Is DO school harder than MD schoools? Not a troll question!

[soxman]

I've heard that since DO students have to learn extra OMM over the regular medical school curriculum, isnt that an extra work load for DO students?

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[raidermedic]

DO schools have less biostats, biochem, and genetics. In the end it balances out.

 

[mcfreak]

I've heard that since DO students have to learn extra OMM over the regular medical school curriculum, isnt that an extra work load for DO students?

I don't think it is. It's like having gym class.😀 Think of it like a nice study break!

 

[hossofadoc]

I thought that OMM was awesome and like most things that you are interested in it comes easier to you. We did have a few people that struggled with it, thus it made med school more difficult for them. I think that it just depends on the person. I will say this, that I have a lot of allo friends tht are wanting to learn OMT because they are having a time treating muscloskeletal pain.

 

[Nate]

DO schools have less biostats, biochem, and genetics. In the end it balances out.

We had a full semester of each of these classes, Biochem (which went through every topic as I followed along in Lippincott), Genetics, and we do have biostats incorporated into a year long class. Do MD schools have more than a semester of these? I don't think we have less of anything just the extra OMM. OMM isn't very difficult to learn in my opinion and it doesn't take much time outside the couple hours of class time each week so it isn't so bad. You throw in a few minutes between classes here and there to relieve discomfort in your classmates and you get good at it. We also share professors with Robert Wood, Jefferson, U Penn, Drexel, other MD and DO schools. The PowerPoint’s they present are the same as are the exams.

Anyway, I do not believe either curriculum is “harder” but of course I do believe each school, MD or DO, has different curriculums. They are all with one goal, to prepare their students for the national equalizer: the licensing exams. Hope that helps

 

[It'sElectric]

We had a full semester of each of these classes, Biochem (which went through every topic as I followed along in Lippincott), Genetics, and we do have biostats incorporated into a year long class. Do MD schools have more than a semester of these? I don't think we have less of anything just the extra OMM. OMM isn't very difficult to learn in my opinion and it doesn't take much time outside the couple hours of class time each week so it isn't so bad. You throw in a few minutes between classes here and there to relieve discomfort in your classmates and you get good at it. We also share professors with Robert Wood, Jefferson, U Penn, Drexel, other MD and DO schools. The PowerPoint’s they present are the same as are the exams.

Anyway, I do not believe either curriculum is “harder” but of course I do believe each school, MD or DO, has different curriculums. They are all with one goal, to prepare their students for the national equalizer: the licensing exams. Hope that helps

Precisely.

 

[Dr JPH]

I've heard that since DO students have to learn extra OMM over the regular medical school curriculum, isnt that an extra work load for DO students?

3-4 hours a week additional coursework is what you are talking about when you incorporate OMM into the curriculum.

I dont feel my education lacked anything in terms of the basic sciences. And I do know for a fact that I had more hours of lab and lecture than students from 3 other MD schools (all guys I went to college with). But I dont feel that my curriculum was more difficult. In fact, in speaking with them I found that each of our educations differed so greatly that it would be nearly impossible to compare them.

Apples to oranges when you compare ANY two schools, MD v MD, MD v DO or DO v DO.

Its interesting that people are so concerned with the preclinical education and how difficult it is, how many hours of coursework, how much shadowing, etc.

IMO your real education comes in your clinical years and is based largely on the strength of your clinical sites. It is in the hospital with the student/resident morning reports, lectures and conferences is where you really learn medicine...not to mention at the bedside.

Your knowledge will grow exponentially through 3rd & 4th year. Looking back to MS1 and MS2 I cant tease out anything that I learned, understood and was able to fully apply to a patient without some sort of hands-on learning in the hospital.

 

[cyclohexanol]

Just to add my $0.02 here...

Anything said by someone claiming either curriculum is more difficult than the other is just hearsay unless they have actually completed BOTH curriculums at a number of different MD and DO schools. Since I'm quite positive nobody has ever done that... well... you get the point.

