How could you possibly know? Seriously.
I assure you that if you can do the work in this business, it will get you a gig. Someone who went to Prestigious School X will not be chosen over someone from a school that is not well-known if he or she is incompetent. There are things like clinical rotations and board scores that put everybody on a level playing field, so that there is an objective way to judge med school grads, as opposed to looking simply at where they went to school.
I went the MD route the first time and didn't apply DO because I didn't know what the hell a DO was. I had heard of it, but I didn't really get it until a few events occurred:
1. I went to a dermatologist appointment. The guy turned out to be a DO. I found this out when I mentioned that I had just applied to medical school. He told me that he actually felt that he had MORE opportunities as a DO than he would have had as an MD.
2. A guy who has been mentoring me through this process told me that he thought that PCOM was every bit as good of a school as his school, when it comes to educating physicians. By "his school", I mean the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a professor and oncologist (he is now with the NIH). He told me that an older applicant like myself, particularly one with an athletic background, might be a good fit for a DO school. This guy is a buddy of my uncle's. My uncle is a microbiologist at Stanford, and they went to school together.
3. I started volunteering at the trauma center, and there were DO's left and right.
Until then, I just didn't get it. I didn't even know what a DO was until well into my pre-med education. Nobody knows what the hell DO's are, but it really doesn't matter once you're out of school.
People (who are stupid) always cite the fact that DO schools don't put a lot of people into specialties. Well no ****. That's what they try to do. As a result, people who want to be generalists and primary care physicians are attracted to DO school. As are older applicants who may not want to spend a long time doing residency and fellowship training.
So maybe a lot of DO schools are taking people who couldn't get into MD schools. There could be a variety of reasons for this, and they don't all have to do with how smart people are. Those who really aren't as smart may be stuck doing something they don't want to do. Those who are will show.
The fact of the matter is, once you've graduated from medical school, if you can get the job done, you will be given a chance. If I go to medical school, do well, get good recs, make the right contacts, and do as well as I think I should on my boards, then I will have my choice of surgery residencies that will certify me for critical care, and I will be chosen over people who went to prestigious MD schools.
Why? Because I know these people, and I am smarter than most of them. I was pre-med with tons of people who ended up at Baylor and UT-Southwestern. I remember tutoring them for MCAT prep and various other subjects.
And my assessment of the situation isn't from my own imagination. Aside from the UPenn oncologist, I've also got a neurosurgeon who went to UT-Southwestern helping me with this process, and a whole slew of MD's and DO's from the trauma center where I volunteer. Their message is all the same: show that you're willing to work hard, and that you can do the job at a high level, and you will write your own ticket, regardless of where you go to school.
Now whether Random Stupid Person X will allow a DO to be his or her physician or not is another story. But there are enough Random Stupid Person Y's who prefer DO's, for whatever reason, and few enough DO's, that this will balance out.
Again, this whole school prestige/MD/DO nonsense is a construct of the idiot pre-med imagination.
