Of all people who should know better--the sad thing is in my own situation, the pre-med advisor was also affiliated with a local MD school.
This leads me to wonder if some premed advisors (like these two examples) actually do know the truth, but are misinforming students thus funneling unknowing premeds towards an allopathic school, away from the competition.
Premed advisers don't have that kind of energy, and allo schools don't either. In my experience, premed advisers are encouraged to talk premeds OUT of being premeds.
The problem at my school is that the advisers have too many students to advise, and most of the students who go to advisers are TROUBLE. Failing out, looking for hardship withdrawals, trying to get out of requirements, etc. The job is NOT fun. So a well-intentioned premed comes in, and the adviser is way out of their league. Our advisers don't even go to our med school's admissions seminars - our advisers are 10 years behind.
However, my school has a cultural center with academic advisers, and the premed adviser THERE has good information. The only way to find this out is by accident.
If you look at the job requirements for a premed adviser, it's usually (a) a bachelors degree in ANYTHING and (b) previous advising experience. No requirement to have done anything that premeds are trying to do, against heavy odds.
What a premed needs is an adviser who isn't burned out yet, who has the interest and the energy to go beyond their job duties and stay informed (which might just mean caring enough to spend time on SDN - why don't advisers do this?), and who gets paid enough to keep doing the job for a while. Good luck finding that.
my pre-med advisor looked at my transcripts and told me to ONLY apply to DO schools
