Yessshh. Let me start off by saying that I have read some of your stuff and find most of it insightful but yet funny.
1) why didnt you shoot for a SMP? Ur Mcat was solid and ur GPA was low, isnt that what SMPs are made for?
The real reason: I want to finish my education, start my life, and not keep adding years onto the point when I start to have a family. I won't have a family without having an income (+/- crushing debt and insane work hours with that income). I considered it, but felt very strongly against the master programs because of my desire to move through the system quickly as possible.
The emotional reason: I may get in trouble for this one. But the master program students at my school have a few bright spots, but there are many inferior students who I would not trust to treat anyone in my family. The masters program students I know from all other schools are, again, with a few bright spots. But those bright spots tend to be the people who did a MPH or a "real" masters because they felt very strongly about public health/their degree. The ones who did it more as an application adjunct are overwhelmingly people who scare me when I have casual conversations about research or pathology with them because of their lack of knowledge or vastly incorrect knowledge base (Despite being in med school). And the scariest thing of all? I just found out that one of the biggest *****s in my undergrad just got into columbia's pre-med masters program. I am extremely scared for the people he will one day treat if he can swing that into a school acceptance. I think very poorly of masters of science students.
With that said. Perhaps all of my experience is a poor sample size. Or biased. Or I'm plain wrong. I am not afraid to admit that I could be so incorrect on this. But from what I've seen, I think the masters->med school route is viable for very few people and deeply troubling for most.
2) if you had to do t all over again, would you go to DO school or sit out a year and shoot for MD? My gpa is not competative, and I can either retake classes for DO school, or look into SMPs, and I would like to know what drove you down the DO path.
I chose DO in a place i wanted to be over MD in places i didnt want to be. So I had that choice. If it were in an area I wanted to be for both, I'd choose MD. It just gives you more opportunities. Ironically, I'd actually have less, but I'm an odd case (since I'm a low level AUA candidate for urology, but a good AOA candidate). I'd say for most people what you should do is first and foremost think about how important is it for you to be done immediately as possible. Because nothing short of "accept whatever comes" can get you a year of your life back. Make sure you're okay with the year off from a life-planning POV. After that you should probably think about what you want to do. You'll probably be totally wrong, but its worth stopping and thinking. If you want to do IM, FM, peds or gen surg off the bat and you know thats what you want, there is no reason to sit it out a year. There are tons of great programs in the AOA end (which will be acgme by the time you graduate) to assure you that you'll get a good education. And then if you really excell you can gun for the ACGME ones. If you think there is a good chance you want a specialty, then I would say to at least strongly consider working for an MD acceptance. There are plenty of opportunities for DOs to do specialties, but it is more performance limited. You dont want to sit around and regret not doing more to buff up your resume if you're at ABC-COM and have a 220 USMLE and 500 comlex (aka average) and suddenly realize you dont have the points for these competitive specialties. MD gives you a nice cushion of "well then do a crap ton of research" and that research is at your fingertips... its harder with DOs. It really is. There is less research out there and you have to find it/create it rather than having docs beating down the doors to find students to help them.
3) Are average DO students really doomed to PCP, or can they realistically land surgical specialties?
You can land surgical specialties. I know plenty of "average" DOs who matched into great programs and fields. You just need to want it bad enough. If your grades are there, good youre all set. If they're not, you have to have the drive to compensate for that and it does take a lot. But it takes a lot no matter what degree your getting. The 220 USMLE student is gonna be up the same **** creek no matter their degree if they wanted ortho.
4) How are you managing your debt and how much in debt are you? What is your total cost of going to school? how much debt will you have by the time you graduate and how are u gonna pay it off?
As said before. $200K. And I augment my debt by prostitution on the upper east side for all the blue haired jewish ladies. I'm a mensch.
5) If you were a dinosaur, which one would you be and why?
ankylosaurus, cause if I'm gonna be a dinosaur I'm going to be the spawn of an Abrahms Tank and a medieval mace
http://dinosauria.tripod.com/ankylosaurus.jpg
6) Was your GPA ever brought up in interview?
Oh only on every single MD interview. At the university of vermont I became so fed up with the question that when I was asked I kindly explained that I would make an excellent physician assuming I didnt enter radiology and was never told my patient fell out of a window and asked to calculate the exact moment they would die given the wind resistance local geothermal air updrafts.
The doctor laughed so hard and for so long he promised to fight for me to be accepted. I was waitlisted. I actually hung on to the letter he sent me, personally, afterwards where he apologized for not convincing them to accept me. Given the interviewer is quite the famous urologist, i think I may try to remind him of that letter soon on my interview trail in vermont.
7) Did you ever consider dentistry or other healthcare fields? If so, why not pursue those?
No. Never even gave it a thought.
8) Do you see DO discrimination in the workforce? Is it really the scarlet letters that people make it out to be?
