PT admissions requirements

[jbizzle]

So I was reading someone elses previous post and found a thread on the DO forum that they posted on. And started looking at the GPA thread they had and saw that they have some people getting into medical school with a 3.0 CGPA and a 3.1 pre-req GPA, ~27 MCAT.

Well, I did more research and those were applicants going into DO programs, not MD. But regardless of that, I think that is pretty low. Now, not saying I would like to be a DO now, but when I searched for admissions requirements-other than Ochem-the requirements are simply the same as PT school.

Heres what I found on MSU web site:

Academic minimum standards for receiving a supplemental application are 2.70 science and overall grade-point average, and total Medical College Admission Test score of 18, with subject-area minimums of 4 in verbal reasoning, 5 in physical sciences, and 6 in biological sciences.

The above is for Michigan State University. The point is, those stats are lower than most.....almost all, PT prgrams. These are the minimum requirements of course, but you get what I mean.

The alternative for people who can't get into a PT program, and want to try med school, take the MCAT, take two semesters of Ochem and apply to DO schools. (I think I found a plan B for people who don't have plan bs yet)

Is this right or am I missing something?

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[NATO]

So I was reading someone elses previous post and found a thread on the DO forum that they posted on. And started looking at the GPA thread they had and saw that they have some people getting into medical school with a 3.0 CGPA and a 3.1 pre-req GPA, ~27 MCAT.

Well, I did more research and those were applicants going into DO programs, not MD. But regardless of that, I think that is pretty low. Now, not saying I would like to be a DO now, but when I searched for admissions requirements-other than Ochem-the requirements are simply the same as PT school.

Heres what I found on MSU web site:

Academic minimum standards for receiving a supplemental application are 2.70 science and overall grade-point average, and total Medical College Admission Test score of 18, with subject-area minimums of 4 in verbal reasoning, 5 in physical sciences, and 6 in biological sciences.

The above is for Michigan State University. The point is, those stats are lower than most.....almost all, PT prgrams. These are the minimum requirements of course, but you get what I mean.

The alternative for people who can't get into a PT program, and want to try med school, take the MCAT, take two semesters of Ochem and apply to DO schools. (I think I found a plan B for people who don't have plan bs yet)

Is this right or am I missing something?

I'm not sure if you are missing something because I've never looked at DO as an option for a second career. However, I would think DO programs would require many hours of direct patient-care experience (similar to most PA program application requirements). If it's as simple as having 2 more classes on top of all the PT pre-reqs, then I've found Plan B too! I just don't think it's that simple though.

 

[jess818]

I also don't know too much about applying to DO schools but I would say that those are the MINIMUM requirements. I doubt anyone with that low of scores gets in but again I don't really know. I also think they have to have a lot of volunteering work and things like that. One thing I do know for certain is that the MCAT is HARD. I know a girl who took it like three times and still never got accepted...maybe that's the determining factor...

 

[Muscles00GT]

You're pretty much right bizzle. My original plan was DO school. I wanted to be a physician. I worked with doctors/surgeons/PA's for about 2.5 years while in undergrad and decided it wasn't for me. I took all the core pre-reqs including the upper level Ochem's and Ochem lab. I took a practice MCAT and everything. Then after some serious consideration, I decided it wasn't for me, so I got into PT which I find fits me much better.

With that said, you are right. DO schools take the highest grade earned in any repeated courses. So you could fail a bunch of classes in undergrad and then retake them and you're GPA will be calculated with the highest grade earned. Just like PT school, you need LOR's from DO's and whatnot. As far as schooling and practicing, DO and MD are pretty much the same with the exception that DO's have a more holistic approach to medicine, which is something I personally like.

 

[markelmarcel]

For the sake of just putting it out there... and allowing myself to admit I don't know something... What does DO stand for?

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (or something along those lines....maybe Doctor of Osteopathy? I'm not entirely sure I know what the MD actually stands for...Medical Doctor? I always thought it was Doctor of Medicine, which should be DM lol)

 

[Muscles00GT]

You're right..DO = Doctor of Osteopathy (Osteoapthic medicine is what they study)..MD = Medical Doctor

Same thing..just slightly different philosophies.

 

[markelmarcel]

You're right..DO = Doctor of Osteopathy (Osteoapthic medicine is what they study)..MD = Medical Doctor

Same thing..just slightly different philosophies.

Thank you. I actually had never heard of DO until I started visiting these forums.

Learn somethin' new every day, right?

 

[dizzy88]

I find that really odd as well. I have a friend a couple years older than me that tried applying to PT school for 2 years. Her 3rd attempt, she applied to some DO schools as well and got into 2 programs (no PT schools accepted her the 3rd time either). She's loving it though. And her program makes them do rotations in different settings, just like MD's do. In the end, you just got to make sure you love the field either way!

 

[Muscles00GT]

Thank you. I actually had never heard of DO until I started visiting these forums.

Learn somethin' new every day, right?

Really? That's pretty funny. I started research that stuff while in high school since my original plan was medical school, specifically DO. But yeah, learn something new everyday! haha

I find that really odd as well. I have a friend a couple years older than me that tried applying to PT school for 2 years. Her 3rd attempt, she applied to some DO schools as well and got into 2 programs (no PT schools accepted her the 3rd time either). She's loving it though. And her program makes them do rotations in different settings, just like MD's do. In the end, you just got to make sure you love the field either way!

