DO School rankings?

[sciencerules135]

Hi, is there any info on ranking of DO programs? What are considered great programs and which should be avoided?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Goro]

There are no rankings. Do keep in mind that the MD school rankings from USNR are bogus.
I cant recommend the following:

LUCOM: I have a profound distaste for the politics of their parent organization; they’re disingenuous about whether their strict lifestyle rules apply to medical students (they do); and their Faculty make blatant attempts to twist facts to match their theology. They also fail to act upon sexual assault crimes, and thus enable sexual predators:
Opinion | The Worst Scandal in American Higher Education Isn’t in the Ivy League

Even worse:
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-imposes-14-million-fine-against-liberty-university-clery-act-violations

And read this, while you’re at it:
https://slate.com/culture/2020/08/l...football-sports.amp?__twitter_impression=true

From the wise gyngyn: Liberty is poorly regarded due to the history of intolerance of their founding fathers. This school's reputation for intolerance puts its grads at a disadvantage at many reputable residency programs.

LMU: For a veteran school, weak COMLEX pass rates as well (see COMLEX Level 1 First Time Pass Rates - 2016-2023)
The administration of the parent body fired a dean for supporting social justice and racial equality.

Their position is: On August 14th (2020), an Associate Dean of Students emailed new student policy that stated: “You are not allowed to be involved in any form of public statement about social justice and racial inequities in medicine in any prominent location on the LMU campus”."

It’s also worth noting that before investing in themselves to make the med school better, or even adequate, they jumped on the gravy train and opened a branch in Knoxville. That meant two mediocre DO schools in TN instead of one good one. Now they want to have a McLMU in Florida, a state that already has three DO and eight MD schools.

RVU: I find for profit schools to be distasteful to medical education, but this is outright disgusting behavior:
No matter what RVU tells you, don’t apply Caribbean

SOMA: Has recently lost a number of core hospital rotations, leaving students to fend for themselves. And on top of this, undertook a curriculum change that was not thought out very well. Read this: The new frontier: fighting for clinical training sites

BTW, brand new DO schools are to be avoided (unless it’s your only accept) until they at least graduate a class. It takes time for faculty to gel and deliver a coherent curriculum; they have limited clinical rotations sites [it takes time to build these!], the degree of oversight of clinical training will be weak; the schools are unlikely to have resources for struggling students or those with mental health needs; lastly their grads will be unknown products to residency program directors.

 

[sciencerules135]

There are no rankings. Do keep in mind that the MD school rankings from USNR are bogus.
I cant recommend the following:

LUCOM: I have a profound distaste for the politics of their parent organization; they’re disingenuous about whether their strict lifestyle rules apply to medical students (they do); and their Faculty make blatant attempts to twist facts to match their theology. They also fail to act upon sexual assault crimes, and thus enable sexual predators:
Opinion | The Worst Scandal in American Higher Education Isn’t in the Ivy League

Even worse:
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-imposes-14-million-fine-against-liberty-university-clery-act-violations

And read this, while you’re at it:
https://slate.com/culture/2020/08/l...football-sports.amp?__twitter_impression=true

From the wise gyngyn: Liberty is poorly regarded due to the history of intolerance of their founding fathers. This school's reputation for intolerance puts its grads at a disadvantage at many reputable residency programs.

LMU: For a veteran school, weak COMLEX pass rates as well (see COMLEX Level 1 First Time Pass Rates - 2016-2023)
The administration of the parent body fired a dean for supporting social justice and racial equality.

Their position is: On August 14th (2020), an Associate Dean of Students emailed new student policy that stated: “You are not allowed to be involved in any form of public statement about social justice and racial inequities in medicine in any prominent location on the LMU campus”."

It’s also worth noting that before investing in themselves to make the med school better, or even adequate, they jumped on the gravy train and opened a branch in Knoxville. That meant two mediocre DO schools in TN instead of one good one. Now they want to have a McLMU in Florida, a state that already has three DO and eight MD schools.

RVU: I find for profit schools to be distasteful to medical education, but this is outright disgusting behavior:
No matter what RVU tells you, don’t apply Caribbean

SOMA: Has recently lost a number of core hospital rotations, leaving students to fend for themselves. And on top of this, undertook a curriculum change that was not thought out very well. Read this: The new frontier: fighting for clinical training sites

BTW, brand new DO schools are to be avoided (unless it’s your only accept) until they at least graduate a class. It takes time for faculty to gel and deliver a coherent curriculum; they have limited clinical rotations sites [it takes time to build these!], the degree of oversight of clinical training will be weak; the schools are unlikely to have resources for struggling students or those with mental health needs; lastly their grads will be unknown products to residency program directors.

How is VCOM looked upon? I really appreciate all the info. I had no clue about SOMA. It’s crazy what happens at some of these schools. Are there any programs you would say are stand outs as being really good?

 

[chilly_md]

There was a thread about this last summer. In general, most DO schools are the same. Ho0v-man broke it down in that thread, linked below:

DO School quality?

I don't care about BS like rankings, but is there a list of "good" DO schools or something? I tried googling but everything was based off USNW (lol). We hear about the sketchiness of some of the DO schools but I have no idea how to tell the difference.

forums.studentdoctor.net

I would not say the state-funded ones are necessarily the same as MD schools, but they do have more resources for research and may have in-house residencies that are particularly competitive specialties.

 

[Goro]

How is VCOM looked upon? I really appreciate all the info. I had no clue about SOMA. It’s crazy what happens at some of these schools. Are there any programs you would say are stand outs as being really good?

The state DO schools have the best budgets, but can be harder to get into for OOSers.

In no order, I have a good opinion about:
ACOM
CUSOM
PCOM (Philly)
VCOM (VA)
MUCOM
NYITCOM
the coastal Touros
Western
KCU
DMU
KCOM
LECOM (for the cheap tuition)
WCU
UNECOM

 

[wysdoc]

@sciencerules I would look at the list of DO schools put out by COCA (the accrediting body) and find the ones that are labeled Accredited with Exceptional Outcome as a starting point, and avoid the ones on probation, on heightened monitoring, or not fully accredited

 

[Wjldenver]

There is a new DO Accreditation Report which just came out in July which should be used for reference.

https://osteopathic.org/index.php?aam-media=/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/colleges-of-osteopathic-medicine.pdf