HELP! Knowledgeable replies only

[Omar@JHU]

People, I would deeply appreciate advice on my situation. I am a premed with a lower than avg. undergrad GPA, graduated from Hopkins, MCAT 30R, age 25, married, gunning for entrance to medical or osteopathic school in fall '07 who wants to become a geriatrist and be able to practice WORLDWIDE i.e. have no problem quickly gaining certification to work with geriatric populations anywhere I feel like it. Though I think most of my career will be in the rural USA. Now then, I've been accepted to LECOM's postbac certificate program (DO school-affiliated program, 1 yr) and been waitlisted at Boston University's MA program (MD school-affiliated program, 2 yrs). I am waiting to hear from VCU's certificate program (MD school-affiliated program, 1 yr, I chose Physiology as my area of interest on the application). The VCU peole said they'd have a decision for me in about a week from today. Classes begin at Erie on Sept 5 or thereabouts, at BU on the same day, and at VCU on Aug. 24. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER LECOM'S OR VCU'S POSTBAC IS A BETTER CHOICE FOR SOMEONE WHO COULD USE THE M.D. DEGREE TO PRACTICE ABROAD WITH GREATER EASE THAN A D.O...AM I EVEN JUSTIFIED IN MAKING THE ASSUMPTION THAT M.D.'S ARE MORE ACCEPTED GLOBALLY? PLEASE HELP, also I will HAPPILY become a D.O. if I can practice with ease both here and internationally. Also, I need to move fast! If VCU doesn't take me, I will be gone to LECOM, hunkered down with my new books, and putting the finishing touches on my AACOMAS and Caribbean school applications within a week from today.
To sum up: I want to go allopathic (more acceptance here & abroad)?, will LECOM's postbac help me do this?
If VCU's postbac takes me, should I go there over LECOM to do allopathic?
Can D.O.'s practice abroad?
........THANK YOU :> Omar

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[KrnFord920]

People, I would deeply appreciate advice on my situation. I am a premed with a lower than avg. undergrad GPA, graduated from Hopkins, MCAT 30R, age 25, married, gunning for entrance to medical or osteopathic school in fall '07 who wants to become a geriatrist and be able to practice WORLDWIDE i.e. have no problem quickly gaining certification to work with geriatric populations anywhere I feel like it. Though I think most of my career will be in the rural USA. Now then, I've been accepted to LECOM's postbac certificate program (DO school-affiliated program, 1 yr) and been waitlisted at Boston University's MA program (MD school-affiliated program, 2 yrs). I am waiting to hear from VCU's certificate program (MD school-affiliated program, 1 yr, I chose Physiology as my area of interest on the application). The VCU peole said they'd have a decision for me in about a week from today. Classes begin at Erie on Sept 5 or thereabouts, at BU on the same day, and at VCU on Aug. 24. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER LECOM'S OR VCU'S POSTBAC IS A BETTER CHOICE FOR SOMEONE WHO COULD USE THE M.D. DEGREE TO PRACTICE ABROAD WITH GREATER EASE THAN A D.O...AM I EVEN JUSTIFIED IN MAKING THE ASSUMPTION THAT M.D.'S ARE MORE ACCEPTED GLOBALLY? PLEASE HELP, also I will HAPPILY become a D.O. if I can practice with ease both here and internationally. Also, I need to move fast! If VCU doesn't take me, I will be gone to LECOM, hunkered down with my new books, and putting the finishing touches on my AACOMAS and Caribbean school applications within a week from today.
To sum up: I want to go allopathic (more acceptance here & abroad)?, will LECOM's postbac help me do this?
If VCU's postbac takes me, should I go there over LECOM to do allopathic?
Can D.O.'s practice abroad?
........THANK YOU :> Omar

if you wanna do allopathic, i'd say go to VCU's program. if you have no worries with getting a DO, then go that route. but i was reading somewhere that the DO degree in other nations isnt the same DO degree you get in the US; in other nations, DOs are basically chiropractors and not medical providers. I don't know if that means having an american DO degree will make it different.

so, it's really up to you if you wanna choose MD or DO... MD: go with VCU; DO: go with LECOM.

