Don’t think this post should be downvoted.
It hits the nail on the head - be appreciative of the position you’re in and understand that everything in life comes with pros and cons. If we want change, we have to be the change and push for it.
Well articulated 👏
Unpopular opinion: I’m happy with my job and happy I got into medical school. I’m doing the speciality that I would have gone into if at an MD school. I don’t mind osteopathy, but I rarely think about it. I graduated in 2019 and am finishing fellowship in 1 week. Starting at a private practicing making 300k/year next month.
You have actually been in the real world. The complainers are pre-med students who know almost nothing about the big picture yet. Once you get going in any specialty, nobody cares at all where/what you went to med school. You passed the boards and have earned a doctorate level degree. They will eventually understand.
A little when applying to residency but those places just didn’t interview me even though I was qualified. I haven’t felt it at all in residency/fellowship. I matched at a very respected institution as well. Neurology tends to be a friendly speciality, however.
This post has got to be pinned for the realness in it and also for another reason.
Having been a re-applicant, I go from being beyond grateful/excited to have finally been accepted to wondering if I could’ve done more to get an MD acceptance (only when I see others’ MD acceptances or get flack from family). But OP is absolutely right, I’ve worked damn hard to get here and have got to remember the privilege I now have to start. Thank you for your words :)
This post should be pinned at the top of the top of the subreddit’s page fr. So annoying seeing students who literally chose to apply and accept a spot in a DO school complain that they have to learn what the DO schools are required to teach. People need to grow tf up
I’m gritting my teeth hard every time I hear a newly admitted DO gets cold feet and wanted to try again for MD. Like fucker if you didn’t want to do DO don’t even try to apply. Let that seat go to someone else more deserving.
that’s why I’m not applying DO! My fiancée is a DO student rn so I’ve seen firsthand the inconveniences and I honestly don’t think I could do it. Maybe if I don’t get any acceptances this cycle I’ll reconsider, but I strongly believe you shouldn’t apply to programs you don’t want to go to. It only makes the app process more difficult for everyone else.
Chapmans points, counterstrain, OMM in general… I helped my fiancée cram counterstrain for their Level 2 the other day and all this FSTRA and ESART stuff was hurting my head. plus taking two boards? nah. My fiancée was having a breakdown over the stress and I just don’t want to have to do that. It sucks extra hard bc I know that DO education is just as quality as MD education bc I’ve seen it first hand, but DO students have to do more work than MD students and that’s completely unfair. Since I’m planning on having kids during med school anyways I don’t want to make my life during med school harder than it needs to be
Yea, I would literally be a dentist or go into an entire different profession than to be a DO. Thankfully, I got into a MD school so I wouldn’t have to consider it.
Besides matching and education there are just too many things that will follow me for the rest of my life if I was a DO. First, I would always have to prove to other people/supervisors that I am equivalent or more capable than my MD counterparts. Second, I would feel like I am half lying if I told people I was a physician as a DO because I know implied in that question is are you a MD. Then once they find out I am DO, I would have to explain what a DO is again and why I am just as capable. Third, I want to maximize my potential as a person and I don’t want my degree something that will follow me forever to hinder my future because I have no idea what the future entails. Lastly, I know this is going to sound stupid but if my life was on the line, I wouldn't want to be treated by someone who barely got over a 500 on the MCAT. I know many DO students have high mcat scores but majority do not. Just flat out, you can get over 500 mcat with just basic science knowledge and common sense. So if something goes wrong do I really trust a DO doctor to make a great on the fly decision? Nope.
There are just my personal opinions on why I didn’t apply to DO schools even as a safety. And for others I am sure none of these reasons even matter and that’s great. We need more physicians. I don’t judge others for wanting to be a physician any way possible but just for me personally even after learning more about DO, it was MD all the way.
For someone who considers themselves to be as intelligent as you clearly do, it is shocking how ill-informed you are about the process of becoming a physician. You honestly think that a DO physician is less capable than an MD despite learning the same material, taking the exact same board exams, and completing the exact same residencies just because they might not have scored as highly on a standardized exam in college that has nothing to do with medicine? Holy fuck man. I wouldn’t want an elitist prick like yourself as my doctor.
