Does which school matter?

[bionerd89]

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So it seems like the general consensus on SDN is that the DO school you attend does NOT affect your chances of residency or specialty but when I googled "DO oncologist" , I noticed that most of them graduated from PCOM or CCOM. So is it just a coincidence that there are more PCOM and CCOM graduates that go into oncology compared to the other DO schools or is there some other reason? thanks

 

[soitgoes32]

So it seems like the general consensus on SDN is that the DO school you attend does NOT affect your chances of residency or specialty but when I googled "DO oncologist" , I noticed that most of them graduated from PCOM or CCOM. So is it just a coincidence that there are more PCOM and CCOM graduates that go into oncology compared to the other DO schools or is there some other reason? thanks

+1 would like to know this as well

 

[MDforMee]

Do yourself a favor and check out the match lists for each school before jumping to any conclusions.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Use this link http://www.osteopathic.org/osteopathic-health/Pages/find-a-do-search.aspx

Since I'm going to be attending WU and I'm interested in living in SoCal for the rest of my life, I selected California and checked the "All Specialties" box. Of the 1496 matches, 7 of them are shown to be practicing hemato/onco. 2 of those DO's went to school at WU, 2 went to PCOM, and the rest went to other DO schools.

However, for the surgical specialties, my primary interest, the vast majority of DO's went to WesternU. This clearly shows that there's some kind of association between the school you attend and where you end up practicing.

 

[kp11]

The altruistic answer is that it doesn't matter. The realistic answer is that it does play somewhat of a role. Given that you surpass the minimum threshold that a Residency program feels is the minimum adequacy, your application to residency is more than just numbers. Apart from how well you are prepared for boards by your school, relationships that you form with hospitals during core rotations, and how many elective rotations your school has (lets hope its 4 or higher), your application is aided by: who you know(this is still the real world), your school's alumni/support network, your school's reputation, your interviewing skills, and the opportunities (research/mission trips/outreach) you take advantage of with your school.

So I guess my response is that IT IS POSSIBLE at any school. the question is how easy does YOUR school make the road to success for what you want to do.

 

[bionerd89]

Do yourself a favor and check out the match lists for each school before jumping to any conclusions.

You can't tell from the match list whether they went on to do an oncology fellowship...

 

[SLC]

You can't tell from the match list whether they went on to do an oncology fellowship...

That's right, and school attended will have little if anything to do with fellowship matching.

Get a good IM residency, which means get good Step1 and 2 scores and do well in your 3rd year. This will give you a chance at a good IM program; and the majority of people who apply to fellowships after IM seem to get them.

GI seems to be the most competitive, and the match rate is still like 77% or something like that.

An awful lot of people don't follow through on pursuing a fellowship in my experience. After 3 years of intense residency training, the opportunity to earn a good paycheck and finally be done with training is hard to pass up for most folks.

 

[SurgeDO]

i cannot imagine your medical school has too much impact on your fellowship.

i do believe your medical school plays a major role on your residency application, however.

 

[MDforMee]

You can't tell from the match list whether they went on to do an oncology fellowship...

In that case, it would be nice to see a fellowship vs. alma mater spreadsheet for all DO schools. Do me the favor of working one up and posting it. While you're at it, I'll take a sandwich.

 

[bionerd89]

In that case, it would be nice to see a fellowship vs. alma mater spreadsheet for all DO schools. Do me the favor of working one up and posting it. While you're at it, I'll take a sandwich.

lol I'm not sure why you seem so upset with my question...I was just curious..I hope the rest of your day goes better

 

[touchpause13]

I don't quite understand the point in reading match lists

 

[coolingglasses]

I don't quite understand the point in reading match lists

match lists lol

 

[SLC]

I don't quite understand the point in reading match lists

They help people feel warm and fuzzy about their school choice. We've all been there before.

The further through school I go, the more I realize that matchlists are a poor metric by which to judge a school. If a student is dedicated and hardworking enough, and has the intangibles, he/she will match more or less where they want. School has very little to do with it outside the more elite MD programs.

edit: I will say this though; some schools seem to attract more driven students from what I can see. But this is a student specific quality more than something that the school confers to its student body.

