DMU Clinical Rotations and Early Acceptance Program

[BUPreMed]

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I have a couple of questions for current DMU students or recent graduates.

First, does anyone have any information regarding the early acceptance program? Is it binding? About how many students are accepted through this pathway each year? What GPA is considered "competitive"? DMU has some information about the program on their website, but provides almost no statistical data about successful applicants, etc.

Additionally, could someone discuss clinical rotations at DMU. I know that their is a lottery that decides where you go for each of your rotations, but could someone please list the major hospital affiliations that DMU has? Do most students have the opportunity to stay in Des Moines for their rotations? Are there any options to do rotations in Minnesota?

I am currently interested in pursuing surgery. Would DMU be a good school to attend with this ambition in mind? The surgical skills lab seems impressive and appears to indicate that DMU supports students who wish to pursue that specialty, but its hard to know for sure.

Thank you in advance for you help.

 

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Additionally, could someone discuss clinical rotations at DMU. I know that their is a lottery that decides where you go for each of your rotations, but could someone please list the major hospital affiliations that DMU has? Do most students have the opportunity to stay in Des Moines for their rotations? Are there any options to do rotations in Minnesota?

I am currently interested in pursuing surgery. Would DMU be a good school to attend with this ambition in mind? The surgical skills lab seems impressive and appears to indicate that DMU supports students who wish to pursue that specialty, but its hard to know for sure.

Thank you in advance for you help.

Be aware that the lottery determines where you go for your 3rd year rotations, which are your core subjects. Your 2 elective months in 3rd year and all of 4th year are largely up to you and where you want to go. There are places that cannot make agreements with DMU or will fill up, but its that way everywhere.

About half the class does their 3rd year in 'central iowa', which includes Des Moines and the surrounding cities (within about an hour drive away). To be honest, most rotations in central iowa are done in and around Des Moines and West Des Moines. The rest of the class is dispersed to Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Wyoming and Minnesota (although there are very few spots in Minn, and I think they are way out in the boonies).

DMU is a great place to go if you are interested in surgery. There are a lot of opportunities to learn skills in your first two years, and DMU prepares you well to shine on your rotations perform on boards. We have an actual surgery skills course 2nd year that gives students a great introduction to common surgical procedures. There are plenty of opportunities to get good surgical training 3rd year, and 4th year is pretty much on you to secure audition rotations (just like any other school). DMU is also affiliated with the osteopathic general surgery residency in town at Mercy Hospital, which is a plus as well.

 

[BUPreMed]

Thanks for your response, it was very helpful. Glad to here that it is possible to stay in Des Moines for most of 3rd year. It is nice that DMU provides so many opportunities for elective rotations as well.

As far as surgery goes, do most DMU grad typically go on to DO residency programs or MD (ACGME) residency programs? Is there an advantage to either pathway?

 

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OK, kind of a long answer 🙂

To be honest most go to DO programs, except for the military kids. There are probably a lot of reasons for this. I think the biggest reason is that it is a pretty big risk to apply to MD programs. You can apply and interview at both, but you pretty much have to decide whether to go for DO programs or MD programs with the way the match is set up..and the DO match is first, so a lot of students apply to good programs in the DO world, get in, and are committed to those programs (which disqualifies them from considering MD programs any longer). It takes a lot of guts to forego the DO match and hold out for the MD programs. There are students every year that go to the MD side though; a chick last year matched Cardiothoracic surgery at UT southwestern. Also, like I said earlier, there are usually a few Army/Navy kids every year that match into really good MD programs that are reserved for those in the military.

All of that aside, there are really good and not so good programs in both the MD and DO world. Some of the DO programs in Michigan, Ohio and out east are really fantastic and could rival the clinical training of any MD program. Mercy in Des Moines is also included in that category. The issue with DO programs (especially for someone like me who wants to move to the west coast) is that they are geographically limited, and there are only so many of them. But that being said, most offer great training. The competitiveness is comparable to that of MD programs as well.

One caveat in the world of surgery -- if you go the DO route and want to go to an MD residency, don't expect to be able to apply to just anywhere..and a lot of programs won't hold you on equal footing with MD's who have similar applications. I was kind of ignorant to this when entering a DO school, but it's pretty clear that discrimination still exists in the field. There are plenty of programs out there that will take DO's, but a good number either won't look at them or will make it really hard for them to get in. Just something to think about and be realistic about.

All in all --
1) If you want to be a surgeon, it will not hurt you to go to a DO school. This is because of all the strictly DO programs out there.
2)There are relative advantages and disadvantages to both the MD and DO route for surgery residency, but you can get great training no matter which you choose. It's more about the program than the accreditation status.
3)When it comes to DO schools, DMU is a great place to go if you want to be a surgeon

Long winded, but I hope it helps a bit!

-DokB