Is D.O. degree considered to be a masters degree?

[Deepa100]

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I am reading the student hand book for one of the schools and there are references to undergraduate Osteopathic education. Since a bachelors is required to get into the med school, I always assumed an M.D or D.O. is a masters degree. Is this not true?

 

[Chocolate Bear]

They mean undergraduate MEDICAL education. As in the 4 years spent earning a DO/MD. Then graduate medical education is internship/residency (after you graduate).

 

[koojo]

No, if you're a physician, you have a professional doctorate degree. Higher than a masters.

 

[psy]

MD or DO is a doctorate of medicine. When you look at job requirements for senior/supervisory positions in the medical field like pathology, they require either a PhD in pathology or MD/DO.

 

[saylorsdad]

I think the misconception comes from a DO/MD degree being a one shot degree. Meaning you enroll and basically bypass the masters degree. Other degrees you must jump through hoops to get a Masters, then jump through more hoops to get a PhD. For DO/MD you jump through all of the hoops in the time it takes most people to get a Masters.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

I think the misconception comes from a DO/MD degree being a one shot degree. Meaning you enroll and basically bypass the masters degree. Other degrees you must jump through hoops to get a Masters, then jump through more hoops to get a PhD. For DO/MD you jump through all of the hoops in the time it takes most people to get a Masters.

The OP's confusion comes from the term Undergraduate Medical Education. Since most students entering medical school have a bachelor's degree, one would think that medical school would be called Graduate school. In the real world, this is the case. However, in the small world of medical education, they use a different point of reference. They call the 4 years it takes to get a DO or an MD degree Undergraduate Medical Education (the time before graduating medical school). They then use the term Graduate Medical Education to denote internship/residency/fellowship (after one has graduated medical school).

Make sense?

 

[saylorsdad]

Yes it does make sense, I was just pointing out another problem most people have with understanding Medical Education.

 

[Vita]

The OP's confusion comes from the term Undergraduate Medical Education. Since most students entering medical school have a bachelor's degree, one would think that medical school would be called Graduate school. In the real world, this is the case. However, in the small world of medical education, they use a different point of reference. They call the 4 years it takes to get a DO or an MD degree Undergraduate Medical Education (the time before graduating medical school). They then use the term Graduate Medical Education to denote internship/residency/fellowship (after one has graduated medical school).

Make sense?

At the internship/residency programs they have here, they refer to each year as PGYI,II,III, etc. standing for Post-Graduate Years I, II, III. That always led me to believe that they thought medical school contains the graduate years. I think the terms are different depending on who you are talking to, as around here they have different terms as well.

 

[Character]

undergraduate medical education= md or do. med school
graduate medical education= internship/residency
no if's, ands or buts about this. this is what it is. conversation over.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Since I assume the AMA coined the terms, here's how they use them:

Undergraduate education: Four years at a college or university to earn a BS or BA degree, usually with a strong emphasis on basic sciences, such as biology, chemistry, and physics (some students may enter medical school with other areas of emphasis).

Medical school (undergraduate medical education): Four years of education at one of the U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Four years at one of the LCME-accredited U.S. medical schools, consisting of preclinical and clinical parts. After completing medical school, students earn their doctor of medicine degrees (MDs), although they must complete additional training before practicing on their own as a physician. (Note: Some physicians receive a doctor of osteopathic medicine [DO] degree from a college of osteopathic medicine.)

Residency program (graduate medical education): Through a national matching program, newly graduated MDs enter into a residency program that is three to seven years or more of professional training under the supervision of senior physician educators. The length of residency training varies depending on the specialty chosen: family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics, for example, require 3 years of training; general surgery requires 5 years. (Some refer to the first year of residency as an "internship"; the AMA no longer uses this term.)

 

[brucecanbeatyou]

You call your doctor "doctor." As in Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Doctors get doctoral degrees, not masters degrees. I'm glad physicians don't get masters cause then we might call them master.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

At the internship/residency programs they have here, they refer to each year as PGYI,II,III, etc. standing for Post-Graduate Years I, II, III. That always led me to believe that they thought medical school contains the graduate years. I think the terms are different depending on who you are talking to, as around here they have different terms as well.

In the PGY term, P = After and G = Graduating, not Graduate Medical Education. Thus, PGY = After Graduating Medical School.

The terms are the same, no matter who you talk to. Unless the person you're talking to is using the wrong terminology. Learn the correct terminology in this thread, and you can teach others what everything means, if you hear them speak incorrectly, later. 👍

 

[group_theory]

MD, DO, and JD are known as first professional degrees.
MA, MS, and PhD are academic degrees.
MPH, MBA, etc are professioanl degrees


MD/DO/JD are the first degree you get in the specific field. While it requires an undergraduate education first, in these fields, you are pursuing that field for the first time - hence undergraduate medical education.

BA/BS, MA/MS, and PhD are academic degrees. Hence why you will hear people refer to the PhD as the highest academic degree that a university/college can confer.

The difference between academic and professional degrees is a bit blurred, but in the world of academic the difference matters. Hence the difference between a PhD in psychology and a PsyD. Hence the difference between a Ed.D and a PhD in education (although depending on the school the difference may not be all that great)

A long complicated way to answer the OP's question that "No, a MD or DO is not a masters degree"

See the following wiki link for better explaination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Professional_degree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_degreehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_degree

 

[singinfifi]

It'd better not be. If I spend 4 years of my life in school (+residency) for a masters, I'm gonna be hella pissed.

😎

 

[EricH]

For comparison, PA is a masters level degree.

 

[Bleurberry]

I vote we close this thread. Every time I see it in the sub-forum, I laugh out loud, and frankly, it's disrupting to the people around me.

 

[Jnye33]

I think the misconception comes from a DO/MD degree being a one shot degree. Meaning you enroll and basically bypass the masters degree. Other degrees you must jump through hoops to get a Masters, then jump through more hoops to get a PhD. For DO/MD you jump through all of the hoops in the time it takes most people to get a Masters.

This is a common misconception. People who know that they want to pursue a PhD usually go straight to a PhD program (at least in the sciences), and MAY get the masters along the way because they fulfill the requirements. The masters degree is designed to be an endpoint degree. By that I mean that these programs are not usually designed to be a stepping stone to a PhD program.

I second lovepark that this thread should be closed!