Making an Orthopedic Surgery Rank List

Written by Brittany Ammerman, MD

There are many different views on how to make your Orthopedic Surgery Rank List and it is certainly not one size fit all. In the following post, I will provide the advice I received from mentors when making my list, as well as pearls I learned along the way. The Match List requires a lot of thought and reflection. It is not as simple as it may seem superficially; there will be a lot of different factors pulling you multiple ways. Here is the stepwise approach I used in making my list: 

Evaluate your personal priorities

Each medical student going through the Match is living a unique life and not all medical students are at the same phase in their lives. Maybe you have a family or made a career change. Maybe you are on the traditional medical career path having come straight from undergraduate schooling to medical school. In any case, you need to first evaluate your priorities and what is most important to YOU. When doing this type of reflection, some things to consider:

  • Who will be your main support network/people throughout residency? 

    • Residency is much more intense than medical school and more demanding on the daily. How important is it to you to be close to those support people or have them physical accessible? You will certainly lean on that support group when times are tough. 

  • What are your career goals and what programs give you the best opportunity to achieve those goals? 

  • What is your preferred geographic location? 

    • This relates to your support network, certainly; but do you want to be in a rural or urban setting? Is there a part of the country you have been wanting to live in and think residency is a good time to do that? 

  • What type of program do you want? 

    • In orthopaedic surgery, it is important to consider if you want an academic program versus more of a community program. How much research do you want to pursue throughout residency? 

    • What training style is best for your learning? Consider whether a mentorship model versus self-directed learning fits your style of learning. 

Reflect on interviews

Ideally, you took notes of how you felt immediately following interviews and recorded what you liked and disliked about programs. If you did this and stuck to it, go you! If not, try to reflect on your interviews now and remain as unbiased and honest to how you felt after the interview day. 


Next, make pros and cons lists for each of the programs you interviewed with. Some of the things to consider include: location, vibe of program, residents and attendings you interacted with (did you get along with them or not), perks of the program (living accommodations, ways to make extra money throughout residency, sports coverage, etc.), specialties that most residents pursue fellowships in, etc. 

Create Preliminary List 

After doing the above, start working on a preliminary list. Be honest with yourself and where you want to pursue residency. At this point, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what programs thought of you and how they are creating their rank lists; I advise staying away from this. You should be making your list how YOU want it, without concern for where you think you may rank on a program’s list. Just because you feel a program loved you, does not mean it is the best place for you. At the end of the day, the match favors the applicant. It is also important to set aside your ego. The match culture causes medical students to view matching anywhere but their #1 as a failure. This is NOT the case. Lastly, it is ok to not list programs that you truly cannot envision yourself training at for 5 years!  


Seek advice

After creating your preliminary list, this is the most crucial part of the process. Discuss your list with your trusted mentors who know you well and can speak to your personal values and goals. These mentors should keep you honest and encourage you to make the list that fits your personal values and career goals. They should provide you a safe space to explain your thoughts about programs and why they are ranked they way they are on your list. 


At this point, you should have a list that you feel good about! You may flip flop some of the programs in the middle of your list but your top few programs and your bottom few programs should be pretty much set. Next step is to submit your list and enjoy your life leading up to Match Day!