LSU New Orleans vs vcom auburn

Started by Lettucechop
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Lettucechop

Lettucechop

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I’m having trouble deciding between vcom and LSU.... I respect osteopathic medicine a lot, but I am from Louisiana so it would possibly be cheaper to stay home. I love auburn and vcom a lot though and I already paid my deposit. In addition, taking two board exams worries me,
 
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Lettucechop said:
What’s wrong with do schools? Esp after the merge, that’s have matched into ortho!
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so has the Caribbean. Doesnt mean that it is the pathway of least problems. The merger will only make it harder for DOs down the road to match considering they are now competing against a larger pool for their residencies that were reserved. Any person who is telling you that going to DO is completely equivalent to going MD is omitting vital information or outright misleading you. Opportunities and outcomes are different for DO vs MD students.
 
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Lettucechop said:
Why is that
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No OMM means more time to focus on studying, no COMLEX means you only have to take one set of board exams the USMLE (the USMLE is actually a better exam than COMLEX), being an MD means more residency programs are opened to you after graduation, and the possibility of matching into the competitive programs increases exponentially. Some residency programs straight up mention on their websites that they don't accept DOs, and others won't rank any DOs to their programs even after you've spent your money to go to the interview. Just think about those, and tell me would you rather have to jump through more hoops to get to where you wanna be? Medical school by itself is already hard enough there's no need to do this to yourself.

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DrStephenStrange said:
No OMM means more time to focus on studying, no COMLEX means you only have to take one set of board exams the USMLE (the USMLE is actually a better exam than COMLEX), being an MD means more residency programs are opened to you after graduation, and the possibility of matching into the competitive programs increases exponentially. Some residency programs straight up mention on their websites that they don't accept DOs, and others won't rank any DOs to their programs even after you've spent your money to go to the interview. Just think about those, and tell me would you rather have to jump through more hoops to get to where you wanna be? Medical school by itself is already hard enough there's no need to do this to yourself.

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What about the merger?
 
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Lettucechop said:
What about the merger?
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it is a merger of the residency system. It will do squat for DO schools because they were already allowed to apply to ACGME residencies. They will still have to take 2 sets of exams, still face bias, still have lower subspecialty match frequencies and rates. Oh and comparatively less access to research and home residency programs.
 
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libertyyne said:
it is a merger of the residency system. It will do squat for DO schools because they were already allowed to apply to ACGME residencies. They will still have to take 2 sets of exams, still face bias, still have lower subspecialty match frequencies and rates. Oh and comparatively less access to research and home residency programs.
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Vcom has a high percent of matching into dermatology, ortho, radiology; and even one or two plastic surgery every year! I don’t know how true that is
 
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Lettucechop said:
What about the merger?
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Before the merger, MDs could only apply to ACGME accredited residency programs, and DOs could apply to both ACGME and AOA programs. After the merger, all AOA programs that succeeded to get accredited will all be ACGME. That means all the residency programs that were once only open to DOs only will now be open to MDs as well, so how does that help DOs other than making things even more competitive?

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Here I will make it easy for you which match list is more impressive?
upload_2018-12-30_21-32-41.png

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Lettucechop said:
Vcom has a high percent of matching into dermatology, ortho, radiology; and even one or two plastic surgery every year! I don’t know how true that is
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No they don’t.... VCOM is extremely PC focused. Not to mention the Auburn campus is complete garbage. VCOM-Auburn is not the same as VCOM-VA
 
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NotSoObvious said:
Is vcom school B? If it is, they don’t seem to PC focused. If it’s school B then yeah they are PC focused
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Lol, School B is definitely the MD school.

Lettucechop said:
Vcom has a high percent of matching into dermatology, ortho, radiology; and even one or two plastic surgery every year! I don’t know how true that is
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No they don't. Almost no DO school does, and those numbers will decrease after the merger. There's nothing wrong with going to a DO school, pretty much all of them will give you the tools needed to become a doctor (although I'd definitely recommend avoiding a couple of them). The problem is you will be significantly limiting your options down the road both in terms of field and program you can get into. I'm saying this as a DO resident who originally wanted to do ortho.
 
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Stagg737 said:
Lol, School B is definitely the MD school.



No they don't. Almost no DO school does, and those numbers will decrease after the merger. There's nothing wrong with going to a DO school, pretty much all of them will give you the tools needed to become a doctor (although I'd definitely recommend avoiding a couple of them). The problem is you will be significantly limiting your options down the road both in terms of field and program you can get into. I'm saying this as a DO resident who originally wanted to do ortho.
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So what did you get into instead of ortho?
 
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You come here asking for advice, and they give it you. You don't like it, then you do you. No one is forcing you to do anything. Whatever choice you make, learn to live with its consequences. Just remember that most of us telling you these are DOs or DO students, but who knows you might know better.

Good luck.

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DrStephenStrange said:
You come here asking for advice, and they give it you. You don't like it, then you do you. No one is forcing you to do anything. Whatever choice you make, learn to live with its consequences. Just remember that most of us telling you these are DOs or DO students, but who knows you might know better.

Good luck.

