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Hello Everyone,

I have read many many posts and forums regarding this whole topic of DO school and residency.
I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc. With my stats, I am more fitted to target DO schools rather than MD. So far I got one interview from KCUMB, alot of MD rejects (its all good though, I gave it a try) and still waiting to heard back from some like NYCOM, Rowan, etc.

As of now, my goal is to become a surgeon. To get more specifically, I would love to become a heart surgeon. I mean... you never know if I will change my mind in the future, but that is the goal for now. I am NOT interested in Primary Care. I am definitely not looking down upon it! It is a great field and I worked with Drs. who love this field but personally, just not something I want to go for.
So question is: Does going to DO (and let's pretend if I got in KCUMB miraculously too) put me at disadvantage to achieve the specialty I want?
*Feedback about KCUMB NYCOM from current students would be nice too!

Anyways~~ Sorry, if this has been addressed multiple times but I would like some genuine feedback. I am a NY resident so I would like to end up working in this area in the future. I have asked Doctors, professors that I have worked with about this but just wanted to get some feedback on SDN as well.

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People on here will say to get the MD, if you have the opportunity, to make your life easier. It is possible to match into competitive residencies as a DO, but you'll have some extra hurdles to jump through.

And yes, this has been discussed many times. It's actually being discussed right now in another thread:
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...-outside-of-certain-residency-limits.1238759/

Search around if you don't get a lot of feedback, there's lots of info on here.
 
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I'm pretty sure you just answered your own question: "I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc.".

With that said, cardio surgeon is pretty competitive as it is anyways, regardless of whether you're an MD or DO. It will be a tough specialty to land even as an MD, but it's also not impossible with a DO degree. The head cardio surgeon at a hospital I volunteered at was a DO. However, as you pointed out, it depends on the student and how well they perform. No one knows how you will perform in school, on boards, or on rotations. You won't get into your top choice of residency if you underperformed in those areas at an MD school either. Having that MD after your name doesn't mean a free pick of specialty later on.

Also, there's a lot of other factors. In most cases, you might have to outshine the MD student just to be on the same playing field as them when applying for residencies, but that also depends on where you apply to (how DO friendly they are). The more DO friendly hospitals might not care and will evaluate you and an MD student solely based on performance and test scores, while other hospitals won't even look at your application because you're a DO. But all of this is still hypothetical considering no one knows how well you're going to perform in med school. You could be the top of the top, excel in everything, and ace your boards and interviews and go on to be a heart surgeon. Or if you don't do well, you might be forced to change your choice of specialty because it's out of reach regardless of having an MD or DO after your name.

But you won't have to worry about applying for residencies for at least another 4 years. By then the merge would have started and who knows what might happen then. But in the end it does depend more on how well YOU do, and where you apply to for residency. One of the recent grads from my school got accepted into a top residency program in a highly competitive field at a very prestigious hospital. Even though he did really well on paper, what really blew them away was when he did an audition rotation there. He might not have gotten the residency if he didn't go and spend the month there showing them how much of an asset he is. So I really do think it depends a lot on the person. Just like trying to get into med school, the numbers on the paper can only get you so far. In this case, the MD can only give a person a certain amount of an advantage before it really doesn't matter anymore.

P.S. statistically, you'll probably change your interests a bunch of times in med school and you won't even end up wanting to be a cardio surgeon (I know I definitely changed my mind a lot!)
 
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Ughhhhhhh
 
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So here is the thing, for basically every specialty the MD will always make life easier. That being said you have already taken a shot at MD programs and admit that you are most likely a DO candidate. You have taken your shot at MD programs and only have DO acceptances so go to the DO school because chasing the MD just so you can have an easier time getting into a specialty you might not even end up liking could take years or may not ever happen.

General surgery is doable for DOs, and after that cardiothoracic fellowships aren't as competitive as peds or surg onc. In fact, pretty doable and DOs would match these fellowships from AOA programs before the merger.

Sacrificing a DO acceptance to pursue the MD is very risky, especially if you have already applied MD to no avail. You can't ever become a surgeon if you don't go to medical school.
 
