Different opportunities based on the DO School?

[arc5005]

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So I really haven't thought about the opportunities that different DO schools would give me, until today. Today, I visited my PCP, who is a DO and went to MSUCOM and said because he went to MSUCOM he had many more opportunities during rotations, including doing rotations in abroad in both London & in Africa (I don't know the specific country/ies he went to). He basically said, I need to choose a school based on the opportunities that it will give me and schools with more connections to hospitals, campuses, and abroad programs are going to give me more opportunities and to find niche/specific interest rotations.

What are others takes on this? Can other smaller/private DO schools offer these same opportunities? I'm also from New York and not Michigan so my chances of getting into MSUCOM are probably low.

What experiences have you obtained from your Medical School program that you may have not been able to receive if you went to a different school?

 

[racerwad]

It's hard to answer specifically what experiences are available only at school X vs Y, but your PCP was right - going to a bigger, more established school will give you more opportunities down the road. The abroad experiences are cool, but probably not as important as the opportunities to network with residency leadership, rotate at legitimate teaching institutions, etc. The advice he gave you is better than 90% of college advisers. The smaller, newer DO schools will not be able to offer the same opportunities as a place like MSUCOM.

 

[UTsksk]

The doctor was right in that going to more established schools can make things easier on you when it comes to networking, rotations, and residency. It's kind of hard to speak about the differences at my program compared to others since I've never experienced their professors or curriculum. Needless to say, my school still has many ways that it can improve and our class is helping with that.

 

[acapnial]

So I really haven't thought about the opportunities that different DO schools would give me, until today. Today, I visited my PCP, who is a DO and went to MSUCOM and said because he went to MSUCOM he had many more opportunities during rotations, including doing rotations in abroad in both London & in Africa (I don't know the specific country/ies he went to). He basically said, I need to choose a school based on the opportunities that it will give me and schools with more connections to hospitals, campuses, and abroad programs are going to give me more opportunities and to find niche/specific interest rotations.

What are others takes on this? Can other smaller/private DO schools offer these same opportunities? I'm also from New York and not Michigan so my chances of getting into MSUCOM are probably low.

What experiences have you obtained from your Medical School program that you may have not been able to receive if you went to a different school?

You'd probably be surprised at how easy it is to do abroad rotations. They don't always count for core rotations, though, so if you're interested rotating abroad, it might be a good idea to ask various schools what international rotations they have that do count.

Brand new schools can easily have more kinks to work through, especially with clinical rotations, but other than that, a school's degree of establishment won't really do anything. Unfortunately, you'll run into the same problems with rotations at any DO school.