Reapply or go to DO school?

[PinkZinfandel]

thanks

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[The Lady Grey]

This post strikes me as a little weird. You applied to DO schools, got accepted, but still do not know about matriculating? If you really didn't want to attend a DO school, as per your question suggests, why would you waste the money on applying to them? I guess you need to think about what your actual question is regarding why you are worried about attending a DO school.

Remember, med school is what you make of it. The product of what you get out of it is all about the effort you are willing to put in to. Everybody studies for the same boards, more than half of the DO students take the USMLEs and enter into allo residencies.

 

[PinkZinfandel]

---------

 

[FrkyBgStok]

yeah i agree with the above poster. you should have never applied if you didn't want it. what if you don't do better on the MCAT and still don't get into MD schools and you then don't go reaccepted to any DO schools because they see you were already accepted to another DO school which you did not attend.

 

[Dice456]

Yo Pink,

I'm in a similar situation except I didn't even send my secondary app to the one DO school I applied to. I decided I would rather take the year off to improve my MD application for this summer. If you don't know much about DO school (or care to learn) then maybe you should work on improving your MCAT and reapply.

 

[stefspets]

My opinion: it's a huge risk to decline an acceptance and reapply. You shouldn't have applied to schools you weren't willing to attend.

Take the DO acceptance and don't look back.

 

[ShyRem]

This seems to come up every year. And every year I say the same thing:


DO YOU WANT TO BE A DOCTOR OR NOT?????!?!?!?!!??!???


There are 42,000 people applying for 18,000 MD seats.
There are 13,000 people applying for 5,000 DO seats.
Competition gets stiffer every year with applications rising faster than enrollment increases.

You now have a seat, but you don't seem to want it. (yes, I know, it seems like I just answered my question.)

Did you pay your seat fees and accept any offers? What are your real concerns? You don't voice any concerns at all in your post.

 

[drgioiadds]

This post strikes me as a little weird. You applied to DO schools, got accepted, but still do not know about matriculating? If you really didn't want to attend a DO school, as per your question suggests, why would you waste the money on applying to them? I guess you need to think about what your actual question is regarding why you are worried about attending a DO school.

Remember, med school is what you make of it. The product of what you get out of it is all about the effort you are willing to put in to. Everybody studies for the same boards, more than half of the DO students take the USMLEs and enter into allo residencies.

I panicked when I got my MCAT scores back and just applied to a bunch of DO schools. To be honest, getting into a MD school was my first-choice.

Sounds like you answered your own question. Retake mcat.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Take the DO acceptance...as you seem to already know 26 years of age is far too old to just be starting medical school.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Hello,

I am deciding between reapplying to med schools this year and retaking the MCAT or attending a DO school.

I attended a top 10 UG and my overall AMCAS GPA was a 3.66, my BCPM GPA was a 3.63. I took the MCAT in September 2010 and received a 9 BS, 9 PS, 8 VR. I didn't get a chance to retake the MCAT before applying since I took the MCAT in September. My AMCAS and AACOMAS was processed in September.

I have been accepted to several DO schools to start in Fall 2011. My question is, should I take the DO school or study and retake the MCAT in May or June and apply to MD schools for Fall 2012? I will be turning 25 in a couple of months and if I put off med school for another year, I will be 26 when I start, so that's another concern of mine.

Please let me know what you think, thanks!

Really????? There are thousands of students begging for a slot and you are tying one up you don't even want???? Really rotten, need to rethink about if you really want to be a doctor.

 

[Way2Swanky]

With your undergrad GPA and the big name of your alma mater, you will have a very good shot at American M.D.-granting schools.

The only thing holding you back (temporarily) is the MCAT. Do well on it (minimum 30, ideally 32+) and you will be in very good shape.

Don't retake the MCAT until you're comfortably in the 30's on practice tests, even if this takes a while.


Don't go to DO school.

 

[PinkZinfandel]

With your undergrad GPA and the big name of your alma mater, you will have a very good shot at American M.D.-granting schools.

The only thing holding you back (temporarily) is the MCAT. Do well on it (minimum 30, ideally 32+) and you will be in very good shape.

Don't retake the MCAT until you're comfortably in the 30's on practice tests, even if this takes a while.


