I’m not sure why the app recommended this thread when I don’t follow this sub forum. The whole time
I thought I was reading the anesthesia sub forum and was wondering where all these new users came from.
But since I put the time in I figured I would add my 2 cents. I don’t know how your 3 digit MCAT translates to the 2 digit one and I definitely don’t know the standard numbers for applicants, which seem to rise every year.
But I do have some broader thoughts as someone who had the choice between taking time off between undergrad to “rehabilitate” their application for the sake of MD programs vs starting essentially immediately for a DO program.
1) I ultimately decided for my personality, it would be better to start sooner and focus the energy I would have spent on another MCAT, being an EM scribe (like every other pre-med on the planet), etc. on attempting to excel in medical school and Step 1.
Even though step 1 is only pass/fail, the energy spent focusing on step 1 will enable you to do well on step 2 ck.
This is a personal decision. If you’re excited about med school and feel energized enough to do well in medical school, then just get on with it. For most fields, simply doing very well on Step 2 CK will be enough. But if you know right now this minute that you’re only wanting to do dermatology or radiation oncology, then sure defer this admission and apply elsewhere... but remember that nothing in life is guaranteed and I wouldn’t even assume that you’d have future DO admissions in the bag.
(As an aside, I wouldn’t worry too much about the “only having 1 shot instead of 2” thing... because honestly there are many programs that filtered on step 1 alone and didn’t even get around to seeing Step 2)
2) There’s a lot of talk on here of you making an unwise decision by participating in a combined BA/DO program, taking the MCAT on the school’s timeline, etc. To me this is bananas. These things were done in the service of efficiently getting you started in medical school. Congratulations on doing well so far and on successfully applying to a medical school. You should be feeling good about all this. Don’t let the SDN machine keep you down. There will literally always be people who do better on exams, class rank... That’s just life.
3) Don’t let this process turn into some evaluation of your personality, etc... I’m reading comments about parents, you not taking enough risks in life, whatever. But most of the medical community is comprised of risk averse personalities... besides EM
4) I saw your thoughts re: age or giving yourself exposure to adversity by turning down the DO admission, but these don’t hold that much weight to me.
You’ll have more than enough exposure to hardship and adversity in medical school, no need to pile more on that. In terms of discrimination because of your age and gender, the gender discrimination you face much won’t change regardless of your age.
When I was an intern, I had patients look at male STUDENTS as if they in charge and ignore the female attending who was talking directly at them. Once they were informed they were all appropriately apologetic... but the couple extra years of experience by the time you’re 30 will probably serve you better than if you had waited.
Anyway this is becoming a disorganized mess. There’s clearly no obviously right choice. But what I would say is, if your career interests are within merely the moderately competitive specialties, get a move on with your life and just get started. As a resident I saw college friends take a bit of a longer path (which is fine!) and was so happy I was out of the medical school and then residency application rat races sooner in my life. That stuff sucks.