If I get a D.O. acceptance this year, can I defer it while I reapply to MD?

[exmike]

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Has anyone done this? I'd prefer to go to a MD program, and and willing to reapply. If I get into a D.O. program, can I defer it for a year while I reapply? Or can I just reapply to the D.O. program? (wont they wonder why I didnt attend the previous year?)

 

[kito]

choose one or the other. make up your damn mind.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

Do you mean for incoming 2003 or incoming 2004? If you're talking about incoming 2004, why don't you just apply both DO and MD, and take what you get. If you get accepted DO in 2004, applied to a lot of MDs for 2004 as well, it is not likely that you would then somehow get accepted MD in 2005.

If you mean you're currently accepted to a DO for incoming 2003 and want to defer it and apply MD 2004, you could get a deferral for work or personal improvement or whatever from the DO school (do it very soon though), and then apply to MD schools now for 2004. Your original DO school would not have any way of knowing you spent your subsequent year applying to MD schools, and you could just cancel your deferment if you were accepted to an MD school.

 

[exmike]

Originally posted by ankitovich
choose one or the other. make up your damn mind.

thanks for the help 🙄

 

[fullofhope]

Originally posted by WatchingWaiting
Do you mean for incoming 2003 or incoming 2004? If you're talking about incoming 2004, why don't you just apply both DO and MD, and take what you get. If you get accepted DO in 2004, applied to a lot of MDs for 2004 as well, it is not likely that you would then somehow get accepted MD in 2005.

If you mean you're currently accepted to a DO for incoming 2003 and want to defer it and apply MD 2004, you could get a deferral for work or personal improvement or whatever from the DO school (do it very soon though), and then apply to MD schools now for 2004. Your original DO school would not have any way of knowing you spent your subsequent year applying to MD schools, and you could just cancel your deferment if you were accepted to an MD school.

can you cancel your deferment? i thought it was a legal contract.. is it different for DO? I had thought of deferring many times... but it came down to the simple fact that I could not cancel it once I asked fo ra deferral... my Dean had told me this... let me kno wif you have more information.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

Re: I had thought of deferring many times... but it came down to the simple fact that I could not cancel it once I asked fo ra deferral

If you don't want to be there the next year, there's not anything the medical school can do to force you to attend, deferral agreement or not. OTOH, if you defer and then decide not to attend or (in particular) to go to another school, the deferred school will be very pissed off, consider you flaky, and will certainly never give you the time of day in any future interactions.

 

[fullofhope]

thinking of it more, I think it came down to an ethical decision as to whether or not I wanted to string the school along. I did think that once you deferred, you sign something saying you will not apply to other schools (some schoolsl let you apply though), and I imagine this is monitored via AMCAS. Are you sure you wont lose any sort of money/downpayment to hold the deferral? I didnt think it was that easy to defer and then apply to other schools.. i dont know though. sorry

 

[Md 2b In TN]

I got in to a DO school this year, but decided to set a year out. If the school has a deferment option you CAN take that if you don't mind loosing the money (if you get in to an allopathic program). However, if you get in and don't go, you burned that bridge, there is no use in reapplying(from what I've been told). You need to look carefully at your reasons for not matriculating. Mine were based on my interests, I'm more interested in academic medicine and this school had very little research facilities or funding. Typically allopathic schools are more research oriented. However, if you are just wanting to practice I would go! Match rates for residencies are about the same, and in 15 years no one will know the difference anyway.

 

[zzeyfzz]

if you would really much rather go to an md school instead of a do school, i think you'd just be better off applying only to md schools the first year. and if you get no acceptances from the mds, wait a couple years and apply again to both md and do schools.

then, on your second try, you could decide to go to a do school only if you are not successful with the md schools. and you wouldn't have to worry about deferring because you don't really want a do anyway.

 

[e-spin]

Originally posted by zzeyfzz
if you would really much rather go to an md school instead of a do school, i think you'd just be better off applying only to md schools the first year. and if you get no acceptances from the mds, wait a couple years and apply again to both md and do schools.

then, on your second try, you could decide to go to a do school only if you are not successful with the md schools. and you wouldn't have to worry about deferring because you don't really want a do anyway.

Yeah, that is what I was going to say.
Also, a friend of mine applied to MDs and DOs right out of UG...he got into a DO school. He declined the acceptance to work on his stats to apply MD. He applied to both MD and DO this yr, including the DO school he turned down two yrs prior. To make a long story short, he didnt even get an interview at the school he turned down before. Luckily he got into a different DO school this time around. The moral of the story: Don't apply if you wouldn't take the acceptance, it wastes time, money and burns bridges.

 

[anxiousmed]

exmike, I did exactly what you are attempting and it worked. I got into a DO school last year. But decided to defer since I knew allopathic is what I wanted....to my luck, I got in, so can you....give it a shot