New application to DO schools

[bigbassinbob]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Alright, so I didn't make it into an MD school last year. I am dead set on going to medical school next year, so I have opened up to the DO route. I'm just filling out my initial application to DO schools, and was wondering what you guys wrote in your personal statement. I'd like to use something similar to my PS for MD schools, but its almost twice the length (950 words) of what it's allowed to be for the DO app (500 words). Anybody else do this? What did you guys write about? Also, which DO schools are considered the best? I'm personally very interested in Nova, but is it considered a good school (their website seemed kind of amateur)? Thanks.

 

[uclabruin2003]

write about your interest in medicine and your interest in osteopathic medicine. f/u with your experiences and such. you dont have much space but thats good...cuz then you get to take out all the fluff and leave the meat.

i took parts of my MD PS and transformed it into a DO PS...i basically took out my "MD oriented" activities (ie heavy duty research) and focused more on my abilities to communicate, dedication to medicine, volunteer and community work.

 

[kahoo99]

ditto, as for the ranking of the DO schools it doens't seem to the same as the MD schools--where there is an established hierarchy. It's more like find one that fits you.

 

[newyorkcougar]

The best thing you can do for your DO PS is to think of good reasons you would want to be not only a physician but a DO specifically...DO schools don't like to hear that students are applying simply because they didn't get into MD schools. 🙂 Otherwise they essay should sound basically like your MD essay.

In terms of ranking DO schools...well, that is a complicated question. One of the big differences between the MD and DO philosophies is that DO's try to focus more on the qualitative rather than the quantitative. The AACOM does not rank the schools. Rather, they provide information about the strengths of each school.

However, other sources do qunatitatively rank DO schools. TUCOM was ranked highest by US News and World Report for their admissions scores (highest GPA and MCAT). That doesn't necessarily mean that they are the best school...they are just the hardest to get in to. However, a friend of mine who went there had problems at residency interviews with lack of name recognition for TUCOM because it is so new. He had exceedigly high COMLEX and USMLE scores and ended up scrambling. KCOM and DMU are both quite historic and have a lot of name recongition so they have a slight edge for residencies. MSUCOM is apparently received good rankings from US News and World Report's study of graduate and professional schools. PCOM is very highly reguarded since so many high-profile DO's graduated from there.

The point is that although there is PLENTY of competition in the DO world, it generally tends to gravitate away from qantitative rankings and focuses on qualitative descriptions. Even in DO admissions, although GPA and MCAT are very important, your life experience, personality, goals, etc are given much more weight than they are in MD admissions. DO schools want to see qualitatively what kind of person you are and what kind of doctor you will be...not just how well you scored quantitatively on your tests.

I hope that helps...good luck

 

[bigbassinbob]

Thanks a lot for the replies, now I'll try to crank out this statement as fast as possible.

 

[HoodyHoo]

Alright, so I didn't make it into an MD school last year. I am dead set on going to medical school next year, so I have opened up to the DO route. I'm just filling out my initial application to DO schools
, and was wondering what you guys wrote in your personal statement. I'd like to use something similar to my PS for MD schools, but its almost twice the length (950 words) of what it's allowed to be for the DO app (500 words). Anybody else do this? What did you guys write about? Also, which DO schools are considered the best? I'm personally very interested in Nova, but is it considered a good school (their website seemed kind of amateur)? Thanks.

Their website was amateur? what does that have to do with the level of education. The community surrounding NSU-COM highly regards this school and the doctors from years past that are now practicing are well known in FLA as well. It's hard to say what DO school is better than another. I think anybody you ask will tell you that their school is the best. Medical school is medical school, concern yourself with getting in and not the "prestige" surrounding the school.

 

[uclabruin2003]

nova's website did not look bad. if anything TuCOM (mare island and las vegas) looks like..at best horrible. ha

 

[bigbassinbob]

Their website was amateur? what does that have to do with the level of education. The community surrounding NSU-COM highly regards this school and the doctors from years past that are now practicing are well known in FLA as well. It's hard to say what DO school is better than another. I think anybody you ask will tell you that their school is the best. Medical school is medical school, concern yourself with getting in and not the "prestige" surrounding the school.

I'm not interested in the "prestige" of any medical school. The only concern I have in going to a school that may not rank as high as others is the difficulty in obtaining a competitive residency. That's basically what I was asking - which schools are the most well-known and can help their students obtain the best residency positions. As for the website thing, it just looks a little weird. Kind of like one of those online university websites or something. Maybe I'm just weird...

 

[Amy B]

Make sure you start reading all you can about the Osteopathic profession. I would recommend the following books for you to buy and read NOW!

1. The DO's, Osteopathic Medicine in America written by Norman Gevitz

2. Osteopathic Medicine, A reformation in progress written by R. Michael Gallagher and Frederick J Humphrey

You can order both books from www.amazon.com

Check out the sites on the sticky here on SDN. here is the link http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=114983

check out the web pages...
http://www.osteopathic.org/

http://www.aacom.org/

Good luck.

 

[HoodyHoo]

I'm not interested in the "prestige" of any medical school. The only concern I have in going to a school that may not rank as high as others is the difficulty in obtaining a competitive residency. That's basically what I was asking - which schools are the most well-known and can help their students obtain the best residency positions. As for the website thing, it just looks a little weird. Kind of like one of those online university websites or something. Maybe I'm just weird...

For DO schools it is not really going to matter which one you go to for getting a competitive residency. It'll be all about you. However, I would say that depending on where you may want to potentially practice, a DO school in that particular area may be more highly regarded than one that is on the other side of the country. So if you want to practice in Florida or the southeast, for example, I would surely pick NSU-COM(but I am biased) over LECOM-B and the new school opening in Atlanta. but if you want to go west, you may be favored if you go to TOURO or COMP. anyway, good luck.

 

[smc927]

I know how impatience can influence your decisions. But this is a life-long commitment. Write down your honest top 3 reasons for becoming a DO and not an MD. If "because I can't get into an MD school this year" is one of those top three you may want to step back and seriously consider if you are going to be happy with this decision in 5, 10, 30 years.

If it doesn't make the top three, best of luck!

 

[pem8erly]

Been having technical difficulties with the PS statement in the application. Sometimes it fits and sometimes it doesn't. MS Word says its under 3000 characters with spaces. 😕 Any tips? Thanks!