can you take a course 3 or 4 times and DO schools still take the best score?
also, tell me a little bit about DO residencies and fellowships. Is it true a lot of DO's just go into IM or pediatrics? Are the DO specific residencies as bad as some people say they are?
sorry if all of these have been talked to death. I did a search and didn't really get the answers I was looking for.
Jesus, you suck at searching ....
Anyway, as far as I know AACOMAS (the DO application service) only factors the most recent regrade into your calculated gpa. However, all retakes are seen. If you have an F, D, F, C- and then finally an A, TECHNICALLY it will be counted as a four, but might be viewed as a fluke and raise some red flags.
When it comes to residencies, osteopathic students have three options. 1 They may apply to the AOA residencies that are available only to DO students. These residencies cover every field of medicine (except Nuclear Medicine for some reason) and are chosen by DO students each year. 2 They may apply to the 'MD' residencies - which once again cover any desired field of medicine. There are debates about the ability of DOs to land MD residencies with some agreeing that good board scores (both the DO and MD boards) and grades will get you anywhere, with others saying that the match rates are low, and some programs won't interview DOs. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. However, DOs do (on the whole) place well into MD residencies. 3 Students may apply to both the DO and MD residencies, but the DO match happens first, and if a student matches they will automatically be dropped from the MD match.
Fellowships are a tiny source of confusion. There are both MD and DO fellowships in various fields, but it is program specific concerning the completion of an MD or DO residency before matriculation into the fellowship.
It is true that a lot of Osteopathic medical students do enter primary care fields. However, this does not indicate some lack of quality or pressure to enter primary care fields (such as IM or peds). DO schools generally cater to primary care fields, and have a 'mission statement' (take with a grain of salt) to place physicians into primary care. With that being said, some schools have specialty matches (non primary care) rates that are near 65-70% (these could be way off and some goober will correct me if they are) while others have low rates into specialty fields. These are all generally personal choices made by students, and DOs can go into any field they like.
Finally, don't believe that a DO residency is of poor quality unless a resident from the program or who interviewed there says so. So much crap travels via rumors and generalizations on this site, and 90% of the time someone uses the phrase 'DO residencies are generally or a lower quality than the MD counterpart,' even though they are an 18 year old pre-med. There are good and bad residencies in both the MD and DO world, and choosing one that is a good fit is not something you should worry about now.
Wheww, really long and non sarcastic post for me. I'm gonna go lie down
