hi i'm a texas resident applying to TCOM. for anyone who goes there now or planning on it, how does the school compare to other DO schools? where are most of the rotations done, i heard the hospital near the school closed? does that make it difficult to do your rotations? and how well do DOs from this school place in MD residencies such as surgery or anesthesiology? thanks.
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I'm a fourth year graduating in May. Your experience at TCOM my differ from mine in that the school has undergone some changes in the last couple years. Yes, Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas closed last year. It was a major site for third year rotations. Its closing however was a blessing in disguise because it paved the way for the school to greatly expand its relationship with John Peter Smith Hospital, the major indigent hospital in Fort Worth. Now third year students do a large number of roations there--psych, medicine, surgery, OBGYN, etc. It is a vastly superior rotation site compared to the old OMCT. It has all the major pathology of a county hospital, similar to UT-Southwestern-Parkland, etc., just as a major teaching hospital should have. They also have a number of MD residency programs there. This releationship should only gain strength as time goes by. For example, the OBGYN department at TCOM just became the OBGYN department at JPS, with the same faculty, department head (now a DO), etc.vipergts66 said:
Most TCOM grads do MD residencies, in almost all specialties, save for a select few (ENT, Rads, and maybe Surgery), mostly because there are very few DO residencies in Texas. And being a Texan, you are probably well aware of the fact that most Texans (95% of eachclass as UNT is a state school) want to stay in Texas.
I'm of course bias, but I would rank TCOM in the top 5 of all DO schools, based primarily on admissions selectivity, board pass rates, residency selections, etc. But that's just me. I think you can get a solid education at any of the DO schools. What you'll soon find out is that medical school is a lot of self study. It requires a lot of self discipline. You get out of it exactly what you put into it, no matter where you go. Hope this helps. Good luck.
Surgery. I'm mostly likely doing a DO residency, only because the DO programs I have interviewed at are better than the MD ones I got an offer to interview from, so I'll rank them first. That is not to say that you can't get into a good MD surgery residency. I didn't take USMLE Step 1 (the MD version of the boards) so my application to MD programs was not as strong as it otherwise could have been. I decided to only take the COMLEX (DO boards) which in retrospect may have been a mistake. Coming out of TCOM, if you take the USMLE Step 1 and do well you will land at a solid MD program of any specialty, with the possible exception of ENT, Rads, and Derm, should that be your intention. Those specialties are very hard to get into, even if you are a good MD applicant. You can always apply DO ENT, Rads, Derm as well.vipergts66 said:
could you describe more the surgery residencies you applied to? that is something that i'm interested in. are you planning on categorical gen surg? how do you feel about anesthesiology as well? and the chances a DO would have...thanks a bunch! 
Do well at TCOM, take and do well on USMLE Step 1 and you'll get a good Anesthesia residency (MD or DO). People at TCOM have in the past matched at places like Yale Anesthesiology--check out the TCOM admissions website FAQs page. I applied to mostly level 1 or 2 trauma centers, 300 to 400 bed hospitals for my DO surgery residency (all categorical). I got interviews everywhere I applied (DO)-~15 programs. I applied to mostly community based MD programs (all categorical)s--also 300 or so beds but much less trauma--and got interviews at about thirty percent of the programs to which I applied. Again, the 30% was mostly due to my lack of USMLE scores. Anesthesia is more amenable to the COMLEX though and if I wanted to go that route I would probably have landed an average to above average MD program, although I have heard that it is a competitive year for Anesthesia so maybe not.vipergts66 said:could you describe more the surgery residencies you applied to? that is something that i'm interested in. are you planning on categorical gen surg? how do you feel about anesthesiology as well? and the chances a DO would have...thanks a bunch!