DO student --> MD anesthesia residency?

[natureboy]

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My COMLEX Level I is barely above average and my USMLE Step 1 is a few points below average. Since I'm a DO student, I'm getting really worried about my chances. I'd be happy to go anywhere, except an osteopathic anesthesia program because I've heard bad things about them. How much of a disadvantage am I at? A handful of allopathic programs I've looked at seem say they want a Step 1 ~220+ or Comlex 600+ (a bit illogical to me since a 220 is ~50th %tile and a 600 is ~87 %tile). Anyway, does any one have any suggestions about securing MD rotations for 4th year, programs that are DO friendly, programs that are more forgiving in terms of board scores, number of programs I should apply to, or number of interviews to successfully match?

I do plan to take both exams again at the end of MSIII. Hopefully I can bump up Step 2...if now, am I pretty much doomed? IIRC, according to NRMP, ~90% people with 210+ last year matched...

Any advice at all would surely help ease my nerves...

 

[Stiff Touhey]

First, get the 'DO vs MD' (or vice versa) chip off your shoulder. Sure, there are perceived differences, but once you're a doc, it matters not... before you're a doc, it matters some. Having said that, you need a STRONG performance on Step II, STRONG letters and STRONG evaluations. As far as D.O. "friendly" allopathic programs, simply looking at individual program websites for D.O. residents within their current roster will give you a good idea.

 

[Sergio99]

Hello,

We may type answers for you until our fingers fall off and until the whole worldwide web is saturated with pages and pages and more pages of nonsense, and you will not be able to know more than you know now, until you apply and get accepted or rejected.

You have to realize that there is always more people applying than the number of posts available, so some people will be rejected. But you never know who will be those lucky or unlucky ones. Each program director has his own criteria for choosing people. Each program director gets attracted to certain types of personality and not to others. Grades are important, but they are not everything.

The same way that there are MDs that got accepted and others that got rejected, there are many ODs that got accepted and others who got rejected.

Keep reading, keep studying, keep working hard, keep rereading the stuff that you may have missed during your med school courses, try to get the best grades you can on your exams, and apply to as many programs as humanly possible.

The only way you will be able to tell what happens is going through it and testing it in your own flesh, because the question here is not what happens to somebody else, but what happens to you, and no one else can answer that. You can have a rough idea looking at the statistics, but the only way you can know for sure is retrospectively.

Greetings

 

[kazuma]

I think you will be just fine if you can do well on USMLE step 2. Take it EARLY, and I don't mean fall of your senior year. You need to take it early enough that your scores will be back in August. Make sure you get good LOR's and have them ready to go by July/Aug at the latest. Make sure everything is ready to go so you can submit your ERAS at 8AM on Sept 1st. If you score >235 on step 2 and above 500 Comlex 2 (not that allopathic programs care about comlex anyway) then you should get plenty of interviews. You may have to apply to 40-60+ programs, but you should definitely get some interviews. I would also suggest taking COMLEX PE in April or May so that your passing results will be ready to submit too.

From my experience, as long as you are a good student and do well on the USMLE, then there really isn't any "DO stigma" when applying to ACGME programs. Look at the current residents at ACGME programs. More than 80+ ACGME programs either have current DO residents or recent DO graduates.

The bottom line is that program directors have to know that a prospective resident will do well on the ABA board exams. The importance of the USMLE cannot be underestimated.

Read every single night, excel on your rotations, and start studying for boards right now. Now is the time to turn up the heat if you want to match ACGME. Best of luck👍

 

[sideways]

Hello,

We may type answers for you until our fingers fall off and until the whole worldwide web is saturated with pages and pages and more pages of nonsense, and you will not be able to know more than you know now, until you apply and get accepted or rejected.

You have to realize that there is always more people applying than the number of posts available, so some people will be rejected. But you never know who will be those lucky or unlucky ones. Each program director has his own criteria for choosing people. Each program director gets attracted to certain types of personality and not to others. Grades are important, but they are not everything.

The same way that there are MDs that got accepted and others that got rejected, there are many ODs that got accepted and others who got rejected.

Keep reading, keep studying, keep working hard, keep rereading the stuff that you may have missed during your med school courses, try to get the best grades you can on your exams, and apply to as many programs as humanly possible.

The only way you will be able to tell what happens is going through it and testing it in your own flesh, because the question here is not what happens to somebody else, but what happens to you, and no one else can answer that. You can have a rough idea looking at the statistics, but the only way you can know for sure is retrospectively.

Greetings

Dude...

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

I think you will be just fine if you can do well on USMLE step 2. Take it EARLY, and I don't mean fall of your senior year. You need to take it early enough that your scores will be back in August. Make sure you get good LOR's and have them ready to go by July/Aug at the latest. Make sure everything is ready to go so you can submit your ERAS at 8AM on Sept 1st. If you score >235 on step 2 and above 500 Comlex 2 (not that allopathic programs care about comlex anyway) then you should get plenty of interviews. You may have to apply to 40-60+ programs, but you should definitely get some interviews. I would also suggest taking COMLEX PE in April or May so that your passing results will be ready to submit too.

From my experience, as long as you are a good student and do well on the USMLE, then there really isn't any "DO stigma" when applying to ACGME programs. Look at the current residents at ACGME programs. More than 80+ ACGME programs either have current DO residents or recent DO graduates.

The bottom line is that program directors have to know that a prospective resident will do well on the ABA board exams. The importance of the USMLE cannot be underestimated.

Read every single night, excel on your rotations, and start studying for boards right now. Now is the time to turn up the heat if you want to match ACGME. Best of luck👍

I'd listen to this. Programs may tell you they accept the COMLEX, but this is very few and far in between. Performing well on COMLEX means nothing. Even a mediocre USMLE (> 200-210) scores you a decent number of interviews. I know of one I've personally spoken with that took both Steps and didn't do hot at all, didn't break 220, but received 14 invites last year and got into their top spot. There you have it. Don't make the mistake some of us make.

 

[putyou2sleep]

I rotated through a university program this fall as a fourth year MD student, and worked on my rotation with a rotating DO student, and a DO resident. We had discussions about their difficulties/lack of difficulties in the match.

The biggest piece of advice that came out of those talks, was to rotate through a program that you want to enter. There seems to be less stigma as a student than as an applicant. If you go somewhere for a month and work your butt off, that goes MUCH farther than any STEP score, or the letters after your name. So find a program or two that you are interested in, rotate through them, and meet their minimum STEP requirements. They want to accept applicants that they know.

 

[natureboy]

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses. I'm still checking back regularly, so if anyone has anything to add, I'd love to hear what you have to say! 🙂

 

[amyl]

i know a person who matched into a good program with average comlex only scores. it happens but i think he was a freak of nature. bottom line: take the usmle. try like hell on step two. rotate and shine at somewhere you would like to go that has a history of taking DOs. my program, CCF, has a history of taking DOs and, i believe, does consider the whole applicant not just a collection of scores when it comes to rank time. in my class, there are four DOs and I think I am the only one who matched there who didn't rotate there.... good luck!

 

[Wyclef]

Your scores are fine and you will match somewhere. Just email the program coordinators with your questions and carefully select where you do your away rotations. You'll be fine. The sooner you stop being so self conscious about being a DO the better.

 

[natureboy]

I'm very sorry if I came across like a future DO who is "anti-DO". I'm really not. I have no quarrels about attending my osteopathic school. What I'm against (after researching) is going into a DO anesthesia program due to the possible lack of good/hard cases. If I were going into almost any other residency program, the accreditation would play less of a role in why I chose a certain program. 🙂