HoodyHoo said:
You could also state that these same residencies that don't except osteo students are likely not to accept students from lower tier allopathic schools. I have no info for that, just a thought. I would assume doing ortho at harvard, for example, would probably require that you graduate from a top 25 allopathic school regardless of any other criteria.
You'd have to look at each specific residency program at each university program in order to determine where each resident came from. Unfortunately, the variables which determine that person's placement, often include variables which aren't black and white. For example, it's difficult to publish data based on LOR's, specific 3rd year grades, or what medical school each person went to. It's also tough to get stats on USMLE scores as they apply to residency placement. First, because there's two steps of licensure exams that factor in, and second, because of the wide range of scores.
Finally, because all of the above plus your interview, factor in to make your complete application "package", it's impossible to stratify the variables.
I don't have the data to back it up, but I'd be willing to bet that if you looked at purely MD students in MD residencies, the general trend would reflect that top residency SITES are comprised of mostly students from top schools, and vice-versa, with considerable overlap.
On the other hand, I was mainly referring to specialty. From top schools to bottom schools, you're going to have rather similar cross section of specialty selection. There's always a section doing very competitive specialties, some doing extremely uncompetitive specialties, and then those in the middle.
But regardless, the competitive specialties are competitive EVERYWHERE. This is mainly due to the extremely rigorous allopathic residency accreditation standards. There are no bad ENT residencies. There are no bad optho residencies, etc. (This is in stark contrast to osteopathic residencies, which crop up and get shut down overnight, and is one of the main problems with that oversight body). So, what that tells me, is the top students at a bottom tier school still are able to get those specialty selections, meaning their application package (USMLE scores, grades, etc.) were obviously important, but the MD behind the name also carries significant weight.
This is in contrast to the DO applicant who can do similarly as well, but not be able to score those SPECIALTY (not site) slots.
It's easy to quantify DO's in allopathic residencies. The numbers are available anywhere you look, and unfortunately the discrepancies still show up. The root of the issue may be better applicants, tradition, bias against DO's, a "they can do ours, but we can't do theirs" vendetta, or a more benign cause such as the osteopathic push towards less competitive primary care specialties. Whatever the cause, there's something there, and it's not nearly as simple as COMLEX vs. USMLE.
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