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I've also heard that cardiovascular surgery is a dying field, with the vast majority of the work being done by vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists
 
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I've also heard that cardiovascular surgery is a dying field, with the vast majority of the work being done by vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists

Nah it's actually making a come back. There is a thread on it in the surgery subform
 
Hello Everyone,

I have read many many posts and forums regarding this whole topic of DO school and residency.
I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc. With my stats, I am more fitted to target DO schools rather than MD. So far I got one interview from KCUMB, alot of MD rejects (its all good though, I gave it a try) and still waiting to heard back from some like NYCOM, Rowan, etc.

As of now, my goal is to become a surgeon. To get more specifically, I would love to become a heart surgeon. I mean... you never know if I will change my mind in the future, but that is the goal for now. I am NOT interested in Primary Care. I am definitely not looking down upon it! It is a great field and I worked with Drs. who love this field but personally, just not something I want to go for.
So question is: Does going to DO (and let's pretend if I got in KCUMB miraculously too) put me at disadvantage to achieve the specialty I want?
*Feedback about KCUMB NYCOM from current students would be nice too!

Anyways~~ Sorry, if this has been addressed multiple times but I would like some genuine feedback. I am a NY resident so I would like to end up working in this area in the future. I have asked Doctors, professors that I have worked with about this but just wanted to get some feedback on SDN as well.

You quite clearly don't "fully understand" the MD vs DO thing.....the title actually supersedes all those things you listed. Someone with the same exact grades and board scores will have far fewer opportunities as a DO than an MD.

Thoracic surgery is competitive. I would put your chances of breaking into it as a DO as next to none. I understand your disinterest in primary care but if you have no interest in considering ANY less competitive field (IM hospitalist, peds, anesthesia, PM&R, psych to name a few) then I strongly recommend you not go to a DO school.
 
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Haven't seen this yet on SDN. I am happy to be educated on this fact.

Was my comment accidentally directed at you?

I didn't think so. Quite sure I was responding to a pre-med who was unaware of that fact.
 
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Haven't seen this yet on SDN. I am happy to be educated on this fact.

It's all over the place, just gotta dig deep. Here are the charting outcomes from the NRMP.

Allopathic matching (look at pg. 5)
http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf

Osteopathic (look at pg. 5)
http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Osteopathic-2016.pdf

You can see that in pretty much every category for ACGME residencies, MDs do better than DOs in matching.
 
At my school, about 5% of my grads have gone into Gen Surg (ACGME). This contrasts with 7-15% from the avg. MD school.

So yes, you'll be at a disadvantage.

Look at school match lists to see what % of their grads go into Gen Surg, and then decide.

Hello Everyone,

I have read many many posts and forums regarding this whole topic of DO school and residency.
I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc. With my stats, I am more fitted to target DO schools rather than MD. So far I got one interview from KCUMB, alot of MD rejects (its all good though, I gave it a try) and still waiting to heard back from some like NYCOM, Rowan, etc.

As of now, my goal is to become a surgeon. To get more specifically, I would love to become a heart surgeon. I mean... you never know if I will change my mind in the future, but that is the goal for now. I am NOT interested in Primary Care. I am definitely not looking down upon it! It is a great field and I worked with Drs. who love this field but personally, just not something I want to go for.
So question is: Does going to DO (and let's pretend if I got in KCUMB miraculously too) put me at disadvantage to achieve the specialty I want?
*Feedback about KCUMB NYCOM from current students would be nice too!

Anyways~~ Sorry, if this has been addressed multiple times but I would like some genuine feedback. I am a NY resident so I would like to end up working in this area in the future. I have asked Doctors, professors that I have worked with about this but just wanted to get some feedback on SDN as well.
 
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You'll probably change your mind, just the reality. But, if you do stick with cardiothoracic, it's possible. It's difficult for MD's and DO's, but if you set yourself up right, you won't have a problem.
 
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Can anyone comment on whether this is true?

I've heard once or twice that for DOs, you mostly do OK for getting into most internal medicine subspecialty fellowships.

However, I've also heard that, after doing a Gen Surg residency, even at a major university center, the chances of a DO getting into virtually any surgical fellowship is zero.
 
However, I've also heard that, after doing a Gen Surg residency, even at a major university center, the chances of a DO getting into virtually any surgical fellowship is zero.

That's complete BS.
 
