How much is OMT worth?

[USCguy]

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As I prepare to apply this cycle, I have some questions about tuition costs. Specifically, how much should one be willing to pay to learn OMT. If it costs around $19k/year for my public MD school, and ~31k/year at an DO school (OOS/private), how much of a difference do y'all (IYO) think one should be willing to pay out for DO school. I'm not too worried about not getting in to the state schools, and the only reason I was looking DO was that I think I will like OMT (was planning to become chiropractor before)...Is an extra ~48k in loans worth it...

 

[Hernandez]

As I prepare to apply this cycle, I have some questions about tuition costs. Specifically, how much should one be willing to pay to learn OMT. If it costs around $19k/year for my public MD school, and ~31k/year at an DO school (OOS/private), how much of a difference do y'all (IYO) think one should be willing to pay out for DO school. I'm not too worried about not getting in to the state schools, and the only reason I was looking DO was that I think I will like OMT (was planning to become chiropractor before)...Is an extra ~48k in loans worth it...

absent any disparities in quality of education and unless you wish to use OMT fulltime, I'd go with the allopathic school. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy OMT for specific treatments and I'm pretty damn good at it, but I'm a little weary of the "borne out by clinical experience" line they teach instead of offering much in the way of proof that their wild claims about the efficacy of OMT are true. And I think it’s important to keep in mind that only a fraction of DOs actually use OMT in practice.

but that being said, for the right pt, it's worth the money, and anecdotally, a DO FM couple who teach here and who do use OMT say that they bill and bring in perhaps 30-45K more a year because they use OMT than if they didn't, but again, that's anecdotal and just off the top of my head and for the life of me I can not remember if that was apiece of if that was both of them together. but for you and your goals? I don't know and only you can decide that. So honestly look into the benefits, downsides to a DO school and make up your mind what your goals in life more so than even in medicine before you decide to shell out 50K more for your education.

 

[JonnyG]

You aren't paying for the right to learn OMM, you are paying more to go to a private medical school that happens to teach OMM. Pick the school you like more.

 

[homeboy]

You aren't paying for the right to learn OMM, you are paying more to go to a private medical school that happens to teach OMM. Pick the school you like more.

True--pick the school you like more, but keep in mind if you can still pick up OMT via the MD route through CMEs and courses (I beleive it's around a 250 hr course to be able to bill for OMT)--you probably don't learn it to the same capacity, but few people utilize all the OMT they learn anyway.

 

[USCguy]

So how would you go about doing the 250 hr CME program. I mean, do you take that at a DO school, or are there "satellite" campuses in major areas. Or, do you just pick it up in a clinical setting (no classroom instruction). I'm in the fog about CME, I'm still trying to figure out how GME works 😀

 

[Dr JPH]

Usually you attend a conference or a series of conferences in order to learn things like this.

I agree with the above...choose the school that you like better.

I had the choice of a state school at $8,500/yr and my current school at $32,000/yr and I dont look back. I know I would not have been happy at the other school, even for the money I would have saved. Money isnt everything and being miserable for 4 years of medical school isnt so great I imagine.

Good luck with your decision.