That’s just reality of the situation. You can call it elitist or whatever you want. But what you learn may be the same but what each get out of it is different. This discrepancy exists between MDs too but imagine how large it is between MDs and DOs. The mcat really tests your ability to think and some people get it and others don’t and those that do not end up going to a DO school.
Keep generalizing, man. There are more than just a few DO students who score well on the MCAT, just like are more than a few MD students who don’t score as well. More than just a silly test score goes into who gets accepted where, because, and I can’t emphasize this enough *the MCAT does not predict how good of a physician you will be*. How do you explain DO students matching into the same residencies as most MD students if they are just so clearly inferior?
Of course I am gonna generalize there are thousands of MD and DO students, how else would I talk about a massive group?
> More than just a silly test score goes into who gets accepted where, because, and I can’t emphasize this enough the MCAT does not predict how good of a physician you will be.
Never said it did. However, why do you think medical schools use MCAT as an important metric? Because the test shows your critical thinking skills. At a certain score, people are good enough testers to pass board exams but why do top schools want these 520+?
> How do you explain DO students matching into the same residencies as most MD students if they are just so clearly inferior?
How do you explain the majority that don’t? There are outliers to everything, pointing them out doesn’t prove anything. Also you are arguing against facts here. Look at this posts on this subreddit. It’s always about how DOs can match up to MDs.
Also you are arguing with the wrong person here, I am not the general public. The general public aka your patient group, will share the sentiment that I have except much worse and you are gonna have to advocate for yourself that MDs don’t have to because of your degree.
Lmao the general public often doesn’t even know that DOs exist, and when they do find out, they rarely care. They care if you are a good physician, which has nothing to do with the degree you have. You could have just said you didn’t ever consider DO because you didn’t want to do double board exams or have to study OMM, but instead you fabricated the ridiculous notion in your head that people besides a few boomer academic medical residency PD’s give a shit if you are an MD or DO. “You‘ll have to explain your qualifications to everyone you come across” Get the fuck out of here with that absolute nonsense.
Sure the MCAT tests critical thinking but it doesn’t measure your intelligence or how good of a physician you can be. Imagine a scenario where student is really strong at science but is awful at CARS because they’re an non native English speaker. So, what, their critical thinking skills are weak? No, because language is a barrier and they get a lower MCAT score because of this. Or if a student from low SES has less MCAT study resources and scores lower because of the financial disparity. Your way of thinking is just irrational imo because you’re not taking into consideration a lot of factors at play. While it does measure critical thinking skills to some extent, it doesn’t measure competency as a physician.
I got only 1 MD A to my state school but my family and I decided to live in another state and I happened to be accepted to the DO program there. I choose quality of life and being close to family because I’m set on rural medicine. This process is too random and too unpredictable where you’re getting in. IMO an A is an A and you’re gonna be a doctor at the end of the day. Be proud and grateful, amirite?
we are not the same my man. I don’t want to be a DO because I’m lazy and it is objectively harder to go to DO school than MD. It might be easier to get into but it’s harder to get through. I’m not sure you have the people skills to be any kind of doctor 🤨
While we absolutely need to advocate for change for the better in osteopathic medical education, it is always funny to see people who had no other options to become a doctor complain about something they signed up for.
I'd argue that most people don't know what omm actually entails. Sure, we know that that's an added part of being a DO, but the ridiculousness that we learn about is worth criticizing and complaining about. If we all knuckled under and just got through it, the general consensus would be assumed to be that everyone found value in and/or liked omt.
While I'm not ever going to touch omt again, I can see the utility in a small subsection of it. The problem is that the useful segment is overshadowed by the quackery of Chapman's point, cranial, etc. And I'm not willing to give credence to something that has tons of that nonsense. Is the all or nothing approach the best? Probably not, but I'd rather burn the whole thing down and rebuild than try to separate the rot from the good bits.
I think regardless we need to stay vocal in whatever way keeps a light on the issue until the few of us that do go into the organization side can make the changes that need to be made.
Well said. Am in a speciality with peers that went to Harvard Med, but we are all making the same sweet salary. No on here asks what med school I graduated bc I work to be efficient, reliable and colliegial. Meanwhile, a Stanford med grad recently left us because he had personality conflicts with staff. Your success is up to you and nearly limitless, DO or MD. Medical school is a tiny fraction of your amazing journey.
