The candidate's view of the orthopaedic residency selection process

Two hundred and seventy-nine applicants for an orthopaedic residency who participated in the 1985 match program returned a questionnaire that was designed to evaluate the candidate's impression of the process of selecting a residency. The respondents requested information from an average of thirty-three programs and applied to an average of twenty-two programs. The candidates who participated in the match each ranked an average of 7.5 orthopaedic residency programs. The candidates assigned a high ranking to programs in which the morale of the staff was high and the faculty was committed to teaching. Low morale, poor treatment by people at the institution, an inadequate commitment to teaching, a disorganized day of interviews, and a program in transition were the major reasons for not ranking a program. We concluded that the process is run for the convenience of the programs, with little regard to the problems that are faced by the applicants.