I am a 2nd year osteopathic student. Medical school has been much harder than I could've ever imagined and unfortunately, there have been some casualties on my journey through. I have failed 3 courses already and have a gpa of 2.3. The dean of my college is advising me to take only COMLEX and not USMLE because she says I don't have a good chance of getting an allopathic residency anyway and if I do poorly on it that will harm my chances of getting an osteopathic residency. A friend of mine thinks she may be biased in her position because students from our school don't traditionally perform well on the USMLE though. I'm hoping that I can do well on rotations (I'm a hard worker and seem pretty likable) and can raise my gpa to closer to 3.0. I was wondering if I am able to do this and can impress people that I work with if I might still have a shot at an allopathic residency, or should I put all of my eggs in the osteopathic basket? Thanks so might for any input!
BOTH Struggling osteopathic student needs advice
- Thread starter sirswish
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Whether or not you can get an allopathic residency depends greatly on specialty and on what your actual board scores end up being. If you can identify why you have been struggling with school and turn that around you may be able to do well on boards, this will take an immense amount of work because at this point you need to go back and learn the material taught in the courses you failed as well as doing better in current courses.
The easiest way to determine whether or not you are ready to take usmle is to take an nbme exam, if you dont do as well as you need then you can reassess.
I do not know why you want an allopathic residency but in my opinion the most important thing for you to do is make sure you are passing your classes and that you are prepared to pass comlex. If you cant pass in those two areas then none of this matters because you wont be graduating medical school in the first place.
The easiest way to determine whether or not you are ready to take usmle is to take an nbme exam, if you dont do as well as you need then you can reassess.
I do not know why you want an allopathic residency but in my opinion the most important thing for you to do is make sure you are passing your classes and that you are prepared to pass comlex. If you cant pass in those two areas then none of this matters because you wont be graduating medical school in the first place.
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Three failed courses isn't good.
I think most DO students should be trying to take the USMLE, but in your case maybe you're better off focusing on just the COMLEX. Getting a solid COMLEX score doesn't necessarily fully preclude you from doing an allopathic residency, either.
I think most DO students should be trying to take the USMLE, but in your case maybe you're better off focusing on just the COMLEX. Getting a solid COMLEX score doesn't necessarily fully preclude you from doing an allopathic residency, either.
I saw your post that you ended up falling your Step 1 but passed comlex. What was the reason behind your decision for deciding to take step 1 despite everyone's misgivings?
As an aside, did you have to repeat a year after failing 3 courses? Maybe in hindsight you needed more time in 1st and 2nd year (extending the curriculum or retaking the failed courses on a different time schedule might have helped).
Hopefully you can do better on the shelf exams and you'll buckle down for step 2.
As an aside, did you have to repeat a year after failing 3 courses? Maybe in hindsight you needed more time in 1st and 2nd year (extending the curriculum or retaking the failed courses on a different time schedule might have helped).
Hopefully you can do better on the shelf exams and you'll buckle down for step 2.
