Try for MD or accept DO?

[Jflin300]

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Hello everyone,

My friend wanted input on what to do. This is from him :

I have a big dilemma right now. I recently was in the last cycle and applied to 36 ish medical schools and only got one MD interveiw. In case of rejection I last minute applied to 2 DO programs: CCOM and ATSU SOMA. I applied to CCOM because it was in chicago and ATSU is the first DO school so I assumed it would have great prestige.

Now I wouldn’t normally mind too much about going DO but I want to do Radiology which is competitive.

CCOM I came to learn would cost me 100K+ per year and I would be in 400K+ debt over the 4 years.

ATSU, I learned that they are basically a factory for primary care. Their rotation sites are all very run down clinics. They don’t have rotations in hospitals like normal schools. They recently shut down a bunch of sites because they were not doing well, prompting students to panic about rotations.

Do I reapply for the MD? There’s no guarantee I’ll get in but the 2 DO schools I applied to and got into are schools I don’t think are a smart option. CCOM is way too expensive and ATSU isn’t the best especially if I want to do something competitive. I stupidly applied to them with no research and now I am considering just retrying for the MD.

My MCAT is a 512
My GPA in undergrad was 3.9 from a T20 school
I have research, 3 non medical volunteer opportunities on my app (soup kitchen, etc)
I have:
300+ hours in hospital volunteering
300+ hours as a clinic volunteer
200 hours as a hospice volunteer
~60 hours shadowing
I have hobbies on there as well as my previous work experience
Also have Sports, club leadership positions on there
In the last year I’ve added about 3000 hours as a medical scribe. This job started after I applied.

I also have around 5-6 letters of recs from professors I knew pretty well.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I want to do Radiology which is competitive.

Why would your friend want to do radiology when Claude Sonnet and GPT 4 can already correctly analyze every CT/MRI I’ve ever given it. Your friend is 10+ years from being a radiology attending. By then, the workforce will be cut by at least 80%. Going to a DO school may inadvertently save your friend a job


But no, you should not give up a DO acceptance because it’s unlikely you’ll get in MD this time around

 

[Dee2daK]

To your friend:

Unless something drastic changed about your experiences from last year, these statistics(excellent GPA and strong-enough MCAT for many schools) and ECs aren’t the issue. Having worked full-time as a scribe won’t drastically change your likelihood of getting interviewed. With only one application converting to an MD interview, this tells me that either you applied to schools that were all far reaches, have a red flag somewhere in your application, or your written prompts were not compelling or low-quality.

With a DO acceptance, you have a guarantee that you will start medical school and (presuming you pass) will become a physician. There is no guarantee for next year, and my intuition tells me that your AMCAS results won’t improve much over last year. You also have no guarantee that you will have a DO acceptance next year, so you are gambling a guaranteed spot away.

Go to medical school. Do great and make yourself a competitive applicant for whatever specialty you decide during school (this may change, you never know). Plenty of radiologists come from DO schools, including ATSU and CCOM.

 

[Goro]

Be a doctor and go to CCOM.

I can't recommend SOMA.

 

[havil]

Be a doctor and go to CCOM.

I can't recommend SOMA.

i wonder if there is a list of goro approved DO schools

 

[Goro]

i wonder if there is a list of goro approved DO schools

It's shorter to list the schools on the Bad Boy list.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Why would your friend want to do radiology when Claude Sonnet and GPT 4 can already correctly analyze every CT/MRI I’ve ever given it. Your friend is 10+ years from being a radiology attending. By then, the workforce will be cut by at least 80%. Going to a DO school may inadvertently save your friend a job


But no, you should not give up a DO acceptance because it’s unlikely you’ll get in MD this time around

I don't want to start a flame war but the idea that radiology will be dead in 10 years is utter insanity. AI can't think (yet). Respectfully. Maybe I'll be proven wrong in 10 years.

Anyways, OP- just go to DO school. You can still match rads. But if you don't, you'll still be a doctor. What makes you think you'd get an MD spot next time anyway?

 

[Jflin300]

I don't want to start a flame war but the idea that radiology will be dead in 10 years is utter insanity. AI can't think (yet). Respectfully. Maybe I'll be proven wrong in 10 years.

Anyways, OP- just go to DO school. You can still match rads. But if you don't, you'll still be a doctor. What makes you think you'd get an MD spot next time anyway?

Yeah that’s what I advised him. Told him don’t risk it. His biggest argument for reapplying was that he rewrote his essays and significantly boosted clinical experience since applying so he wants to give it another try.

I told him if he turns down his offers he may never be able to apply DO again

 

[gyngyn]

I told him if he turns down his offers he may never be able to apply DO again

They will still be able to apply DO.
They may not get any love from the schools who accepted him, though!

 

[Jflin300]

They will still be able to apply DO.
They may not get any love from the schools who accepted him, though!

Oh I heard you get blacklisted if you deny an acceptance. Like other schools will be able to see that they turned down an acceptance!

 

[Goro]

Oh I heard you get blacklisted if you deny an acceptance. Like other schools will be able to see that they turned down an acceptance!

We don't collude with other schools.

That won't stop some schools from asking in secondaries or in interviews if you've ever been accepted elsewhere.