NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! NOT ANOTHER ONE!!! Seriously, will it every stop. Pretty soon McDonalds will be able to pass COCA accreditation. Every time that AOA allows a new DO school to open up i die a little inside. 200 more DO grads per year with 0 more residency spots. The new school will have an MCAT average of 6 and a GPA of 2.1. Im so glad that AOA is letting the DO degree get watered down even more. When is the university of phoenix online going to start their program. Maybe they can have a branch in every city in America.
Pretty soon the Osteopathic schools will be tiered into the 10 or so legit schools and 640 random schools that are an embarrasment to embarrasment. Conclusion: the AOA hates DO's and wants to make life as difficult as possible for DO's.
*I guess the only good thing is that there are 200 new people to fail or barely pass the comlex. Since the test is graded on a normal curve it will make it easier to get a really high score for the rest of you 2014ers.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here and look at/comment on this situation from various points of view as I can see it. REMEMBER ... this isn't my POV, just interesting food for thought ...
Obviously, first and foremost ... the expansion w/o promise of residencies MUST stop. Now, as someone pointed out ... just because they don't have residencies listed now, doesn't mean they aren't in progress, etc. Now, there are also the 3/4 years to think about, which is why I think all schools should establish links, or a home hospital, etc, THEN build their medical school ... not the other way around. It's silly and hurts students.
However, in the same sense, the recent Macy report on medical school expansion just came out and said:
"
The report explores the major expansion of medical schools that began in 2000 and identifies emerging trends that reflect the impact that changes in the delivery system, the profession, and in academic structure have had on the new schools. As many osteopathic medical school graduates now enter allopathic residency programs, the report states that it is not inconceivable that those interested in developing a new allopathic medical school might take advantage of lessons learned from the ongoing development of osteopathic schools.
essentially ... for better or worse, the DO model is probably going to become much more popular in the allopathic world. I've also heard reports from new schools in Florida such as FSU and FIU that set up their 3/4 years like DO schools, since they aren't officially attached to a hospital. So basically, it's going to happen in both world, the model "works," so I wouldn't expect the AOA to change or take this as anything but a positive.
Now, another issue is statistics. It's a popular mentality to equate newer programs with lower stats ... however, in doing a little bit of research, this really doesn't hold weight. Touro-NV has only been around for a few years, but the admissions director told us their stats were 3.5 cum, 3.4 sci, and 27 MCAT during the interview day. Not too bad. It leads me to believe that people are selecting schools based on location ... not so much prestige. NV is close to West Coast, Vegas, etc, and seems to be popular based on that ... which seems to spike up the stats. Again, this is just a theory, but I'm just not sure how well new = lower stats holds up.
Furthermore, it seems like even the students who attend these schools with 'lower stats' or whatever, do alright. I mean, LECOM-B is newer, had a lower 08 COMLEX average and yet was able to match students in Gas, Rads, ENT, FP/Derm (yes kids ... you heard it, derm haha), and even ACGME Ortho. I mean ... the schools are putting out impressive physicians, despite the roadblocks and negative connotations associated with branches, new schools etc. If 20 new schools open and triple the rate of specialized DOs in practice ... I can only imagine it's going to help 'spread the world,' increase awareness, etc. Also, I know that the expansion will be bagged on, the 'lower average matriculation stats' will be harped on, but I can't imagine a large number of successful, specialized DOs that perform well on USMLE/COMLEX isn't going to silence some of this criticism.
Now, am I advocating a 2.8/23 ... am I okay for DO school, mentality? Absolutely not ... just, while playing devil's advocate here, you can see how this could silence some critics and give the powers to be more motivation. Also, I am really sure that you show pre-meds derm, ent, rads etc matches from certain schools, and they will blindly go there assuming the school will do something extra for them ... which is only going to drive up the stats.
Essentially, the fact that spots are going to become scarce either way (allo expansion) + a report saying new allo schools are going to start adhering to the DO growth model + students matching well from schools + the AOA getting $ and more DOs out there to even up the numbers makes it impossible for the AOA/COCA to say, let's slow down. Are they wrong? Probably, almost definitely ... but the game honestly may be changing. Eventually will ACGME get fed up and put their foot down with regards to matching? Probably, and I think then the AOA will do something about it or maybe they plan to have enough AOA residencies by then.
Again, this is me completely playing devil's advocate here. It's interesting to look at this situation from different points of view and see who likes/dislikes it. I'm really, really not claiming these are my beliefs, but just some food for thought I guess ...
It does seem like an odd university to pick though. I'm off to read the article!
