Hey y'all, I am in a bit of a predicament and would love some advice.
I was recently pulled off the waitlist at the Frist College of Medicine (Belmont) this past Friday, which is super exciting as I have been hoping to receive an acceptance and have always preferred the more traditional route of MD over DO. I want to do a competitive specialty (i.e. Urology or Derm), and am well aware of the necessary actions to make that happen, whether in the MD or the DO world.
However, I have already started medical school at VCOM, and I am about 2 weeks into the program. I have found that I enjoy VCOM more than I believed I would, and I think the faculty and staff set the students up for success. Although it has limitations in connections to big-name, academic hospitals, the school is very well connected to community based hospitals and similar residency programs. Furthermore, VCOM does as good of a job as MD schools at students matching into some of the competitive specialties (i.e. derm, radiology), but is definitely limited in some specialties, partially due to the lack of DO friendly residency programs.
That being said, I have discovered that I am able to withdrawal from VCOM with little-to-no penalty. But I cannot decide if Belmont will significantly improve my chances for a competitive specialty in the future, apart from the MD credentials. Similarly, will residency programs have bias against Belmont for not having full-accreditation?
If anyone could offer any insight into this situation, it would be greatly appreciated!
I was recently pulled off the waitlist at the Frist College of Medicine (Belmont) this past Friday, which is super exciting as I have been hoping to receive an acceptance and have always preferred the more traditional route of MD over DO. I want to do a competitive specialty (i.e. Urology or Derm), and am well aware of the necessary actions to make that happen, whether in the MD or the DO world.
However, I have already started medical school at VCOM, and I am about 2 weeks into the program. I have found that I enjoy VCOM more than I believed I would, and I think the faculty and staff set the students up for success. Although it has limitations in connections to big-name, academic hospitals, the school is very well connected to community based hospitals and similar residency programs. Furthermore, VCOM does as good of a job as MD schools at students matching into some of the competitive specialties (i.e. derm, radiology), but is definitely limited in some specialties, partially due to the lack of DO friendly residency programs.
That being said, I have discovered that I am able to withdrawal from VCOM with little-to-no penalty. But I cannot decide if Belmont will significantly improve my chances for a competitive specialty in the future, apart from the MD credentials. Similarly, will residency programs have bias against Belmont for not having full-accreditation?
If anyone could offer any insight into this situation, it would be greatly appreciated!
