Well to be more specific : do RESIDENCY DIRECTORS know which D.O. school is 'better'. Ultimately, that's ALL that matters. One D.O. school might actually be one of the best run institutions in the country, and the other a disfunctional den of corruption, but if the residency directors don't know the difference...
I mean, let's assume for the sake of the argument that I get the same board scores at D.O. school X and D.O. school Y. Will the name of the school carry much weight, or is it all on my performance?
First, I want to say this: something can only be a "last resort" if you have better options, otherwise it's your only choice. Since you have not gained admission to any US medical school, I wouldn't be so cocky. Just so you know, while DO schools may be somewhat less number happy, they tend to look at and weigh more intangible qualities in your application more highly. At the end, it won't be just your numbers that get you in; it is your entire package. Be aware that there are infamous cases of people with great numbers who were rejected from every school that they applied to. The bottom line is that medical school is medical school and gaining admission to
any one of them is a huge thing, whether MD or DO. Fewer than 50% of the people who apply to medical school make it in, and once you make it in, you are virtually guaranteed to become a doctor, unless you really screw up. If your goal is to become a doctor, practically any school will get you there, more or less. A great deal of your sucess is going to be dependent on your own performance and how much of a go getter you are. I'm not saying that name recognition won't be of benefit, but your own performance is going to be key. No school's reputation is going to help you if you suck during medical school.
Every program director I've talked to and every academic attending I've ever talked to has pretty much said the same thing: your rotation performance, Step I score, time spent with our program (and whether we liked you while you were here, during your rotation), and LORs were important. Most people I've talked to said that rotating with the program you want is really key. I'm sure name-recognition, or reputation of your school does factor in there somewhere, but I don't think it's at the top of the list. Really, as long as you have competitive rotation grades/evals, step I score, and have decent letters, whether the people in the program actually liked you when you rotated there, and thought that you would make a good addition to the team, can give you a huge edge.
That being said, I say you come up with a list of factors that are important for you and come up with your own top 5 list, having researched the DO schools, which shouldn't be difficult, given that there really aren't that many of them. It's really important to choose a school, in my opinion, based on your OWN criteria. You want to pick a school you can be happy and successful at.
Lastly, match lists are more indicative of a given class than of a school, so take them with a grain of salt. You have no idea what went into that person getting that residency slot.