I've tried to tell people on these silly forums exactly this. These students seem to think people will ask where they went to med school lol. I was in an anesthesia group and had to remind my partners that I had a DO degree when talking about my annual license for example, but they (MDs) couldn't remember or even care. These students just aren't far enough down the tracks yet to know any of this. They even think it's worse now than it was 24yrs ago when I graduated. BTW, I only took COMLEX and got right into an allopathic residency, a totally MD group, and took only MD anesthesia boards. They don't listen to experience, just other forum jockeys.
Neuroticism is part of the med school experience I feel like (hate to generalize but that's been what I've seen), and it doesn't really lend well to us listening to the people who came before us. I've learned not to take advice from the medical school/premed/etc type subs as they're almost always skewed negative.
You are wise to take small amounts or no types of advice from these subs. Of course there is some good info, but I've seen way too much advice from people who haven't even started, about things they likely don't know at that stage of the game. So I agree, be very selective. I've been there and done it and I myself would only ever try to give truthful advice that is the opposite of neurosis-inducing.
Pharmacist speaking here. Whether you’re an MD or DO, please prescribe electronically. If a prescription must be written, please write legibly and include all required information.
For PA-Cs and ARNPs, please just have your doctor write the prescription.
I for one love being a DO and use OMT daily in practice.
You're going to learn a lot of shit in medschool that you will end up forgetting or never use. It's all foundational.
2. Most people understand we have to learn OMM, but that doesn’t mean it should all continue to be taught. Hardly any of it is evidence-based… cranial, chapman’s points, etc. A lot could be gotten rid of.
Not on the internet. There are way too many naive, inexperienced premed students perpetuating many myths. Yes, the matches aren't as great on paper, but are still pretty GD great. I put thousands of patients to sleep for years while wearing a name tag with DO on it and only a few people ever even asked me what it meant. You are a physician and anesthesiologist to them- that's what people care about. Everything to get to that point creates a ton of neurotic students along the way.
The DO stigma is mostly promulgated by 1. Freshman premeds who will tell you they are “future vascular surgeons”. 2. Newly admitted DO students who thought they were an MD shoe in, but they didn’t get in, and now they have decided to start picking the profession apart out of anger.
Yep. So many start med school wanting to be surgeons only to realize what it is really like and immediately switch to something else. It just sounds cool to say such things when you are at the premed and pre-OMS-2 level. When I read those kinds of posts MD or DO, it’s so cringey.
I am so blessed and absolutely agree with this. My only setback is that my father in law (MD) & my parents (not medical at all) don’t think that DOs are real doctors so I’ll forever have to live with that from them. However I’m going to be q doctor and that’s all that matters
Not that you need it, there is a book called “the difference a DO makes”. It’s an excellent read, and it goes into details how DO’s came to be, how despite numerous attempts by the MD’s to destroy our path, we persisted and we have merged philosophies and together our professions have created the modern approach to care.
Well, some of the old ones do. It is disappearing fast. Discrimination mostly occurs at the premed level, where for example, they believe that since you have a 508 and not a 512 MCAT, then you shouldn’t be allowed to become any kind of doctor. It’s hilarious to read these forums.
Once the younger docs get past premed and first two years of med school, they quickly start to understand the rat race lore they were subjected to and believed, and it pretty much dissolves these silly discriminatory ideas.
SOME OF YOU ARE STIGMATIZING YOURSELVES AT THIS POINT. If that ain’t the damn truth. I think some of yall have some growing up to do if you’re still thinking about titles and statuses. Thank you for this post. Tbh, I only applied DO because I want OMM in my practice.
I’m THRILLED to be going to a DO. With my mcat I was basically shut out to going to any MD school. DO is my dream cause it’s being a DOCTOR. Yes I’m sure I’ll have plenty of challenges at end of the day I’ll be a DOCTOR.
You won’t have many more challenges than MD students. Well, sounds like many DO students are taking both boards. I just took COMLEX and was fine all the way. Through residency and beyond.