Don't go to DO school.

But would it be worth it to waste a year? If you score really high on the COMLEX/USMLE, you will have as good opportunities from DO as a lower-tier MD school, right? Assuming I get a 29 or 30 on my retake, I would only be able to get into low-tier MD schools anyway. I am interested in internal medicine, emergency medicine or radiology. If I did internal medicine, I would like to do cardiology and I believe osteopathic schools have their own osteopathic cardiology fellowships?

 

[Dharma]

Don't go to DO school.

And you why do you make this claim? Not only does such a statement hold little weight when you offer no explanation, it also makes you sound like a bit of DB.

 

[Way2Swanky]

First of all, forget this "lower-tier MD" nonsense. Any US MD school will be respected by residency program directors and by your colleagues, and will give you an opportunity to match into ANY field you want. You say now that you're interested in IM, EM, or rads-- but what if you change your mind? There are virtually entire fields that are closed off to DO's who want to do an allopathic residency. You can forget about Integrated Plastic Surgery, ENT, Urology, Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology and Dermatology. Same for middle-upper and upper tier programs in less competitive specialties, like General Surgery and Internal Medicine. Some programs (NYU IM comes to mind) explicitly state that they do not even look at DO applicants. The large university program where I will start IM residency this June, has exactly 0 DO's in an incoming intern class of ~60 people. Want to do cards? Well, where do you think cardiology programs get their fellows? From the same programs where you will likely be unable to go as a DO.

Why make life so much harder on yourself?

Focus on the MCAT. Don't know how you prepped the first time, but all of your resources need to be focused on KILLING this test. None of this 29-30 talk. If you managed to get into a top 10 undergrad, you can do MUCH better than that.

Finishing med school at age 30 isn't that unusual BTW. That leaves a lot of time to have an amazing career.

Good luck to you.

But would it be worth it to waste a year? If you score really high on the COMLEX/USMLE, you will have as good opportunities from DO as a lower-tier MD school, right? Assuming I get a 29 or 30 on my retake, I would only be able to get into low-tier MD schools anyway. I am interested in internal medicine, emergency medicine or radiology. If I did internal medicine, I would like to do cardiology and I believe osteopathic schools have their own osteopathic cardiology fellowships?

 

[cabinbuilder]

Take the DO acceptance...as you seem to already know 26 years of age is far too old to just be starting medical school.

WTF??? 26 is too old????? My medical school class (including myself) were students mostly OVER 30, some were over 40. I better get off this thread before I say something that gets me banned from the site. Jeez

 

[n3xa]

picard.jpg

 

[flodhi1]

Hello,

I am deciding between reapplying to med schools this year and retaking the MCAT or attending a DO school.

I attended a top 10 UG and my overall AMCAS GPA was a 3.66, my BCPM GPA was a 3.63. I took the MCAT in September 2010 and received a 9 BS, 9 PS, 8 VR. I didn't get a chance to retake the MCAT before applying since I took the MCAT in September. My AMCAS and AACOMAS was processed in September.

I have been accepted to several DO schools to start in Fall 2011. My question is, should I take the DO school or study and retake the MCAT in May or June and apply to MD schools for Fall 2012? I will be turning 25 in a couple of months and if I put off med school for another year, I will be 26 when I start, so that's another concern of mine.

Please let me know what you think, thanks!

26 is too old, there are people literally dying to get a DO slot and start their medical careers. If you want to stick with Internal medicine than DO is most definitely a very good choice. I would suggest NOT wasting an entire year. The problem with this is that what IF you don't get into an MD school next year not only will you have wasted an entire year but added an extra year to your burden (make that a waste of 2 years) and you will be totally shut off from the DO world. Once DO schools find out that you got accepted and rejected the offer you can forget ever getting accepted to DO schools. How do I know this? well a good friend of mine was in your situation unfortunately for him he can't go back into DO schools and now is stuck doing an extra 2 year MASTERS program on top of wasting that one extra year. You're getting old like me and you have a wonderful opportunity make the best out of it and accept the DO seat seriously! You will be able to get an internal medicine residency easily as a DO or MD. For you to get into an upper tier MD school were talking about 34+ it's not worth the risk man especially not at this stage of your life.

