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For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
Don't ask about the minimums ... medicine isn't about doing as little as you can to scrape by, nor are DO schools institutions that want students with this mindset. If you are using DO as a backup, or applying to them because you screwed up, I don't think you'll be happy with the 'DO' behind your name. If you have serious questions about osteopathic schools, feel free to ask. However, don't ask silly, borderline insulting questions such as these. Also, just for reference ... a DO school is a medical school just as an MD school is a medical school. It isn't 'osteopathic school vs med school,' it is allopathic and osteopathic.
The entry requirements are very similar, if not identical. Minimums aren't terribly relevant. There are crazy numbers of applicants to both DO and MD, and applicants with low scores don't get accepted much. (...despite the "what are my chances" threads that pervade these forums.)
Few med schools, DO or MD, state minimums for GPA or MCAT. I've seen the occasional minimum GPA of 3.0 on admissions sites for both DO and MD. I've seen 24 as an MCAT minimum. There are 5-6 MD schools with substantially lower average scores than the average DO school. (I'm not talking about off-shore MD schools.)
All that said, DO GPA & MCAT averages indeed run lower than MD averages. In addition, the DO application process forgives repeated coursework, and doesn't include math in the science GPA.
You make a lot of ASSumptions about my questions! If you are advising someone interested in attending medical school (allopathic or osteopathic), is not one of the first questions outside their interest is whether or not they have the grades or test scores that are competitve?
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
It's easy to misspeak and possibly offend without meaning too, so perhaps giving the benefit of the doubt is a good way to go here.
It should be pretty clear that there are two types of medical schools in the US - osteopathic and allopathic. I think we can let that point rest.
OP, as far as requirements for admission to DO schools goes, I suggest you download the .pdf available here, track down the parallel info for MD schools and give both a quick read. This should give you a general idea of what you need to know, and as far as the numbers go, I don't think searching for anything more than a general idea would really prove useful.
Many things will factor into an acceptance/rejection besides numbers, so simply finding an example of a student getting accepted with a 22 on the MCAT while another is rejected with a 32 is not really going to tell you anything.
It does, however, make one wonder why the sudden interest in DO requirements.
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
I have been participating in interviews this year for the class of 2012 and I have yet to see anybody interview with less than a 28MCAT. One guy had a 36 and only applied to DO schools. It looks like the competition is increasing every year. My class (2011) had higher stats than the 2010 class and it looks like the 2012 class will have higher stats than ours.
I interviewed at DMU and definitely did not have a 28. I wasn't accepted because of my MCAT, but they are interviewing people with much lower stats. Why? I've yet to come up with a good reason for them to interview people who they know they wouldn't accept. DMU is definitely more "number hungry" that other schools. I think they put numbers waaaay above EC's and commitment to osteopathic medicine, but every school is different.
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
DMU is definitely more "number hungry" that other schools. I think they put numbers waaaay above EC's and commitment to osteopathic medicine, but every school is different.
You're probably right, in that it's the best thing to look at, but even that isn't a guarantee. In every cycle there are plenty of people with stats way below average that are accepted and those who are above average who don't get accepted. There are always people who get accepted to some schools and not others-- and it's not necessarily the "lower tier" schools where people are most likely to be accepted. The number of osteopathic applicants has doubled in the last five years. So....there are many more people to choose from. Schools can look for people that fit them best rather than just trying to get the "best" students with the "highest" scores....It is considerably better, in my opinion, to examine the average GPA/MCAT score of matriculants of the schools in which you are interested and see how you compare...
DO schools do not have "academic requirements". Instead, they make you complete the "Osteopathic Obstacle Course" in Japan. Here is a pretty good youtube video of some pre-DO students competing for admission:
[youtube]uVPgK3Rmrmw[/youtube]
Also, the way they do letters of recommendation is a little bit different. You have to get one from a DO, and three from people you've had sex with (and one of these cannot be from yourself).
I'm not sure about that. I sent in a DO letter, two letters from prostitutes, and a handwritten letter on a post-it note from myself and I still got in. I think you got jipped.
Also, the way they do letters of recommendation is a little bit different. You have to get one from a DO, and three from people you've had sex with (and one of these cannot be from yourself).
Ideally they'd require a letter from a DO, that you're not related to, that you've had sex with.
Ideally they'd require a letter from a DO, that you're not related to, that you've had sex with.
Schools can look for people that fit them best rather than just trying to get the "best" students with the "highest" scores.
One question for the DO hopefuls: were you originally interested in becoming a DO? If not, what swung your decision? I've seen a lot of discussion on PBL, but it also seems to be used at a few MD schools now, for example Mercer in my home state of Georgia.
Also, I note, in threads like this one, that there is a certain sensitivity to the implication that DOs are somehow unequal to MDs, which is completely understandable. But is it also wrong to initially turn your attention to DO schools because of their slightly-more-lax admissions standards? To be clear, I do not mean this in a derogatory manner, simply stating the facts based on the numbers.
That's been the case with me, but I find I really agree with some points of OM philosophy (don't always immediately reach for a prescription? ). So, I grow more enthusiastic by the day about the OM approach (though I may still be an OMM skeptic) when at first all I was looking for was the most likely place to let me put a D after my name.
Fair enough, good thing I kept it in here, then.There are a number of past and current threads that address your question. I don't see the purpose of a new post/thread on the topic. The bottom line is that folks tend to go to the school that:
1) Accepted them.
2) Fits them the best (including more peripherally-related considerations, such as location and COA)
Interesting. This puts a different spin on what seems to be the perpetual first interview question: "Why OM?"That's a bit naive, I think, although understandable given the propaganda being spread around. I maintain that most of the philosophical differences between the two tradition are historical at this point. Although you'll find some degree of divergence in mission and in principle, by-in-large, the two traditions are more similar than different, with the exception of the inclusion of OMM training at the undergraduate level. Otherwise, the curriculum tends to be identical and the training is to treat patients to a common standard of care. In my opinion, a person's character and inclination are better determinants of how he or she will approach a patient than any training, or school attended. In any case, learning OMM does provide an additional modality by which to treat and diagnose a patient, if you choose to use it after medical school.
I concur, but I have never heard a school say this. Tell them what they want to hear is what all my communication professors say.That's a bit naive, I think, although understandable given the propaganda being spread around. I maintain that most of the philosophical differences between the two tradition are historical at this point. Although you'll find some degree of divergence in mission and in principle, by-in-large, the two traditions are more similar than different, with the exception of the inclusion of OMM training at the undergraduate level. Otherwise, the curriculum tends to be identical and the training is to treat patients to a common standard of care.
I concur, but I have never heard a school say this. Tell them what they want to hear is what all my communication professors say.
For us novices, I am wondering what are the minimum academic stats- i.e. GPA and MCAT scores are to get into osteopathic schools? How does this compare to medical school entry requirements?
Well your informed 'questions' that assumed osteopathic medical schools aren't medical schools, and what was the absolute minimum you can scrape by with lead me to a. not give a crap about making assumptions (clever with the ASSumptions thing ... in case anyone was wondering what he did was imply that I was an *** by capitalizing the first three letters in the word assumptions- which I made ) b. advise that you ask serious questions to get serious answers.
There you go again ***uming he was calling you an ***!