DOs have better looking classmates 😎
And if you're going to be chasing the type of tail that goes for you just because of your profession (a.k.a doctor) they won't give a damn if you're an MD or DO (nor would they know the difference), they're just hunting down a man with money and a car, and for the most part aren't worth your time. But to each their own.
A little synopsis of the two degrees from what I've gathered so far and my own impressions:
In contemporary medical practice, MD = DO DO = MD. There was a time and purpose for the distinction during the origination of osteopathy (and their founder was an MD,DO.. interesting, eh?) and IMHO played a key part in pushing medicine forward in the late 1800s in America. The philosophy had its role, and was beneficial for patients at the time when medicine was not very evidence based or scientifically rigorous, and very primitive by current standards. Mark Twain [not an authority on medicine, but very influential at the time] praised it at the time, and was instrumental in getting DO's licensed in New York State, which helped further the degree. However, it went a bit out of vogue when medicine became better regulated and consisted of a stronger scientific foundation, and some of its members tended to be a bit more radical in the mid-20th century. Keep in mind too that it was "different" and the minority in the population of physicians, so that alone will always bring certain connotations upon it from the outside. Then you have some the craziness that went on between the AMA and AOA in the 60s and the whole UC-Irvine scandal and you can see how things can turn ugly, and here on these forums they get ugly sometimes. Since then its become more mainstream up to the point of opening up ACGME residencies to DO graduates in this decade and having full practice rights in many foreign nations. Both schools of thought were always trying to do whats best for the patient and community. Both have entered the modern world, MDs aren't giving you leeches anymore and I highly doubt any DO would think HLVA is going to cure you of HIV. Both are evidence based, both have essentially the same curriculum, both are held to the same standards and legal rights in the USA. Both provide a means to becoming a physician, if this is truly what you want to do. There will always be good and bad apples in both schools, no way to get around that. Both are providing a high quality of education for future physicians to serve communities here in the US in a time when the baby-boomers and post-boomers are only getting older, and our generation is going to have to take care of them.