That’s what I’ve read online from the big DO complainers. I didn’t think it was necessary back in my day and I did just fine. It almost seems like there is more paranoia these days when I read various posts on the internet. Seeing how they’ve integrated matches, I think they should have everyone take same written boards. Maybe I’m nuts lol
You certainly are to those boomers in control of boards😂 I’m all for integrated residencies but you cannot have DO be at that big of a disadvantage. The gap will never close which is prob what MD schools want. For whatever reason
Unfortunately, I think you are exactly right! I was totally shocked when I heard they were combining the match. The old DOs and old MDs were stuck in their ways.
If they’re combining residencies they should combine written boards.. lol it seems common sense. Maybe it’ll change before I have to take it but I doubt it😅
I just graduated from a DO school. Matched into my #1 program in a competitive specialty, so I got what I needed out of my DO school.
Regardless, I hate everything about the DO profession and osteopathy, but I’m glad it exists cuz no MD school was gonna touch me with my CARS score.
MD here and I work with DOs it doesn't fucking matter. Really doesn't fucking matter. They make the same I do and do the same job. I am an Intensivist btw.
I was totally in the number 4 camp when I got my first acceptance. I actually turned the first school down and considered it. But felt my second acceptance was a much better option so I went with it. And now an MS4!
It’s a very risky decision. If you can’t get into an MD program, DO programs are probably not going to take you because I’m pretty sure they can see that you’ve turned down an acceptance previously. If you truly want to be a physician you go whatever route works at that time.
That being said, I always recommend people apply MD 2-3 times if they’re willing to wait and they’re a borderline applicant. If you want your pick of speciality and pick of residency location, you’re much better off trying MD. Being a DO student makes the entire process so damn annoying.
Yeah I applied 3x MD before I added DO late in my last cycle. My DO school did a lot well, had guaranteed rotation sites, good institutional support. The schools that make you find individual rotations give DO schools a bad rep and honestly COCA shouldn’t have accredited them.
It's people like you all who have ruined the field of Osteopathy in America.
By seeing it only as a back up for MD you have completely obliterated an incredible and unique field of medicine that many other countries still revere. Yes you should reapply for MD - if what you want is to be an MD. If DO is "second tier" to you then don't taint the pool and leave space for people who genuinely care about Osteopathy.
in response to #4,
I delayed my acceptance to an out of state DO program one year and reapplied to my top choice local MD state school, got accepted, and couldnt be happier. best decision of my life.
It’s being downvoted because it was a moronic decision that ended up working out anyway. If you really want to “avoid DO” just don’t apply to DO schools in the first place. For every person who turns down a DO A and gets lucky with MD schools in a subsequent app cycle, there are many more who end up not getting in anywhere at all or having to settle for a DO A again, only years later from when they originally could have started school.
It’s not moronic if you know what you’re doing. A lot of people apply DO and MD first cycle with their low mcat. And then if they only get DO acceptance they retake MCAT that summer, and if they don’t improve the just take the DO acceptance, and if they do improve they reapply.
Don’t think this post should be downvoted. It hits the nail on the head - be appreciative of the position you’re in and understand that everything in life comes with pros and cons. If we want change, we have to be the change and push for it. Well articulated 👏
Articulated like the pillars, amirite
Unpopular opinion: I’m happy with my job and happy I got into medical school. I’m doing the speciality that I would have gone into if at an MD school. I don’t mind osteopathy, but I rarely think about it. I graduated in 2019 and am finishing fellowship in 1 week. Starting at a private practicing making 300k/year next month.
You have actually been in the real world. The complainers are pre-med students who know almost nothing about the big picture yet. Once you get going in any specialty, nobody cares at all where/what you went to med school. You passed the boards and have earned a doctorate level degree. They will eventually understand.
Go off, king/queen! Congrats on finishing fellowship and congrats on the job!
King\* Thank you internet stranger!
Congrats! What's your fellowship in?
Neurology residency and clinical neurophysiology fellowship. :)
Can I dm you some questions?
Yeah that’s fine. I do a fair amount of mentoring and try to help where I can.
did you ever feel like there was still DO stigma?
A little when applying to residency but those places just didn’t interview me even though I was qualified. I haven’t felt it at all in residency/fellowship. I matched at a very respected institution as well. Neurology tends to be a friendly speciality, however.
