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Honestly, as another African American male, I will tell you that DO will be just another stigma you will have to endure as a black doctor. If you have the choice, go MD.
I'm all here for all the empathetic black ears responding. Double conciousness is real. Everyone that is saying "don't care what people think, do what makes you happy" doesn't really grasp it...
Ofcourse do what makes you happy, but mental health is important too and having to constantly combat those stigmas will have its toll ... I mean there will always be stigmas and misguided assumptions, but you know yourself and how much these stigmas have weighed on your past...whatever you can do to minimize them and stay happy, do it...I'd go with the MD.
 
Go MD even if you already dropped that $2000 deposit. You'll have to worry about less going forward.

From: Soon to be a DO student who wish he got into an MD.

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Hah, wish the people in the ARCOM thread would realize this.
Haha @Magnus5454. I would go to any MD before ARCOM. There's no disputing that. I don't know what's wrong with the others though lmao. Maybe it's just because of the way they present the school with so much support coming from everywhere.

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Haha @Magnus5454. I would go to any MD before ARCOM. There's no disputing that. I don't know what's wrong with the others though lmao. Maybe it's just because of the way they present the school with so much support coming from everywhere.

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Yep, i would have jumped at a UAMS acceptance. It's also why I'm going to my CalMed interview. Does ARCOM have community support , sure. Is it worth learning OMM, taking two sets of boards, not having a teaching hospital. Nope.
 
I'm all here for all the empathetic black ears responding. Double conciousness is real. Everyone that is saying "don't care what people think, do what makes you happy" doesn't really grasp it...
Ofcourse do what makes you happy, but mental health is important too and having to constantly combat those stigmas will have its toll ... I mean there will always be stigmas and misguided assumptions, but you know yourself and how much these stigmas have weighed on your past...whatever you can do to minimize them and stay happy, do it...I'd go with the MD.
I 100% agree. Though I understand the "do what makes you happy" sentiments are well-meaning and coming from a good place and I really respect some of their posts in other threads, unless you're POC, I don't think you're in a position to really say that. I'm not AA, but I am POC and it's not so easy to do "whatever you want" if you're marginalized in any way. Yes, I have a pretty strong personality and I tell myself I can do whatever I want and screw everybody else and whatever they may think of me, but deep down I still have a lot of fears that I think only POC and other U.S. minorities can relate to. Yes, you will find anecdotal stories of patients being sh*theads to doctors/nurses/techs/etc. who are middle-class, straight, white, apple pie, males so you think people are equal opportunity sh*theads. But there is something qualitatively different when someone bashes on you for things that are completely outside of your control. I cannot change my ethnicity nor my sex (I said sex, not gender) nor my life history and to have barbs thrown at me based on those immutable things just makes it sting a little bit worse.

Even I as a POC can't tell someone who's AA to "just go for it" in light of concerns like OP's. I'm not AA, I don't know what it's like, and I have to believe that OP has legitimate concerns due to his lived experiences. I can't play down his fears simply because I don't understand them (except in this case I kinda do).

I'm sure there are a bazillion posts like this on SDN and I'm probably being redundant, but I felt it worth repeating because people still don't get it. This is not to blame you or make you feel guilty if you don't. I, nor I believe anyone else in this thread, am not bemoaning any privilege I may lack or rolling my eyes at you. I'm simply asking for an open mind for circumstances you've never experienced. There are plenty of experiences I will never understand, but I hope that I can be sympathetic enough to at least listen and learn.