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carn311 said:I dont understand why the AOA doesnt support a combined match...
Are there anyother ways in which they do not act in the best interest of students that we premeds should be aware of?
-WARNING: RANT-
You bring up an excellent point, and one that I wish I had researched more before I began at an osteopathic school. While I cannot complain about the quality of my pre-clinical education thus far, I have encountered serious amounts of frustration in the policies and general attitude of the AOA towards students.
To be brief, the AOA has (in my opinion) a severely antagonistic relationship with the DO student body right now. There is a lot of animosity from the students towards the AOA due to several very pressing issues. I'll outline them for you.
1. The combined match: The AOA has been steadfastly opposed to this concept from its first suggestion. Why? Because they know as well as we do that there are far, far more high quality allopathic residencies that osteopathic. They also rightly know that if they combine the match, they will lose more of these of recent grads to allopathic residencies. So whats their solution? Rather than increasing the quality and number of osteopathic residencies, they lock us into an antiquated system. This is the truth about the combined match that nobody talks about. It all comes down to perpetuating the Osteopathic legacy of 'seperate but equal' at the expense of our education.
2. The opening of new schools: More and more open every year, further diluting the applicant pool. All the while, the number of osteopathic residencies decreases or stays stagnant. So, on the one hand, we are told to "be true to our osteopathic roots" and go to an osteopathic residency, but in fact, the DO establishment relies on the goodwill of the allopathic world because there simply are not enough osteopathic residencies for each new DO. So, my question is this: since the AOA allows for more and more schools to open, further increasing our reliance on ACGME programs, what is going to happen when the proposed 15% increase in MD enrollment occurs? Where are we going to go then?
And whats going to happen when the applicant pool dries up? How low are we going to go in terms of MCAT scores and GPAs in order to fill a class? If you think that any school would stand on principle and choose not to fill the class in oder to keep admission stats up, you're crazy. Some of the MCAT averages at DO schools are embarassing.
3. The 'OMS' iinstead of 'MS' nonsense/DOs on TV, etc: Not a huge issue, and one that is not often discussed on SDN, but its my pet peeve. And its a good representaion of the ridiculous nature of what the leadership considers student initiatives. Its a good example of how the AOA chooses to expend its efforts.
4. What really soured me on the AOA was the 2 AOA President question-and-answer sessions held at my school. Talk about a hostile encounter. Both of these guys were very talented at talking completly around a question without answering it directly. Neither of them could give any substantitive response to issue of new schools opening or expansion of residencies. They both brushed off the combined match issue as if it did'nt even merit attention. I still don't know if what the AOA position is on the rapid increase in DO schools.
I'm sure I'll get flamed for this post, but I really don't care. I defy anyone to say with a straight face that the AOA has the student's best interests at heart when it comes up with policies like these.