Accepted to expensive MD vs much cheaper DO school

[AnatomyGrey12]

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Right, but flat out rejecting DO out of hand is just as stupid, no? Especially when opie could save 30 grand a year.

You literally bolded the part of what I said that shows I didn't say this...

 

[JB50]

FTFY.

MD for a multitude of reasons. Even if it were another DO school I would go there just to avoid the mandatory lectures.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

For most people, the difference in the degrees WILL NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Not true. The average MD student will have more options than an average DO, not just in terms of specialties but in terms of programs in said specialties (think IM). This is indisputable. Why do you fight this so hard? Ask any DO student applying to residency, hell I had DO schools themselves say this at their interview days.

every applicant holding an acceptance to both should think AT LEAST twice before turning down the MD acceptance.

Wow man, maybe read a little of what I say before you post and get all bent out of shape. ^^

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Just to be clear. I am not a DO hater, I will be going to a DO school myself and am exceptionally grateful and excited for the opportunity to be a doctor. I am simply a realist and think every single applicant should know what they are getting into before they discard that MD acceptance for a DO one. That decision could potentially change someone's career. The people who don't understand the impact of that decision are the ones who become bitter DOs down the road and talk about how much they hate it.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

@JB50 You know what's funny JB? You and I are both so stubborn and similar that we would probably get along great in real life

 

[AlteredScale]

Right, but flat out rejecting DO out of hand is just as stupid, no? Especially when opie could save 30 grand a year.

Medicine is far beyond saving 30 grand a year especially in terms of the resources and opportunities that are provided to you going to an MD school. And again, this goes far beyond ENT neurosurgery but also great FM programs (Pnwu has been around for years and has yet to send any of their grads to doing FM at UW), IM (please see my post hx and see just how many IM programs become limited to you), and many other specialties that essentially become exponentially difficult to go into. I don't see how that's worth saving 30K at the end of the day. Sure you got that extra money but now you're the miserable hospitalist that could have been happier if they had a better shot pursuing rad onc, or IM to a great academic specialty. It's about opportunity and I don't understand how 30K is worth cutting you away from that.


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[Stagg737]

This right here. This is IM, a "DO friendly field". Having the MD opens doors in every single specialty! Why do people have such a hard time understanding this? Say OP wants to go GI after his IM residency, well only 1/3 of DOs matched that fellowship. An average MD, is still well placed to get into a solid university IM program that will set him up to specialize in whatever he wants. An average DO does not have that opportunity. And I won't even get into the competitive specialties.

The bold is only semi-true. IM is DO friendly if you're looking at mid to low-tier programs or community programs. For top tier and academic programs, IM is not DO friendly at all. It's almost like looking at two separate fields and IM is too broad of a field to simply categorize as a single "specialty", as there is a massive difference between top-tier candidates and everyone else.


As to why someone would choose DO over MD, I'll give my perspective since I turned down MD interview(s) to go DO. 99.9% of the time, I'd say go MD (including OP's situation). There are a few situations which I think can move the decision to the DO side, but it's not just a single factor, for me it was a combination of many things. I had an interview at an MD school when I got my DO acceptance and cancelled the interview after I got the acceptance. There were really 3 major reasons why I chose the DO school.

The first, and probably biggest one for me, was the location of the MD school and my situation with my SO. The nature of my SO's work made it basically impossible for her to find a job in her field where the MD school was located, where the DO school is located in a city with a lot of opportunities for her (and she's got a job she loves now). So my SO's happiness and ability to fulfill her goals played a role in my decision.

Tied into that was cost of attendance and tuition. My current COA is around 55k/year, and SO's income covers most of that expense. So the net expense for us is around 10k/year. The MD school would have cost me on average 85-90k/year, and my wife would have likely only been making around 25-30k. So the net expense would have been around 60k/year. So financially, before interest, it was a 200k difference. Taking interest into account, I had calculated it would have likely been around a 250-300k difference, and that's assuming I paid everything off in the first 5-6 years after residency. I don't want to think about how much I would have owed had I attended that MD school.

