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The 2026-2027 DO School Specific Threads are now available in the School Specific Discussions forum. The 2025-2026 discussions are now available in the prior year discussions forum.
Is anesthesia D.O. friendly?
There’s no way to predict what’ll happen in the future, but anesthesiology is currently quite DO friendly. There was a 92% match rate in 2018 for DO anesthesiology applicants.
Is that including AOA residencies or is it ACGME only?
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Thank you so much! I’m attending Midwestern in the Fall, so it helps motivate me knowing I haven’t already closed the doors I care about.
Yes, very much so
Yes... but going up score-wise, same with IM and Psych
It was, but news from the 2019 application cycle is it spiked in competitiveness with a 30% increase in applications and likely a complimentary rise in average board scores. I may be a touch pessimistic but in all good consciousness I can't advise anyone seeking anything other than primary care to pick DO going forward. By the time you apply, I expect things to only be worse as you'll be competing with about 2k new medical grads.
As someone who has already committed to a DO school, it makes me sad to hear that things will get worse for us going forward. I’ve been trying to be optimistic but it seems like that’s the general opinion on SDN.
SDN has a tendency to blow things out of proportion for sure, but, the numbers don’t lie. Step 1 averages have steadily been rising. More and more schools are opening adding to the applicant pool. Everything outside of primary care is getting more competitive. This is on the MD side as well. Weaker DO students are the US students who will really get the squeeze.
My school in particular matched significantly fewer primary care positions than in any year prior and matched significantly better (University > Other) than in the past this year. But n = 1.
A
AnatomyGrey12
There are very few DO gas programs. The vast majority of DO gas matches are ACGME.
I disagree with that other poster. An average DO will still have specialty options going forward, although likely not in anything competitive.
It's my understanding that the total amount of residencies went down when the AOA merged (sold out) with ACGME. I think it gets better from here as more programs are added due to the loss of the AOA residencies that were anti-merger and did not seek ACGME status. Either way I don't think it's honestly a knock against the DO degree,most DO students are in general not as competitive students to begin with (MCAT averages and GPA's don't lie). Do as good as an MD on boards all else equal everything will pan out. In all honest this is the way it always should have been. I say all this as someone who is only applying DO and who will be proud to be an osteopathic physician.