 

[braluk]

Ive definitely heard that DOs have an easier time practicing abroad then MDs do, given that MDs require more equipment to go along with them, whereas the DO have the OMM technique, which uses only their hands.

I agree with above poster. I am turning in my decline for VCU so hopefully that will open up a spot for you! Good luck!

 

[Sundarban1]

There is a FAQ sticky in the osteopathic forum that lists all of the DO practicing rights internationally. Check it out.

 

[Omar@JHU]

Breaking news....VCU just took me...... Omar

 

[sunriver]

Breaking news....VCU just took me...... Omar

This is great. Go. I am a practicing DO and I can tell you there are huge obstacles to practicing abroad, even Canada.

 

[Omar@JHU]

This is great. Go. I am a practicing DO and I can tell you there are huge obstacles to practicing abroad, even Canada.

Thank you for your time...I think it's VCU, then. There seem to be factors in its favor. Regardless of what I end up becoming, I will strive hard to try to officially integrate the DO and MD degrees (tho it might not happen within my lifetime). Why the dichotomy? Why don't they just embrace each other and make the differences into a kind of optional, up-to-the-individual type of CME, that one can learn if/when one feels like it and get a certificate in? just my $.015, Omar

 

[jklasser17]

Regardless of what I end up becoming, I will strive hard to try to officially integrate the DO and MD degrees (tho it might not happen within my lifetime). Why the dichotomy? Why don't they just embrace each other and make the differences into a kind of optional, up-to-the-individual type of CME, that one can learn if/when one feels like it and get a certificate in? just my $.015, Omar

This is slightly off-topic, but I think interesting nonetheless. I shadowed a DO for a few wks and I asked him what he thought the difference was between a DO and an MD. He said that he felt like in today's world there is barely a difference in how you practice medicine. He continued that if I wanted to put a price tag on it, I could. He told me about how in the late '70s, I believe, California required all the physicians in the state to be an MD. Therefore, the DOs were either required to leave the state, or go to Sacremento (the capital) and pay a fifty dollar fee in order to get their MD. So the difference between a DO and an MD is fifty bucks. I thought that was a bit humorous.

On a serious note, I did ask him how international relief organizations viewed the DO, and as the above poster mentioned, he did say that there were some difficulties in the licensure process.

Good luck at VCU!

 

[sunriver]

Thank you for your time...I think it's VCU, then. There seem to be factors in its favor. Regardless of what I end up becoming, I will strive hard to try to officially integrate the DO and MD degrees (tho it might not happen within my lifetime). Why the dichotomy? Why don't they just embrace each other and make the differences into a kind of optional, up-to-the-individual type of CME, that one can learn if/when one feels like it and get a certificate in? just my $.015, Omar

Some in my profession would disagree, but at this point, the reason there are two degrees is political. The DO's get to keep their own schools, hospitals in some case, dictate CME requirements, seperate licensing boards in many states, etc. If the two professions merged some very big fish DO's would find themselves living in a very big pond. In addition, some of the marginal schools would be gone, as they simply do not meet the same rigorous standards of allopathic schools, or older, more established osteopathic schools.

 

[Omar@JHU]

Some in my profession would disagree, but at this point, the reason there are two degrees is political. The DO's get to keep their own schools, hospitals in some case, dictate CME requirements, seperate licensing boards in many states, etc. If the two professions merged some very big fish DO's would find themselves living in a very big pond. In addition, some of the marginal schools would be gone, as they simply do not meet the same rigorous standards of allopathic schools, or older, more established osteopathic schools.

This is a very clarifying statement. It makes sense that people with established practice and some strings to bureaucratic/institutional power would want to hold on to them. Anyhow, thank you again Doctor! May I meet you sometime as we guide our patients through the ephemeral, universal field of tulips, and be able to be of some benefit, however small.....