Drexel vs TCOM

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Wolf00

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I was recently accepted to both of these programs and need some help deciding. I am interested in competitive specialties like ortho or derm.

Drexel
Pros:
  • MD
  • Good Step scores
  • Better match list

Cons:
  • Very expensive
  • Hahnemann closing
  • Old facilities

TCOM
Pros:
  • Very cheap
  • Loved Fort Worth
  • Highest COMLEX scores in the nation
  • Great facilities
Cons:
  • Don’t match super well into competitive specialties
  • DO

Also something to note, which may mean nothing, is that during my interview at TCOM the ortho residency director at the hospital affiliated with TCOM told me to reach out to him if I decide to go there.

Any advice or opinions are appreciated.
 
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tacoshellman said:
hey dude. curious you said that. what made u say that??


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The biggest reasons why I would always consider MD over DO are:

- Having to take 2 board exams just to be a little more competitive (but still below your MD counterparts) is truly not fun.
- DO automatically close shut many doors for your future career even in less competitive fields like IM, FM.
- You waste like 4 to 7 hours/week or more learning OMM only to not ever use it in the future unless you specialize in it. This is basically time you could have used studying something else and maybe improving your board scores.
- The rapid expansion of DO schools with poor clinical rotation standards is degrading our degree even futher.
 
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DrStephenStrange said:
The biggest reasons why I would always consider MD over DO are:

- Having to take 2 boards exams just to be a little more competitive (but still below your MD counterparts) is truly not fun.
- DO automatically close shut many doors for you for your future career even in less competitive fields like IM, FM.
- You waste like 4 to 7 hours/week or more learning OMM only to not use it ever in the future unless you specialize in it. This is basically time you could have use studying something else and maybe improve your board score.
- The rapid expansion of DO schools with poor clinical rotation standards is degrading our degree even futher.
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sorry to hear that bro. hey at least ur a doc at the end of the day. happy holidays bro


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As much bad publicity as you hear about Drexel, it is still a decent MD school with a long history of above average match lists. In fact, I would choose Drexel over a good number of MD schools let alone a DO. Furthermore, I think this is a no brainer
 
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Drexel. Go MD over DO every single time.

source- DO student who will be applying to a competitive surgical field. If I were at an MD school with my app I would be far more concerned with where I might match than if I am going to match at all.

FYI TCOM doesn't have an ortho program.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Drexel. Go MD over DO every single time.

source- DO student who will be applying to a competitive surgical field. If I were at an MD school with my app I would be far more concerned with where I might match than if I am going to match at all.

FYI TCOM doesn't have an ortho program.
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They have an affiliation with JPS, which does have an ortho program. The director of the program teaches at TCOM.
 
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Wolf00 said:
They have an affiliation with JPS, which does have an ortho program. The director of the program teaches at TCOM.
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JPS is an MD program that will occasionally take a super star DO.... They currently have one DO resident and they are a DO/PhD. If you want to qualify that as an "affiliation" then sure.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
JPS is an MD program that will occasionally take a super star DO.... They currently have one DO resident and they are a DO/PhD. If you want to qualify that as an "affiliation" then sure.
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You’re right it is an MD program, but TCOM students do the majority of their rotations there and some of the staff teaches at TCOM that’s why I described it as an affiliation. My point was only that the director of the program told me to reach out to him, which may or may not have meant something.
 
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tacoshellman said:
Hands down. why is this even a discussion.

you would seriously turn down MD to go DO?




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It's just hard for people to truly grasp how much of an uphill battle it can be simply because of the letters. They think, "it can't possibly be that bad" when reality is that it's often even worse than what they were told.
 
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Well, you're all probably right, but I thought this was a unique situation because we are talking about the best (and cheapest) DO school in the country and an MD school that has had a lot of issues recently. The thing that kept me considering TCOM was the avg debt of 119k vs ~350k at Drexel. If I happened to score poorly on boards and ended up in a specialty that paid less it would be nice to know I could still pay it off quickly.
 
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Wolf00 said:
Well, you're all probably right, but I thought this was a unique situation because we are talking about the best (and cheapest) DO school in the country and an MD school that has had a lot of issues recently. The thing that kept me considering TCOM was the avg debt of 119k vs ~350k at Drexel. If I happened to score poorly on boards and ended up in a specialty that paid less it would be nice to know I could still pay it off quickly.
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Even if you end up in IM or FM, I don't think you'll have problem paying your loans. All the primary care physicians I know paid their loans within 5 to 10 years.

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Wolf00 said:
Well, you're all probably right, but I thought this was a unique situation because we are talking about the best (and cheapest) DO school in the country and an MD school that has had a lot of issues recently. The thing that kept me considering TCOM was the avg debt of 119k vs ~350k at Drexel. If I happened to score poorly on boards and ended up in a specialty that paid less it would be nice to know I could still pay it off quickly.
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As someone who's actually in repayment right now - I wouldn't turn my nose up at the opportunity to save 200k.

In general, going MD offers far more opportunities than going DO - if you're interested in competitive specialties it's gonna be pretty difficult (and by difficult I mean nearly impossible) to match most competitive specialties from a DO school. People do it, but they are few and far between - I went to a T20 and we matched more 4th years into ENT & Plastics than all the DO schools in this country combined my YOG.

That being said, 200k is 200k. It's difficult to have this kind of insight at 23 but you need to decide what's important to you - financial independence vs. having all the opportunities possibly available. For some, 200k is worth the chance of maybe matching a field they like whereas for others, it's not.

You can't guarantee that you will want to do Ortho or Derm or ENT as an M4 applying for residency. You can't guarantee that you even will have the clerkship grades or step scores for that to even be an option. You can guarantee, however, that at some point you're gonna have to pay back your loans, and paying 119k is a hell of a lot easier than 350k if you end up not matching one of the uber-specialties.
 
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Lexdiamondz said:
In general, going MD offers far more opportunities than going DO - if you're interested in competitive specialties it's gonna be pretty difficult (and by difficult I mean nearly impossible) to match most competitive specialties from a DO school. People do it, but they are few and far between - I went to a T20 and we matched more 4th years into ENT & Plastics than all the DO schools in this country combined my YOG.
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While I agree 100% with this idea the end of this statement literally can’t be true unless you are only including ACGME matches. There are 20+ DO ENT spots...
 
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