 

[byurazorhog]

It's entirely way too arrogant on your part to turn down DO acceptances only to reapply to MD schools. You shouldn't have applied to them if you weren't interested in their philosophy. You will have to answer on your AMCAS whether you have previously applied to/accepted to other medical schools? Will you be lying on your application? If the MD schools find out you got accepted to DO schools, they will never buy any argument you may have about why you'd like to become a doctor. I have met several incredibly talented DO's who are just as competent at treating patients as the MD's. One of my favorite docs that I get to work with at my job is a DO and I feel that his extra training in bone maneuvering or whatever it is called gives him an extra edge in some situations.

Go to one of the DO schools to which you have been accepted. If you choose to reapply, remember you risk not getting in a MD school next year or even the year after that, AND never having the ability to matriculate at a DO school again. 25 is far from being old...you are insulting many people by agreeing with such a premise. However you do want to make every year of your life worthwhile. Consider using the year(s) you'd be spending reapplying towards one of those competitive residencies.

DO's are DOCTORS! If you spend time with real doctors at all, you should know that MD's respect and treat DO's as any other esteemed colleague of theirs.

 

[painmd87]

Suppose you turn down the DO schools, retake the MCAT, do worse or the same or only marginally better, but not well enough to get into an MD school. You've burned your DO bridges and are rejected at the MD schools.

What do you do then?

 

[peppy]

Putting off med school for a year not only means putting off your life for a year but also means losing out on a year of attending's salary.
Could there be some advantages to getting into an MD school? Perhaps for some specialties (like someone who seriously wants to go into Rad Onc for example). But for most people, it won't make that much of a difference.
If you end up going to a med school you're "overqualified" for, that just means you should be able to be one of the top students there. The top people in the class at any school should do well for themselves.
As much as being a DO vs MD seems to matter to pre-meds, med students, and a minority of residency programs, once you're in residency or an attending, nobody notices or cares. Heck, the EMR and hospital ID badge I have for one of our hospitals lists "MD" as my title by default because nobody really cares.

 

[zebalong]

Putting off med school for a year not only means putting off your life for a year but also means losing out on a year of attending's salary.
Could there be some advantages to getting into an MD school? Perhaps for some specialties (like someone who seriously wants to go into Rad Onc for example). But for most people, it won't make that much of a difference.
If you end up going to a med school you're "overqualified" for, that just means you should be able to be one of the top students there. The top people in the class at any school should do well for themselves.
As much as being a DO vs MD seems to matter to pre-meds, med students, and a minority of residency programs, once you're in residency or an attending, nobody notices or cares. Heck, the EMR and hospital ID badge I have for one of our hospitals lists "MD" as my title by default because nobody really cares.

Hate to say it, but i think this understates the problem that some DO students face. My friend at Touro did ok in th match but definitely wasn't super excited in the amount of interviews and at the places he interviewed at. He did relatively good on boards mid 230's and a good complex, good 3rd year clinical grades (all HP/Honors)- if he had been able to secure an allo seat he feels he would have been able to land diag rad in areas he wanted, in the end though he choose ED b/c diag rad was not working out (he rotated some aways at ACGME places b/c but didn't get interviews there). I was heart broken that he had to "down" grade his choice b/c he is freakin smart and worked his ass off and will be a GREAT doctor but it really made me think about this whole DO is as good as an Allo spot. A huge draw back is during the match.

 

[Dice456]

Take the DO acceptance...as you seem to already know 26 years of age is far too old to just be starting medical school.

You must be a sarcastic one

 

[normtheniner]

26 is too old, there are people literally dying to get a DO slot and start their medical careers. If you want to stick with Internal medicine than DO is most definitely a very good choice. I would suggest NOT wasting an entire year. The problem with this is that what IF you don't get into an MD school next year not only will you have wasted an entire year but added an extra year to your burden (make that a waste of 2 years) and you will be totally shut off from the DO world. Once DO schools find out that you got accepted and rejected the offer you can forget ever getting accepted to DO schools. How do I know this? well a good friend of mine was in your situation unfortunately for him he can't go back into DO schools and now is stuck doing an extra 2 year MASTERS program on top of wasting that one extra year. You're getting old like me and you have a wonderful opportunity make the best out of it and accept the DO seat seriously! You will be able to get an internal medicine residency easily as a DO or MD. For you to get into an upper tier MD school were talking about 34+ it's not worth the risk man especially not at this stage of your life.

