Extracurriculars for MD vs. for DO

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In before flame war.

OP is either a obvious troll, or severely misguided.
 
OP should try applying to DO schools with crappy ECs, and tell us what happens, I'm curious to find out
 
WorldWiz said:
I guess I'll answer now before a flame war starts. I'm well aware there's plenty of debate about osteo school standards vs med school standards, and the conclusion I seem to see from most of these is that while you can't compare osteo school and med school qualities this way, the fact still remains that, for whatever reason, the academic statistics of med schools tend to be higher than those of osteo schools. But if there is an article citing facts directly refuting this, I'd definitely like to read it to get a better perspective.
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👎thumbdown👎thumbdown
 
If any difference exists, its that DO schools care more about ECs than MD schools. Research may be slightly less emphasized, but medically related volunteering, community involvement, real-world experience, etc seem more heavily emphasized in both the application process and interviews (from someone who has experienced both). I will also say that DO schools are more non-trad friendly, and like I said seem to value a variety of real-world experiences more than most MD schools. Obviously there are exceptions for everything though, but if you are looking for generalizations that's what I found.
 
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In.

Osteo school vs Med school...so that's what the kids are calling it this cycle.
 
Mr Kenobi said:
In.

Osteo school vs Med school...so that's what the kids are calling it this cycle.
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I laughed at the osteo vs med school thing.

Op go educate yourself. Or troll away. 🙄
 
Sigh...

I'll give you a straight answer. First, there is no need to say osteo school vs med school. Both degrees are obtained by going through medical school resulting in a doctoral degree allowing one to practice medicine. Med school = med school. No one would ever say "hey I'm going to osteo school next year!"

EC's are equally important in both application processes. Some people will say DO programs take a more "holistic" look at applicants and place heavier emphasis on ECs and life experience. Who knows if this is actually true.

I can say from my n=1 experience, a huge percentage of applicants at my DO interviews, compared to interviews at MD programs, were already out of undergrad and thus had a plethora of EC experiences. Of course, all competitive candidates have quality ECs and you should focus on that.
 
:flame:

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hallowmann said:
OP, "osteo school" = med school in the US.
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No way! We are going to osteopath school. We arent going to be doctors, we are going to be osteopaths. HUGE difference. All we will end up doing is crackin' backs for a living. Get it straight guys! We are not real doctors!












Notsrs
 
0/10 for obvious troll

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Ost3oclast said:
No way! We are going to osteopath school. We arent going to be doctors, we are going to be osteopaths. HUGE difference. All we will end up doing is crackin' backs for a living. Get it straight guys! We are not real doctors!


Notsrs
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Can't wait for my back crack-a-lackin' edu-ma-cation.
 
Make sure one of your ECs is lifting. Whereas MD schools would really like to see some research, DO schools want a significant amount of gym time. OP, do you even lift?
 
WorldWiz said:
An MD I recently shadowed severely emphasized the importance of extracurriculars for applying to med school, but I was wondering if they are equally importance for osteopathic school? I have heard that statistically osteo schools have, in general, accepted applicants with lower grades and test scores than those who are accepted by med school have, but do extracurriculars seem to not matter as significantly to osteo schools as they do to med schools? Thanks.
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Gah. I put a sarcastic response here at first but I'll give this guy the benefit of the doubt.

Research experience will likely help your application if it is otherwise acceptable but likely won't make up 100% for a dismal GPA or MCAT, since D.O. schools absolutely do have academic standards for admission.
Volunteer and at least some shadowing, to my knowledge, are almost a de-facto requirement considering that everyone who was at my osteopathic medical school (please use this terminology rather than "osteo" school) interviews had both volunteer and shadowing experience, and most had some research as well.
Hobbies and sports came up as a topic of discussion in a couple of interviews but I didn't get the impression that these comprised a "make or break" variable for admissions decisions. The discussions about hobbies felt more conversational, like they were trying to get a feel for me as a person or how well I could articulate my experiences.

P.S. Osteopathic medical schools in the United States are medical schools. They are very different from schools of "osteopathy" found in places outside the United States.
 
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If you expected Osteopathic school to be all adjustments go to DC school. They are ironically better known than DO schools.
 
sterlingh87 said:
If you expected Osteopathic school to be all adjustments go to DC school. They are ironically better known than DO schools.
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Aside from learning about Palmer in OPP last semester, I wouldn't be able to name a single chiropractic school without Google.
 
NeuroLAX said:
Aside from learning about Palmer in OPP last semester, I wouldn't be able to name a single chiropractic school without Google.
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Well, I mean knowledge about the degree itself. I doubt many lay persons would know what a DO is much less what schools are DO granting medical schools. While they probably couldnt name any chiropractic schools they would know what a chiropracter is.
 
OP be careful of mentioning you are pre-do to volunteer places. Many won't let you volunteer as they rightly know you're not as smart as a pre-md.
 
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