Does it matter where you go to DO school?

[djtallahassee]

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Hear me out. I have heard it does not matter a ton where you go to MD school, especially if you are not trying for a more competitive specialty or research opportunities. Is the same true for DO schools? It seems like more importance is put on here about the age of schools. Wouldn't if you kill the USMLE and do OK in Complex, you'd be competitive for most specialties?

I wonder because some of the tuitions are really high and I wonder if they are really justified. Also, the way it appears to get into med school, it doesn't matter where you go as long as you get good grades and a good mcat.




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[angeloflogic]

It does matter mildly/moderately what DO school you go to, not necessarily because of prestige, but because of the quality of educational you'll receive. In general: public schools > original 5 > those older than 20 years > newer schools.

Older schools and the public schools already have a solid network of hospitals to rotate through, have experience knowing what to do, and have a proven track record. Public schools also have the added benefit of more in house residencies and research opportunities.

 

[djtallahassee]

So it has more to do with the clinical times and how much you actually learn from that. I have heard DO is a little harder without having a steady base of hospitals. I am just wondering if the difference is 15k+/year worth. I guess for the end result, I would need to find match list of the schools and try to extrapolate from that.

 

[JibsGuy52]

At the end of the day, every DO school is going to produce a doctor. Alas, not all schools have solid rotation sites yet. It is advisable to try and avoid the newer schools. Not saying they are bad, but it usually takes a bit to get their clinical education perfected.

 

[DO2015CA]

Match lists from DO schools mean nothing. It's like reading tea leaves. Stay away from schools with poor clinical education and go from there. You can find which schools through a search. Like the above said older schools tend to have better clinical education. Of the newer schools CUSOM and ACOM have solid clinical education. There may be more but I'm aware of those two

 

[stickgirl390]

At the end of the day, every DO school is going to produce a doctor. Alas, not all schools have solid rotation sites yet. It is advisable to try and avoid the newer schools. Not saying they are bad, but it usually takes a bit to get their clinical education perfected.

How do you know if a school is considered "new"?

 

[Chibucks15]

How do you know if a school is considered "new"?

There are a few who haven't even graduated a class through yet, and others that opened within 8 years or so is what I'd consider "newer" because they've only had a few classes graduate


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[Shotapp]

There are a few who haven't even graduated a class through yet, and others that opened within 8 years or so is what I'd consider "newer" because they've only had a few classes graduate


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The way I see it, schools that have graduated a couple of classes would be considered new schools and schools accepting their first batch of students would be newer.

 

[jazzcartier]

ya i think it totally does, unfortunately

 

[DO2015CA]

DO is a DO is a DO.

LMU has been talked about having weak clinical sites and yet they continue to match impressive specialities every year. This is because board scores are what matter most. You can "catch up" by doing away rotations at places with residencies. Go to a school that allows you to get the best board score and has a lot of electives.

Many DO students do a tune up elective at a notoriously difficult audition rotation that they really aren't that interested in attending. By doing this at the very beginning of the audition season you might look like at idiot atthat one (due to having poor clinical training at your home school) but you are solid from there on out to do auditions at where you want. Most people do about 3-5 audition rotations starting in Septemberish

Tl;dr go to the best school you can but you can make yourself competitive if you have the board scores