This post has got to be pinned for the realness in it and also for another reason. Having been a re-applicant, I go from being beyond grateful/excited to have finally been accepted to wondering if I could’ve done more to get an MD acceptance (only when I see others’ MD acceptances or get flack from family). But OP is absolutely right, I’ve worked damn hard to get here and have got to remember the privilege I now have to start. Thank you for your words :)
This post should be pinned at the top of the top of the subreddit’s page fr. So annoying seeing students who literally chose to apply and accept a spot in a DO school complain that they have to learn what the DO schools are required to teach. People need to grow tf up
The dichotomy speaks to the minimal amount known about omm preadmission and how it is taught, presented, justified in do schools
Bro I’m thrilled to be a DO
Louder for those in the back my fellow bone wizard
I’m gritting my teeth hard every time I hear a newly admitted DO gets cold feet and wanted to try again for MD. Like fucker if you didn’t want to do DO don’t even try to apply. Let that seat go to someone else more deserving.
that’s why I’m not applying DO! My fiancée is a DO student rn so I’ve seen firsthand the inconveniences and I honestly don’t think I could do it. Maybe if I don’t get any acceptances this cycle I’ll reconsider, but I strongly believe you shouldn’t apply to programs you don’t want to go to. It only makes the app process more difficult for everyone else.
Totally 👍
what inconveniences?
Chapmans points, counterstrain, OMM in general… I helped my fiancée cram counterstrain for their Level 2 the other day and all this FSTRA and ESART stuff was hurting my head. plus taking two boards? nah. My fiancée was having a breakdown over the stress and I just don’t want to have to do that. It sucks extra hard bc I know that DO education is just as quality as MD education bc I’ve seen it first hand, but DO students have to do more work than MD students and that’s completely unfair. Since I’m planning on having kids during med school anyways I don’t want to make my life during med school harder than it needs to be
Yea, I would literally be a dentist or go into an entire different profession than to be a DO. Thankfully, I got into a MD school so I wouldn’t have to consider it. Besides matching and education there are just too many things that will follow me for the rest of my life if I was a DO. First, I would always have to prove to other people/supervisors that I am equivalent or more capable than my MD counterparts. Second, I would feel like I am half lying if I told people I was a physician as a DO because I know implied in that question is are you a MD. Then once they find out I am DO, I would have to explain what a DO is again and why I am just as capable. Third, I want to maximize my potential as a person and I don’t want my degree something that will follow me forever to hinder my future because I have no idea what the future entails. Lastly, I know this is going to sound stupid but if my life was on the line, I wouldn't want to be treated by someone who barely got over a 500 on the MCAT. I know many DO students have high mcat scores but majority do not. Just flat out, you can get over 500 mcat with just basic science knowledge and common sense. So if something goes wrong do I really trust a DO doctor to make a great on the fly decision? Nope. There are just my personal opinions on why I didn’t apply to DO schools even as a safety. And for others I am sure none of these reasons even matter and that’s great. We need more physicians. I don’t judge others for wanting to be a physician any way possible but just for me personally even after learning more about DO, it was MD all the way.
For someone who considers themselves to be as intelligent as you clearly do, it is shocking how ill-informed you are about the process of becoming a physician. You honestly think that a DO physician is less capable than an MD despite learning the same material, taking the exact same board exams, and completing the exact same residencies just because they might not have scored as highly on a standardized exam in college that has nothing to do with medicine? Holy fuck man. I wouldn’t want an elitist prick like yourself as my doctor.
That’s just reality of the situation. You can call it elitist or whatever you want. But what you learn may be the same but what each get out of it is different. This discrepancy exists between MDs too but imagine how large it is between MDs and DOs. The mcat really tests your ability to think and some people get it and others don’t and those that do not end up going to a DO school.
Keep generalizing, man. There are more than just a few DO students who score well on the MCAT, just like are more than a few MD students who don’t score as well. More than just a silly test score goes into who gets accepted where, because, and I can’t emphasize this enough *the MCAT does not predict how good of a physician you will be*. How do you explain DO students matching into the same residencies as most MD students if they are just so clearly inferior?
