Clever. It's sort of like how the Vikings discovered a green island with volcanic warm springs and some decent land, and called it 'Iceland.' Meanwhile, the vast expanse of snowy plains they called 'Greenland.'
I think the idea is, the more "stigma" the DO is seen to have (and this stigma only seems to exist among premeds) the less competition there will be. Sadly, Pandora's Box is open, and too many of us are already vying for seats. So, nice try, Nater... 😛
To the original poster: do use the Search, since this is a topic that comes up with regularity. However, don't let the sniping and the attitudes scare you off. These are good questions, they're just less fun to answer the 14th time around.
The short answer: Med school is med school, and doctors are doctors. ...Except for all the various ways in which any one will be totally different from any another.
I heard my first-ever bad report of a DO recently. Based on my own subjective, anecdotal evidence, the proportion of good doc DO's to bad doc DO's is somewhat higher than the proportion of good doc MD's to bad doc MD's. But of course, the prevalence of DO's in the first place is lesser.
And a few days here might show you that a person who's a successful student may not necessarily be good at the blend of knowledge/ critical thinking/ humanity/ compassion/ even-temperedness that a good doc needs (ahem).
I'm still forming my impresison, but there does seem to be a general warm-fuzzy sense of primary care focus, and interest in patients as people, in the DO and pre-DO crowds. Certainly nothing about that is special to DO's, and a vast majority of the MD's have it as well... but there is either something in the DO training that builds that up, or the DO emphasis just attracts that sort of doctor-to-be in the first place.
And yes, I'm an older, non-trad career-changer. And yes, my undergrad GPA is 3.02. That's why researching the DO was recommended to me by my friend the newly-minted MD. There's nothing about her training that she thinks I couldn't handle (which is nice, since the DO training is 99.9% the same), and with a glass of wine in her she might even admit that in certain intangible ways, I might be a better doc than her (just as she will always kick my bootie in other ways). But apparently there is a perception among applicants that it's a good idea for someone in my situation to check out the DO route.
That's what I'm doing, and people here and in the admissions office of schools I've called or visited have generally substantiated that perception. DO schools seem to be happy to entertain the idea that a person can become an excellent physician without being focused like a laser on it since the age of 17. Whether this is just a function of the fact that more laser-children aim at MD schools is hard to say, but I'll be applying to both, and I'll go to the place that accepts me.
If I get acceotances at both, then I'll choose the school where the faculty, students, and facilities will give me the best shot at becoming the best doc I can be, considering my own strengths and weaknesses. Whether Joe and Jane Patient are familiar with what a DO is will be far down the list of priorities, because truthfully, they don't care. Best of luck to you as you figure out your own thing.
