Offered BSDO after high school. Pls advice

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MediMA

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My son is accepted to BSDO program right after high school. Frankly we never heard of DO and explored only after this offer. From the philosophy of it, it seems like a good fit for my son. But we are hearing all kind of conflicting statements and so confused.

Adv is: It is a guaranteed acceptance to DO(Physician), He doesn't have to fight for MCAT and a very high GPA and to deal with uncertainty. He can come out of it debt free as he received good scholarship. He can use that energy to do good research work. Irrespective, he is planning to prepare for MCAT to stay competitive even though he might not be able to take one without withdrawing from BSDO prog but can help in future tests. He scored decent on SAT (1530) but had little struggle in maintaining very high GPA (3.8 weighted out of 4.0 scale). However undergrad school reputation does not seems to be that great and it is in a middle of nowhere. He is debating if worth the sacrifice of life style for few years also do vs md

Please help!
 
I guess it really depends, if it was a 3+4 deal like what Slippery Rock has, that certainly sweetens the pot more. Undergrad reputation doesn't matter that much when applying to medical school so don't worry about that. LECOM has a decent reputation academically, good board pass rates, decent match list. They get flak for their weird rules and I've read my dog would describe scheduling rotations as "ruff". Though that information might be out of date. If it were me I'd take the guaranteed deal and not have to worry about all of the abject nonsense I currently am. LECOM is probably fine. DO's generally have a harder time matching into more competitive specialties but it's doable.

There's no real difference between MD vs DO legally and for all other purposes other than having to take a class in physical therapy/abject quackery. The distinct philosophy thing is marketing BS. Basically:
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Based off your sons performance in high school ( great SAT, shows that they can score well on a standardized test) id bet he can do well in college and on the mcat. It might be worth trying for a MD school. The career outcomes can be significantly better when it comes to residency placement and academic medicine. It really depends on what career in medicine your son envisions. Does he want to enter PC and return to his hometown to serve his community? Take the BS/DO. Does he want to match into ENT or Derm? Does he want a shot at an academic powerhouse where almost all of the residents, if not all, are MD’s? Then going for an MD school might be worth it.

It’s a tough call for sure. I’ll say that I was put in a similar position at the end of high school as well. I decided to try my hand at an MD school by going through the traditional route and it’s worked out this cycle. But I’m lucky that it worked out. If not, I would have wasted a few extra years of my life and tens of thousands of dollars.

No debt and a clear path to medicine through this program is pretty amazing. Is trying for an MD worth the risk of going into debt, putting in the extra years of work for the possibility of ending up emptied handed ? For most people, it’s not.
 
MediMA said:
My son is accepted to BSDO program right after high school. Frankly we never heard of DO and explored only after this offer. From the philosophy of it, it seems like a good fit for my son. But we are hearing all kind of conflicting statements and so confused.

Adv is: It is a guaranteed acceptance to DO(Physician), He doesn't have to fight for MCAT and a very high GPA and to deal with uncertainty. He can come out of it debt free as he received good scholarship. He can use that energy to do good research work. Irrespective, he is planning to prepare for MCAT to stay competitive even though he might not be able to take one without withdrawing from BSDO prog but can help in future tests. He scored decent on SAT (1530) but had little struggle in maintaining very high GPA (3.8 weighted out of 4.0 scale). However undergrad school reputation does not seems to be that great and it is in a middle of nowhere. He is debating if worth the sacrifice of life style for few years also do vs md

Please help!
Click to expand...

1530 is “decent” on the SAT? Oooof, I’m not sure if DO is up to your standards. 😉
 
It will save money on undergrad as these programs usually finish undergrad in 3 yrs, mcat prep, applications and traveling for med school interviews. Check on med school tuition. Might not be worth it if the med school is overpriced. Some tuitions are ridiculous . Check on schools board pass rate. Some newer schools are still getting the bugs out of their curriculum.
 
