What would really be interesting is if they had statistics on average in-service scores broken down by year and average numbers of publications etc. I know that AOA, Phi Beta Kappa etc wasn't requested as part of the application and neither were publications but they did require a copy of current CV and I am sure that everyone has AOA status, PBK and publications listed on that.
My university just matched the last independant spot last year, so we are not in the match for 2006. They went integrated completely now. I talked to the chair of plastics (and program director) as I was applying. I also talked to a pretty big time academic general surgeon (his name is on the cover of the ACS textbook). Both of them thought that a candidate would be very competative if their in-service scores were in the top 25% for first second and third year. They said that it doesn't necessarily mean that you are any smarter or better than the other applicants, it just shows that you are willing to put forth the effort needed to get scores like that. Its sad but true, numbers do matter even if its not for the 'right' reason. A couple publications also wouldn't hurt and membership in PBK or AOA is a plus as well but certainly not absolutely needed.
The chair (and program director) also had a very interesting take on the letters of recommendation. I hold his advice to be of absolute highest quality, because he has not only been chair and program director at my university but also two others. He said that the letters of recommendation wouldn't help that much but they could hurt you if you got slammed in them. The problem is that unless your letter writers are known to the plastics program directors across the country, it won't make much difference. There seems to be a pretty big separation between the academic GS world and the academic PS world, and huge guys in GS would not necessarily know huge guys in PS and visa versa. The other thing he said is that a lot of the candidates in the 60% that didn't match last year were FMG's (sorry, nothing against them from my standpoint) and people who were trying to get spots without being board eligable for GS. So he said that if you have completed 3 years of general surgery and will finish the other 2, or if you have already finished (like navysurgeon) or have done other fellowships (like hand), then you will have a little better than a 40% chance to match.
I for one am quaking in my boots about that match rate. Even if people in my particular category match 60% of the time it scares the hell out of me. The thought of loosing all the money and time put into the application/interview process is enough to petrify me.
Just how much better no one can say.
