NOVA DO VS CENTRAL MICHIGAN MD

[DR SPARTAN117]

NOVA DO vs Central Michigan MD
Nova is close to family and I have a wife and a kid.
Central Michigan is MD ?

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

MD over DO every time unless it’s Cal Northstate.

But I guess in this case, it also depends on how old your child is and whether he/she is in school. I wouldn’t be able to uproot my kid (not that I have a kid…but hypothetically) from his or her friends for my own career goals.

But if your son or daughter is <5 yo or so, I would go MD. I’m assuming your wife and kid would move to MI with you, correct?

 

[DR SPARTAN117]

MD over DO every time unless it’s Cal Northstate.

But I guess in this case, it also depends on how old your child is and whether he/she is in school. I wouldn’t be able to uproot my kid (not that I have a kid…but hypothetically) from his or her friends for my own career goals.

But if your son or daughter is <5 yo or so, I would go MD. I’m assuming your wife and kid would move to MI with you, correct?

So my wife has a career close to NOVA where she makes 100k a year (she is an accountant). Her parents live here and watch our kid when she has to go into work. She’s never left this area and is really against going to Michigan since her career is here. Our kid is also turning 2 next months. Hopefully this gives some context

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

i would go MD unless it could cause a divorce or something. Accountant jobs are everywhere and she could probably work virtually, perhaps even getting a raise. MD schools that accepted you aren’t everywhere.

I would say that the only caveat would be is if you’re interested in primary care. Even then, the letters might limit where you can match.

Plus you could probably move for residency and your kid would still be young enough that moving wouldn’t be a huge issue for psychosocial development. Then maybe you could just settle wherever you land for residency (unless you choose something like Radonc or ER)

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Family matters. Better spend some quality time talking about with your wife. Best for everyone collectively might be Nova. Tough situation.

 

[Dr Meow]

This is lower tier MD vs low tier DO.
MD wins by default against DO. But even more so in this situation.

 

[JohnJacobJingleheimer]

Career wise MD is the obvious answer here. Do you want to do primary care? If not, there’s something to be said about delayed gratification. The 4 year sacrifice made by you and your family could pay dividends in the future.. your wife’s loss of income and happiness over 4 years will pale in comparison to you being able to match a desirable specialty (if you’re interested in something other than PC) and being able to, perhaps, have some more pull over your location for residency.

These 4 years could affect the rest of you and your family’s lives… if you want to do PC or something non competitive, take the DO and run with it. If not, start laying out how you’re going to explain to your wife that the MD is a sacrifice worth making. For me, showing match lists between schools I was considering and showing 8 derm matches vs 3, 20 ortho matches vs 7, etc. got the point across to my SO. Best of luck. Certainly a tough position to have to choose between family and career… I think the career path you chose will often demand that you favor the latter.

 

[AvsPearTree]

I'm honestly a little confused on what the point of this is? Of course MD is typically preferred to DO, but its rather strange you're asking us what you should do when this is clearly a choice that you and your wife need to decide on.

In your situation the others here are flat out wrong to just come out and say go MD no questions asked. The harsh reality everyone needs to face is that both MD and DO will give you the opportunity to become a doctor. You are the master of your own fate in school, you have the ability to pursue specialties of your choice, and its all about how much work you put into it.

You though do not live in a bubble I assume, your wife has her own goals and desires in life and she clearly needs to have a say in where your family goes. She clearly does not want to go to Michigan, she has a career there that will provide you security while you're in school, you have a strong support network there, you have kids. Do you think its alright to just completely upend everyone else's life just because you and only you want to move to Michigan? You need to find what works best for both of you or you will have more to worry about than just what school to go to.

Marriage is all about compromise, you going to Michigan without considering your family's needs/wants is not a compromise. You potentially going to DO school is a reasonable compromise, and don't believe these falsehoods that NOVA is a "low tier DO." These comments on school tiers are for the most part nonsense.

