G
grapefruit17
This is my contribution to pre DO students who are looking to go to DO school and are having trouble deciding which is the best for them. I will triage them in categories of A. Super Important, B. Moderate-low importance C. Low importance but can be helpful
background- DO graduate. Psychiatry resident at MD program.
Category A
Cost- Always look at this. Look at how much debt you will graduate with. You may think it will be easy to pay off. You may think you'll live super frugal and only take out the minimal loans you need. You may think "but they have such a good rep! I want to go because of the prestige this will help me get into residency easier!". This is a common mistake people make. Pre meds often try to predict the future and plan 10yrs in advance. Plan 3 months in advance. More than that is futile, things in the medical world can change before you can say "wtf??", things are in constant flux. Your plan to pay off 400k loans now may seem practical, but in 4 years you may look back and think "what was I thinking?". Also cost of living in medical school is higher than people predict. I don't even recommend living with someone first semester unless you know them well. Why? You may not be compatible roommates creating extra stress you don't need. Or even worse, they may fail out and abandon the lease and you're stuck in a lease SOL. Wait until you know people before making commitments. or hey, you may just prefer to live alone and do better that way. /end rant. Oh and those board exams you'll have to take? they're super expensive btw. And if you do usmle, you can tack on another 1,000 dollars, more actually. There are many hidden fees in medical school that you find out the hard way.
Location- This is pretty obvious. If you go somewhere where you know you'll hate life, you're unlikely to do well. Its very hard to succeed when you aren't in the right mental state. Go somewhere where you can see yourself at least being content, if not happy. Also go somewhere where the clinical rotations are near, or at least in the region of where you want to apply for residency. Believe it or not, this is a factor, although not a huge factor but still a factor, of what residencies will look for.
Mandatory attendance- I mean this part is just the worst. Especially look at year 2 schedule. You don't want to be in class 8-5 5 days a week during your second year. I don't care if you get off 1 month for boards, if your schedule is crap and its mandatory for entire second year than your life will be way harder than it needs to be. And step 1 score, as common knowledge, is ridiculously important no matter what field you go into.
Category B
New vs established school- Not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Matters some. When residencies see a name like PCOM or LECOM, or any DO school thats been around for a while they're more likely to give you at least some credibility. Matters mainly for the allo match. Ultimately this won't give you a huge advantage over another applicant, but every small advantage counts. Problem with new schools is policies are more likely to be in flux too. Attendance may be voluntary one year, then they can change it mandatory the next and youre SOL. With established schools I would doubt policies would change dramatically over a short period of time.
Rotations- most rotations you get what you put in really. I would look at fourth year schedule and see if they offer a lot of electives and the policy on that. If you desire something super competitive and have a specific date you want to do a Subi, you don't want to get shafted by the rotation policy of your school. I would look at how scattered rotations are. How much driving will you be doing? Can you stay in the same city? Driving an hour or two hours a day sucks when you need to at least somewhat study after rotations. Plus you don't want to be exhausted every day of third year. The quality of the rotation itself isn't necessarily as important as the flexibility. In life, theres many opportunities to turn a crappy situation into a decent one.
Class schedule- Try to find a schedule with least amount of lecture hours as possible. Of course you'll have lectures but so much of DO lectures are "fluff" that could easily be taken out. A school that Is low in fluff lectures is ideal. A school thats streamlined and doesn't have you in class 8-5 5 days a week sounds ideal to me.
Curriculum style- PBL style vs lecture. Do you want to just do everything yourself? maybe consider PBL. Everyone learns differently and the mistake that many medical schools make is trying to force everyone to learn the same way
Match list- most people don't know how to interpret this and its arguable. But for the most part, I would look and see if people are matching in the areas/hospitals you want to be at, consistently. If so that could mean the residency programs you're after are familiar with your school and how to interpret your application. Number of competitive matches is for the most part, irrelevant, because there will always be hard working/smart students who do well in each class.
Category C
Gym- stay in shape, run, do stuff. exercise gives euphoria. Makes you feel better. Helps at time, and if you let yourself go you feel more lethargic/less motivated.
Cafeteria- you get hungry when you study. seriously.
stuff to do in the area- you will get bored/lonely at times and want someone to hang out with.
I would score it like this
Category A factors=4 pts each
Category B=2 pt each
C=1 pt each
So a DO school w/ no attendance policy, average to low cost, but a place you don't want to be in is an 8. But has a gym/cafeteria that brings it to a 10. Rotations scattered? stay at 10, but has a match list you want to be a part of, go to 12.
so yea I would just sort of score DO schools you apply to like that.
feel free to ask Qs
background- DO graduate. Psychiatry resident at MD program.
