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On a purely objective way, is getting into DO school easier or harder than getting into dental school. I was having this convo with a dental student the other day. What do you all think?
DO school is harder to get into.
Why? I am going to DO school. 🙂
It's like asking whether it's harder to get into vet school or med school- vet school has far more applicants per seat and have a far more difficult prerequisite curriculum (https://aavmc.org/data/files/vmcas/prereqchrt14.pdf -you need chem, bio, physics, orgo, biochem, micro, and genetics at many schools), but they don't have to take the MCAT, so it's hard to say which is more difficult. They're just different.
On a purely objective way, is getting into DO school easier or harder than getting into dental school. I was having this convo with a dental student the other day. What do you all think?
On a purely objective way, is getting into DO school easier or harder than getting into dental school. I was having this convo with a dental student the other day. What do you all think?
So hard to compare. MCAT vs DAT etc.
Yea from my understanding of it the difficulty of getting into a program goes like this:I actually think VET is harder then med.so few spots. But lots of premed take those classes (taken all those plus more)
So hard to compare. MCAT vs DAT etc.
Yea from my understanding of it the difficulty of getting into a program goes like this:
Vet>MD=PA>DO=Dent>Pod
But obviously thats not set in stone, thats just the trend I have heard of... Vet being hard just because as someone mentioned, a lack of spots. This lack of spots is also what makes PA pretty tough too.
However, the challenge getting in has nothing to do with how challenging the degree actually is. Also there are obviously outliers because one could have a very easy time getting into their state med school vs Harvard, so that skews it a lot. Some competitive Dent programs will be as competitive as some PA programs for example. But as for just pure challenge of the material, as I have seen it, Vet=MD=DO=Dent=Pod (and mayyybe even throw PA in there - some programs you basically go through the basic science years with med students). All routes require a great deal of hard work, they are just in different areas (human body, human mouth, horse, human foot, etc).
As someone who entertained the idea of going to PA school when I first got interested in medicine, I would argue that it is.Its harder to get into PA school than DO???
THIS. If it weren't for the bottom 5-10 DO programs, the competitiveness threshold would be significantly higher.As someone who entertained the idea of going to PA school when I first got interested in medicine, I would argue that it is.
Now is that to say its harder to get into a PA school than a super competitive DO program (think CCOM or PCOM or something), things become muddy... But I do in fact think that overall it is easier to get into DO school than PA school. There are some crappy DO schools out there with some really low standards. Whereas almost all PA schools have very high matriculant GPA's, not to mention most programs require at LEAST 1,000 hours of clinical experience, with many requiring 2,000-3,000...
Its an interesting field with short schooling and good pay and you can do at least 75% of what a clinical physician does on a day to day basis. I can see why it is competitive.
What I think is cool/interesting is that some new schools such as MUCOM are really raising the bar. They want it to be as competitive as MD schools, they want to attract the same caliber of applicants.THIS. If it weren't for the bottom 5-10 DO programs, the competitiveness threshold would be significantly higher.
If these generalizations must be made, it's definately DO>dental. Osteopathic medical school is...Medical school... the bar intuitively is set higher. But, the numbers back that up as well...
Here is the most recent list I found around sdn:
Touro-NY: ?/30.8
Touro-Ca: 3.47/3.40/30.1
CCOM: 3.60/3.55/29.4
RVU: 3.60/3.57/28.33
DMU: 3.68/3.68/28.2
RowanSOM: 3.63/3.55/28
NYITCOM: 3.6/28
UNTHSC-TCOM: 3.59/3.51/28
COMP: 3.56/3.51/28
COMP-NW: 3.55/3.49/28
AZCOM: 3.51/3.44/28
LECOM-B: 3.50/3.40/28
UNECOM: 3.5+/28
NSU: 3.49/3.40/28
PCOM: 3.46/3.37/28 (2016)
TUNCOM: ?/28
MSUCOM: 3.57/27.57
OU-HCOM: 3.65/3.61/27.42
KCOM: 3.56/3.47/27
LECOM-E/SH: 3.48/3.35/27
ATSU-SOMA: 3.42/3.32/27 (2016)
PCOM-Ga: ?/27 (2015)
MUCOM: 3.57/3.49/26.28
OSU-COM: 3.61/3.54/26
KCUMB: 3.60/3.53/26
CUSOM: 3.55/3.23/26
WCU: 3.5/3.4/26
ACOM: 3.4/26
LMU: ?/26
PNWU: 3.40/3.31/25.76
VCOM-CC: 3.61/3.55/25 (2015)
VCOM-VC: 3.59/3.52/25 (2015)
WVSOM: 3.4/3.4/25
KYCOM: 3.5/3.4/24
As you can see, the bottom 1/3 has at least an avg gpa of 3.5, which is similar to dental school and an average mcat of 25, which is the average test takers score. The average DAT score is around 17 (correct me if im wrong) and accepted score is 19.
Now, the MCAT is a whole different monster than the DAT. For some people the DAT might be harder, but the passage based style of the mcat is what makes it so uniquely difficult to so many...
Also keep in mind that those numbers were for the BOTTOM 1/3. Even MD schools have similar lower stats for some schools in the midwest and south. As it turns out, DO schools follow the same trend, albeit a little lower. Schools like Rowan, CCOM, and Touro are way more competitive than most dental schools.
if you want to compare DO to dental, location location location matters. I could argue that Touro NY, stats wise, is probably more difficult to gain acceptance to than most NY dental schools except maybe nyu, columbia, and cornell
You do realize that this exact same type of list could be made for dental schools, since many dental schools also have GPA averages of 3.6+.. Do you honestly think greater than a 1/3 of dental schools have a GPA avg of less than 3.5? If you want to add any credibility to your point make a side by side list of dental and DO school average GPAs and Test Scores and then compare. Also while your at it throw some acceptance rates in there too.. Since you care so much.
