This depends heavily on the program. A "yes" vote from residents at some programs will make or break you, but at other programs it may not help as much. It really depends on how a department selects their residents and this varies across departments (e.g. some programs the chair has most of the power, other programs every faculty and resident has near equal voting rights).
I don't think that makes too much sense since to write a LOI - it isn't like Dental school, where you could interview and get acceptances at multiple programs. That isn't the case for ortho match or non-match. I believe all of the non-match programs require you to withdraw from match if you get accepted, so I personally wouldn't, just because you are really only supposed to get 1 acceptance for ortho. Seems like overkill compared to being on a waitlist for a dental school program.
Unfortunately, Yes. 5 interviews last year. Did not match
Had a classmate back in the day that had like 10+ interviews and didn't match. I was shocked. I've also seen those with only one and matched as well.
This just happened to someone I know, interviewed at 1 program and got into that program. All it takes is 1
I applied to 40 programs last year, both match and non match. Got 2 interviews 1 for each match and non match. Got accepted into both. You need Just 1.
If you feel like you need to boost your application in every single way possible then I'd say generally a GPR might look more favorable to program directors then working, but by how much? I'm not sure.
