How Much Better is MD than DO?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Lawper said:
Yes it is
Click to expand...

My only issue with this is that if manage to get into a specialty with high compensation like ortho, plastics, ent etc the 500k+ you owe isn't that big of a deal, but if you decide 3rd year you want to go into PC or are forced to with a low Step score, you're kind of screwed. What is your opinion on that?
 
CyrusHabs7695 said:
My only issue with this is that if manage to get into a specialty with high compensation like ortho, plastics, ent etc the 500k+ you owe isn't that big of a deal, but if you decide 3rd year you want to go into PC or are forced to with a low Step score, you're kind of screwed. What is your opinion on that?
Click to expand...

MD is still a better option even for primary care. There are ways to pay off debt even for low paying specialties.
 
nydocgrl said:
I've been accepted to an MD school that will cost about 100K a year (tuition + living expense) and a DO school that will cost about 70K a year (tuition + living expense). Is it worth the extra money to go MD? The DO school is pretty well established and has a good reputation. MD is not ranked.
Oh and I'm going to be borrowing all this money.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's worth it. I'm surprised at $100k COA for an MD school. I didn't realize it went that high. That's like $30k more than my school, which I thought was among the most expensive.
 
jonnythan said:
Yes, it's worth it. I'm surprised at $100k COA for an MD school. I didn't realize it went that high. That's like $30k more than my school, which I thought was among the most expensive.
Click to expand...

About $86k and some change for my school. Cost of living can really bite you in the ass.
 
There are very few schools with around 100k CoAs.

Here’s the list:

Central Michigan University
Florida International University
SUNY Downstate
Michigan State (Leading the CoA race with the highest total CoA, $118k)
Northeast Ohio
Stony Brook
Hawaii
Illinois
Nebraska
South Carolina (with a whopping $89k tuition, the highest of any school)
South Dakota
UCONN

My money is on SUNY, because there's some post history in that thread and the school is unranked.

I’m done with my detective work for the day.

Edit: I lied, I did additional detective work. Sometimes I get bored when I'm sitting at my desk.
 
Last edited:
nydocgrl said:
I've been accepted to an MD school that will cost about 100K a year (tuition + living expense) and a DO school that will cost about 70K a year (tuition + living expense). Is it worth the extra money to go MD? The DO school is pretty well established and has a good reputation. MD is not ranked.
Oh and I'm going to be borrowing all this money.
Click to expand...
Slide right into the MDs
 
For most specialties, MD has a SLIGHTLY (and I mean SLIGHTLY) easier time of matching than DO. That being said, your path and outcome will depend mostly on YOUR effort and YOUR efficiency as well as YOUR attitude.
 
After lurking and reading some threads on match results for this year it seems like everything is tightening up, I think regardless of specialty MD is the way to go.
 
FlavivirusProtease said:
There are very few schools with around 100k CoAs.

Here’s the list:

Central Michigan University
Florida International University
SUNY Downstate
Michigan State (Leading the CoA race with the highest total CoA, $118k)
Northeast Ohio
Stony Brook
Hawaii
Illinois
Nebraska
South Carolina (with a whopping $89k tuition, the highest of any school)
South Dakota
UCONN

My money is on SUNY, because there's some post history in that thread and the school is unranked.

I’m done with my detective work for the day.

Edit: I lied, I did additional detective work. Sometimes I get bored when I'm sitting at my desk.
Click to expand...

Georgetown and GWU are 90k


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Does CoA include housing? Because looking it up tuition for G town is around $58k
 
Psych_hopeful said:
For most specialties, MD has a SLIGHTLY (and I mean SLIGHTLY) easier time of matching than DO. That being said, your path and outcome will depend mostly on YOUR effort and YOUR efficiency as well as YOUR attitude.
Click to expand...
Have you seen the charting outcomes? I think you and I, and maybe most people who have an understanding of numbers, would disagree about your use of "slightly". Some specialties are slight, but several have pretty large match rate differences between MD and DO.
 
Psych_hopeful said:
No it's not. There are strong applicants from DO schools that get into competitive specialties all the time. But keyword here is strong.
Click to expand...
This statement does not support your previous argument. There can still be significantly different match rates between DO and MD, and strong DO applicants get into competitive specialties.
 
Psych_hopeful said:
No it's not. There are strong applicants from DO schools that get into competitive specialties all the time. But keyword here is strong.
Click to expand...

The average MD will have a plethora of open doors for them. The same cannot be said for the average DO. I’m talking in terms of both specialties available and the types of programs that will consider them.

In competitive specialties the disparity is even greater so I’m not sure why you think that supports your opinion. Comparable superstar applications between a DO and an MD will have vastly different outcomes in these specialties.
 