My school is filled with people who even in 3rd year, are very dedicated to Pediatrics and Family Medicine. When >50% of my class does Primary Care next year, it's not because we were all unable to specialize, just that the majority of us chose to do primary care.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

i think it certainly matters which school you get into. theres certainly a difference between harvard and hopkins vs. do schools. between do schools, the difference is a bit narrower, albeit there is an advantage to attending a perceived "better" school nonetheless. however, i think the extent to which it does is overblown.

unfortunately we live in a world where rankings and prestige tend to take precedent over the quality of the individual.

 

[chizledfrmstone]

What was the average age of those physicians? If they graduated 25-35 years ago then it would make sense. Back then you had less choice of which school you went to. Most of them are considered established schools. We now have 30+ schools. It will take time for some of those graduates to climb up the ladder.

It could also be regional or other bias. I live in AZ and when I was going through the staff list for a local trauma 1 center the DO physicians were either from AZCOM, WesternU, or NOVA.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Postictal Raiden]

What was the average age of those physicians? If they graduated 25-35 years ago then it would make sense. Back then you had less choice of which school you went to. Most of them are considered established schools. We now have 30+ schools. It will take time for some of those graduates to climb up the ladder.

It could also be regional or other bias. I live in AZ and when I was going through the staff list for a local trauma 1 center the DO physicians were either from AZCOM, WesternU, or NOVA.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

I second this. Any DO who completed residency before 1980 must have gone to one of 10 DO schools (CCOM, DMU, KCOM, KCUMB OU-COM, OSU, MSU, TCOM, WVSOM and PCOM).

 

[DrEnderW]

I second this. Any DO who completed residency before 1980 must have gone to one of 10 DO schools (CCOM, DMU, KCOM, KCUMB OU-COM, OSU, MSU, TCOM, WVSOM and PCOM).

This is going to be your best answer.

Things will look different in the future when the newer schools have more alumni.

 

[kp11]

Also, from what I can tell from the doctors I work with, where you do your residency training ends up being more important than where you went to med school.

 

[HotHamH2O]

I think it only matters to the extent that which school you attend will affect how good of an education you will get. If your education is good, your steps will be good and you will match better. From what I have heard though, residencies aren't choosing one student over another based on the school they attended. For example, I don't believe a student from CUSOM with a 10 point higher step score than a PCOM student all other things equal.

 

[MDforMee]

lol I'm not sure why you seem so upset with my question...I was just curious..I hope the rest of your day goes better

Don't sulk about it, or anything. I just don't see any other way to answer your question.

If you could compare how many people go from a specific residency to a type of fellowship with how frequently residents in these same specialties get fellowships, with some math you could probably figure something out.

My point in posting the match list was to say that you shouldn't jump to conclusions about school prestige, which is what people in this thread seem to be saying. I believe in school name mattering, though.

Which is another thing... tuition isn't the same at all DO schools. I don't think that people are willing to pay premium prices for certain schools if there isn't an incentive. Check out this tuition list from 2012:

ATSU-KCOM$45,180
ATSU-SOMA$42,855
DMU-COM$40,800
KCUMB-COM$42,880
LECOM$29,820
LECOM-Bradenton$28,335
LECOM-Seton Hill$30,000
LMU-DCOM$38,290

MWU/AZCOM$52,635
MWU/CCOM$54,264
NSU-COM$42,474
NYCOM$48,490

PCOM$42,240
GA-PCOM$42,240
PNWU-COM$46,700
RVUCOM$44,686
TouroCOM$41,000
TUCOM$45,000
TUNCOM$45,000

UNECOM$48,800

UP-KYCOM$37,450
VCOM-Virginia$39,000
VCOM-Carolinas$39,000
WCUCOM$38,000
WesternU/COMP
(includes WesternU/COMP-Northwest)$49,510


Your CCOM is high priced. I don't think that the premium price is for the privilege of living in Chicago.

 

[Dreamstoo]

i cannot imagine your medical school has too much impact on your fellowship.

i do believe your medical school plays a major role on your residency application, however.

The PCOM orthopedic residents matches into fellowships are a great example. Plenty of them landed fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and a Harvard sports/pediatrics too.