Most Competitive DO Schools

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Darkskies

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Hi,
This question may have been asked before but when I used the search engine I couldn't find a recent enough thread on the subject. Now, I already understand that there are many intangibles and what one may like about one school might be considered negatively by another. So the first thing to do is to enumerate exactly what I mean by 'competitive'. What schools have the most recent highest GPA/MCAT averages and highest pass rates/average scores on the USMLE/COMLEX? Also which schools have the least number of students entering primary care? I know that last point could be subjective but I think it's still a valid criterion. Would UMDNJ be in this category? I really do not mean to offend anyone. I am genuinely curious to find the answers to my questions. Please let's not start a flame war. Thank you!

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*sigh*

Everyone asks about match lists. You ask which schools have the fewest students entering primary care. *sigh* Let me be quite clear about this:

1. Schools don't select students based on what they want to do.
2. Students change their minds from what they first think they want to do.
3. Students choose what they want to go into.
4. There are lots of very smart people who (yes, I'm not lying here) CHOOSE to go into primary care. Yes, really. They actually do. Two of the top four students in my class chose family practice because they liked it.

So PLEASE don't judge someone by what they chose to go into. Most people choose a residency based on what they actually (heaven forbid) LIKE to do.

While you may not have meant to come across this way (or perhaps you did, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here), it seems from your post that you think primary care docs are stupid. They aren't. And a residency choice says nothing about how "competitive" a school is.

Lastly, medical school is competitive. All of them. You're talking the top 5% of college folks here applying to med school. You're talking 42,000 applicants for 18,000 positions in MD schools, and 20,000 applicants for 5,000 positions for DO folks. It's competitive. All of them.

If you're only focused on the most competitive school ever in creation, go for Harvard or Johns Hopkins.


Next. As for board scores, very few schools release that data, even to their own students. You can find the pass rates easily, but that is a convoluted often skewed number. Some schools deliberately hold students back from taking the boards because they feel the student isn't ready. Other schools give struggling students a board prep course. Still other schools give everyone a board prep course. And some schools don't give anyone a board prep course and make everyone take boards before they can progress to third year. So again, not a valid criteria.

GPA and MCAT. Ok. Might be the best indicator of the students admitted to the school. You will get folks here that argue a psych major isn't nearly as difficult as a chem engineering major. Personally I think you have to look at what is difficult for each person to truly get a feel for GPA rankings. Generally people major in either what's easy or what's interesting. Note interesting does not equal easy and vice versa.

MCAT might be the most objective measure on the table. You can easily find that data online, either at aacom or at each individual school's website. The latter should take you about 15 minutes of internet work if you're a slow typist. The former may not be updated for "recent" scores, and may be tainted by previous class entry scores (I don't know how they calculate "average MCAT", nor do they explicitly state their sample pool).
 
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There's a thread listing some of this year's accepted stats. Many schools had an MCAT be around 27/28. DMU seems to have an avg gpa of 3.7.
 
Thanks for the reply. I certainly did NOT mean to imply that primary care doctors are in any way inferior to anyone. I sincerely apologize for coming across that way. I am sure that most students who select a primary care field as their specialty do so because of their interest in it. It cannot be denied however that certain specialties are more competitive due to the stats for the average student matching them. This is why I added the caveat stating that using the percentage of people going into primary care might be a subjective criterion. I should have phrased that question as 'Which schools have a good number of students specializing' rather than which ones have the least entering a primary care field.



*sigh*

Everyone asks about match lists. You ask which schools have the fewest students entering primary care. *sigh* Let me be quite clear about this:

1. Schools don't select students based on what they want to do.
2. Students change their minds from what they first think they want to do.
3. Students choose what they want to go into.
4. There are lots of very smart people who (yes, I'm not lying here) CHOOSE to go into primary care. Yes, really. They actually do. Two of the top four students in my class chose family practice because they liked it.

So PLEASE don't judge someone by what they chose to go into. Most people choose a residency based on what they actually (heaven forbid) LIKE to do.

While you may not have meant to come across this way (or perhaps you did, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here), it seems from your post that you think primary care docs are stupid. They aren't. And a residency choice says nothing about how "competitive" a school is.

Lastly, medical school is competitive. All of them. You're talking the top 5% of college folks here applying to med school. You're talking 42,000 applicants for 18,000 positions in MD schools, and 20,000 applicants for 5,000 positions for DO folks. It's competitive. All of them.

If you're only focused on the most competitive school ever in creation, go for Harvard or Johns Hopkins.


Next. As for board scores, very few schools release that data, even to their own students. You can find the pass rates easily, but that is a convoluted often skewed number. Some schools deliberately hold students back from taking the boards because they feel the student isn't ready. Other schools give struggling students a board prep course. Still other schools give everyone a board prep course. And some schools don't give anyone a board prep course and make everyone take boards before they can progress to third year. So again, not a valid criteria.

GPA and MCAT. Ok. Might be the best indicator of the students admitted to the school. You will get folks here that argue a psych major isn't nearly as difficult as a chem engineering major. Personally I think you have to look at what is difficult for each person to truly get a feel for GPA rankings. Generally people major in either what's easy or what's interesting. Note interesting does not equal easy and vice versa.

MCAT might be the most objective measure on the table. You can easily find that data online, either at aacom or at each individual school's website. The latter should take you about 15 minutes of internet work if you're a slow typist. The former may not be updated for "recent" scores, and may be tainted by previous class entry scores (I don't know how they calculate "average MCAT", nor do they explicitly state their sample pool).
 