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Thanks for the advice
 
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Lettucechop said:
Wow y’all rwalky have hate toward DOs... it’s freaking the same thing, except you take two boards
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There's no hate towards DOs. By choosing DO over a good US MD school, you are needlessly throwing away significant and even quantifiable career opportunities and subjecting yourself to double the board exams (and twice the expense). It would be a very poor decision for your career. Ask someone who took Step 2 CS if they want to do it a second time.

Make the bad decision if you want to. Someone with better judgment would be happy to have the spot at LSU.
 
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I agree with what everyone said already but just want to add one thing if there's even a slight bit of reservation since you brought it up.

Forget the deposit! It's just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things anyway. Taking two sets of boards will be significantly more expensive in and of itself.

Do yourself a favor and go to LSU.
 
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Just to be clear, DO schools seem to do just fine educating physicians. People who graduate DO schools make good physicians. But I generally can't recommend a DO school over an MD one except in certain circumstances (serious family/location issues, full scholarship, questionable MD program) due to the worse career opportunities and generally inferior access to clinical rotations.
 
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el_duderino said:
Just to be clear, DO schools seem to do just fine educating physicians. People who graduate DO schools make good physicians. But I generally can't recommend a DO school over an MD one except in certain circumstances (serious family/location issues, full scholarship, questionable MD program) due to the worse career opportunities and generally inferior access to clinical rotations.
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Do you at the top of your head know which are questionable MD programs? I was under the impression that their all held to strict accreditation standards.
 
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PickleRickelus said:
Do you at the top of your head know which are questionable MD programs? I was under the impression that their all held to strict accreditation standards.
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Not off the top of my head, but you hear things about suspended accreditations, probation, cheating scandals, etc. Also, brand new schools could be considered questionable.
 
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el_duderino said:
There's no hate towards DOs. By choosing DO over a good US MD school, you are needlessly throwing away significant and even quantifiable career opportunities and subjecting yourself to double the board exams (and twice the expense). It would be a very poor decision for your career. Ask someone who took Step 2 CS if they want to do it a second time.

Make the bad decision if you want to. Someone with better judgment would be happy to have the spot at LSU.
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Thank you
 
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Lettucechop said:
How about my chances with radiology, esp interventional ?
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Fine for rads, poor for IR. If you go DO you can essentially count yourself out of Neurosurg, ortho, derm, plastics, ENT, and IR. Is it possible to get in to those fields? Sure, but you have to be better than the best MD students, which only 1-2 DO students accomplish most years. Sometimes people make strong contacts at a single program or know people and are able to get in, but they still have to be very strong applicants.

Lettucechop said:
Also how was taking two board exams?
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I only took Level 1. I was able to get away with it because I applied to a field which doesn't really care about board scores that much and had a very strong MSPE and LORs. Even with that I had programs straight up tell me not to apply because I didn't have a Step score. By the time you take it one would be very stupid to not take Step 1 as the landscape of the match is significantly changing. Most people who take both don't even bother studying for Level 1 and just study for Step. No on cares about Level 1 scores anyway other than AOA programs which won't exist anymore in the next year or two.

Either way, as a DO who chose to attend a DO school over MD schools I would 100% advise you to go to to the MD school 99.999999% of the time. The only exceptions are if planets align for the DO school in terms of "real life requirements", and I can almost guarantee that will not be true for you.

PickleRickelus said:
Do you at the top of your head know which are questionable MD programs? I was under the impression that their all held to strict accreditation standards.
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I know a few, but most of it you have to figure out through the grapevine or be familiar with the school itself. I'd also be careful about just looking at probation status. Emory was on probation when I applied the first time, but apparently it was because there wasn't enough study space for med students. So nothing to do with the education or outcomes. Also, accreditation standards go far beyond just clinical rotations or match outcomes, they also have to do with facilities, who is on staff, research funding available, etc. Some of which is relevant when considering a school, some will be relevant to only some students, some will be completely irrelevant to students. Ymmv
 
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el_duderino said:
Going to vcom over LSU would be phenomenally foolish.
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This, 100000%

OP, I'm on Faculty at a DO school, I love my students, and I found my niche in life by teaching here. But the advice you getting here is both from DO students, not just me, and we're ALL not making the news, just reporting it.

Your professional chances in life are better by going to LSU. More doors won't be shut to you simply by being an MD.

Going to VCOM means that the odds are 50% you'll be end up in Primary Care, and if not that, most likely PM&R, EM, Rads, Gas, Path, Psych or Neuro. Gen Surg might be doable, but will take extra effort.

/thread
 
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Goro said:
This, 100000%

OP, I'm on Faculty at a DO school, I love my students, and I found my niche in life by teaching here. But the advice you getting here is both from DO students, not just me, and we're ALL not making the news, just reporting it.

Your professional chances in life are better by going to LSU. More doors won't be shut to you simply by being an MD.

Going to VCOM means that the odds are 50% you'll be end up in Primary Care, and if not that, most likely PM&R, EM, Rads, Gas, Path, Psych or Neuro. Gen Surg might be doable, but will take extra effort.

/thread
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So rads are possible ?
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
You are clearly looking for validation. You aren’t going to get it here. It would be the biggest mistake of your career to choose VCOM over LSU. It’s not just MD v DO here, VCOM-Auburn is simply not a good school. There is zero upside to choosing it over LSU. None.
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I’m deff choosing MD over DO
 
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