Psych_hopeful said:
For most specialties, MD has a SLIGHTLY (and I mean SLIGHTLY) easier time of matching than DO. That being said, your path and outcome will depend mostly on YOUR effort and YOUR efficiency as well as YOUR attitude.
Click to expand...
Psych_hopeful said:
No it's not. There are strong applicants from DO schools that get into competitive specialties all the time. But keyword here is strong.
Click to expand...

And strong applicants from MD schools get into competitive specialties all the time, especially at more selective programs that are impossible to get into as DO. So i don’t know what your point is.
 
I had to apply multiple times before getting accepted in an MD school and I thought a lot about applying DO at times in the process. I never went through with the DO app though bc what if I get to fourth year and realize I would be miserable in any other specialty than something particularly competitive? Maybe I could still get where I want to go with a DO in that case but I have no assurance that I'll be a highly successful student. I just didn't feel safe assuming that I'll manage to be the exception to the rule. Had cost been a significant factor in my decision, I still would have felt the same way and thought of it as some profession insurance. Having as many options as possible in a field like medicine is certainly something to work for, especially when you're making big decisions before having a real idea of where you fit in the field/if you will excel. Just my $.02. Best of luck OP
 
120k in loans would come out to about 160k after interest. That’s about 8 months of working at the average physicians salary.

Do you want to go into something that MDs only match into? If so, go MD.

Wanna save the 160k and be debt free a few years earlier, go DO.
 
FlavivirusProtease said:
120k in loans would come out to about 160k after interest. That’s about 8 months of working at the average physicians salary.

Do you want to go into something that MDs only match into? If so, go MD.

Wanna save the 160k and be debt free a few years earlier, go DO.
Click to expand...

This is bad advice. The experience of going through medical school and actually participating in the work of medicine makes most students come out of it wanting to do something different than when they went in.

Go MD to keep your options as open as possible.
 
nydocgrl said:
Don't worry guys, I'm not stupid. Its not a Caribbean. For privacy reasons I'm not going to say school name. It is one of the schools listed above though.
Click to expand...
Hahaha, sorry for doing waaaay too much digging into it.
 
nydocgrl said:
I've been accepted to an MD school that will cost about 100K a year (tuition + living expense) and a DO school that will cost about 70K a year (tuition + living expense). Is it worth the extra money to go MD? The DO school is pretty well established and has a good reputation. MD is not ranked.
Oh and I'm going to be borrowing all this money.
Click to expand...
You have more doors open to you as an MD graduate, and the debt can be made up because your odds of landing in a more lucrative specialty are higher. So the debt should be a factor.

That said, my 2018s matched quite nicely today. Like really really nicely, so they're not going to be worried about debt all that much either.
 
Goro said:
You have more doors open to you as an MD graduate, and the debt can be made up because your odds of landing in a more lucrative specialty are higher. So the debt should be a factor.

That said, my 2018s matched quite nicely today. Like really really nicely, so they're not going to be worried about debt all that much either.
Click to expand...
Is there an average or usual time in which DO schools post their residency match lists?
 
I bet on downstate. NYDOCGIRL, username checks out.
nydocgrl said:
Don't worry guys, I'm not stupid. Its not a Caribbean. For privacy reasons I'm not going to say school name. It is one of the schools listed above though.
Click to expand...
 
I am not sure if "better" is the right terminology. It is perhaps more advantageous to be MD over DO when it comes to competitive residencies but I would not say one is better than the other.
 
Do you guys think it would be worth it to go to a first year MD school (Cal U) over a well-established DO even though youd be the inaugural class?
 
CyrusHabs7695 said:
Do you guys think it would be worth it to go to a first year MD school (Cal U) over a well-established DO even though youd be the inaugural class?
Click to expand...
Ehhhh the only reason I can see someone wouldn’t is because you wouldn’t be able to take out federal loans with Cal U. Otherwise 100 out of 100 times.
 
LOLERs said:
Ehhhh the only reason I can see someone wouldn’t is because you wouldn’t be able to take out federal loans with Cal U. Otherwise 100 out of 100 times.
Click to expand...

Im just really confused about the loan situation. If I have good credit, would it be worth doing it?
 
CyrusHabs7695 said:
Do you guys think it would be worth it to go to a first year MD school (Cal U) over a well-established DO even though youd be the inaugural class?
Click to expand...
I've already chatted with Cyrus about this in PM, but I can only recommend CalU MD to CA residents, because there are going to be tons of them applying. Keep in mind that CA is a net exporter of med students, so we're looking at a pool that will prefer to stay in Southern CA, rather than go to the two CA DO schools, or MD schools far away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dondeP
  • Question Question
Is MD still possible?
Replies
13
Views
1K
Obnoxious Dad
Obnoxious Dad
K
How bad is this?
Replies
2
Views
843
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight
M
How much to spread out secondary topics?
Replies
5
Views
643
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
olofmeister
How much to have saved before med school?
Replies
4
Views
1K
olofmeister
olofmeister
M
Travel vs Photography: which is the better EC?
Replies
3
Views
506
Goro
Goro
Top