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Go hang out at some hospitals and you will see that D.O. surgeons are not uncommon at all. As others have mentioned, it will be more hurdles going the D.O. route, but is not impossible. Work hard. Study hard.
 
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Ironic future, OP works hard, gets into an MD school, then scores 200 on step 1 and ends up in a family med residency.
 
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Ironic future, OP works hard, gets into an MD school, then scores 200 on step 1 and ends up in a family med residency.

That would suck major a$$. That's like burning down $500K down the drain bc you're delaying two years of doc salary.

OP, if you're just thinking about your situation from a financial perspective, anyone should just take their first acceptance out of the gate. But, $$$ doesn't equal happiness. Again, if you're a surgery or bust person, you need to try for that MD bc your chances at every residencies out there is slightly better as a MD vs a DO on average.
 
You quite clearly don't "fully understand" the MD vs DO thing.....the title actually supersedes all those things you listed. Someone with the same exact grades and board scores will have far fewer opportunities as a DO than an MD.

Thoracic surgery is competitive. I would put your chances of breaking into it as a DO as next to none. I understand your disinterest in primary care but if you have no interest in considering ANY less competitive field (IM hospitalist, peds, anesthesia, PM&R, psych to name a few) then I strongly recommend you not go to a DO school.

I agree, surgery or bust is a bad place to be if you are going to a DO school. Although looking at fellowship matches from the majority of ACGME programs that take DOs AND AOA programs there a a decent amount of DOs that match CT every year. If you are talking about only I6 programs then yeah you would have to be one of the one or two guys that do it every year. It's like matching ACGME ortho or derm.

However, I've also heard that, after doing a Gen Surg residency, even at a major university center, the chances of a DO getting into virtually any surgical fellowship is zero.

Definitely not. The only ones that are extremely difficult are peds, surg onc, and plastics. Even surg onc is matched occasionally with peds being once in a blue moon. Colorectal is also competitive along with CT and vascular but not on the same level as the others. They are doable if you set yourself up right. Trauma is easy to get because they have so many spots and not that many people want to do it, and it can be unnecessary if you went to the right residency (i.e. One high on trauma)
 
At my school, about 5% of my grads have gone into Gen Surg (ACGME). This contrasts with 7-15% from the avg. MD school.

So yes, you'll be at a disadvantage.

Look at school match lists to see what % of their grads go into Gen Surg, and then decide.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

That's not how it works. Folks who can sail right into a gen surg spot at US MD schools choose routinely choose to go into other surgical fields like optho, neurosurgery, CT surgery and urology to name a few which are extremely difficult for a DO to break into. You also have folks with really good stats going into IM and peds with the hopes of doing a competitive subspecialty which is also much more accessible as a US MD. You can't just compare percentages!


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Ironic future, OP works hard, gets into an MD school, then scores 200 on step 1 and ends up in a family med residency.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

That's not how it works. Folks who can sail right into a gen surg spot at US MD schools choose routinely choose to go into other surgical fields like optho, neurosurgery, CT surgery and urology to name a few which are extremely difficult for a DO to break into. You also have folks with really good stats going into IM and peds with the hopes of doing a competitive subspecialty which is also much more accessible as a US MD. You can't just compare percentages!


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What would really tell the WHOLE story is the amount of DO's attempting to do such things. For example, that 5% could jut be from less DO's being interested in surgery.

Pure numbers are just ripe for inferences by less-than-informed pre-meds/med students on a message board of less-than-informed/informed-only-by-each-others-opinions people.
 
What would really tell the WHOLE story is the amount of DO's attempting to do such things. For example, that 5% could jut be from less DO's being interested in surgery.

This. They need to include all specialties in the charting outcomes regardless of how many applied. It would make things less based on anecdote.
 
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You quite clearly don't "fully understand" the MD vs DO thing.....the title actually supersedes all those things you listed. Someone with the same exact grades and board scores will have far fewer opportunities as a DO than an MD.

Thoracic surgery is competitive. I would put your chances of breaking into it as a DO as next to none. I understand your disinterest in primary care but if you have no interest in considering ANY less competitive field (IM hospitalist, peds, anesthesia, PM&R, psych to name a few) then I strongly recommend you not go to a DO school.
I don't know much about surgery, but I thought in general once you finish residency, fellowship doesn't have closed doors to DO? Wouldn't the struggle be general surgery first?
 