I doubt this is absolutely true (although it may be true for your friend) I think dropping an acceptance prior to matriculation is not as big of a deal as some make it seem. What would be a big deal is starting at the school and then dropping it a couple weeks in... not only would you screw your chances up, but you kept someone else out of med school that could have gone.

 

[LifeTake2]

I doubt this is absolutely true (although it may be true for your friend) I think dropping an acceptance prior to matriculation is not as big of a deal as some make it seem. .

It is 100% true, the ONE and only most DO schools care about is :WHY DO?

If you had an offer and decided to turn it down rather than be a DO, there is NO WAY you could ever give a convincing answer for Why DO other than "I think it might be ok since I tried twice and couldn't be a real doctor".

As others have said, either you want to be a Dr, or you don't. Frankly, I personally hope you don't take it, leave the medical school seat for someone who wants it!

BTW, anyone 26 now was still in high school when I earned my Masters degree so to say a 26yr old is somehow too old is laughable

 

[normtheniner]

It is 100% true, the ONE and only most DO schools care about is :WHY DO?

If you had an offer and decided to turn it down rather than be a DO, there is NO WAY you could ever give a convincing answer for Why DO other than "I think it might be ok since I tried twice and couldn't be a real doctor".

As others have said, either you want to be a Dr, or you don't. Frankly, I personally hope you don't take it, leave the medical school seat for someone who wants it!

BTW, anyone 26 now was still in high school when I earned my Masters degree so to say a 26yr old is somehow too old is laughable

o..k... well there is a poster on the forum (from last year) that turned down a DO school, reapplied and I'm pretty sure he/she was accepted into another DO school.

The reason for turning them down may not always be "I think I can do better", but maybe "This just isn't the right time/place". If you force yourself to go there and you're not happy... won't that play into how successful you are over the next four years?

 

[Bostonredsox]

The fact that you are saying reapply to med school or take a DO spot as if the former is superior to the latter in any way shape or form disgusts me. Please, don't take the spot and go to PA school instead then when your rounding in the hospital you can look at the D.O. on my coat and say to yourself, well I stood proud and didn't take a lowly DO spot but in the end I still have to call him doctor and take his orders. Idiot pre-meds not wanting to stain their reputations by going to DO school despite the 2 degrees being 100% equal when your applying for your license to practice medicine. I have clasmates who got interviews for EM at Harvard, Yale, Carolinas and Stanford. Friends who interviewed for Rads at UCSF and Duke. If you work your ass off and rock your boards and have good letters there wil be no closed doors to you. Stop giving ****ty advice to people when you know nothing about the world of medicine as you have barely finished college, if that. Disgusting trolls.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

I think you are a fool. That's what I think. Drop the DO acceptance and reapply MD, but remember not to reapply DO.

 

[Taty]

The fact that you are saying reapply to med school or take a DO spot as if the former is superior to the latter in any way shape or form disgusts me. Please, don't take the spot and go to PA school instead then when your rounding in the hospital you can look at the D.O. on my coat and say to yourself, well I stood proud and didn't take a lowly DO spot but in the end I still have to call him doctor and take his orders. Idiot pre-meds not wanting to stain their reputations by going to DO school despite the 2 degrees being 100% equal when your applying for your license to practice medicine. I have clasmates who got interviews for EM at Harvard, Yale, Carolinas and Stanford. Friends who interviewed for Rads at UCSF and Duke. If you work your ass off and rock your boards and have good letters there wil be no closed doors to you. Stop giving ****ty advice to people when you know nothing about the world of medicine as you have barely finished college, if that. Disgusting trolls.

I cannot say better than that

 

[Bostonredsox]

I think you are a fool. That's what I think. Drop the DO acceptance and reapply MD, but remember not to reapply DO.