The other big thing for me was that I was only looking at one field where DO's are at a very significant disadvantage in the MD match. Other than that, the other fields I was strongly considering weren't a problem for DOs to match into, even at some of the higher tier MD programs. I also think that studying OMM is beneficial for physicians entering those fields (obviously not all aspects, but there is certainly useful knowledge). Even knowing that, turns out I'm now looking at a completely different field than any of the ones I initially wanted, fortunately it's also a pretty DO friendly field.

Going back to OP, I don't think there's any single reason that's good enough to choose a DO school over MD, or one school over any other really. For something as big as DO over MD, it's a combo of personal and financial reasons along with an understanding and acceptance that you're not planning to take certain career routes. I will say that there were several MD schools that I would have attended over any DO school had I gotten in, but I didn't get in. I'll also add that there were several schools (MD and DO) that I withdrew my application from once I was accepted to my current school, and I don't regret withdrawing my app from those schools.

 

[JB50]

@JB50 You know what's funny JB? You and I are both so stubborn and similar that we would probably get along great in real life

I had a similar thought. We should drink some scotch and argue out on the porch in our rocking chairs when we hit 65 y/o

 

[JB50]

Just to be clear. I am not a DO hater, I will be going to a DO school myself and am exceptionally grateful and excited for the opportunity to be a doctor. I am simply a realist and think every single applicant should know what they are getting into before they discard that MD acceptance for a DO one. That decision could potentially change someone's career. The people who don't understand the impact of that decision are the ones who become bitter DOs down the road and talk about how much they hate it.

Have fun in family med bruh. As a DO you are DOomed

 

[JB50]

Medicine is far beyond


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[SurgDoc95]

Have fun in family med bruh. As a do you are DOomed

You 100% live up to the implied sarcastic sense of humor your Ron Swanson avatar implies. Bravo

 

[dwgrubbs1s]

I think everyone forgets about the interest that student loan debt racks up. Also, they look past the fact that someone may want to have a family, home, car, etc. A good chunk of your income is going to taxes, another chunk is going to malpractice insurance. Yes, do what you feel would make you the happiest, but scoffing at $120,000 in debt for very close to the same degree is absurd. There is pros and cons to both. One could argue don't take the cheap route now because it'll possibly pay more later. On the other hand, OP could be working in a family practice clinic or in general surgery along side a D.O. that has less debt than him but makes the same money he does.

 

[AlteredScale]

One could argue don't take the cheap route now because it'll possibly pay more later. On the other hand, OP could be working in a family practice clinic or in general surgery along side a D.O. that has less debt than him but makes the same money he does.

Again, if OP decides to go DO they will save money but limit what they can do and where they can go. That can be the seed to make them absolutely miserable (idk about you, but if you are making great money but not doing what you love in medicine after the years you spent training and learning, I would not be content or happy even being 120K ahead).

I get it, finance is important. But it comes down to perspective, are you in it to "just be a doctor", make your money. Or do you go to an MD school where your resources and opportunities are absolutely endless where you can actually have a strong chance pursuing ENT, Urology, Neurosurgery, CT Surgery, Plastics and quickly pay off the debt you collect but still be absolutely content with what you are doing. On the other hand, you have a better shot pursuing academic medicine which by far pays much less, but many still pursue it because for them, the art and love of medicine goes beyond the paycheck.

 

[JB50]

Opie please just tell us what you're gonna do already so I can stop reading all of this hyperbole and hyper-polarization of DO vs MD by medical students.

DO

MD

 

[dwgrubbs1s]

Opie please just tell us what you're gonna do already so I can stop reading all of this hyperbole and hyper-polarization of DO vs MD by medical students.

DO

MD

Probably seen all of our post and decided to get out of medicine all together