To answer your first question, yeah Im definitely glad I got into rowan. I got accepted and cancelled all my other DO school interviews because of my in state status. It turned out to be really nice because Im used to living in suburbia within a comfy/short commute to a city. There are plenty of research opportunities here (for a DO school) because our school is one of the few that brings in NIH funding for research. The proximity of it to philly gives you opportunity to get involved with research at other programs of interest if youre a real go-getter. We have rotation sites for you and dont leave everyone to fend for themselves come third year. Quality of rotation sites are variable, but will expose you to the bread and butter pathology that med students need to see plus a zebra once in a while. The culture here is generally nice and students help each other out plenty. If it matters to you at all, our geriatrics department is like #5 in the nation and the school will never let you forget about it. Time off for interviews in fourth year is actually really generous compared to other DO schools as well.
I’ll answer your second question by saying that of course there is a lower glass ceiling in general for a DO compared to your typical US MD. The extent to which thats the case varies by specialty. In more competitive fields you will of course need better qualifications than your MD counterparts to get into the same programs as them. In primary care specialties or pm&r there is virtually zero glass ceiling. If your heart is set on a surgical subspecialty or derm, I would only advise that you matriculate into a DO school with a realistic backup specialty in mind that you’d also be happy in. If prestige is a big deal to you, then of course dont come here and dont go to any DO school. Im still interviewing right now but the quality of interviews Ive gotten Im really happy with. I went into the residency application process with the desire to end up at any average level university program in my specialty and thats exactly what Im looking at with my current interview invites. I could go into more detail about specific specialties if you want too. Just pm me.