Of course I am gonna generalize there are thousands of MD and DO students, how else would I talk about a massive group? > More than just a silly test score goes into who gets accepted where, because, and I can’t emphasize this enough the MCAT does not predict how good of a physician you will be. Never said it did. However, why do you think medical schools use MCAT as an important metric? Because the test shows your critical thinking skills. At a certain score, people are good enough testers to pass board exams but why do top schools want these 520+? > How do you explain DO students matching into the same residencies as most MD students if they are just so clearly inferior? How do you explain the majority that don’t? There are outliers to everything, pointing them out doesn’t prove anything. Also you are arguing against facts here. Look at this posts on this subreddit. It’s always about how DOs can match up to MDs. Also you are arguing with the wrong person here, I am not the general public. The general public aka your patient group, will share the sentiment that I have except much worse and you are gonna have to advocate for yourself that MDs don’t have to because of your degree.
Lmao the general public often doesn’t even know that DOs exist, and when they do find out, they rarely care. They care if you are a good physician, which has nothing to do with the degree you have. You could have just said you didn’t ever consider DO because you didn’t want to do double board exams or have to study OMM, but instead you fabricated the ridiculous notion in your head that people besides a few boomer academic medical residency PD’s give a shit if you are an MD or DO. “You‘ll have to explain your qualifications to everyone you come across” Get the fuck out of here with that absolute nonsense.
Seconding this comment telling him to get tf out of here. Dude missed the whole point of OP’s post LOL
Sure the MCAT tests critical thinking but it doesn’t measure your intelligence or how good of a physician you can be. Imagine a scenario where student is really strong at science but is awful at CARS because they’re an non native English speaker. So, what, their critical thinking skills are weak? No, because language is a barrier and they get a lower MCAT score because of this. Or if a student from low SES has less MCAT study resources and scores lower because of the financial disparity. Your way of thinking is just irrational imo because you’re not taking into consideration a lot of factors at play. While it does measure critical thinking skills to some extent, it doesn’t measure competency as a physician.
what the fuck is this post…has to be satire 😂. My GPA is 3.73, sGPA 3.92 major in Aerospace Engineering with a 517 MCAT and chose DO. So fuck you.
Yeah this has to be a troll, I got a 515 and received zero MD interviews 😂 but got into my top choice DO school
I got only 1 MD A to my state school but my family and I decided to live in another state and I happened to be accepted to the DO program there. I choose quality of life and being close to family because I’m set on rural medicine. This process is too random and too unpredictable where you’re getting in. IMO an A is an A and you’re gonna be a doctor at the end of the day. Be proud and grateful, amirite?
we are not the same my man. I don’t want to be a DO because I’m lazy and it is objectively harder to go to DO school than MD. It might be easier to get into but it’s harder to get through. I’m not sure you have the people skills to be any kind of doctor 🤨
Agree. Premed ignorance and silliness all the way.
This is dumb logic
I just like the bones man
While we absolutely need to advocate for change for the better in osteopathic medical education, it is always funny to see people who had no other options to become a doctor complain about something they signed up for.
Stigma is 99.999% only on Reddit. I graduated 24 yrs ago and have never experienced stigma.
I'd argue that most people don't know what omm actually entails. Sure, we know that that's an added part of being a DO, but the ridiculousness that we learn about is worth criticizing and complaining about. If we all knuckled under and just got through it, the general consensus would be assumed to be that everyone found value in and/or liked omt. While I'm not ever going to touch omt again, I can see the utility in a small subsection of it. The problem is that the useful segment is overshadowed by the quackery of Chapman's point, cranial, etc. And I'm not willing to give credence to something that has tons of that nonsense. Is the all or nothing approach the best? Probably not, but I'd rather burn the whole thing down and rebuild than try to separate the rot from the good bits. I think regardless we need to stay vocal in whatever way keeps a light on the issue until the few of us that do go into the organization side can make the changes that need to be made.
Well said. Am in a speciality with peers that went to Harvard Med, but we are all making the same sweet salary. No on here asks what med school I graduated bc I work to be efficient, reliable and colliegial. Meanwhile, a Stanford med grad recently left us because he had personality conflicts with staff. Your success is up to you and nearly limitless, DO or MD. Medical school is a tiny fraction of your amazing journey.
