Admission without a letter from a DO

If you're really concerned about it, you can try shadowing a DO for about a month, then ask him to write you a letter. If you're ambitious, grab an insurance list of doctors in the area and start calling DO's one by one.

It will push back the date that your medical school application file will be complete, but at least you'll have the LOR there. That's pretty much what I did. I learned about osteopathic medicine late in the game, and didn't get my file completed because of the DO LOR until January (and didn't do my first interview until March). However, keep in mind that the later your file is complete, the harder it is to get one of the dwindinling number of seats available.

I don't know how crucial the LOR is to adcoms. I know of only one offhand that require it (NSU - your file there wont be complete until they get one). I remember some secondaries saying that it wasn't a requirement.

If you decide not to have one, you may want to be prepared to answer why in an interview. I'm not saying they will ask, because I have no idea what they would ask any one person, but it might be a possibility.

Anyway, good luck!

 

i was accepted to dmu and nycom without a letter from a D.O. , but i had a lot of other experience in the health field. i'm not suggesting you do that, but you can get in without a letter specifically from a D.O. i later followed a D.O. and he wrote me a letter for wvsom because they required it, but i had already been accepted to dmu and nycom without needing one in my packet. it's a good thing to shadow a D.O. though because questions about osteopathy will definitely appear on an interview and if you can bring in an experience of when you've seen omm in action, it will just make you a better candidate. hope that helps!

kimberlee

 

I'm going to be shadowing an MD -- but she really encompasses what the whole osteopathic philosophy is. I'm going to ask her to write me a letter -- but I'll also be working with a DO in the ER in a month or so, so can I get a letter from him also? Or will the ADCOMS only accept one physician letter?

Thanks!

 

I sent in a letter from a DO and a MD. I knew the DO for about 6 months, and the MD for the last 10 years. I think it is okay as long as the MD knows you very well, and a letter from a DO shows you are interested in the field.

 

Thanks buddy! Congrats again!!

 

Mdjd,

What I meant by that is simply that from my knowledge of osteopathic medicine, she treats her patients as people and not as diseases, she believes that the body can heal itself and looks for alternative approaches to drugs/surgery, etc. Just as some DO's never use OMM, there are some MD's that do use it. I know this because I am her patient. I have no desire to convince an ADCOM that this is true, as I will also have a letter from a DO. My question was originally if I could submit two letters, which I have since found out is true.