Fantasy Sports said:
Why would I take the COMPLEX? All the residency programs I want to apply to are MD. Waitaminute, a lot of the residency programs DOs want to apply to are MD programs as well. So hmm, maybe that's why no one gives a crap about COMPLEX scores...
So yeah... everyone is equal. Harvard= Podunk even if their MCAT difference is 8 points, MD = DO, even if the self-selected motivated DOs still underperform ALL MDs by over 20%... and that's just in passing rates.
So if you want the politically correct answer, MD= DO. If you want the real answer, look a little deeper.
Ah, tra-la-la-la-la.
Funny thing is that when you look a little deeper, the deep also looks right back at ya. Consider the absurdity, or better yet, complete irrelevance of the above host. I managed to secure an ED spot that the University of Maryland. I did NOT take the USMLE precisely because the PD's there care enough about the whole applicant to evaluate you on the basis of undergrad (MD/DO) performance, interview, personal statement AND board scores. A friend of mine landed an anesthesia spot over at Hopkins... without taking USMLE. You've heard of Hopkins, right? Not exactly Harvard, but... Finally, yet another DO sub-par grad beat several other angry allopaths out for an ED spot at Cook County/Stroeger. These examples arent cited just to throw more, "BS" anecdotes into the fray. Fact is, perceived differences often vanish when students are compared head to head. I am extremely grateful that my degree and schooling permits me to compete with MDs from Harvard, Yale, SGU, Ross and wherever else. 20 years ago, DOs battled fiercely against perceptions of infeority. Nowadays, we enjoy being compared and judged against our MD brothers and sisters. I can't speak for other specialties, but statistics do a fair amount of justice to this argument. UMaryland's EM program reviews over 790 applications to their residency. Even if they docked me a couple of points because I graduated from a DO school, my COMLEX-score toting ass still managed to distinguish myself. This story repeats itself over and over again in virtually every specialty. Arguments can most certainly be made over MCAT scores, USMLE/COMLEX, perception vs. reality and a host of other subjects. The reality is that osteopathic students, even if we have prejudice like yours to overcome, do quite well when applying to ACGME programs. Your urge to, "look a little deeper" simply bears out the falsehoods inherent in your logic! We rotate with MD students, are trained by MD professors, and interact with MD residents. Though some members of the old guard lament the loss of distinction, the collegial relationship that MDs share with DOs is a daily reality.
To specifically address your point about the statistically inferior DO scores, one has to understand that DO's are educated to take a different exam. If you look at the COMLEX vs. USMLE blueprint, there is less emphasis on the COMLEX given to subject material like epidemiology, embryology, and histology. COMLEX is required for graduation, and DO students would be wise to study COMLEX question banks in addition to their manipulative medicine objectives. The USMLE is often taken as an afterthought.. simply on the often erroneous assumption that a decent score might make one a more competitive ACGME/allopathic post-grad applicant. I personally would prefer ONE standardized test. I would be willing to bet, however, that once the NBME's stats are adjusted to reflect the differences in test composition (ie embryo, epi, histo, etc, lack of OMM, etc), the results might be a little more sense. Indeed, the USMLE step III scores, which reflect a much more clinical focus, are strikingly similar.
Its too bad MD students can't take COMLEX. Then, we could make all sorts of innacurate generalizations about their theoretically pathetic performance on COMLEX I and II. Give me a break.
i think this is the best post i've seen today 😛