I should have phrased that question as 'Which schools have a good number of students specializing' rather than which ones have the least entering a primary care field.

Even when phrased this way it still isn't a relevant question in terms of assessing a school, I don't think.
 
Thanks for the reply. I certainly did NOT mean to imply that primary care doctors are in any way inferior to anyone. I sincerely apologize for coming across that way. I am sure that most students who select a primary care field as their specialty do so because of their interest in it. It cannot be denied however that certain specialties are more competitive due to the stats for the average student matching them. This is why I added the caveat stating that using the percentage of people going into primary care might be a subjective criterion. I should have phrased that question as 'Which schools have a good number of students specializing' rather than which ones have the least entering a primary care field.

I think I mentioned this to you before regarding MSUCOM's residency lists for both allopathic and osteopathic match lists for 2010 and 2009. You can't generalize anything from a match list to make assumptions about the school, why someone chose to go into primary care instead of a ROADs specialty. There are people that are extremely capable of matching a more competitive specialty, but prefer primary care. Unless you interview why each individual on that match list chose the specialty they did, and what their board scores and rank were, you really can't use the match list in the way you are expecting to. Even with board scores and rank in hand, it would still be subject to other factors. I'm not trying to be mean when I say this, but you should focus on getting into a medical school first, and if accepted to a program(s), realize that a lot what determines what specialty, board scores, grades and etc fall almost entirely on your shoulders.

If you want something more reasonable to compare a medical school to another by when selecting, compare what opportunities, curriculum base, rotation sites and other things the school has to offer you. These are things you can find out relatively easily, via the medical school's website, and will allow you to find the school that suits your needs and learning style. These wont allow you to rank which school is the "best," but will allow you to rank which school suits you the best. Just because a medical school is in the top 20% by US News data or any other ranking will not indicate that the school is a good fit for you.
 
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Not that this is a flawless way to assess either, but you can do a measurement of how many applications it draws divided by the seats in the school. It doesn't say much (or anything) about the schools actual performance, but it can give you an estimate of the competitiveness. That competitiveness is a crossroads of both its academic potential and geographic considerations.

I didn't actually do the calculations for this, but since PCOM and CCOM get the most applications by far, they probably are 1 and 2 if they have an average sized class
 
Hi, perhaps this may help you to make a decision about what schools to apply for. What everyone said above is very true, 1) you may very well change your desired field when in med school, 2) % of class choosing to pursue primary care really has less to do with being forced into primary care and more to do with genuine interest and/or the type of student the school accepts (e.g. if their mission statement states they are interested in training primary care physicians to meet the needs of society they will be looking for students who are at least open to primary care) 3) in the end it really comes down to how well you do in med school. If you barely pass your USMLE and COMLEX it really doesnt matter what school you go to.
That being said think of this, if for example you know without doubt you want to be a dermatologist then realize you will undoubtedly be applying to EVERY osteopathic program and many allopathic programs since it is a competitive specialty and the strongest correlating factor to whether a student matches to their desired field is number of programs applied to. You might want to look into schools that already have established dermatology programs or schools that allow for early away rotations so you can rotate at the schools you will be applying to.
Also, as an aside, I would keep an open mind to primary care.
 
I heard just now that once your in, DO schools are more competing than MD. Like for md if you fail a test, you can take the same test again but for DO its so competitive that you don't want to tell people your age
 
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I heard just now that once your in, DO schools are more competing than MD. Like for md if you fail a test, you can take the same test again but for DO its so competitive that you don't want to tell people your age
And this is a perfect example as to why you don't do drugs.
 
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When you begin to apply, it'll be the ones that reject you.

In all seriousness, the ones with the best location.

Just realized this is a 5 year old thread


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I heard just now that once your in, DO schools are more competing than MD. Like for md if you fail a test, you can take the same test again but for DO its so competitive that you don't want to tell people your age
LOL wut?
 
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Off the top of my head, Touro-CA/NY, CCOM, AZCOM, DMU, KCUMB have higher LizzyM scores. Schools that have lower averages are usually the newer ones, but they're usually in smaller towns like William Carey, LMU, & KYCOM
 
Thanks for the reply. I certainly did NOT mean to imply that primary care doctors are in any way inferior to anyone. I sincerely apologize for coming across that way. I am sure that most students who select a primary care field as their specialty do so because of their interest in it. It cannot be denied however that certain specialties are more competitive due to the stats for the average student matching them. This is why I added the caveat stating that using the percentage of people going into primary care might be a subjective criterion. I should have phrased that question as 'Which schools have a good number of students specializing' rather than which ones have the least entering a primary care field.

Certain specialities are more competative because there are few spots. It is supply and demand.

Derm is the most competitive, but hardly anyone wants to do it. It's just that there is so few spots.

There are a ton of FM/IM spots, that is why those fields are less competative, no that the people doing them could not get into anything better.
 
From my personal experience, CCOM, AZCOM, Touro-CA, NYIT, and PCOM are the toughest to crack. I know Western, RVU, KCUMB, Nova, Touro-NY, and Rowan are becoming more competitive year by year.
LECOM interviews most applicants that meet their minimum criteria.
 
I heard just now that once your in, DO schools are more competing than MD. Like for md if you fail a test, you can take the same test again but for DO its so competitive that you don't want to tell people your age

And this is a perfect example as to why you don't do drugs.

i am laughing SO hard at work right now
 
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