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Hey, guys. I've had an okay DO application cycle. Non-trad, GPA 3.7-3.8, MCAT: 505-509. Applied in Oct. Accepted to a couple of schools.
I've been reflecting on what I experienced during this cycle, and I've milked some advice out of my reflections. I thought I'd share this advice in case it'd help some future DO applicants who are as ignorant as I was when I started this process. (Obviously, I'm not Goro or somebody important. I'm just some guy, so don't take my advice as divine providence.)
This is what I would've sent my past self 6 months ago as sort of a warning of what's to come. Some of the advice might be common sense, and some of it might be contentious, but it is what is.
Here goes:
APPLICATIONS
Do research on what being a DO is about. You're looking to be an osteopathic physician for the rest of your life. Until the day you kick the bucket, you'll have the "DO" initials listed after your name. You might want to understand the history behind the osteopathic tradition. Personally, I recommend "The DOs," by Gevitz. The latest version is from the early 2000s so the info on the present day is outdated... but it includes a lot of good history that you should really know and care about.
Don't apply late. It'll hurt you the most at the more competitive DO schools. My stats were better than the avgs at KCU, DMU, TUCOM-CA, etc., but as an October applicant, I mainly got love at newer, less established schools. At the more established schools, I either got silent rejections or late interviews when their classes were almost filled. (If you have no choice but to apply late, then apply late... because going to a new school is better than taking a gap year, usually. Otherwise, apply as early as you can.)
Apply as broadly as you can. Apply to every single school that you'd prefer attending over taking another gap year. For me, that meant applying to over 20 schools.
Be patient. I was the neurotic pre-med who assumed that silence meant a rejection. Silence sometimes meant a very delayed rejection, but it also sometimes meant a late interview interview. Worrying isn't gonna get you anywhere.
---
Don't necessarily be yourself during interviews. The canned advice that everyone on here gets is "be yourself on interview day." For better or for worse, a lot of applicants are just applying to DO as a backup to MD, many don't really understand and/or care about OMM, osteopathic philosophy, etc., and some aren't terribly interested in primary care. If you're on one of these boats, you have to just play the game. Obviously, don't lie and say that you're A.T. Still reincarnate, but try to be open-minded and avoid talking points that don't align with the ideal DO mold.
Take stuff M1s and M2s say on interview day with a grain of salt. I met a lot of aspiring dermatologists, interventional radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons on my interview days. Please know that a majority of these students are facing a huge uphill battle (perhaps unbeknownst to them), and carefully read the DO matching data so that you're actually informed. Also, I rarely heard current medical students voice any actual criticisms of their schools during interview days. An applicant would ask "What do you like the least about your school?" and the medical student would give some throwaway answer about busy parking or limited food options in the dining hall. If you want to hear to real concerns about schools, reach out to current students through an anonymous medium such as SDN.
Don't be a jerk (and expect to encounter a few jerks). I know it's sort of hard to believe, but there were several very obnoxious characters from my interview days, ranging from a guy who asked a group of second-year students "Hey, what's the difference between OMM and chiropractic? I can't really tell the difference!" to another guy who knowingly left a half-eaten granola bar on a random table inside the admissions office. When you do stuff like that, you leave a horrible impression on people. Why would you want to behave like an asshat when the stakes are so high?
---
Don't waste time trying to evaluate your own interview performance. You'll think you bombed an interview, and you'll get an acceptance. You'll think you aced an interview, and you'll get a waitlist or rejection. Some of us lack confidence and some of us have too much confidence. We're poor judges of our own interview skills, and we aren't able to consider the other factors that the adcoms are taking into account post-II. Just roll with the punches.
Don't bother with LOIs, generally. Schools don't really seem to care about letters of intent, because they're common and not binding. (There are exceptions. One school I interviewed at explicitly encourages waitlisted applicants to regularly send LOIs.)
---
Sorry for any typos. It was sort of a stream-of-consciousness thing, and I didn't edit anything.
That's all I've got. Good luck, DO class of 2024.
I've been reflecting on what I experienced during this cycle, and I've milked some advice out of my reflections. I thought I'd share this advice in case it'd help some future DO applicants who are as ignorant as I was when I started this process. (Obviously, I'm not Goro or somebody important. I'm just some guy, so don't take my advice as divine providence.)
This is what I would've sent my past self 6 months ago as sort of a warning of what's to come. Some of the advice might be common sense, and some of it might be contentious, but it is what is.
Here goes:
APPLICATIONS
Don't apply late. It'll hurt you the most at the more competitive DO schools. My stats were better than the avgs at KCU, DMU, TUCOM-CA, etc., but as an October applicant, I mainly got love at newer, less established schools. At the more established schools, I either got silent rejections or late interviews when their classes were almost filled. (If you have no choice but to apply late, then apply late... because going to a new school is better than taking a gap year, usually. Otherwise, apply as early as you can.)
Apply as broadly as you can. Apply to every single school that you'd prefer attending over taking another gap year. For me, that meant applying to over 20 schools.
Be patient. I was the neurotic pre-med who assumed that silence meant a rejection. Silence sometimes meant a very delayed rejection, but it also sometimes meant a late interview interview. Worrying isn't gonna get you anywhere.
---
INTERVIEWS
Don't necessarily be yourself during interviews. The canned advice that everyone on here gets is "be yourself on interview day." For better or for worse, a lot of applicants are just applying to DO as a backup to MD, many don't really understand and/or care about OMM, osteopathic philosophy, etc., and some aren't terribly interested in primary care. If you're on one of these boats, you have to just play the game. Obviously, don't lie and say that you're A.T. Still reincarnate, but try to be open-minded and avoid talking points that don't align with the ideal DO mold.
Take stuff M1s and M2s say on interview day with a grain of salt. I met a lot of aspiring dermatologists, interventional radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons on my interview days. Please know that a majority of these students are facing a huge uphill battle (perhaps unbeknownst to them), and carefully read the DO matching data so that you're actually informed. Also, I rarely heard current medical students voice any actual criticisms of their schools during interview days. An applicant would ask "What do you like the least about your school?" and the medical student would give some throwaway answer about busy parking or limited food options in the dining hall. If you want to hear to real concerns about schools, reach out to current students through an anonymous medium such as SDN.
Don't be a jerk (and expect to encounter a few jerks). I know it's sort of hard to believe, but there were several very obnoxious characters from my interview days, ranging from a guy who asked a group of second-year students "Hey, what's the difference between OMM and chiropractic? I can't really tell the difference!" to another guy who knowingly left a half-eaten granola bar on a random table inside the admissions office. When you do stuff like that, you leave a horrible impression on people. Why would you want to behave like an asshat when the stakes are so high?
---
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
Don't worry too much about "thank you" letters. I suspect that they don't make a difference. The one school I sent "thank you" letters to gave me a post-II R. (I know, I know. N=1.) You can do it to be polite, but if you're doing MMI interviews, don't bother trying to find contact info for every single person you meet.
Don't waste time trying to evaluate your own interview performance. You'll think you bombed an interview, and you'll get an acceptance. You'll think you aced an interview, and you'll get a waitlist or rejection. Some of us lack confidence and some of us have too much confidence. We're poor judges of our own interview skills, and we aren't able to consider the other factors that the adcoms are taking into account post-II. Just roll with the punches.
Don't bother with LOIs, generally. Schools don't really seem to care about letters of intent, because they're common and not binding. (There are exceptions. One school I interviewed at explicitly encourages waitlisted applicants to regularly send LOIs.)
---
Sorry for any typos. It was sort of a stream-of-consciousness thing, and I didn't edit anything.
That's all I've got. Good luck, DO class of 2024.