And then when you get rejected from allo again and take a job in research you can spend the rest of your life wishing you had gone osteo and become the Dr. you wanted to be instead of a lab rat or a PA. EMT2ER is a condescending prick who feels he is superior because his initials are MD and mine are DO. You don't see much of this anymore, only in the most malignant areas and by the most ignorant physicians. The rest of the medical community has accepted the truth that they are equivalent practitoners. And like EMT2ER, I also will be pulm/cc and wouldn't you know, we will both get hired as intensivists, and both get paid the same to do the same job. My advice is drop the chip on your shoudler or else spend your life wishing you were a doctor.

 

[MacVA]

EMT2ER is a DO student, I believe...

 

[Bostonredsox]

EMT2ER is a DO student, I believe...

Thats even worse. Please don't give people advice not to pursue our degree because you are unhappy with it and feel inferior to our allopathic counterparts. The rest of us are proud and do not feel lesser.

 

[gl0baltrader]

As somebody who looked at both DO and MD as an option. I think it comes down to what you would like to do in the future.

If you want to be a practicing clinician, there is no difference between MD and DO. But if you would like to go into the academic track (academic hospital) there seems to be a preference for phsician with an MD as opposed to a DO.

Also certain institution has a preference for MD over DO in some states.

I chose the MD route because I have an interest in the academic route but i personally believe that there is no difference between DO and MD.

Good Luck on deciding.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

Thats even worse. Please don't give people advice not to pursue our degree because you are unhappy with it and feel inferior to our allopathic counterparts. The rest of us are proud and do not feel lesser.

Uhhh, I think you have me mixed up with someone else. I was talking about the OP not you for starters. I was being very, very, very sarcastic to the OP because he/she is the kind of person I do NOT want representing my profession.

Secondly, I am a 4th year DO student and I could not be prouder to be one in the very near future. I have done much to promote the DO profession and could not think about being any other type of physician. And I have also spoke to pre meds about being a DO and the great things about it.

My residency in an AOA approved residency and would not have it any other way.

I think you mistook what I said to the OP as negative towards the DO profession, which is farther from the truth. As a I said before, I was being sarcastic to the OP who does not deserve to be accepted to any DO school.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

EMT2ER is a condescending prick who feels he is superior because his initials are MD and mine are DO.

I will accept your apology.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

Thats even worse. Please don't give people advice not to pursue our degree because you are unhappy with it and feel inferior to our allopathic counterparts. The rest of us are proud and do not feel lesser.

I am not, and I am proud and certainly do not feel inferior. See above post.

 

[Bostonredsox]

Uhhh, I think you have me mixed up with someone else. I was talking about the OP not you for starters. I was being very, very, very sarcastic to the OP because he/she is the kind of person I do NOT want representing my profession.

Secondly, I am a 4th year DO student and I could not be prouder to be one in the very near future. I have done much to promote the DO profession and could not think about being any other type of physician. And I have also spoke to pre meds about being a DO and the great things about it.

My residency in an AOA approved residency and would not have it any other way.

I think you mistook what I said to the OP as negative towards the DO profession, which is farther from the truth. As a I said before, I was being sarcastic to the OP who does not deserve to be accepted to any DO school.

My apologies. Reading your responses to the OP it did not appear this way. Im glad you are happy as a DO and at an AOA residency. No hard feelings

 

[NontradICUdoc]

no worries. Since we both want to go into pulm/cc, we may meet up one day and laugh about this.

 

[DarkHorizon]

I go to a DO school and am perfectly content with my education, however, I can't blame you for wanting to aim higher. If you really want the MD, why don't you defer for a year and while sitting out, take the MCAT and reapply MD. If you get into an allopathic school, you can then drop the DO seat.

Also, believe it or not, I think even if you drop the DO seat right now just to take a chance on MD schools, you can still get into a DO school if you reapplied. Read these forums, there are people here who actually failed out, yes FAILED OUT of DO schools, yet were able to get acceptance to other DO schools. Also, there's a guy in my class who either dropped out from an MD school. So I think even if you took a chance and reapplied at a later time, you can still get in.

 

[cj8]

I go to a DO school and am perfectly content with my education, however, I can't blame you for wanting to aim higher. If you really want the MD, why don't you defer for a year and while sitting out, take the MCAT and reapply MD. If you get into an allopathic school, you can then drop the DO seat.

