Seeing how some of my friends have gotten into excellent MD schools, I keep having remorse about going to a DO school. I applied 1 cycle to both MD and DO and just decided to take on the DO acceptance, because I do not want to rely on my parents financially anymore. I am truly happy that they were able to get to where they are today, but I cant help comparing where I am to where they are. In the end, I will become a physician, which is something I will be really proud about, but I kept thinking whether I should have tried harder to earn that MD acceptance. Has anyone have these thoughts/problems and how do you guys handle them?
Comparing myself to others
- Thread starter HueySmith
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I can sympathize with you as I have had a ridiculous amount of high school classmates go on to do amazing things - one is in a neurosurg residency, another just graduated from Harvard med, etc. What I can say is that I work in healthcare with a ton of MDs and DOs - The DO stigma is 90% from premeds and the remaining 10% is probably split between PDs that don't want DOs in their programs, MDs with superiority complexes, and people who want to crap on you for any reason they can find. I have seen quite literally 0 display of looking down upon DOs in my career and I believe it's more or less a premed issue more than anything. I have spoken with 10+ MDs in my job about applying to medical school and nearly all of them encouraged me to apply both MD and DO from the beginning, before I even mentioned an interest in applying DO. Most people simply do not care about MD/DO, especially when they're busy dealing with chiroquackers and naturopaths trying to gain parity with their credentials.
What I have found in healthcare, though, is that there exists a major ego-driven hierarchy, and it doesn't really matter who you are. If you're a DO, some MD might look down on you. If you're an MD, some other MD with a more prestigious education/specialty will look down on you, etc. Learn to ignore those people and you will do just fine in life as a DO.
What I have found in healthcare, though, is that there exists a major ego-driven hierarchy, and it doesn't really matter who you are. If you're a DO, some MD might look down on you. If you're an MD, some other MD with a more prestigious education/specialty will look down on you, etc. Learn to ignore those people and you will do just fine in life as a DO.
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deleted831695
Nobody should have those thoughts. You got into medical school. You're going to become a physician. Embrace the fact you're going to be HueySmith, DO, and do well in med school.
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AnatomyGrey12
You got into medical school my friend, that is something to celebrate! If you have applied MD to no success then there is nothing you can do about it.
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Focus on what you have. You should have done another cycle, but you didn't and now you have a golden opportunity that you could waste if you don't buckle down. The kind of thinking you are engaging in right now will only hold you back.
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deleted244469
No way. OP made the correct decision. I never understood people that re-applied with an acceptance in hand. You are playing with fire when you use this strategy, IMO.
Plus, an extra year applying is a year of attending salary lost. Is getting into an Allopathic school worth a $250K+ loss of income?
Yeah I felt the same way you did for a long time. During my first year, I didn't even feel like a medical student. Every time I was asked what school I go to, I felt the propensity to say "a DO school" vs med school. It wasn't until I started studying for boards and working with other MD students that I truly felt like I was training to be a physician, not just a DO. So far, I've faced no stigma being a DO vs MD student. The professionals I work with are just that. Professional. If you can do your job and do it well, it doesn't matter what letters come after your name. Now, this might be different when trying to match into competitive specialties and it's definitely different for pre-meds.
Now that you're in, I can honestly tell you that most MD students don't care whether you go to a DO or MD school. They don't treat you like you're dumber or lesser than they are. They treat you like any other medical student. I would say most, if not all of the insecurity of the DO field comes from within. We've all felt like you at one point or another. There are many circumstances that prevented us from going MD (for most it's grades and MCAT).
The way I deal with it is to make sure I'm just as good as any other MD student, if not better. So good that if you were to put our applications side-by-side, the only difference would be our degree titles. Volunteer, do research, crush boards, do well on rotations and I promise you, those feelings you're having will go away.
Now that you're in, I can honestly tell you that most MD students don't care whether you go to a DO or MD school. They don't treat you like you're dumber or lesser than they are. They treat you like any other medical student. I would say most, if not all of the insecurity of the DO field comes from within. We've all felt like you at one point or another. There are many circumstances that prevented us from going MD (for most it's grades and MCAT).
The way I deal with it is to make sure I'm just as good as any other MD student, if not better. So good that if you were to put our applications side-by-side, the only difference would be our degree titles. Volunteer, do research, crush boards, do well on rotations and I promise you, those feelings you're having will go away.
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I had these thoughts before starting school this year too. But like others have said... you're going to be a doctor in the end and that's all that matters. That's what I keep reminding myself about.
One issue I've been having so far with these first few months.. is not so much comparing myself to friends at other schools/programs... but comparing myself to others in my own program who are doing better than me. That's a beast I have yet to conquer.
One issue I've been having so far with these first few months.. is not so much comparing myself to friends at other schools/programs... but comparing myself to others in my own program who are doing better than me. That's a beast I have yet to conquer.
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Exactly its definitely a blow to your ego when you study your butt off in order to merely pass. Then you meet some geniuses that do nothing until the week before the exam and get a mid 90s score.
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68PGunner
Medical school tests a specific kind of intelligence, based on your professor emphasis and curriculum.
If you want to know your true standing among your classmates and medical students across the US in term of medical understanding that has a high correlation for your Step scores, I suggest for you to buy USMLERx and Kaplan Qbanks. After you have finished a certain Qbank organ system, you will get your % average relative to your school % and % among all medical students. You might either be pleasantly surprised or get pissed off at your school curriculum.
If you want to know your true standing among your classmates and medical students across the US in term of medical understanding that has a high correlation for your Step scores, I suggest for you to buy USMLERx and Kaplan Qbanks. After you have finished a certain Qbank organ system, you will get your % average relative to your school % and % among all medical students. You might either be pleasantly surprised or get pissed off at your school curriculum.
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Just wait until you and most of your friends are consumed by marriage/kids and the responsibilities that come with being a working adult. Life has a way of de-prioritizing things in your life you thought were important as a young person. This is why the MD vs DO thing only really exists in small pockets of pre-med and academic medicine circles.
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The main thing separating you from Md student is lower mcat. Sometimes ya mess up on one test, and that might have been mcat. Doesn't make you dumb. You can mess up on mcat and still do great on boards. Nobody cares about MD vs DO. Good luck in school.
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For him, the correct decision would have been to reapply. Its not a money issue. Its an 'I want to be an MD, and I went DO, but didnt really want to' issue. If you really wanted to be an MD and were lying to yourself about being okay with DO you need to reapply. Of course lots of people say thats stupid, and it maybe it is objectively. But if you care about prestige, DO is just the wrong way to go.
And some people realize when they get in that they were perfectly capable of going MD if they had waited/tried a little harder. And they also figure out that just because DO was a little easier to get into doesn't mean the school is easier.
More like Seven O = DO
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Considering your low self-esteem and being too insecure to re-apply, consider yourself blessed to be able to study medicine at all
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You might be on of my students!
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First nut up like a good medical student, second acquire a better opinion of your classmates and hope you deserve their friendship, third acquire a more solemn opinion of your school that they allowed you to be their student, and fourth focus on working hard so you don't screw up your chances at being a physician because you couldn't stop obsessing over things that don't matter. You aren't premed anymore, so stop acting like one.
