are honors received during surgery clerkships useful in the selection of incoming orthopaedic residents the purpose of this study was to review institutional statistics provided in deans letters and determine the percentage of honors awarded by institution and clerkship specialtyinstitutional and clerkship aggregate data were compiled from a review of deans letters from 80 united states medical schools the percentage of honors awarded during 3rd year clerkships during 2005 were collected for analysis across clerkship specialties there were no statistically significant differences between the mean percentage of honors given by the medical schools examined with internal medicine 276 the low and psychiatry 335 the high however interinstitutional variability observed within each clerkship was high with surgery clerkship percentage of honors ranging from 2 to 75 of the students this suggests some schools may be more lenient and other more stringent in awarding honors to their students this interinstitutional variability makes it difficult to compare honors received by students from different medical schools and weakens the receipt of honors as a primary tool for evaluating potential incoming residents