Am I insane do this?

[Jflin300]

For current perspective I am an M2 at a DO med school. I applied to DO schools as a second resort after an unsuccessful cycle for MD schools and everyone told me to go for it. My MCAT was a 513 and I was waitlisted at my MD choices. Everyone I talked to said just take the DO acceptance and so I thought what the heck: I’ll go for it, why not?

Fast forward, I absolutely despise osteopathic medicine. I never hated it to start with but I dislike it as a whole. I find the resources, location, and overall nature of the program I’m in to be very poor. I dread the idea of taking 2 board exams each step of the way and the worst part is that my school only mostly has local state connections so if I want to match into anesthesia, I would likely stay here. My options seem limited for the future and I just am not really happy about likely spending residency in the state I’m in.

I’m doing well in classes, however the resources are just lacking here. Before I was admitted, the students I spoke to made it seem like the school had plenty of resources but they don’t. They’re honestly stretched thin and my best chance of matching into anesthesia, a relatively competitive specialty is low unless I stick around the area.

In hindsight, I should have just tried for another year at the cycle. For more context, I want to reiterate : * I DO NOT FEEL ANY INFERIORITY AS A DO. I AM NOT INTERSTED IN THE MD BECAUSE OF MY EGO OR CLOUT*

I’ve heard of one of my friends completing a year and then starting at another med school.

Would I be insane to drop my program and reapply for the chance at a better school? The biggest hindrance for me is that my MCAT has expired so I’m not sure if I can reapply with that.

Trust me, I told myself to toughen it out. To grind hard and work it out in any situation is my way of doing things. However, if I can drop my program and apply in the cycle to get in somewhere else, I’d take it now before it’s too late.

In the end, I feel like I need to go to a school with more opportunities. I regret picking osteopathic medicine and thinking it was going to be fine no matter what. I am severely unhappy with the location, curriculum, and resources my school has. I need advice on what to do and if reapplying is even feasible with an expired MCAT score.

The tdlr: DO student who took an admission to a relatively under resourced school looking to drop program and reapply to MD schools in the upcoming cycle. Spoke to older students, advisors here and seems like my best chance to match something I want to practice in (Anesthesia) is in state, which I simply cannot do. I was pretty naive about location and my school and decided to do it as it was the only acceptance I had. I’d be willing to start over elsewhere even if it means repeating M1 from the start which I’d be doing.

Is this insane? Is it stupid? Any advice is appreciated.

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[Goro]

You made your bed, now lie in it. Two years will go quickly, and then you'll be a resident.

 

[MDMechEngr]

The train has left the station and is traveling at a rate of 100 mph down the track. Don't try to jump off of it now so you can board another one. As far as location goes, you will get use to the tornadoes. Get to the basement and don't try to outrun it.

 

[LucidSplash]

I am only going to answer the title.

Yes.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Insane? No.
Good for your career? No!

You probably won’t get into med school a second time. DO matching into neurosurgery is probably more likely than you leaving DO and being able to get into an MD school.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Rather than spending time/energy on thinking about dropping out and reapplying, concentrate on making yourself the best Anesthesia applicant you can be. Plenty of DO's match to Anesthesia. if you make yourself competitive, you can get a great spot.

 

[RangerBob]

From a practical standpoint, you'd give up at least two years of attending salary if you drop out/reapply. Unless you continue with your DO program, but your credits won't transfer to an MD program so that would be pointless. That's about $400,000-$1mil you'd be giving up, depending on whether you get into anesthesia or another specialty.

I agree with the others. This is not a smart plan at all. You're more likely to end up with nothing.

Focus on your studies, acing the boards, do audition rotations, and you can match into a good anesthesia program.

 

[polymerization]

MS2s dropping out of their programs to wade around in the pool with MD hopefuls... Consider the premeds shook! It's the hottest 2025 gap year trend, for only the most courageous. Plus, imagine—your Work & Activities are going to be fuego flame—you may well have even served on a medical school admissions committee yourself.

This is what we get when we create parallel licensure around a practice that is circumscribed enough to warrant an elective (and for all intents and purposes is operationalized as an OMM elective).

This is supposed to be about the "ordinary magic" of osteopathy and a philosophy of learning, but it behaves more and more like institutional segregation, where doors begin to close to you professionally. I just wonder what kind of system we're creating when a situation like this is actually coherent. This isn't someone crashing and burning... it's representative of a situation where effort no longer matters, and you just kind of have to resign yourself to accepting that. Isn't that, like, the opposite of a meritocracy?

The funny thing is, I kind of believe you when you say that you don't want an MD for ego or clout. It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect academic resources from an academic institution; you're not asking them to achieve world peace.

I'm interested to hear how the adcoms would view it based on the fact that your transcripts would reflect good progress on a medical school curriculum. I can tell already that they don't like it, but, is there an intellectually honest reason as to why that is?

 

[thumbz]

So two things - number 1 - as a DO, the last time I did any meaningful OMT was 2013 - that was my MS2 year of medical school. So even if you hate the DO side of things, like it will come to an end very soon.

Number 2 - your chance of matching anesthesia as a DO is 60%, as an MD it is 85%. So, truly what you're asking is "is it worth it to drop out of school and take on another year of student loans to increase my odds of matching by 25%?"

Realizing the caveat to that is - do you think residency programs will look past the red flag of dropping out of a program to re-enroll in another program to the point you'll get that full 25%? Probably not. So now you're talking about taking on this risk for some minimally higher chance of successfully matching Anesthesia. Assuming of course too your MS3/4 years don't make you fall in love with something entirely different.

And the final thought I'll leave you with is - you already had an unsuccessful MD cycle. Now you're adding the red flag of having dropped out of medical school? Why do you think you'll suddenly have MD acceptances raining down upon you?

So, my $0.02 - you'd be insane to consider this and would likely end up never becoming a doctor, let alone an anesthesiologist, should you chose to walk down this road.

 

[operaman]

Yeah don’t be stupid, stick it out. You’ve got two years left and the fourth year doesn’t even count because it’s so chill. I think your app would be DOA at most MD schools because you will struggle to articulate a coherent reason for dropping a professional school halfway through to do basically the same thing at another school. The reasoning of wanting more resources is going to get one serious eye roll because most students already rely on external mass market resources (Anki, pathoma, World, OME, BnB, sketchy, etc) even at top 10 schools. As for other opportunities, you’re going to struggle to articulate exactly what those are and why they merit dropping a guaranteed medical degree.

Don’t be foolish - get your degree and move on. Your chances of anesthesia as a DO are lightyears beyond your chances of getting an MD acceptance now. Plus even if you landed the MD, you’ll have to explain your school swap to every residency PD who will be worried you’re going to jump ship when things get tough halfway through.

 

[Ascent23510]

If you’re that uncomfortable about your school not having resources and disliking the location then I think you should leave and do what you think is best for you. It seems like a lot of people online or your friends told you to take the acceptance when you should have waited out another cycle. I know people who have done this and been successful. Most of the comments here saying there’s little to no chance are just plain wrong. But you better have a good reason and explanation to adcoms if you tell them. I personally know 3 guys who did that this previous year and all of them got admitted to another school. However, all 3 made the transition from MD to another MD. They all had to start over again. 2 of the guys were depressed at the school they went to so they decided to move to another school and the third dude had a huge family thing he had to deal with so he had to go back to his home town.