If you look at Charting Outcomes 2016 (google it, it's easy to find), they have a new report for osteopathic medical graduates going into ACGME (i.e. allopathic) residencies. The match rate for general surgery (which is the necessary requisite to CT surgery for a DO, given that i6 programs are extremely competitive and likely will not consider DOs) is 52%. If you want to do CT surgery, you'll likely have to match at an academic residency rather than a community one in order to be competitive for the fellowship. I don't have empirical data to back this up, but I would wager given that general surgery is in the upper middle in terms of competitiveness for MDs, most DOs matching ACGME gen surg are going to community programs.

What I do have data for is that in 2016, there were 90 spots available for thoracic surgery. 86 USMDs applied for that fellowship and 127 non-USMDs (so IMGs, FMGs, DOs) applied. 69/86 USMDs got thoracic surgery spots which means that 90-69= 21 non-USMDs got a thoracic surgery spot. 21/127 = 10% of DOs, IMGs, FMGs. That's not good at all. Source: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Results-and-Data-SMS-2016_Final.pdf page 7

So yes, in summary, going DO will significantly limit your ability to become a heart surgeon.
 
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Ironic future, OP works hard, gets into an MD school, then scores 200 on step 1 and ends up in a family med residency.

And yet, if you look at charting outcomes, an MD with a 200 Step 1 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery, which is the same as a DO, regardless of score.
 
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I don't know much about surgery, but I thought in general once you finish residency, fellowship doesn't have closed doors to DO? Wouldn't the struggle be general surgery first?

I think he means I6 which is extremely competitive, it's like matching ortho or derm. I think LECOM had someone match UCSD, and UTHSCSA has a DO in their program. It's very rare.
 
And yet, if you look at charting outcomes, an MD with a 200 Step 1 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery, which is the same as a DO, regardless of score.

This is a good example of the advantages of having the MD. A DO with a 200 wouldn't even sniff a gen surg residency.
 
My school physician mentor is a cardiothoracic surgeon sub specializing in robotic minimally invasive surgery... I believe he is the only one in the state. He is a DO. He went to a small community DO general surgery residency, and then got fellowships at some pretty rad places. So yes. It can be done. But you have to put in the work and be a good applicant (whether you go MD or DO)
 
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I think he means I6 which is extremely competitive, it's like matching ortho or derm. I think LECOM had someone match UCSD, and UTHSCSA has a DO in their program. It's very rare.

2 DO's at the one in texas. Also a KCOM student matched in a 4+3 at Indiana within the last 2 years. I have personally spoken to one of them and their CV while good, was nothing crazy. The program just liked them as a person, and liked their commitment to the field.
 
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2 DO's at the one in texas. Also a KCOM student matched in a 4+3 at Indiana within the last 2 years. I have personally spoken to one of them and their CV while good, was nothing crazy. The program just liked them as a person, and liked their commitment to the field.

Sometimes I wonder if the reason we see it so rarely is that there are so few that even try. I remain unconvinced that somethings are as impossible as we make them out to be if you are smart about the way you go about it and plan ahead.
 
And yet, if you look at charting outcomes, an MD with a 200 Step 1 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery, which is the same as a DO, regardless of score.

The DO bias is definitely there, no arguments, but the matching potential of a DO in the 651 range is significantly better than a DO in the 551 range (yes there are confounding elements such as the higher scorers are more likely to take the USMLE).
 
Hello Everyone,

I have read many many posts and forums regarding this whole topic of DO school and residency.
I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc. With my stats, I am more fitted to target DO schools rather than MD. So far I got one interview from KCUMB, alot of MD rejects (its all good though, I gave it a try) and still waiting to heard back from some like NYCOM, Rowan, etc.

As of now, my goal is to become a surgeon. To get more specifically, I would love to become a heart surgeon. I mean... you never know if I will change my mind in the future, but that is the goal for now. I am NOT interested in Primary Care. I am definitely not looking down upon it! It is a great field and I worked with Drs. who love this field but personally, just not something I want to go for.
So question is: Does going to DO (and let's pretend if I got in KCUMB miraculously too) put me at disadvantage to achieve the specialty I want?
*Feedback about KCUMB NYCOM from current students would be nice too!

