How competitive is Maine Medical Center / Boston's EM programs?

[KeikoTanaka]

Title says it all - anyone know about these programs competitiveness? Especially for DOs? Ik Maine Medical Center is affiliated with UNECOM - So if you are at a NY Osteopathic School - will you be looked at? Is this program highly sought after from New England Ivy's at all? If so how can you bolster your competitiveness?

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[BoardingDoc]

This question came up when I was interviewing in that area several years ago. As I recall, MGH and BIDMC don't have a track record of taking DOs. BMC might, but I think you'd have to be an extremely solid applicant as Boston (much like other coastal cities) is a competitive region. The other programs in MA outside of Boston (Baystate and UMass) are less restrictive and less competitive. Maine medical takes DOs.

 

[Rekt]

Title says it all - anyone know about these programs competitiveness? Especially for DOs? Ik Maine Medical Center is affiliated with UNECOM - So if you are at a NY Osteopathic School - will you be looked at? Is this program highly sought after from New England Ivy's at all? If so how can you bolster your competitiveness?

Both of these are essentially off limits to DOs regardless of your application. Your best chance would be Baystate.

 

[InternistDO]

If you're a DO, you're probably not going to Boston for EM. You can try, but I wouldn't make life plans on it.

Maine, Baystate, UMass, Dartmouth, UConn, and Albany have all taken DOs at least once. Vermont is a new program and would probably take DOs. Kent Hospital in RI is a former AOA program and will definitely take a DO. If you apply EM you will need to accept the possibility that you might not match in New England, it's a small relatively competitive region. It would behoove you to extend your pool to the lower Northeast like NY, NJ, PA.

As for boosting competitiveness, the normal way. Do well on boards, do some research, do well in clinicals, and lastly in 4th year do rotations at your top programs and try to wow them.

 

[fahimaz7]

MMC took their first DO a few years ago, although he was a legacy to the program and had family members as attendings. Other than that, MMC, MGH, BID are all very competitive programs. Grades matter as do step scores. The best thing you can do is rotate there as a student. Housing is provided and really nice.

 

[GonnaBeADoc2222]

Shame these "top" programs still have a stigma against the DO label. They are probably missing out on a lot of great candidates. If you kill the USMLE and have great SLOEs, what else should matter? My "top" program also had this filter against DOs. Funny how even MD students can still be complete *****s when they get to residency,

 

[SpacemanSpifff]

Shame these "top" programs still have a stigma against the DO label. They are probably missing out on a lot of great candidates. If you kill the USMLE and have great SLOEs, what else should matter? My "top" program also had this filter against DOs. Funny how even MD students can still be complete *****s when they get to residency,

Agreed. Time evens most playing fields, hopefully all EM residencies will soon recognize the DO for what it is - a medical degree.

 

[miacomet]

Agreed. Time evens most playing fields, hopefully all EM residencies will soon recognize the DO for what it is - a medical degree.

I think if all DOs would take the USMLE, that would help. It would also help if there were fewer for-profit DO schools, and if they were more aggressive about raising MCAT scores. I really like the DOs I know, but frankly some of the schools don't have very high standards for admission. It's unfortunate that DO students take a different exam.

 

[miacomet]

There are the same amount of for-profit US MD schools as US DO schools, so..

For many years, the Flexner report banned for-profit MD schools. Admittedly this has changed in the last few years, but I think the only MD school is California Northstate (if there are others, feel free to correct me). DO schools include Rocky Mountain Colorado, Rocky Mountain Utah, and Burrell.

I think if DO schools also started doing more high-quality research, it might help their image. I don't think EM will care, but it's always going to be hard getting a top IM residency from a DO school, and not entirely without reason given the paucity of great research opportunities, unless things have changed.

 

[miacomet]

There are 2 for each, if we count ponce? I guess 3 DO if you count the Utah campus as a new school :/. Either way, it’s a bad look all around.

No things really haven’t from what I’ve gathered. I think the biggest Achilles heel to DO schools is third year.

Why third year?

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

MMC took their first DO a few years ago, although he was a legacy to the program and had family members as attendings. Other than that, MMC, MGH, BID are all very competitive programs. Grades matter as do step scores. The best thing you can do is rotate there as a student. Housing is provided and really nice.

maine med has more than 1 current DO resident i believe.

 

[gutonc]

Why third year?

My guess is that a lot of these schools don't have enough space in their affiliated hospitals for all of their students to rotate, and most of the "good" local community hospitals already have students from MD and other, more established DO programs rotating there. So they (the schools, and sometimes the students themselves) have to scramble to find clerkship sites and mentors. It doesn't always go well.