It really depends. Can he back out and keep the BS if you think you have what it takes for MD? Are there any strings attached? LECOM is cheap but mandatory med school lectures sound horrible.

Then again: Earning an acceptance for an MD can be hard for some people. There are a lot of hoops to jump through. Is he the type to dance the dance, rack up lots of impressive ECs, and dazzle at interviews? i'd have loved to avoid the headache and focus on enjoying college.
 
was apart of a BS/DO program feel free to message me if u want.
ill quickly say there are generally several trade offs with these programs
 
Any chance your son will not want to become a physician? Because if so, a less-prestigious middle-of-nowhere school might not be the best choice for a 'Plan B' career change. What other college options does he have?
 
LECOM is towards the top end of the DO spectrum and they do match very well every year.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. There is no guarantee your son would get into an MD school or LECOM if he were to go to college and apply the normal route; a majority of students - both on the MD and DO applications - do not receive admittance each year, and a not insignificant number that do receive admittance are reapplicants. While the opinion of gaining admittance to a DO school is "easy" on SDN, make no mistake that DO schools (generally speaking) rank #2 on the totem pole of all professional school programs behind MD; an argument could be made for DMD (dentistry) as most of these programs are Ivy.

However: it should be stated that BSDO and BSMD programs are generally very restrictive and I would examine all aspects of the program before committing to it. In some cases, the students can do basically whatever the hell they want for three years and aren't even necessarily committed to the school they're associated with. In other cases, you are bound to that school from day 1 and have a very strict curriculum with little room to venture into different studies as one should be encouraged to do during college.
 
DokterMom said:
Any chance your son will not want to become a physician? Because if so, a less-prestigious middle-of-nowhere school might not be the best choice for a 'Plan B' career change. What other college options does he have?
Click to expand...

He is very sure of his commitment to be a Physician. He spend summer internships in few very good hospitals to make sure that is what he commits to ..
 
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Congrats to your son on getting accepted! If I were him, I would take the BSDO acceptance but do my best to maintain a high GPA (3.8+) and get some ECs in such as shadowing, research, volunteering, and so on... Basically work as if you don't have an acceptance to medical school yet. This way if he does well on the MCAT (510+) he can opt out of the BSDO program and apply to MD programs throughout the country. If he does NOT get the GPA or MCAT he wanted, then he can just refrain from applying to medical schools and take the LECOM acceptance.
 
krankxl2 said:
Congrats to your son on getting accepted! If I were him, I would take the BSDO acceptance but do my best to maintain a high GPA (3.8+) and get some ECs in such as shadowing, research, volunteering, and so on... Basically work as if you don't have an acceptance to medical school yet. This way if he does well on the MCAT (510+) he can opt out of the BSDO program and apply to MD programs throughout the country. If he does NOT get the GPA or MCAT he wanted, then he can just refrain from applying to medical schools and take the LECOM acceptance.
Click to expand...

* as long as the program does not prohibit you from doing so.

I would not throw away this acceptance for any reason if I took the program. If the rules of the program are "if you apply outside of our program, you get kicked out of the program", that's a no-go for me.
 
Congratulations. your son has a prety awesome SAT score. He is amoung the company of med students at top MD schools because he is very good with standardize tests. He will jam on the MCAT. My guess is he will want to go MD evetually.
 
krankxl2 said:
Congrats to your son on getting accepted! If I were him, I would take the BSDO acceptance but do my best to maintain a high GPA (3.8+) and get some ECs in such as shadowing, research, volunteering, and so on... Basically work as if you don't have an acceptance to medical school yet. This way if he does well on the MCAT (510+) he can opt out of the BSDO program and apply to MD programs throughout the country. If he does NOT get the GPA or MCAT he wanted, then he can just refrain from applying to medical schools and take the LECOM acceptance.
Click to expand...
Only problem is that he has to withdraw from BSDO before taking MCAT :-(
 
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