 

[DR SPARTAN117]

I'm honestly a little confused on what the point of this is? Of course MD is typically preferred to DO, but its rather strange you're asking us what you should do when this is clearly a choice that you and your wife need to decide on.

In your situation the others here are flat out wrong to just come out and say go MD no questions asked. The harsh reality everyone needs to face is that both MD and DO will give you the opportunity to become a doctor. You are the master of your own fate in school, you have the ability to pursue specialties of your choice, and its all about how much work you put into it.

You though do not live in a bubble I assume, your wife has her own goals and desires in life and she clearly needs to have a say in where your family goes. She clearly does not want to go to Michigan, she has a career there that will provide you security while you're in school, you have a strong support network there, you have kids. Do you think its alright to just completely upend everyone else's life just because you and only you want to move to Michigan? You need to find what works best for both of you or you will have more to worry about than just what school to go to.

Harsh reality. Came in with the cold hard truth. Not sure why I asked besides seeing how others would view this. Very tough choice for me and my family.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Which specialties are you interested in pursuing? This will be an important factor too.

 

[Go2Mars]

Harsh reality. Came in with the cold hard truth. Not sure why I asked besides seeing how others would view this. Very tough choice for me and my family.

I am not a D.O. student or a matriculating D.O. student, but I can vouch for Nova DO if that is a better situation for your wife, her career, and your kids. It is an established D.O. school with a solid alumni network and good clinical rotations in South Florida. Based on threads and students, their recent class had the following matches as well: anesthesiology at John’s Hopkins, ophthalmology at Dartmouth, neurology at Georgetown, internal medicine at Cleveland Clinic as well as some matches in dermatology, orthopedic surgery, and radiology. You would succeed in either medical school. Right now, it seems you want to choose based on your family due to your circumstances

 

[AvsPearTree]

Harsh reality. Came in with the cold hard truth. Not sure why I asked besides seeing how others would view this. Very tough choice for me and my family.

I agree it is a harsh reality and your post struck a cord with me because it is the same challenge my wife and I are facing. There are so many schools I want to apply to, but I won't because they are not in locations where my wife can continue her career the way she wants.

You're going to be a doctor and have a future in medicine that will be far more fulfilling when you have the support of your family.

 

[DR SPARTAN117]

Which specialties are you interested in pursuing? This will be an important factor too.

Really open to anything. I know I am looking beyond family practice. But really want to fall in love with something. I know either way it’s going to take hard work to get into anything.

 

[DR SPARTAN117]

I agree it is a harsh reality and your post struck a cord with me because it is the same challenge my wife and I are facing. There are so many schools I want to apply to, but I won't because they are not in locations where my wife can continue her career the way she wants.

You're going to be a doctor and have a future in medicine that will be far more fulfilling when you have the support of your family.

Definitely.. the hard part of this all was going into the app cycle my wife was cool with going where ever we needed to accomplish my goals. That only changes once an option that worked so well for her arose.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Really open to anything. I know I am looking beyond family practice. But really want to fall in love with something. I know either way it’s going to take hard work to get into anything.

This is where it gets hard I think. If you were set on family medicine, i would probably just say that it makes sense to attend Nova. However, what if the specialty you love is ophthalmology, ortho, or urology for instance? As mentioned above, nova wouldn’t shut you out of those specialties, but you’d have to be twice the student for half the opportunities. And you would almost surely have to move away from florida then anyway (since it’s not necessarily easy for either MD or DO to match those specialties in a specific location)

 

[DR SPARTAN117]

This is where it gets hard I think. If you were set on family medicine, i would probably just say that it makes sense to attend Nova. However, what if the specialty you love is ophthalmology, ortho, or urology for instance? As mentioned above, nova wouldn’t shut you out of those specialties, but you’d have to be twice the student for half the opportunities. And you would almost surely have to move away from florida then anyway (since it’s not necessarily easy for either MD or DO to match those specialties in a specific location)

Definitely. I hope I don’t fall in love with a ultra competitive specialty. I know I have always been interested in anesthesiology and I know that’s only getting more competitive.