People can speculate all they want and toss around ideas of how this and that can make a certain curriculum "more difficult", but it really means nothing because they most likely only have the 1 perspective.

Also note that people tend to exaggerate their experiences: "OMG this is so difficult, WAYYYY more difficult than at your school! Pity me now, woe is me!"

All of that being said, medical school anywhere you go is going to be difficult.

 

[SOUNDMAN]

All of that being said, medical school anywhere you go is going to be difficult.

Amen to this, medical school is hard.

 

[Karina]

I've heard that since DO students have to learn extra OMM over the regular medical school curriculum, isnt that an extra work load for DO students?

I don't know what you're talking about...after having pharm, path and examn for systems during the last 12 weeks...having an OMM exam this monday is awesome! I studied outside by the beach yesterday with my classmates and then has sushi for dinner...I just saw two movies today and I am on my way to a classmate's house...she owns an OMM table, so we're BBQ'ing/Practicing some cranial/lumbar HVLA....I LOVE IT!!!! 😀

 

[CatsandCradles]

I've heard that since DO students have to learn extra OMM over the regular medical school curriculum, isnt that an extra work load for DO students?

I'm only a first year student,

But it really does drag me down. There is so much biochemistry and histology then throw in some OPP and my head just wants to explode!



KABOOM!!!!

 

[Amy B]

my head just wants to explode!



KABOOM!!!!

You need some suboccipital release. Then you will feel all better😉

 

[CatsandCradles]

You need some suboccipital release. Then you will feel all better😉

Lol 😍

Yes, hold it there for 90 seconds too.

 

[Luv2Dance]

sometimes it gets annoying because you have all this science stuff to study right before exams and then you have to go to omm while you could be using that time to study for exams!! but other times it's actually therapeutic to take a moment and concentrate on something else other than immunology, anatomy, pharmacology etc.....

 

[Taus]

sometimes it gets annoying because you have all this science stuff to study right before exams and then you have to go to omm while you could be using that time to study for exams!! but other times it's actually therapeutic to take a moment and concentrate on something else other than immunology, anatomy, pharmacology etc.....

how much are you actually studying for OMM?? I don't know anyone who puts more then a couple of hours into it right before an exam (including those who like it and want to be good at it)

 

[the1doc]

in my experience, students at ccom spend much more than a "couple hours" the night before exams studying omm. at ccom, when they write the omm tests and quizzes, they tend to pick random omm thoughts out of their butts and put them on the tests, which forces students to memorize the lecture notes in detail and read regularly from the bi-weekly D.O. publication, "Random Thoughts We pulled from our A**es, by the OMM faculty at CCOM, inspired by the Cranial gurus and other OMM whackos"

 

[DropkickMurphy]

in my experience, students at ccom spend much more than a "couple hours" the night before exams studying omm. at ccom, when they write the omm tests and quizzes, they tend to pick random omm thoughts out of their butts and put them on the tests, which forces students to memorize the lecture notes in detail and read regularly from the bi-weekly D.O. publication, "Random Thoughts We pulled from our A**es, by the OMM faculty at CCOM, inspired by the Cranial gurus and other OMM whackos"

Am I gathering that you are not a big advocate of OMM?

 

[docbill]

I would not even know where the hell to begin studying for OMM class.

Anyway.. will wory about that soon. Right after Embryology and head and neck

 

[Taus]

in my experience, students at ccom spend much more than a "couple hours" the night before exams studying omm. at ccom, when they write the omm tests and quizzes, they tend to pick random omm thoughts out of their butts and put them on the tests, which forces students to memorize the lecture notes in detail and read regularly from the bi-weekly D.O. publication, "Random Thoughts We pulled from our A**es, by the OMM faculty at CCOM, inspired by the Cranial gurus and other OMM whackos"

our tests have some of those types of q's...ie random $hit picked out of foundations....but most of the test can be answered by reading Savarese and knowing the stuff from lab...it would drive me nuts if I had weekly quizzes on this though...we have 3 written tests per YEAR...