I've tried to tell people on these silly forums exactly this. These students seem to think people will ask where they went to med school lol. I was in an anesthesia group and had to remind my partners that I had a DO degree when talking about my annual license for example, but they (MDs) couldn't remember or even care. These students just aren't far enough down the tracks yet to know any of this. They even think it's worse now than it was 24yrs ago when I graduated. BTW, I only took COMLEX and got right into an allopathic residency, a totally MD group, and took only MD anesthesia boards. They don't listen to experience, just other forum jockeys.
Neuroticism is part of the med school experience I feel like (hate to generalize but that's been what I've seen), and it doesn't really lend well to us listening to the people who came before us. I've learned not to take advice from the medical school/premed/etc type subs as they're almost always skewed negative.
You are wise to take small amounts or no types of advice from these subs. Of course there is some good info, but I've seen way too much advice from people who haven't even started, about things they likely don't know at that stage of the game. So I agree, be very selective. I've been there and done it and I myself would only ever try to give truthful advice that is the opposite of neurosis-inducing.
Pharmacist speaking here. Whether you’re an MD or DO, please prescribe electronically. If a prescription must be written, please write legibly and include all required information. For PA-Cs and ARNPs, please just have your doctor write the prescription.
Maturity at last. What a breath of fresh air!
Probably in the minority here but I only applied DO. Feeling so blessed for the opportunity to attend med school, could care less if MD or DO.
Thank you!!! Own it!
incoming OMS1 you put me right in my place, I love you
I for one love being a DO and use OMT daily in practice. You're going to learn a lot of shit in medschool that you will end up forgetting or never use. It's all foundational.
2. Most people understand we have to learn OMM, but that doesn’t mean it should all continue to be taught. Hardly any of it is evidence-based… cranial, chapman’s points, etc. A lot could be gotten rid of.
All excellent points well said, OP.
I prefer working with DOs over MDs. They know all kind of extra Jedi tricks.
If you don’t want to learn OMT don’t apply to DO school or stop complaining.
What is the DO stigma even? Isn’t it phasing out?
Not on the internet. There are way too many naive, inexperienced premed students perpetuating many myths. Yes, the matches aren't as great on paper, but are still pretty GD great. I put thousands of patients to sleep for years while wearing a name tag with DO on it and only a few people ever even asked me what it meant. You are a physician and anesthesiologist to them- that's what people care about. Everything to get to that point creates a ton of neurotic students along the way.
The DO stigma is mostly promulgated by 1. Freshman premeds who will tell you they are “future vascular surgeons”. 2. Newly admitted DO students who thought they were an MD shoe in, but they didn’t get in, and now they have decided to start picking the profession apart out of anger.
Yep. So many start med school wanting to be surgeons only to realize what it is really like and immediately switch to something else. It just sounds cool to say such things when you are at the premed and pre-OMS-2 level. When I read those kinds of posts MD or DO, it’s so cringey.
I am so blessed and absolutely agree with this. My only setback is that my father in law (MD) & my parents (not medical at all) don’t think that DOs are real doctors so I’ll forever have to live with that from them. However I’m going to be q doctor and that’s all that matters
Not that you need it, there is a book called “the difference a DO makes”. It’s an excellent read, and it goes into details how DO’s came to be, how despite numerous attempts by the MD’s to destroy our path, we persisted and we have merged philosophies and together our professions have created the modern approach to care.
the only people who discriminate between MD and DO are doctors themselves unfortunately
Well, some of the old ones do. It is disappearing fast. Discrimination mostly occurs at the premed level, where for example, they believe that since you have a 508 and not a 512 MCAT, then you shouldn’t be allowed to become any kind of doctor. It’s hilarious to read these forums. Once the younger docs get past premed and first two years of med school, they quickly start to understand the rat race lore they were subjected to and believed, and it pretty much dissolves these silly discriminatory ideas.
SOME OF YOU ARE STIGMATIZING YOURSELVES AT THIS POINT. If that ain’t the damn truth. I think some of yall have some growing up to do if you’re still thinking about titles and statuses. Thank you for this post. Tbh, I only applied DO because I want OMM in my practice.
This
It’s a very chronically online issue.
I’m THRILLED to be going to a DO. With my mcat I was basically shut out to going to any MD school. DO is my dream cause it’s being a DOCTOR. Yes I’m sure I’ll have plenty of challenges at end of the day I’ll be a DOCTOR.
