This Really Upset Me!

[SpiritiualDuck]

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I am in the process of applying to medical schools. I just finished my premed work too and I took the April MCAT. Well, the other day, I got a letter in the mail indicating to me that the premed committee at my school has to decided to recommend me with highest recommendations to an Osteopathic school and with general recommendations to an Allopathic school.

I should be pleased because I am only applying to Osteopathic schools. However, they didn't know where I was applying too. They asked me a few questions about my courses and drive to be a doctor. They based there decision on my GPA and MCAT, which are above average, but not killer.

So, to me, this means that they are probably directing their students to Osteopathic and Allopathic programs. There is a built in assumption that they are making and that says they think Osteopathic is not as good. It should come down to a philosophical identification and not something like this. A close friend of mine, was advised not to apply and they said they would recommend him for PA programs. Again, a PA program is a distinct field. I'm strongly considering notifying Osteopathic schools about the policy at this premed program. I'm also strongly considering not accepting their recommendation. I might just send out three faculty recommendations. If I had expressed an interest in a Carribean school would I have been given the highest ever possible recommendation.

 

[Fin-Nor]

spirtiualduck,

i agree with you. a committee should only function to provide levels of recommendation without regards to which path you choose, but how you are as a student/person/friend/etc. i see that you do feel very offended by this and i do believe that you may be helping future students at your school by contacting your committee and explaining to them your ideas.

best of luck,
b

 

[Dr_sax]

No offense to you, but your school needs a new pre-med committee. I can't believe your school would do that. The students need to address the administration about it. First prize allopathic, second osteopathic, third PA, what's down the line...recommending a student for nursing school in Liberia? I too agree with Bryant. Pre-med committees should write the best letter they can for each student that needs one; there are many other attributes to be included in a letter besides GPA and MCAT scores.

Here's how my school works, just as an example(which I think is typical of most):
If your GPA is "borderline" by the end of sophomore year, someone on the committee will speak with you about what you obviously need to improve upon. Some students in my class were flat out told to consider not pursuing med school. My best friend was one of them. She even ended up changing majors and now she's at grad school loving it.

Early Junior year, the committee holds a meeting with all interested students. They give out packets and inform you that you need to solicit three individual letters from profs that will be used in writing a composite letter. So you run around for 2 months asking your fav profs to write you a letter. Once that's done and they write your individual letters, you meet with someone appointed by the committee to write YOUR letter. I sat with some education prof whom I had never met before and shot the breeze for about an hour. It's then that person and the school's job to write you the best, most accurate letter they can. It's your school's responsibility IMO.
Then you forward a list of schools at which you applied to the committee and they send it away.
See? No biggie. My school even keeps letters on file for 5 years in case you need to come back and use them again.

Dr_sax

 

[thackl]

I hear about this stuff all the time. Talk about playing god, who do these pre-med comittee members this they are? I've been out for 7 yrs and gladly don't have to deal with that sh1t. I went to the UT Austin premed advisor once. She was stuck up and gave me horrible advice and I'm not being dramatic here; it was aweful.

 

[DD214_DOC]

I saw this posted at medicalgold.com as well 🙂

As far as my school is concerned, they are incredibly supportive of their students and will even encourage students with less-than-stellar GPA's to keep trying and improve -- so long as you're applying to allopathic schools. Mention osteopathic, and you're on your own.

 

[Green912]

The beauty of picking and choosing. Use the committee letter for the D.O. schools and see if you can get three individual letters for the M.D. ones. Otherwise I'd say you're getting a raw deal. You may want to wait and rattle the cages when the process is over. Don't want to set the bridges burning too early. Good luck.

 

[Wilford Brimley]

That process sounds quite paternalistic, which is definately not a good attribute for a Pre-Health Committee!

