schools that have put emphasis on surgery?

[mr beans mama]

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So far, I've noticed most DO schools put a huge emphasis on family medicine, which is NOT what I want to do. I want to do surgery, preferably neurosurgery. I was wondering if anyone knows of any DO schools that put an emphasis on surgery.

 

[willen101383]

No. First of all...its not part of the DO philosophy to just dive right in and do surgery. Second, you most likely will change your opinions as med school progresses.

Most DO schools pull the whole "primary care" nonsense...however that is meaningless in practice. You are free to do whatever you want. It seems like the less established schools are more heavy on FP while the older more established schools are more specialist friendly.

What exactly were you looking for the school to do to support your surgery dreams?

 

[Skippygonenuts]

Harvard, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins.

 

[st2205]

Unless a school has substituted your surgery clerkship with family medicine, your OB/Gyn rotation with Foundations of Nursing Practice, and your selectives are between rural medicine, vetrinary medicine, and chiropractic, then I would say the school doesn't have a family practice emphasis. Such doesn't really make sense, in my mind. It's not as if the biochem department is pushing for primary care, the microbiology faculty probably teach microbiology, and I have a hard time thinking your second year neurology, surgery and dermatology courses are all taught by GPs. So, unless they've mandated 4th year as a 12-month FP rotation then the administration can claim whatever they want, but at the end of the day there's not enough flexibility in the curriculum to be able to strong-arm people into FP. But, alas, you're more likely to hear of the poor souls shoved into primary care (the apparent modern-day equivalent to "the back of the bus") by their schools.

 

[Dr Yiot]

I would research CEUCOM. they encourage all graduates to enter into surgical specialties but some do enter primary care as well.

 

[ShyRem]

It seems every year someone asks for a school that prepares them for a particular specialty.

EVERY MEDICAL SCHOOL GIVES EVERY STUDENT A GENERAL MEDICAL EDUCATION. Not one single medical school in this country - allo or osteo - is a "surgery specialty medical school" or a "derm specialty medical school" or "anesthesiology specialty medical school." The job of medical school is to prepare EVERY student for ANY area of medicine they might choose.

Now of course, you can look at the first sentence above and say "well, duh". But then again, there are plenty of folks who look at the school that does the above and says "that's.... PRIMARY CARE! NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Well, yes. FP is the ultimate generalist medical specialty.

I would really look for a school that fits your personality and personal needs. What you do after boards and the opportunities afforded to you are based on your own performance. Wanna do derm? You need research, publications, and killer board scores not to mention a bunch of luck. General surgery (on the whole) is not particularly competitive unless you want Johns Hopkins or the like. Where you end up depends more on you and less on where you went to school.

Now the other thing that has been mentioned is you are likely to change your mind. Yes, I can hear it now "OH NO... *I* won't change MY mind." Yup. Everyone in my med school class said that same thing on day 1. 85% of them changed their minds by year 4 and plenty of those went into specialties that were nowhere near their original path.

So you can either listen to the advice or ignore it and say "that stupid resident has no clue. *I* am DIFFERENT." Perhaps. But statistics say otherwise. So I implore you to keep an open mind. Go to med school with the thought of knocking things off your list that you can't see yourself doing. You might be surprised at where you end up and what you end up liking.

 

[tndoc12]

It seems every year someone asks for a school that prepares them for a particular specialty.

EVERY MEDICAL SCHOOL GIVES EVERY STUDENT A GENERAL MEDICAL EDUCATION. Not one single medical school in this country - allo or osteo - is a "surgery specialty medical school" or a "derm specialty medical school" or "anesthesiology specialty medical school." The job of medical school is to prepare EVERY student for ANY area of medicine they might choose.

Now of course, you can look at the first sentence above and say "well, duh". But then again, there are plenty of folks who look at the school that does the above and says "that's.... PRIMARY CARE! NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Well, yes. FP is the ultimate generalist medical specialty.

I would really look for a school that fits your personality and personal needs. What you do after boards and the opportunities afforded to you are based on your own performance. Wanna do derm? You need research, publications, and killer board scores not to mention a bunch of luck. General surgery (on the whole) is not particularly competitive unless you want Johns Hopkins or the like. Where you end up depends more on you and less on where you went to school.

Now the other thing that has been mentioned is you are likely to change your mind. Yes, I can hear it now "OH NO... *I* won't change MY mind." Yup. Everyone in my med school class said that same thing on day 1. 85% of them changed their minds by year 4 and plenty of those went into specialties that were nowhere near their original path.

So you can either listen to the advice or ignore it and say "that stupid resident has no clue. *I* am DIFFERENT." Perhaps. But statistics say otherwise. So I implore you to keep an open mind. Go to med school with the thought of knocking things off your list that you can't see yourself doing. You might be surprised at where you end up and what you end up liking.

Well said!

 

[Skippygonenuts]

It seems every year someone asks for a school that prepares them for a particular specialty.

EVERY MEDICAL SCHOOL GIVES EVERY STUDENT A GENERAL MEDICAL EDUCATION. Not one single medical school in this country - allo or osteo - is a "surgery specialty medical school" or a "derm specialty medical school" or "anesthesiology specialty medical school." The job of medical school is to prepare EVERY student for ANY area of medicine they might choose.

Now of course, you can look at the first sentence above and say "well, duh". But then again, there are plenty of folks who look at the school that does the above and says "that's.... PRIMARY CARE! NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Well, yes. FP is the ultimate generalist medical specialty.

I would really look for a school that fits your personality and personal needs. What you do after boards and the opportunities afforded to you are based on your own performance. Wanna do derm? You need research, publications, and killer board scores not to mention a bunch of luck. General surgery (on the whole) is not particularly competitive unless you want Johns Hopkins or the like. Where you end up depends more on you and less on where you went to school.

Now the other thing that has been mentioned is you are likely to change your mind. Yes, I can hear it now "OH NO... *I* won't change MY mind." Yup. Everyone in my med school class said that same thing on day 1. 85% of them changed their minds by year 4 and plenty of those went into specialties that were nowhere near their original path.

So you can either listen to the advice or ignore it and say "that stupid resident has no clue. *I* am DIFFERENT." Perhaps. But statistics say otherwise. So I implore you to keep an open mind. Go to med school with the thought of knocking things off your list that you can't see yourself doing. You might be surprised at where you end up and what you end up liking.

I love the energy in ur post