Category A
Cost- Always look at this. Look at how much debt you will graduate with. You may think it will be easy to pay off. You may think you'll live super frugal and only take out the minimal loans you need. You may think "but they have such a good rep! I want to go because of the prestige this will help me get into residency easier!". This is a common mistake people make. Pre meds often try to predict the future and plan 10yrs in advance. Plan 3 months in advance. More than that is futile, things in the medical world can change before you can say "wtf??", things are in constant flux. Your plan to pay off 400k loans now may seem practical, but in 4 years you may look back and think "what was I thinking?". Also cost of living in medical school is higher than people predict. I don't even recommend living with someone first semester unless you know them well. Why? You may not be compatible roommates creating extra stress you don't need. Or even worse, they may fail out and abandon the lease and you're stuck in a lease SOL. Wait until you know people before making commitments. or hey, you may just prefer to live alone and do better that way. /end rant. Oh and those board exams you'll have to take? they're super expensive btw. And if you do usmle, you can tack on another 1,000 dollars, more actually. There are many hidden fees in medical school that you find out the hard way.
Location- This is pretty obvious. If you go somewhere where you know you'll hate life, you're unlikely to do well. Its very hard to succeed when you aren't in the right mental state. Go somewhere where you can see yourself at least being content, if not happy. Also go somewhere where the clinical rotations are near, or at least in the region of where you want to apply for residency. Believe it or not, this is a factor, although not a huge factor but still a factor, of what residencies will look for.
Mandatory attendance- I mean this part is just the worst. Especially look at year 2 schedule. You don't want to be in class 8-5 5 days a week during your second year. I don't care if you get off 1 month for boards, if your schedule is crap and its mandatory for entire second year than your life will be way harder than it needs to be. And step 1 score, as common knowledge, is ridiculously important no matter what field you go into.
Category B
New vs established school- Not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Matters some. When residencies see a name like PCOM or LECOM, or any DO school thats been around for a while they're more likely to give you at least some credibility. Matters mainly for the allo match. Ultimately this won't give you a huge advantage over another applicant, but every small advantage counts. Problem with new schools is policies are more likely to be in flux too. Attendance may be voluntary one year, then they can change it mandatory the next and youre SOL. With established schools I would doubt policies would change dramatically over a short period of time.
Rotations- most rotations you get what you put in really. I would look at fourth year schedule and see if they offer a lot of electives and the policy on that. If you desire something super competitive and have a specific date you want to do a Subi, you don't want to get shafted by the rotation policy of your school. I would look at how scattered rotations are. How much driving will you be doing? Can you stay in the same city? Driving an hour or two hours a day sucks when you need to at least somewhat study after rotations. Plus you don't want to be exhausted every day of third year. The quality of the rotation itself isn't necessarily as important as the flexibility. In life, theres many opportunities to turn a crappy situation into a decent one.
Class schedule- Try to find a schedule with least amount of lecture hours as possible. Of course you'll have lectures but so much of DO lectures are "fluff" that could easily be taken out. A school that Is low in fluff lectures is ideal. A school thats streamlined and doesn't have you in class 8-5 5 days a week sounds ideal to me.
Curriculum style- PBL style vs lecture. Do you want to just do everything yourself? maybe consider PBL. Everyone learns differently and the mistake that many medical schools make is trying to force everyone to learn the same way
Match list- most people don't know how to interpret this and its arguable. But for the most part, I would look and see if people are matching in the areas/hospitals you want to be at, consistently. If so that could mean the residency programs you're after are familiar with your school and how to interpret your application. Number of competitive matches is for the most part, irrelevant, because there will always be hard working/smart students who do well in each class.
Category C
Gym- stay in shape, run, do stuff. exercise gives euphoria. Makes you feel better. Helps at time, and if you let yourself go you feel more lethargic/less motivated.
Cafeteria- you get hungry when you study. seriously.
stuff to do in the area- you will get bored/lonely at times and want someone to hang out with.
I would score it like this
Category A factors=4 pts each
Category B=2 pt each
C=1 pt each
So a DO school w/ no attendance policy, average to low cost, but a place you don't want to be in is an 8. But has a gym/cafeteria that brings it to a 10. Rotations scattered? stay at 10, but has a match list you want to be a part of, go to 12.
so yea I would just sort of score DO schools you apply to like that.
feel free to ask Qs