Anyways~~ Sorry, if this has been addressed multiple times but I would like some genuine feedback. I am a NY resident so I would like to end up working in this area in the future. I have asked Doctors, professors that I have worked with about this but just wanted to get some feedback on SDN as well.
Yes it puts you at a disadvantage. Most cardiothoracid residencies are integrated these days, which makes them much more competitive than the old 5+2 model. As a DO, you stand very little chance.
 
I'm pretty sure you just answered your own question: "I do fully understand that MD vs. DO, the title is not everything. It is how the student does in school, board exams, interaction with your faculty, etc.".

With that said, cardio surgeon is pretty competitive as it is anyways, regardless of whether you're an MD or DO. It will be a tough specialty to land even as an MD, but it's also not impossible with a DO degree. The head cardio surgeon at a hospital I volunteered at was a DO. However, as you pointed out, it depends on the student and how well they perform. No one knows how you will perform in school, on boards, or on rotations. You won't get into your top choice of residency if you underperformed in those areas at an MD school either. Having that MD after your name doesn't mean a free pick of specialty later on.

Also, there's a lot of other factors. In most cases, you might have to outshine the MD student just to be on the same playing field as them when applying for residencies, but that also depends on where you apply to (how DO friendly they are). The more DO friendly hospitals might not care and will evaluate you and an MD student solely based on performance and test scores, while other hospitals won't even look at your application because you're a DO. But all of this is still hypothetical considering no one knows how well you're going to perform in med school. You could be the top of the top, excel in everything, and ace your boards and interviews and go on to be a heart surgeon. Or if you don't do well, you might be forced to change your choice of specialty because it's out of reach regardless of having an MD or DO after your name.

But you won't have to worry about applying for residencies for at least another 4 years. By then the merge would have started and who knows what might happen then. But in the end it does depend more on how well YOU do, and where you apply to for residency. One of the recent grads from my school got accepted into a top residency program in a highly competitive field at a very prestigious hospital. Even though he did really well on paper, what really blew them away was when he did an audition rotation there. He might not have gotten the residency if he didn't go and spend the month there showing them how much of an asset he is. So I really do think it depends a lot on the person. Just like trying to get into med school, the numbers on the paper can only get you so far. In this case, the MD can only give a person a certain amount of an advantage before it really doesn't matter anymore.

P.S. statistically, you'll probably change your interests a bunch of times in med school and you won't even end up wanting to be a cardio surgeon (I know I definitely changed my mind a lot!)
It used to be much easier for DOs to do CT surgery since GS wasn't very competitive and CT was a fellowship after GS. Those days are long gone though, and past results are no longer indicators of future performance.
 
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It used to be much easier for DOs to do CT surgery since GS wasn't very competitive and CT was a fellowship after GS. Those days are long gone though, and past results are no longer indicators of future performance.
No kidding. The dad of one of my classmates went to med school in Mexico and matched at a very nice residency in Ophthalmology. Those were the days.
 
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Being a DO limits your options. You basically have less wiggle room as a DO. If you mess up, like low board scores, for instance, you're toast. However, this isn't necessarily true for MDs.

Being a DO is fine, but I'd recommend having a more flexible approach. Being a CT surgeon is possible as a DO, but it might be unreasonably difficult. However, being a general surgeon is a reasonable goal as a DO, and, if you have a true penchant for hearts, being a cardiologist or CT anesthesiologist are also reasonable goals as a DO. Medicine is a large, diverse field, and most people can find a niche they enjoy.
 
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Go DO and build your CV from day 1 to be the ideal candidate for gen surg. If your scores end up not being good enough, your CV should be stacked well enough to pursue any other field attainable for DOs (anesthesiology, IM, FM, rads, etc). If you know that's what you want to do, imagine how stacked on *insert field of interest* research you could be if you started M1 (arguably the largest separation amongst DO and MD apps). For myself, I don't want anything academic. I want to be a community general surgeon. That's my dream. I know I can get that through a DO school, and I will start in August building my application for all of those programs. That's whether I go DO or MD (hear back in a month from my instate MD school). Not to say it's easy or whatever going the DO route, but if you set your mind to it and make the right moves, its achievable.
 
