Why are we discussing long-term career opportunities like being a PI or matching into a competitive specialty? Why are we ignoring substantial differences in 4 years of medical school? Why are we ignoring that DO students have to study for COMLEX and DO shelves on top of studying for USMLE and MD shelves to be a strong residency applicant that opens most doors? Whereas MD students don't have to worry about COMLEX/DO shelves to apply to former AOA residencies?
Why are we ignoring required OMM, problems with clinical rotations, and significant differences in clinical education which are all simply due to COCA having less stringent rules and being more relaxed on matters that LCME will not tolerate?
Everything mentioned above is highly variable depending on what DO school you attend other than having to take COMLEX. As for studying for COMLEX, every DO student will say to just study for USMLE, take Step 1, then spend a week (or less) reviewing OMM and take Level 1. No one actually studies exclusively for Level 1. Also, from what I've seen some former AOA programs will still require an OMM component in their curriculum, so MD students would have to study OMM if they enrolled in that program (whether they like it or not). That may have changed recently, but last time I checked it was still a thing.
Plus mandatory OMM labs were actually pretty nice. Basically free massages/adjustments which relieved a lot of stress imo.
Because KCUs KC clinical training is substandard. They have no real hospital affiliates in Kansas city and literally no one in the realm of clinical departments beyond IM and FM (our surgery department consists of one adjunct member who is a professor at KU Med) which would be a huge red flag. A large majority of KCUs OPTI sponsored residencies are in Joplin as well.
Now KCU just partnered with HCA in Kansas City and that's great and all but it's composed of minute clinics and may. 4-5 smaller hospitals and 1 larger one (research medical center). Of those, there's only one residency program in FM and plans to build residencies takes time (as history has shown with Marian touting huge residencies expansion with still no significant results).
A few things to clarify: HCA systems have 8 hospitals in the KC area and 3 of them have over 300 beds (Research, St. Joe's, OP Regional) The other ones are smaller, but I don't think most students rotate through them. We've also got quite a few other hospital affiliates, like Children's Mercy, we just don't have exclusive rights with them. We don't have many affiliated residency programs (I think you're right that it's just the one), but that's a problem with a lot of DO schools and a few of the MD schools as well.
Not sure what you're referring to with the clinical departments in IM and FM thing. Are you saying we just don't have faculty in other departments or that they wouldn't meet LCME standards? Because we've got clinical professors in all of the core departments other than surgery where it's just the one adjunct (IM, FM, peds, OB/GYN, psych) plus a few other departments.
I'll also add that while I completely agree that training with residents should be a priority, there are certain rotations where I learned far more working with a preceptor than I did/would have with residents. Imo it would be ideal to work with residents for part of rotations and get more personalized/one-on-one time with preceptors/attendings at other times, but that's not really realistic. Comparing the rotations I've had with friends that went to MD schools there are obvious pros and cons to both types of rotations, and I think more exposure variety, at least in your chosen field, would yield far more knowledge and experience that only rotating with preceptors or in residency programs.