 

[bla_3x]

My school as well has a pretty lame pre-health/pre-professional com. I did not even use them, and I still got into all of the school in which I applied. I couple of years ago, I went to them for advice and such. Having made the choice to go into medicine after 3 years of goofing off as a musician, my first 3 years were chalk full of bad grades and such. The fact that since I have been a pre-med I have had stellar work with extremely hard schedules (15-17cr of hard science per semester) made no never mind to them! So I said the @#$@ with them and I went on my way, did well on the MCAT, got gool LORs and...well, I guess I didn't need them after all🙂

 

[Fin-Nor]

yeah, its really your call to use them or not. i dont know if you school offers it, but some will also send your letters with a neutral cover letter w/o their recommendations.

😉

 

[SpiritiualDuck]

Are ad coms aware of the different levels of recommendation? And how does that read to them? And what does that mean if I'm strongly recommended for Osteo and have a general recommendation for Allopathic? I mean, did the committee in their finite and questionable wisdom determine that I would be much better at practicing an integrated, patient centered, form of holistic medicine? To me it's like this: If they were setting me up for a date. They'd tell the girl that they think has lower standards that I'm great, I'm the best. And the girl that has higher standards they'd say, he's okay. He's not bad. Either I'd be a good doc or not.

The committee bases their decisions on numbers only. And that shouldn't be their function as a committee. If I had a 38 MCAT they would be endorsing me like crazy. I could be a social mess, but they wouldn't care. To me, they should speak about the quality of the applicant on a personal level in their letter. They should acess the things that go beyond numbers. That's their job. More to the point, none of them are medical doctors. They are all PhD's in chem, bio., and English. And arguably, all of us know a lot more about the process than they do. They've never been through this.

Medical schools can acess numbers. But this premed program is so paranoid about endorsing students because they want to say that they have a high % of students getting into medical school that were given a recommendation from them.

I'm applying to only DO programs. So, I should be okay using their letter. But lets say that I wanted to use their general recommendation for allopathic programs. Would they be hurting me, setting me up for failure? How does a neutral letter look? To me it seems like the kiss of death!

 

[KylieP54]

I have to say, I've been in a similar situation. When I asked my pre med advisor to write me recs, she said "Ok, which programs" and I said "grad school, podiatry school, DO school and MD schools"--- she looks at me, puts her pen down and says, "Now do you really want to do that to yourself?? It's a long shot". I was like "yeah"...she started at me, and (no joke) she said, "well, you're just not bright enough to get into MD schools". But she was more than willing to write me a rec to DO. I wanted to beat the crap out of her...I later found out she has done this to so many students at my school. I said %&#@ them and follow your dreams. You will be an awesome doctor. Good luck🙂

 

[jkhamlin]

SpiritiualDuck, I am the first person who would stand up to this type of ignorance in almost every case...

But (you knew that was coming 🙂 ), in this case, I don't believe I would. Here is why:

First, their ignorance is your gain. Because you are only applying to DO schools, and assuming that the AdComs are not aware of the difference in recommendations, you get highest recommendations from your premed committee to go to the school of your choice. You get the highest recommendations for the most challenging, elite, and distinguished medical curriculum instead of general recommendations for a doctor factory.

Second, would you rather they lower their perception of MD schools, or raise their perception of DO schools? The latter is more probable, but their prejudice will remain even if policy changes, leaving you with general recommendations.

Third, you would have some explaining to do if you didn't use their recommendation. Perhaps this is something that could be overcome, but it would be extra effort beyond the overwhelming effort you have already put into this.

Overall, IMHO, I would say that standing up now would be counterproductive. Get into med school, and then be an advocate for Osteopathic Medicine in this way. Once you get in, write a letter to the dean of students, or equivalent person at your school.

Good luck.

 

[SpiritiualDuck]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to bite my tongue and wait until I get in before I say something to people. I doubt it will change policy. But it bothers me still the same.

 

[BMW19]

I hate to beat a dead link, but my pre-med advisor is pulling the same bull. He doesn't know much about DO schools yet keeps asking me questions as if I am applying to allopathic schools which is totally different. I don't think he realizes that DO schools look at other things besides just numbers. What should we do? I am afraid he will write me a crap letter and I have already had all of my good letters sent to him. It all rides on him now.

BMW-