Any Med-Peds D.O.'s?

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Hi all,

I'm a D.O. student appying for med-peds and as far as I've seen, not a whole lot of DO's have matched into med-peds. Is anybody a DO or friends with a DO that has experience applying?

I assume a lot of it has to do with general lack of DO applicants, but part of me is still concerned. Has anybody had difficulties and/or any other advice in terms of being a DO applicant?

Thanks much!

Originally Posted by applesnap

Hi all,

I'm a D.O. student appying for med-peds and as far as I've seen, not a whole lot of DO's have matched into med-peds. Is anybody a DO or friends with a DO that has experience applying?

I assume a lot of it has to do with general lack of DO applicants, but part of me is still concerned. Has anybody had difficulties and/or any other advice in terms of being a DO applicant?

Thanks much!

The vast majority of programs are actually DO friendly. Some programs might require USMLE (and won't accept COMLEX). That was the impression I got when I interviewed (but it was several years ago).


According to the 2010 NRMP Match statistics, out of 359 Med-Peds spots, 299 when to US Seniors, 21 went to DO applicants, 15 to USIMG, and 15 to non-USIMG (1 Canadian, and 4 US MDs). 4 spots went unfilled. There were a total of 661 applicants
http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf


I don't know the total number of DO applicants. I know that a lot of DO students are unaware of the existence of Med-Peds or even combined programs in general and so many eventually do not apply for it (or when they find out about it, it's too late). I know there are studies that shows there are more Med-Peds applicants from US Medical Schools that have Med-Peds programs compare to US Med Schools where they don't have Med-PEds program. Lack of exposure, Lack of mentor (faculty and residents, etc).

My school has multiple DO Med-Peds residents. I didn't ask specifically, but while talking to them about the specialty, I don't think they ever mentioned having a difficult time with applying.

Originally Posted by group_theory

Lack of exposure, Lack of mentor (faculty and residents, etc).

I was hoping this was the reason, thanks!

I'm also applying medpeds as a DO.

Most of the programs seem to be pretty open to DOs, even some of the most competitive ones.

I'm applying to many places and doing auditions at the choices I thought would be top of my list (I decided I don't really fit at one place already, although I'm still planning on ranking them). I'm also pleased to say that I've rotated with DO attendings at MD institutions and no one makes a big deal about it.

Best of luck to you! Maybe we'll run into eachother on interviews;-)

PhDtoDO

also applied as DO for med peds.. got 4 interviews.. went on 1, definitely stuck out like a sore thumb but it's good to be different and it def sets you apart!

For those DO's who interviewed at Med-Peds programs, would you recommend also taking step 1 of usmle. Most of the advisors I have spoken to tell me it is not needed, however I am still on the fence about future specialty and want to keep my options open.

cheers

Originally Posted by rmsgolfer

For those DO's who interviewed at Med-Peds programs, would you recommend also taking step 1 of usmle. Most of the advisors I have spoken to tell me it is not needed, however I am still on the fence about future specialty and want to keep my options open.

cheers

I would take the USMLE (and do well)

While Med-Peds programs overall are DO friendly, there are programs who are DO friendly (have ranked and matched DOs in recent past) who require USMLE. And most likely you will be going through ERAS/NRMP since there are only 2 AOA Med-Peds residency.

It's hard for programs to compare COMLEX to USMLE. What is the USMLE equivalent of a 500 on Comlex? What is a 600? What about 550? What about 650?

There's an increase in US MD applicants this year. My guess is there will be an increase in US DO applicants and FMG applicants. Try to make yourself as competitive as possible.

There are DOs in the med-peds program where I'm at. The programs here are pretty familiar with DOs and no USMLE is necessary.

Overall I've heard med-peds is pretty DO friendly. I do recall however meeting many med-peds applicants when I was interviewing last year and most of them were IMGs.

Originally Posted by rmsgolfer

For those DO's who interviewed at Med-Peds programs, would you recommend also taking step 1 of usmle. Most of the advisors I have spoken to tell me it is not needed, however I am still on the fence about future specialty and want to keep my options open.

cheers

Where are you looking? If you're looking at East Coast, you can PM me and I'll give you my list of all the places that take COMLEX vs. the ones that require USMLE b/c I did all that research last year before I applied

Thanks for the responses. I go to school in the midwest and would prefer to stay here for residency. Many of the programs (minn, nebraska,iowa) have tons of DO's in their IM and Med/Peds programs. I have spoken to a few IM residency directors and most of them have said to just take the COMLEX, however I am like your typical 2nd year student waffling about scheduling both exams or just focusing on the one.

Originally Posted by bdc

Where are you looking? If you're looking at East Coast, you can PM me and I'll give you my list of all the places that take COMLEX vs. the ones that require USMLE b/c I did all that research last year before I applied

Hi, I'm on the East Coast & I would like to apply to a Med-Peds Residency. Can you send me the list, it would be really helpful. Thanks in advance

Hey, I am a DO currently applying for med-peds, coming from TCOM. I feel like for the most part programs are very DO friendly, especially in my case when I took the USMLE. My recommendation is to take the USMLE, it will get your foot in the door (I got in the 230 range for step 1). If you want to see where all I got interviews go to this post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...&postcount=123
The DOs I know on that thread are: me (civilleader, NasPas, chaeymaey, and I think mdpeds 85.) There might be more, these were the ones that made it clear.

Also as a DO I felt like there were some places that take lots of DOs but only from their region. I was surprised that UMDNJ, UIC and such never called me for an interview, and I think it is because Im not local, and I noticed their DOs are from the schools around there. Some like Banner and Christiana did invite quite late, and I think it was due to the same reason.

If you really want to go to a certain program, make it very clear to them if you are from the other side of the country.

I am a pgy-2 in MD residency and DO graduate there are 4 of us in this program. I did not take usmle and had 6 interviews at MD programs for medpeds. I do not know if I would choose to do it this way again may have more latitude if I took USMLE but do not see that paying to take boards would have made big difference in my choices.

I am a D.O. (or will be rather) and just matched into MedPeds!