It's not. There are a few isolated programs that wont consider you (wont dowload your application off of ERAS). But for the most part it is identical to being from Meharry College (a historically black medical school, but also a good example of a generic low-level MD school). You're coming from a low level medical school. With all things being equal, where you went to school mattered. It makes no sense, but the columbia student with the 235 will rank higher than the NY state school student with the 240 who will rank higher than the NYCOM student with the 245. These are decently different scores, but not dramatically different. But the name value of the school is a big measurement (And some programs actually list it as their #1 criteria and board score as #2) and you should consider DO schools to be at or slightly below low level MD schools. If you look at it that way, suddenly this entire bias is basically erased.
Low level MD schools have the same bias vs higher level. and mid-levels have the same bias vs elite schools. It's the way of life, its not a DO thing (in most cases).
When are they going to get rid of COCA? At least put it under LCME??
Not in either of our lifetimes. That sort of change is decades away. Sorry. But thats just pragmatic. I think it will happen, but it will happen sometime around when my children will be contemplating if they want a career in medicine.
I have a secondary done at TouroNY and I'm hoping they offer me an interview. How do you feel about it in general?
Really loved the school. Were there thing that could have gone better? yes. But the school was extremely receptive to any requests and criticism assuming you knew how to phrase it appropriately. You can go through my old post history and you probably wont see a more happy student with their choice than I was with mine. It gave me every opportunity to succeed. Also it gave me a structured educational environment. The school allows for independent education, and has really moved towards that over the years, but it is still a more structured education than most schools. I loved it because it gave me a rigid schedule to follow and embed study time into. Others hated it because they felt they were more efficient on their own. <shrug> to each their own. As long as a handfull of people showed up to lectures no one in the administration made a big deal about the number of people who studied on their own, as long as they didnt skip out on guest lecturers.
I was wondering if you could share your experiences about rotations. I understand that the clinical years are incredibly important for landing a good residency, and I would be grateful if you can answer some of my questions.
Were you able to rotate at any hospital you wanted to in your fourth year beyond your assigned core rotation site?
Yea. I rotated anywhere I wanted in my fourth year (And the elective month of my third year). And it was always my first choice place. I've been to Columbia, Wayne State (Detroit Medical Center), Drexel, Westchester Medical Center, North Shore LIJ, and I'm going to West Virginia U soon. Everyone else seems to have the same experience. Rotations are as easy as requesting them, programs are happy to have you.
How easy was it for you to set up a rotation at an institution that did not have a strong relationship with TouroCOM-NY? (For example, if you wanted to rotate at Cleveland Clinic or some other well-regarded program in order to audition for a potential residency position.)
Completely easy. Or as easy as VSAS makes it.
What was that process of setting up a rotation like?
Some places dont use VSAS so you have to scout the internet for their contact info and figure out what they want. Thats a pain, but once you find the website that says what they want, you just get them the stuff and its a go. The school is super responsive on that and I would usually send them an e-mail with a checklist of what i needed and I would get all of the things back in 1 week. VSAS is the big program you use to apply to roughly 50% of the programs out there for electives. VSAS is centralized so you only need to enter your info once (Though it is a massive hassle to enter it the first time) and then you click off programs to apply to and its done. Most of them do require a doctors eval, which can be a real pain in the butt if you dont have a local doctor who is willing to constantly sign off paperwork for you. But as long as you have someone to sign the medical clearance paperwork for you, applications through VSAS is one annoying hassle to first fill out the info, then as easy as clicking where you want to go for rotations, faxing your PCP the health form and waiting for the response.
Did you encounter any DO biases while rotating at an allopathic institution, and if so, were they from other students, staff, or attendings?
Nope. No bias. Ran into a few doctors who were excited to have DO students because they had a chronic pain patient or an acute sprain injury patient and wanted me to go and do some OMM magic so they didnt have to prescribe as much/any narcotics. But never anyone who has said or indicated any negative feelings or assumptions.
Do you have any tips that you could share about how to rotate successfully? (Like things to keep in mind or obstacles to overcome?) Any experiences are welcome!
Read all the time. ALL THE TIME. If you want to be a good student (lets say you're not gunning for the given field) read the handbooks available for that field. If you dont own them, you will almost certainly have access to accessmedicine and accesssurgery, which are programs almost every school offers and its online textbooks. If you actually like the program then you should still read those handbooks when you can but you should REALLY focus on reading research. Really know your latest research and understand how to properly interpret it (abstracts are notoriously ****ty, and conclusions for any study of a medication is likely to be ****ty too. So learn to read the results closely and then skim the conclusions to make sure you didnt miss anything).
Cause its 3am here and there is no excuse to be up that late if I'm not doing an overnight shift or partying.
Seeing as my apartment hasnt floated away yet, I can probably attempt sleep now.
