I love how everyone glossed over cabinbuilder's 2 posts XDD when in fact her words as a DO attending carry a lot more weight than what most of you are saying.
Not to worry. I have those who are for me and those who are against. I do think it's interesting that the pre-med naivete is running rampant on this thread.
Shall I revisit the reality check?
Ok, so I was one of those huge underdog types who was told they would NEVER get into medical school. My grades weren't good enough, I was a woman. The director of the WAMI program (no Wyoming at that time) told me that women don't belong in medicine, and that if I took the MCAT three times I might as well forget it. My own pre-med advisor didn't beleive I would ever get in, nor did my husband (now ex)
My DO friends where I worked rallied and encouraged me to apply DO. I was 32, newly divorced, 2 little kids. Original undergrad GPA was 2.7. I had taken the MCAT 3 times (my highest score a 24). My post bacc GPA was 3.9
So I got into DO school on the third attempt. Dragged my kids and my new boyfriend across the country and started medical school with high hopes and sure that was I destined to be a general surgeon.
I have NEVER had to struggle so much in academics in my LIFE. All this talk about your degree holding you back, blah blah blah, etc etc etc. Is so much bull****. I tell you once you get into the rigors of medical school your whole focus is PASSING. You don't have time to worry about boards or what residency program you may get into after 4th year. Residency has nothing to do with what school you go to.
So the board exams came around, my study group and I did 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 6 weeks doing board study. I was the only one who passed on the first try and my numbers weren't stellar. I still had high hopes of being a surgeon and went off on my rotations in my naive state thinking that if "worked hard and was positive" all would turn out in my favor. I went to an away rotation in Albuquerque, NM and loved everything about general surgery, was asked to apply to the program, had a letter from the director, etc. When I was on my oncology rotation, the attending at that time figured I would end up in primary care because I liked to talke to the patients too much. Hmmmm..
So, the time came for ERAS to open and I applied to the NM residency (it was Allo). Not one time while I was on rotation there was it mentioned that I would need the USMLE to be considered. Needless to say, despite rave reviews, my application was trashed on the first pass and I never was awarded interviews at any general surgery programs.
The match came and went. I didn't match of course. So I ended up scrambling into Family Practice and realized that the Oncologist 2 years before had seen something in me that I hadn't seen myself. I do plenty of procedures in my job now and have no regrets whatsoever.
SO........
You can do whatever you want, YES.
It's not about your school. It's about you.
Your board scores
Your rotations you do.
Your personality.
And.. If you are DO, don't let the school feed you the line that if you want an allopathic residency you don't have to take USMLE - THIS IS NOT TRUE. Do yourself a favor and give yourself the best chance to land the residency of your choice. If you don't get the one you want, it all comes down to the individual and you can only blame yourself. All this obsession about match lists from each school and students picking the school based on that is SO SO STUPID. It has nothing to do with the school. The students who are great test takers go onto the ROADS careers. The students who aren't make great doctors and take care of the masses.
I hope that clears things up.
(oh... got so excited it made me a little queasy....) 