What would really tell the WHOLE story is the amount of DO's attempting to do such things. For example, that 5% could jut be from less DO's being interested in surgery.

Pure numbers are just ripe for inferences by less-than-informed pre-meds/med students on a message board of less-than-informed/informed-only-by-each-others-opinions people.
Did you really get 49 acceptances?
 

Don't mind Dr. Death. No I didn't. That would require me to go to 49 interviews. My signature is a total and utter joke my friend.
 
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Being a DO limits your options. You basically have less wiggle room as a DO. If you mess up, like low board scores, for instance, you're toast. However, this isn't necessarily true for MDs.

Being a DO is fine, but I'd recommend having a more flexible approach. Being a CT surgeon is possible as a DO, but it might be unreasonably difficult. However, being a general surgeon is a reasonable goal as a DO, and, if you have a true penchant for hearts, being a cardiologist or CT anesthesiologist are also reasonable goals as a DO. Medicine is a large, diverse field, and most people can find a niche they enjoy.

Please explain the bolded part. If you bomb boards, how does MD save you?
 
Having spoken to a big name institution PD in ortho where I live that has no MDs I can say this is true in some cases. I asked him why they didn't have any DOs in their program and he said last year out of many, many applications, they only received 3 DO apps. Each had only COMLEX and one was not liked when doing audition rotation. And this is in a DO heavy area. This year they had 2 they are looking at. But again, most of the time they just aren't applying.

Oh lol oh ya oh.

What would really tell the WHOLE story is the amount of DO's attempting to do such things. For example, that 5% could jut be from less DO's being interested in surgery.

Pure numbers are just ripe for inferences by less-than-informed pre-meds/med students on a message board of less-than-informed/informed-only-by-each-others-opinions people.
 
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Please explain the bolded part. If you bomb boards, how does MD save you?

An example, an MD with a 200 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery. That is the same as the DO match rate of general surgery for all applicants. An MD gives you a lot more wiggle room outside of the uber competitive specialties.
 
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Please explain the bolded part. If you bomb boards, how does MD save you?

If you look at the charting outcome data http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf you'll see that there is more flexibility in terms of board scores when you're a USMD.

20 out of 28 usmds with step 1 scores between 191-200 matched anesthesia
7 of 8 usmds with step 1 scores between 191-200 matched radiology
This same pattern holds true for nearly all specialities with a few exceptions.
 
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Oh lol oh ya oh.

This is why we need charting outcomes for every specialty. I agree with you 100%, there just aren't that many DOs applying to some of these competitive fields.
 
An example, an MD with a 200 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery. That is the same as the DO match rate of general surgery for all applicants. An MD gives you a lot more wiggle room outside of the uber competitive specialties.

I'd like to see where that's coming from, if ya don't mind me asking.
 
[QUOTE="AnatomyGrey12, post: 18539551, member: 716908"]An example, an MD with a 200 still has a 50% chance of matching general surgery. That is the same as the DO match rate of general surgery for all applicants. An MD gives you a lot more wiggle room outside of the uber competitive specialties.

I'd like to see where that's coming from, if ya don't mind me asking.[/QUOTE]

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf

30/62 USMDs with a 200-210 matched. 7/20 with a 190-200 matched, and once you get to 211-220 93/140 matched (66%).

Edit: Also using general surgery as an example, once a USMD hits a 221 then matching GS basically becomes a foregone conclusion. A DO with that same score will be lucky to get a handful of interviews, let alone match.
 
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If you look at the charting outcome data http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf you'll see that there is more flexibility in terms of board scores when you're a USMD.

20 out of 28 usmds with step 1 scores between 191-200 matched anesthesia
7 of 8 usmds with step 1 scores between 191-200 matched radiology

This same pattern holds true for nearly all specialities with a few exceptions.

This means nothing unless you contrast it with DO placement.
 
I'd like to see where that's coming from, if ya don't mind me asking.

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf[/QUOTE]
Thanks for referencing a massive document that's 211 pages long. Where does it say that there is a 50% chance of matching general surgery with a 200 step 1? Just because 50% with a step 1 matched does not by any form of the word mean there's a 50% chance of matching with a step 1 score of 200 as an MD. And again, none of this means anything because there is no comparison to the osteopathic match.


edit: wtf is up with the quoting function.
 
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