Maybe I don't know how to read a match list, but, aside from those schools which seem to have a stronger emphasis on primary care (WVSOM, Pikeville, etc.), I don't see dramatic differences between schools.
There are indeed differences.
Look at the programs that grads are going to. PCOM sends a lot of people into osteopathic internships because of the Pennsylvania requirement, but look at where these people go for PGY2. Anesthesia, Radiology, Optho, Derm. I can tell you that most PCOM grads who match into IM end up completing a fellowship in something...Cards, Pulm, GI, Endo.
scpod mentioned above that being the top 5 at Pikeville is better than bottom half at PCOM, which may be true on paper. But which student is going to have the access to the bigger & better programs? Which student rotates through the hospital several times per year? Which student can turn to recent PCOM alumni working at that institution?
We havent even begun to talk about alumni. This factor is HUGE. Hospitals, Residencies and PDs in Philadelphia and the surrounding area KNOW PCOM. Most have had little to no interaction with DOs from other schools except for maybe UMDNJ.
PCOM has been putting out alumni for 108 years. Most of those who graduated in the early 1900s arent alive anymore, but our class size has been in the hundreds for 30+ years. Most of those doctors stay in Pennsylvania, but PCOM has alumni practicing in almost every state and in several foreign countries. PCOM alumni helped to start many of the newer DO schools.
As far as access and training, DO schools are not equal either.
PCOM own one of only 24 laparascopic simulators currently in the US, the ONLY DO school to have one and the only school in Philadelphia to have one (Jefferson, Temple, Drexel and PENN dont have one). We have 2 patient simulation robots as well as chest tube, central line and other procedural teaching modules. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in teaching equipment that are being used by first year medical students. I recently worked with a PGY5 surgical resident who has never touched a laparoscopic simulator (she went to another school...an MD school). Our students are using it BEFORE they even start rotations.
When you have almost half the number of hospitals in a few miles of your campus than some schools have in the entire STATE, that says something. That says you have access, familiarity, alumni support and opporunity.
Medicine is very much about who you know...sometimes moreso than what you know.
I guarantee if you ask 10 attendings "If I want to specialize, should I go to a medical school in (insert major metropolitan area here) or in (insert small town in rural state here)?", they would pretty much agree that bigger city, bigger school, better known school is the way to go.
This issue is frustrating, especially when the counterpoint is argued by students who have not yet gone through the process and talked to people about this. Honestly, I dont even know why I continue to type the same thing over and over about this. A few people hang on to the idea that where they are for medical school right now doesnt matter and that all doors will be open to them. It doesnt work that way. We as DOs have doors that are not readily open to us. One of the best ways to oil those hinges is to place yourself in the best possible environment to overcome stereotype and disadvantage.
Your choice is medical school is a huge factor in determining the course of your future. Anyone who says otherwise is being naive, likely because they have not seen first hand how this all plays out. I have.
