to say that DO's get additional training is not quite accurate. i'm a DO student and recently had a talk with some of our faculty members and department heads about why our curriculum lacks certain "key" courses like genetics, embryology, etc.... while they agree that those classes are important, they also agree that because OMM takes up time (class AND lab), the curriculum simply has no room for a full term course like genetics, etc.
so to say that we learn something extra is not entirely accurate. something has to give because we are stuffed to the max. as far as courses are concern.
this is also why you'd see DO med. students do well in COMLEX and not that great in USMLE because our curriculum is geared towards excelling COMLEX and not USMLE. USMLE has genetics and embryology and alot of reseach-related questions, i.e "more scientific" than COMLEX, which is more clinically-based.
some allo-premeds have the mentality that DO's are inferior to allo's and while i dont want to see this thread turn into a DO vs. MD b.s, i also want to point out the fact that there are many of my classmates that have high MCAT scores/GPA's but some chose osteo. because they like the philosophy and some others because they dont interview well. as far as me, i can tell you that my numbers are "MD-worthy" but because of unfortunate circumstances, i'm in a DO school. the way i see it, i'll be a doctor one day and these are all trivial matters.
as far as the quality of education i'm getting, it's top rated and cant be any better. and because i'm planning on taking the USMLE as well, i'm sacrificing my Christmas break and summer break to study for embryo- and genetics.
my only concern now is with the politics of AOA now for f**king us all up for approving that for-profit only medical school in colorado. now is rush, tomorrow could be harvard, yale, etc., and once those big dogs say no to DO's, all the other allopathic schools will follow. our biggest threat comes from our very OWN representing body, who would have guessed? dont let them fool you.