Yeah, it's pretty funny how things work. MD's/DO's all do the same stuff...same specializations and all that jazz. Only thing they do slightly different (from my experience) is DO's offer a variety of manipulative techniques that MD's do not commonly practice. Just like PT's, DO's do a lot of posterior/inferior/anterior glides to help with joint mobilization and whatnot.

 

[Eforma]

I realize this doesn't represent the total population of people applying for DOs...but man, I would not want most of these people as my colleagues. This is just one thing I came across when googling DOs after reading this forum. Something to think about. Most everything I've read on this PT forum has been supportive, not belittling, rude, or insensitive, but positive and encouraging for everyone. Again, while these postings don't speak for the entire PT population, it definitely shows me the sort of people entering this profession are the kind of people I want to work with.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=202236

 

[markelmarcel]

Really? That's pretty funny. I started research that stuff while in high school since my original plan was medical school, specifically DO. But yeah, learn something new everyday! haha

Well, I thought I wanted to pursue elementary education so never really looked into anything in the health field until 2 years ago and then I was pretty set on PT from the get-go!

 

[BestDoctorEver]

So I was reading someone elses previous post and found a thread on the DO forum that they posted on. And started looking at the GPA thread they had and saw that they have some people getting into medical school with a 3.0 CGPA and a 3.1 pre-req GPA, ~27 MCAT.

Well, I did more research and those were applicants going into DO programs, not MD. But regardless of that, I think that is pretty low. Now, not saying I would like to be a DO now, but when I searched for admissions requirements-other than Ochem-the requirements are simply the same as PT school.

Heres what I found on MSU web site:

Academic minimum standards for receiving a supplemental application are 2.70 science and overall grade-point average, and total Medical College Admission Test score of 18, with subject-area minimums of 4 in verbal reasoning, 5 in physical sciences, and 6 in biological sciences.

The above is for Michigan State University. The point is, those stats are lower than most.....almost all, PT prgrams. These are the minimum requirements of course, but you get what I mean.

The alternative for people who can't get into a PT program, and want to try med school, take the MCAT, take two semesters of Ochem and apply to DO schools. (I think I found a plan B for people who don't have plan bs yet)

Is this right or am I missing something?

I think what you are missing is the MCAT part. Scoring 27 in the MCAT is not easy my friend. You are correct that there are people who got into DO/MD with a 3.2 c/sGPA, but these people have good MCAT (27+). Medical schools put a lot weight on that stupid difficult test. Like previous posters said, there are a lot of people who got 3.5+ c/sGPA and they can't break 22+ in the MCAT. These people have no chances at medical schools (DO/MD).The MCAT is the great equalizer.

 

[Muscles00GT]

I think what you are missing is the MCAT part. Scoring 27 in the MCAT is not easy my friend. You are correct that there are people who got into DO/MD with a 3.2 c/sGPA, but these people have good MCAT (27+). Medical schools put a lot weight on that stupid difficult test. Like previous posters said, there are a lot of people who got 3.5+ c/sGPA and they can't break 22+ in the MCAT. These people have no chances at medical schools (DO/MD).The MCAT is the great equalizer.

ya thats the truth. i have just below a 3.0 gpa and i scored a 30 and a 34 on the practice MCAT. talk about a difficult test!! so much to study its ridiculous

 

[BestDoctorEver]

ya thats the truth. i have just below a 3.0 gpa and i scored a 30 and a 34 on the practice MCAT. talk about a difficult test!! so much to study its ridiculous

I feel the sarcasm...My point was that a high GPA is good but it does not mean that much if you don't score well in the MCAT. Obviously there are people with low GPA who can rock the MCAT (I don't have to elaborate on that since I am sure you will understand why). I hope you are not trying to compare the GRE with the MCAT. OP was saying that it is not hard to get into med school since he/she has seen people on SDN with 3.1 GPA who got in. I just pointed out that these people might have a low GPA but they most likely have a good MCAT score. I was not trying to compare admission standard of PT schools with med schools.

 

[jbizzle]

The point is, those stats are lower than most.....almost all, PT prgrams. These are the minimum requirements of course, but you get what I mean.

The alternative for people who can't get into a PT program, and want to try med school, take the MCAT, take two semesters of Ochem and apply to DO schools. (I think I found a plan B for people who don't have plan bs yet)

Is this right or am I missing something?

Well, I'm not dumb. I was pointing out the min GPA requirements for DO and why is it lower than most PT program GPA requirements when it's for a med school. I know the MCAT is difficult, that's why i didn't even try it.

But yeah I know what you're saying, it may have seem like I implied it was easy to get into med school.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

Well, I'm not dumb. I was pointing out the min GPA requirements for DO and why is it lower than most PT program GPA requirements when it's for a med school. I know the MCAT is difficult, that's why i didn't even try it.

But yeah I know what you're saying, it may have seem like I implied it was easy to get into med school.

Don't let the minimun requirements fool you. You gave the example of MSU minimum requirements (2.7 cGPA and 18); however, almost no one will get in with these stats at MSU. The actual stats for the 2009 entering class was 3.5 cGPA, 3.38 sGPA and 27+ MCAT. Therefore, dont believe these minimum requirements. Duke University med school minimum requirements are 3.0 cGPA and 24 MCAT. You wont find no one at Duke with these stats.