THIS. If it weren't for the bottom 5-10 DO programs, the competitiveness threshold would be significantly higher.
As someone who entertained the idea of going to PA school when I first got interested in medicine, I would argue that it is.
Now is that to say its harder to get into a PA school than a super competitive DO program (think CCOM or PCOM or something), things become muddy... But I do in fact think that overall it is easier to get into DO school than PA school. There are some crappy DO schools out there with some really low standards. Whereas almost all PA schools have very high matriculant GPA's, not to mention most programs require at LEAST 1,000 hours of clinical experience, with many requiring 2,000-3,000...
Its an interesting field with short schooling and good pay and you can do at least 75% of what a clinical physician does on a day to day basis. I can see why it is competitive.
That's a lot of work lol, if someone else wants to take that offer I'd be more than happy to see if i'm wrong or not.
Also, the MCAT point is BIG. So many people deter from pre-med to pre-dental and/or other health professions bc their mcats are too low/they find it too difficult.
To all those saying dat>mcat, im curious, did you take both (practice or real thing) and do better on the mcat (percentile wise)?
Physics is not covered by the DAT.
Sure you are, as those obtaining a DO degree are in medical school.@TheBoiii
I don't recall saying that the DAT is more difficult than the MCAT. We're talking overall admissions here, which takes into account a multitude of factors. Also we're not taking Med school vs dental school admissions, we're talking about SPECIFICALLY DO vs dental school admissions. Don't throw MD schools in there because that definitely skews the argument. Some ppl may deter from pre-med to pre-dental but an overwhelming majority of dental students never even had a desire to go to medical school. What about those who switch from MD to DO because of lower stats? I can assure you that the percentage of DO's who wanted to be MD's is MUCH higher than the percentage of Dentists who wanted to be physicians.
I don't recall saying that the DAT is more difficult than the MCAT. We're talking overall admissions here, which takes into account a multitude of factors. Also we're not taking Med school vs dental school admissions, we're talking about SPECIFICALLY DO vs dental school admissions. Don't throw MD schools in there because that definitely skews the argument. Some ppl may deter from pre-med to pre-dental but an overwhelming majority of dental students never even had a desire to go to medical school. What about those who switch from MD to DO because of lower stats? I can assure you that the percentage of DO's who wanted to be MD's is MUCH higher than the percentage of Dentists who wanted to be physicians.
@TheBoiii
I can agree with you on that last point, but unfortunately that's not we're actually debating here. We're talking about admissions remember? The less responsibility is part of what makes dentistry such a family friendly and appealing profession when coupled with such a high income.. but again what does this have to do with one being more difficult to get into than the other? Which like a previous poster has already said, "is like comparing apples and oranges." Because I honestly believe it's extremely difficult to compare with all the variables that need to be taken into account.
@TheBoiii
Dentistry does not attract applicants that are 'sub-par' for medical school. Please go to the dental forum and look at the stats of recently accepted non-urm students. Your claims are erroneous. Why do you feel such a desperate need to say that DO is more difficult without any sufficient evidence, why can't you just accept that they are clearly different? I'm curious, do you have something to prove?
@TheBoiii
Dentistry does not attract applicants that are 'sub-par' for medical school. Please go to the dental forum and look at the stats of recently accepted non-urm students. Your claims are erroneous. Why do you feel such a desperate need to say that DO is more difficult without any sufficient evidence, why can't you just accept that they are clearly different? I'm curious, do you have something to prove?
@GypsyHummus
Very true, there is no such thing as grade replacement in dental school. I had completely forgotten about that. This might even mean the the GPA avgs of a lot of these DO schools could be much lower...
@GypsyHummus
Very true, there is no such thing as grade replacement in dental school. I had completely forgotten about that. This might even mean the the GPA avgs of a lot of these DO schools could be much lower...
@TheBoiii
Why would I look at the stats of ONE DO school and compare it to the average of all dental schools? How does that make any sense whatsoever? Also I only told you to publish numbers once if it was 'that important to you'.. Like I said before I accept that they're different. I don't really care if one is harder than another but I'm not going to let you just make up things to desperately try to prove that DO is harder. And did you just say that it attracts stronger applicants 'because' they're worth more in society? Since when does the value to society determine how conpetitive a program is? Which do you think has better value to society, plastic surgery or primary care? Pediatrics or Dermatology? Which do you think is more competetive?? I'm done with this debate, your arguments lack logic.
thats kind of what everyone was saying about pharmacy a few years ago...their job market and admission standards have since utterly collapsed.@GypsyHummus
Tuition for dental school is insanely high right now, fortunately I was able to get into my state school which cut down the cost a bit. But either way I still think dentistry is worth it! Dentistry can be a very rewarding field if you do choose to go this route!
thats kind of what everyone was saying about pharmacy a few years ago...
Lol.I think TheBoiii and Dipdoc might be the same person...
Hasn't there been a spate of new dental schools opening recently?@user3
And I've heard people call medicine a rewarding career too, what's your point? What happened to pharmacy could never happen to dentistry. Do you know how ridiculously easy and cheap it is to start a pharamacy school? Do you realize starting a dental school is actually more expensive and difficult than starting a medical school simply because of the cost of the clinics alone.. Why do you think there's so few of them?
Edit: you can't just open a 'for-profit' dental school. Dental schools barely make enough profit as is, why do you think tuition is insanely high? We don't have hospitals the cover the cost of our rotations.