You will not be able to get an unbiased answer on this question
Here is what I would do:
1. Pick the place/region of the country that you will be happy living in during your residency years. If this is not a big deal for you then pick the region with most number of ortho programs. In the DO world that would be the North-East ( I am pretty sure).
2. Visit the ortho programs within that region (if you can do a rotation at those hospitals that would be ideal but not always possible). This does not mean do 8 ortho rotations (that would be waste of your educational time)..you can do other elective rotations at these hospitals while evaluating their ortho program at the same time..
3. Decide for yourself which one you like the best and which you like the least. (i.e. is the call schedule more important to you than salary or do you like large patient volume or the interaction between attendings and residents ..etc etc..)
4. Make up your rank order list based on that.