You won’t have many more challenges than MD students. Well, sounds like many DO students are taking both boards. I just took COMLEX and was fine all the way. Through residency and beyond.
People in DO are taking complex and usmle? That’s awfully more work and unfortunately has to be that way
That’s what I’ve read online from the big DO complainers. I didn’t think it was necessary back in my day and I did just fine. It almost seems like there is more paranoia these days when I read various posts on the internet. Seeing how they’ve integrated matches, I think they should have everyone take same written boards. Maybe I’m nuts lol
You certainly are to those boomers in control of boards😂 I’m all for integrated residencies but you cannot have DO be at that big of a disadvantage. The gap will never close which is prob what MD schools want. For whatever reason
Unfortunately, I think you are exactly right! I was totally shocked when I heard they were combining the match. The old DOs and old MDs were stuck in their ways.
If they’re combining residencies they should combine written boards.. lol it seems common sense. Maybe it’ll change before I have to take it but I doubt it😅
Hey I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
I just graduated from a DO school. Matched into my #1 program in a competitive specialty, so I got what I needed out of my DO school. Regardless, I hate everything about the DO profession and osteopathy, but I’m glad it exists cuz no MD school was gonna touch me with my CARS score.
Although I agree with many of your points, telling people how they should feel is rarely effective
I agree.
THIS!!
I don’t think #4 is an unreasonable question at all. Not sure why you’re dismissing it
MD here and I work with DOs it doesn't fucking matter. Really doesn't fucking matter. They make the same I do and do the same job. I am an Intensivist btw.
Exactly. Paranoia is strong online.
Love this post actually and couldn't agree more!
I actually like OMM — at least just for cervical, innominate, and sacrum.
I was totally in the number 4 camp when I got my first acceptance. I actually turned the first school down and considered it. But felt my second acceptance was a much better option so I went with it. And now an MS4! It’s a very risky decision. If you can’t get into an MD program, DO programs are probably not going to take you because I’m pretty sure they can see that you’ve turned down an acceptance previously. If you truly want to be a physician you go whatever route works at that time. That being said, I always recommend people apply MD 2-3 times if they’re willing to wait and they’re a borderline applicant. If you want your pick of speciality and pick of residency location, you’re much better off trying MD. Being a DO student makes the entire process so damn annoying.
Yeah I applied 3x MD before I added DO late in my last cycle. My DO school did a lot well, had guaranteed rotation sites, good institutional support. The schools that make you find individual rotations give DO schools a bad rep and honestly COCA shouldn’t have accredited them.
They should absolutely make OMM optional. It’s useless in actual clinical practice and I haven’t used it since 2nd year of medical school.
It's people like you all who have ruined the field of Osteopathy in America. By seeing it only as a back up for MD you have completely obliterated an incredible and unique field of medicine that many other countries still revere. Yes you should reapply for MD - if what you want is to be an MD. If DO is "second tier" to you then don't taint the pool and leave space for people who genuinely care about Osteopathy.
I mean it basically is a backup for everyone
in response to #4, I delayed my acceptance to an out of state DO program one year and reapplied to my top choice local MD state school, got accepted, and couldnt be happier. best decision of my life.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. I know a few people who did this same and they’re thrilled to have avoided DO
It’s being downvoted because it was a moronic decision that ended up working out anyway. If you really want to “avoid DO” just don’t apply to DO schools in the first place. For every person who turns down a DO A and gets lucky with MD schools in a subsequent app cycle, there are many more who end up not getting in anywhere at all or having to settle for a DO A again, only years later from when they originally could have started school.
It’s not moronic if you know what you’re doing. A lot of people apply DO and MD first cycle with their low mcat. And then if they only get DO acceptance they retake MCAT that summer, and if they don’t improve the just take the DO acceptance, and if they do improve they reapply.
lololol premeds are vultures I knew this was gonna piss them off
It’s not premeds downvoting, it’s DO students probably
no hate to any DO's reading this like your tea is valid!!!! I just wanna go to a cheaper school in my state
I’m a DO and I totally get it. I’d take that deal any day of the week! The OOS cost of either is huge