Also, believe it or not, I think even if you drop the DO seat right now just to take a chance on MD schools, you can still get into a DO school if you reapplied. Read these forums, there are people here who actually failed out, yes FAILED OUT of DO schools, yet were able to get acceptance to other DO schools. Also, there's a guy in my class who either dropped out from an MD school. So I think even if you took a chance and reapplied at a later time, you can still get in.

I was wondering if you have heard of anyone who did take your suggestion and defer a DO for a year to reapply for MD? They did offer me delayed admission (for next year) a month ago but have just taken me off the waitlist. I am worry that my DO school might get mad at me for deferring and applying to MD programs instead?

 

[DarkHorizon]

I was wondering if you have heard of anyone who did take your suggestion and defer a DO for a year to reapply for MD? They did offer me delayed admission (for next year) a month ago but have just taken me off the waitlist. I am worry that my DO school might get mad at me for deferring and applying to MD programs instead?

what are your stats like?

 

[cj8]

what are your stats like?

33 mcat, 2.9 undergrad gpa (2.8 science), 3.6 grad gpa (drexel ihs post-bacc), 3.5 columbia nutrition ms.

 

[patel2]

33 mcat, 2.9 undergrad gpa (2.8 science), 3.6 grad gpa (drexel ihs post-bacc), 3.5 columbia nutrition ms.

Be happy a DO school took you, run, and work your best to dominate the first two years and the boards and get into the residency of your choice.

However, it's unlikely you'll be succesful as an allo applicant. Even your drexel post-bac is below average for MD, and so that implies your AMCAS gpa would be something like a 3.1-3.3 overall (the columbia grades are not part of AMCAS gpa). This statistically leaves you with a 40-50% chance of getting an MD acceptance, depending on what the AMCAS gpa calculates out too. I think if you had competitive stats and for whatever reason you didn't get an allo interview (applied too late, didn't apply broadly), then I'd suggest going for it if you really wanted the MD degree. But in your case, you'd need to do an SMP or something to be competitive. You could always do something like Georgetown's SMP, but that's lots of time, money and opportunity costs and is really an individual decision.

Plus, I think if your DO school finds out you are reapplying while deferring a year for MD, they could revoke your admission...You'd literally have to lie to them and give them a fake reason for why you want to defer admission.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

First of all, forget this "lower-tier MD" nonsense. Any US MD school will be respected by residency program directors and by your colleagues, and will give you an opportunity to match into ANY field you want.

Tell that to all the U.S. MD grads who failed to match this year.

You say now that you're interested in IM, EM, or rads-- but what if you change your mind? There are virtually entire fields that are closed off to DO's who want to do an allopathic residency. You can forget about Integrated Plastic Surgery, ENT, Urology, Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology and Dermatology.

Really? Tell that to the DO who matched allo Integrated Plastics this year. Tell it to the DO who matched Derm at Mayo Clinic last year. Or the one who matched allo Neurosurgery. Tell it to the several DO schools who had several of their students match Rad Onc the past few years. You must be a pre-med who knows nothing but what you've "heard." Try thinking for yourself for once and do a bit of research before you spout off.

Same for middle-upper and upper tier programs in less competitive specialties, like General Surgery and Internal Medicine. Some programs (NYU IM comes to mind) explicitly state that they do not even look at DO applicants.

Liar. Several DO students from the NY Osteopathic school have matched into NYU IM. Look at the DO forum for years.

The large university program where I will start IM residency this June, has exactly 0 DO's in an incoming intern class of ~60 people.

I not only call BS, I don't even believe you're a soon-to-be resident. No way is a fourth year stupid enough to talk about things about which he's so obviously ill-informed.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

WTF??? 26 is too old????? My medical school class (including myself) were students mostly OVER 30, some were over 40. I better get off this thread before I say something that gets me banned from the site. Jeez

I'm pretty sure the poster was being sarcastic.

 

[LifeTake2]

I will give you the same response I give anyone that would consider walking away from an acceptance over the MD/DO question:

Reapply MD! Trust me, we don't need any more people that don't even want to be DO's taking the few slots that exist for those of us that actually want to be a Dr.

 

[DarkHorizon]

33 mcat, 2.9 undergrad gpa (2.8 science), 3.6 grad gpa (drexel ihs post-bacc), 3.5 columbia nutrition ms.