 

[Northerner]

I thought that OMM was awesome and like most things that you are interested in it comes easier to you. We did have a few people that struggled with it, thus it made med school more difficult for them. I think that it just depends on the person. I will say this, that I have a lot of allo friends tht are wanting to learn OMT because they are having a time treating muscloskeletal pain.

Hippy.

 

[misparas]

Lol 😍

Yes, hold it there for 90 seconds too.

90 Seconds... Dang!

That's some tension!

 

[group_theory]

our tests have some of those types of q's...ie random $hit picked out of foundations....but most of the test can be answered by reading Savarese and knowing the stuff from lab...it would drive me nuts if I had weekly quizzes on this though...we have 3 written tests per YEAR...

Hey Taus,

from talking to other DO students I've met on rotation, it would appear that PCOM spends the least amount of time in OMM Lab and in Lectures as compare to other DO schools. And yes, Savarese is really all you need to know for COMLEX 1 and 2 so I doubt that we're missing much (from a standardized test perspective).

As you know, students who want to be good at OMM practice outside of scheduled labs - so it's the choice of the student whether they want to be good at OMM or just know enough to pass the practical.

 

[stretch210]

Who really knows which is harder...they both are very hard and they both make you physicians. Also, some schools are harder than others, regardless of DO or MD, just the curriculum. If you want to learn OMT then go DO, if you don't, then go MD. Besides a pre-med trying to determine that, there really is no point to this question.

Very few people have been to both, so to compare harder vs. easier would be well...hard.

 

[Ifellinapothole]

Who really knows which is harder...they both are very hard and they both make you physicians. Also, some schools are harder than others, regardless of DO or MD, just the curriculum. If you want to learn OMT then go DO, if you don't, then go MD. Besides a pre-med trying to determine that, there really is no point to this question.

Very few people have been to both, so to compare harder vs. easier would be well...hard.

No way is it harder. OMM is something you put an hour into before the exam.

I prefer the simple techniques that have application in the real world

1) Spencer

2) asthmatic, pneumonia techniques to help unload the accessory breathing muscles

3) etc....

The really esoteric crap like feeling the fascia covering the heart and encasing the sympathetic chain ganglia is the equivalent of black magic in my opinion.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

No way is it harder. OMM is something you put an hour into before the exam.

I prefer the simple techniques that have application in the real world

1) Spencer

2) asthmatic, pneumonia techniques to help unload the accessory breathing muscles

3) etc....

The really esoteric crap like feeling the fascia covering the heart and encasing the sympathetic chain ganglia is the equivalent of black magic in my opinion.

One step above waving a dead chicken over the patient eh?

 

[albaniandoc]

No way is it harder. OMM is something you put an hour into before the exam.

I prefer the simple techniques that have application in the real world

1) Spencer

2) asthmatic, pneumonia techniques to help unload the accessory breathing muscles

3) etc....

The really esoteric crap like feeling the fascia covering the heart and encasing the sympathetic chain ganglia is the equivalent of black magic in my opinion.

Dude, I love your avatar.

 

[JohnUC33]

I'm only a first year student,

But it really does drag me down. There is so much biochemistry and histology then throw in some OPP and my head just wants to explode!



KABOOM!!!!

And don't forget clinical skills!!!

 

[apgar7]

I went to Western Univ for medical school and I gotta say that the first year of medical school was one of the hardest things I've done in life. I really don't know if we had less of genetics, biochem, etc. but I do know the OMM classes and tests made first year harder for me than it could have been. The thing is, I don't regret it at all. OMM is great stuff and I'm glad it was sort of 'forced' on me at that time.

 

[XKV]

I went to Western Univ for medical school and I gotta say that the first year of medical school was one of the hardest things I've done in life. I really don't know if we had less of genetics, biochem, etc. but I do know the OMM classes and tests made first year harder for me than it could have been. The thing is, I don't regret it at all. OMM is great stuff and I'm glad it was sort of 'forced' on me at that time.

I'll agree to that...OMM and anatomy are killing me right now.