I hate these discussions, because they usually have no logic to it. They are like 5 or 6 people on this forum that hype pcom- philliy up and make it sound like it is the best school, and many people on this forum chose to listen, and believe them. Which annoys the hell out of me. Most people will agree that schools are ranked in 2 groups old and new. The new schools have more risk due to uncertainty of clinicals, unsure board preparation and scores, etc. But the gap is not that large.
Yes pcom is great school, but if someone honestly thinks that pcom will give anyone an advantage for lets say a school like DMU if you want to practice in CA, you are kidding your self. The chance of an allopathic residency director with an MD would even know the difference, and favor pcom over dmu is dillusional. If you go to an osteo resdency or have an osteo director, he would be bias and feel Western is the best. There is no difference between pcom, ccom, dmu, nycom, umdnj, kcom, western and what ever else school there is that is long standing. You can argue any one of those match list are better than the other. Yes i know 33 percent of students went to primary care from pcom. But does that necessarily mean that is better than the 45 percent at UMDNJ? No, because what if more students just wanted to go to primary care in UMDNJ?. They only pay 22k a year for tuition, that is a strong possibility. They are so many factor that go into a match list. Hey kcom was also 33% does that mean kcom and pcom are equal and tied 1st? No, because they are so many factor that go into a match list
Do you guys really think that they are no pcom grads that have to scramble, every school they do. There is no distinct advantage if you go to pcom unless you want to practice in the north east or philly area.
If you want to go by average mcat score, i would venture a guess that Western has the highest mcat, because of the difficulty of student in CA getting into a state school. Does that make western the best? No
The point is pick a place where you want to live and maybe practice. I will be nice to have experience with the demographics you will be dealing with throughout your professional life during rotations. If you wnat to practice in NY, NYCOM might give you a slight edge because it will be easier to audition at an residency and would really have to move. Same thing goes for Western if you want to live in CA, etc (You get the point). Pick a school that suits you, not what just a few people on the internet like to boast and make themselves feel good. I hope this knocked some sense into someone who is applying.
When alopathic schools are compared to each other, they are so many other factors that are compared like research and their own university hospitals. DO schools are more alike to each other and do more community medicine then academic.
