medical Center Program
West Virginia
Marshall University School of Medicine Program
o Newer program in Huntington. I thought they were much farther along than some of
the other newer programs. Chairman is an extremely competent guy who is really
involved in the community and tries to get the residents involved as well
o Good operative volume, small number of residents currently as they fill their
program. Residents seemed happy, liked being involved in building the curriculum of
a new program
West Virginia University Program
Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin Program
o Everyone I talked to around the country really thought VERY highly of this program.
Program director and chair are very down to earth, quite honest and you will get to
know them well as residents. Have created a very well balanced program with a very
happy bunch of residents. Madison is another fun college down with plenty to do
outdoors. Definitely consider applying here.
Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals Program
o Contact Eric Linford (elinford@yahoo.com) for info

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