If it didnt happen this year, it most likely wont happen next year. You have already exhausted the postbacc option, and you have a masters to go along with that. Not much you can do at this point, you already have a solid MCAT so you really can't increase your chances by getting a higher score. I would take the DO spot and be happy that I'll be a doc in 4 years.

 

[DrMagic]

33 mcat, 2.9 undergrad gpa (2.8 science), 3.6 grad gpa (drexel ihs post-bacc), 3.5 columbia nutrition ms.

Apply Allo, if you get in you get in, depends on how long you have to wait to get what you want, you will get it though. As for DO, it's not for sure, but of course you got the ability to do really well there if they take you. You could go to the caribbean. Lot of sub 3.0 type people get into DO, maybe possibly that GPA is higher depending on how it would be calculated, with retakes, "other science" included with the science GPA for DO, and no math calculated into it. It is my wild guess though that the 33 MCAT will shoot you right in the door of a DO school first time around. From there you could pretty much do whatever specialty you want. The only thing I don't like about DO is the OMM training, which I would not intend to use in my future practice of medicine. If I may ask, how old are you? I'm doing post-bacc now myself while getting an MS in Biomedical Engineering.

 

[patel2]

Apply Allo, if you get in you get in, depends on how long you have to wait to get what you want, you will get it though. As for DO, it's not for sure, but of course you got the ability to do really well there if they take you. You could go to the caribbean. Lot of sub 3.0 type people get into DO, maybe possibly that GPA is higher depending on how it would be calculated, with retakes, "other science" included with the science GPA for DO, and no math calculated into it. It is my wild guess though that the 33 MCAT will shoot you right in the door of a DO school first time around. From there you could pretty much do whatever specialty you want. The only thing I don't like about DO is the OMM training, which I would not intend to use in my future practice of medicine. If I may ask, how old are you? I'm doing post-bacc now myself while getting an MS in Biomedical Engineering.

The OP is already accepted to DO school, and presumably did not get any allo interviews this cycle. He's asking whether he should reapply or take the DO acceptance. I say take it, if for no other reason than his stats are not competitive for MD, and if he doesn't get into MD on reapp, he's pretty much burned bridges with the DO world because he turned down an acceptance and then reapplied

 

[TriagePreMed]

First of all, forget this "lower-tier MD" nonsense. Any US MD school will be respected by residency program directors and by your colleagues, and will give you an opportunity to match into ANY field you want. You say now that you're interested in IM, EM, or rads-- but what if you change your mind? There are virtually entire fields that are closed off to DO's who want to do an allopathic residency. You can forget about Integrated Plastic Surgery, ENT, Urology, Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology and Dermatology. Same for middle-upper and upper tier programs in less competitive specialties, like General Surgery and Internal Medicine. Some programs (NYU IM comes to mind) explicitly state that they do not even look at DO applicants. The large university program where I will start IM residency this June, has exactly 0 DO's in an incoming intern class of ~60 people. Want to do cards? Well, where do you think cardiology programs get their fellows? From the same programs where you will likely be unable to go as a DO.

Why make life so much harder on yourself?

Focus on the MCAT. Don't know how you prepped the first time, but all of your resources need to be focused on KILLING this test. None of this 29-30 talk. If you managed to get into a top 10 undergrad, you can do MUCH better than that.

Finishing med school at age 30 isn't that unusual BTW. That leaves a lot of time to have an amazing career.

Good luck to you.

Someone apparently doesn't know that an AOA match exists.

 

[cj8]

Apply Allo, if you get in you get in, depends on how long you have to wait to get what you want, you will get it though. As for DO, it's not for sure, but of course you got the ability to do really well there if they take you. You could go to the caribbean. Lot of sub 3.0 type people get into DO, maybe possibly that GPA is higher depending on how it would be calculated, with retakes, "other science" included with the science GPA for DO, and no math calculated into it. It is my wild guess though that the 33 MCAT will shoot you right in the door of a DO school first time around. From there you could pretty much do whatever specialty you want. The only thing I don't like about DO is the OMM training, which I would not intend to use in my future practice of medicine. If I may ask, how old are you? I'm doing post-bacc now myself while getting an MS in Biomedical Engineering.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll tell you how it turns out!

And DrMagic, I don't mind you asking. I am 24.