Pharmacist thinking about DO school

[goodb29]

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I am a pharmacist who was thinking of going to DO med school. I have a PharmD and was thinking of applying in like 2 - 3 years. Im a little older than most applicants at 30. I really enjoy patient care but I dont feel I get enough of it as a pharmacist. I really prefer the osteopathic philosophy of treating the whole patient as opposed to the allopathic approach. Would it be too difficult transitioning from being a pharmacist to med school? Any ideas on what schools would be best for me or how I would get started? Thanks

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

I am a pharmacist who was thinking of going to DO med school. I have a PharmD and was thinking of applying in like 2 - 3 years. Im a little older than most applicants at 30. I really enjoy patient care but I dont feel I get enough of it as a pharmacist. I really prefer the osteopathic philosophy of treating the whole patient as opposed to the allopathic approach. Would it be too difficult transitioning from being a pharmacist to med school? Any ideas on what schools would be best for me or how I would get started? Thanks

I don't mean to be a smart-ass, but you might get started by looking up the [few] osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. A google search for "Osteopathic Medical School" yielded the AACOM (American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine) web site as the first hit.

The difficulty of the transition will depend upon your undergraduate GPA (I'm assuming you have all of the medical school prerequisites from your PharmD degree) and your MCAT score. Then there are additional factors like clinical experience, etc.

A hard part of the transition will be giving up your comfortable life/income to go back to school and live like a student. At least that's going to be hard for me.

Good Luck,

J

 

[Khenon]

There are alot of older pre-meds and med students out there, so don't let your age be a factor/concern. As far as where to start, I agree with the above poster. There's a ton of info on the internet about DO schools, programs, residencies, etc. As far as which school is the best for you . . . you'd need to look up each school's website and see what's listed. Obviously picking a school is a very personal decision, so it would be difficult for anyone on this forum to tell what's best for you.

I guess the very first thing you need to do is take the MCAT. If you're planning to apply for this year's applications cycle (for matriculation in 2007) then you'll probably need to wait for the August MCAT cycle, since April's test is in the next week or 2. If you're planning to wait to apply for next year's cycle, then you definitely have more time to plan and study for next April's MCAT (taking the MCAT in April is ideal, by the way). Anyway, I would start there, and then look into all the schools and which ones you want to apply to.

Good luck!

 

[njbmd]

I am a pharmacist who was thinking of going to DO med school. I have a PharmD and was thinking of applying in like 2 - 3 years. Im a little older than most applicants at 30. I really enjoy patient care but I dont feel I get enough of it as a pharmacist. I really prefer the osteopathic philosophy of treating the whole patient as opposed to the allopathic approach. Would it be too difficult transitioning from being a pharmacist to med school? Any ideas on what schools would be best for me or how I would get started? Thanks

Hi there,
It is great that you want to pursue osteopathic medical school and setting this as your goal is noble but LOSE the "allopathic" versus "osteopathic" mentality. Both schools treat the "whole patient" and there are no glaring differences in approach to teaching medicine between the two types of schools in terms of treating patients.

The question to ask yourself is: Do I want to become a physician or not? If you want to become a physican, then osteopathic versus allopathic is not part of this. The only differences between the two types of medical schools is that OMM is taught as part of the osteopathic medical school curriculum. Allopathic physicians can and do learn OMM but outside of their medical school curriculum.

Research all types of medical school curriculums and be an informed applicant. I can tell you that you need to know as much as possible about all aspects of application to medical school in order to maximize your chances for acceptance. No medical school (osteopathic or allopathic) is recruiting students. There are far more applicants that spaces and in today's atmosphere of increasing numbers of applicants, this will only get worse especially with the poor economy.

njbmd 🙂

 

[JamieMac]

...this will only get worse especially with the poor economy.

njbmd 🙂

You are so right on. I have thought the same myself.