Western COMP (DO) vs. SUNY-Upstate (MD)

[mulberryapricot]

Hi everyone, I am still waiting to hear back from a few other MD programs, but as of right now am between Western COMP (Pomona, CA) for DO and SUNY Upstate for MD. I know that normally everyone's advice is to go MD over DO always, but I have several contributing factors to my dilemma.

COA:
Western COMP is about 40 minutes away from home (LA). I could possibly commute and save a lot of money, taking out something like $250k out in loans vs. ~$400k for SUNY Upstate. I don't qualify for any federal aid or loans due to my current immigration status (prefer not to go into detail, but 100% cannot qualify for any federal aid), so I would have to take these out in private loans.

Location:
My SO is also in LA as is my entire family and friends. It is very important to me to stay close to them if possible, which is what makes this decision especially difficult for me. Whereas I have never been to NY before. And again, this ties in to COA, it would be much cheaper to stay home vs. move to Syracuse which is not cheap. However, I might decide that commuting 40 minutes is too difficult and eventually have to move out anyway for Western and take out additional loans in the end, which would mean something closer to $300k in loans? Maybe a bit more.

Specialty interest:
I am not yet sure what I want to pursue, which also makes this a difficult dilemma. I am not interested in super competitive specialties, however. Have been juggling IM, anesthesiology, psych, neuro in my mind. What is most important to me is increasing my chances to hopefully match back in LA for residency. I don't need to match into a prestigious program. Does anybody here have any input on what school might be better in terms of increasing my chances at matching back in LA in the future? I know MD>DO for residency placement, but would that still be true in this case?? Since SUNY-Upstate is a public school program in NY, whereas Western offers clinical rotations all over LA which might increase my chances of matching back here later? I am not sure how these factors would affect my options for residency. I can't really judge based on SUNY Upstate's match list because the majority of students are NY residents and thus end up choosing to match locally, so it skews the match list to appear as though everyone matches back on the east coast by default when that may not be the case for the OOS students.

I would appreciate any information or feedback. Thanks in advance.

Also: I am still waiting to hear back from more "prestigious" MD programs which might make the decision to go for the MD a lot easier, but I am not sure if SUNY-Upstate is worth the sacrifice of moving away from my SO and other support system, and the higher COA (though I don't know much about the program, their website is not the most user-friendly or informative so if anybody is a current student who could give me some info that would also be much appreciated!) Any comments from current Western COMP students are also welcome.

If anyone has ever had to make a difficult call between a DO vs. MD acceptance, I would also love to hear how you made your decision and how you feel about that decision now. Is the bias against DOs really that bad in the long run or is it only a "thing" among premeds?

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[JesusInvert]

Hi everyone, I am still waiting to hear back from a few other MD programs, but as of right now am between Western COMP (Pomona, CA) for DO and SUNY Upstate for MD. I know that normally everyone's advice is to go MD over DO always, but I have several contributing factors to my dilemma.

COA:
Western COMP is about 40 minutes away from home (LA). I could possibly commute and save a lot of money, taking out something like $250k out in loans vs. ~$400k for SUNY Upstate. I don't qualify for any federal aid or loans due to my current immigration status (prefer not to go into detail, but 100% cannot qualify for any federal aid), so I would have to take these out in private loans.

Location:
My SO is also in LA as is my entire family and friends. It is very important to me to stay close to them if possible, which is what makes this decision especially difficult for me. Whereas I have never been to NY before. And again, this ties in to COA, it would be much cheaper to stay home vs. move to Syracuse which is not cheap. However, I might decide that commuting 40 minutes is too difficult and eventually have to move out anyway for Western and take out additional loans in the end, which would mean something closer to $300k in loans? Maybe a bit more.

Specialty interest:
I am not yet sure what I want to pursue, which also makes this a difficult dilemma. I am not interested in super competitive specialties, however. Have been juggling IM, anesthesiology, psych, neuro in my mind. What is most important to me is increasing my chances to hopefully match back in LA for residency. I don't need to match into a prestigious program. Does anybody here have any input on what school might be better in terms of increasing my chances at matching back in LA in the future? I know MD>DO for residency placement, but would that still be true in this case?? Since SUNY-Upstate is a public school program in NY, whereas Western offers clinical rotations all over LA which might increase my chances of matching back here later? I am not sure how these factors would affect my options for residency. I can't really judge based on SUNY Upstate's match list because the majority of students are NY residents and thus end up choosing to match locally, so it skews the match list to appear as though everyone matches back on the east coast by default when that may not be the case for the OOS students.

I would appreciate any information or feedback. Thanks in advance.

Also: I am still waiting to hear back from more "prestigious" MD programs which might make the decision to go for the MD a lot easier, but I am not sure if SUNY-Upstate is worth the sacrifice of moving away from my SO and other support system, and the higher COA (though I don't know much about the program, their website is not the most user-friendly or informative so if anybody is a current student who could give me some info that would also be much appreciated!) Any comments from current Western COMP students are also welcome.

If anyone has ever had to make a difficult call between a DO vs. MD acceptance, I would also love to hear how you made your decision and how you feel about that decision now. Is the bias against DOs really that bad in the long run or is it only a "thing" among premeds?

In terms of location, it may be nice to live relatively close to Western COMP but wasting an hour and 20 mins every day commuting is a lot of wasted time that adds up. I would either think of using public transportation (if an option not sure) since you could study while commuting, or heavily consider living closer to campus. Time is precious in medical school, and you may save a lot of money living closer to home but it may come at the expense of your performance in medical school (which could affect residency placement in the competitive LA region). I had a similar option during undergrad, and ultimately chose to live closer to campus. Sure it cost a lot more but I couldn’t imagine surviving undergrad with so much time spent in the car, let alone medical school.

 

[mulberryapricot]

In terms of location, it may be nice to live relatively close to Western COMP but wasting an hour and 20 mins every day commuting is a lot of wasted time that adds up. I would either think of using public transportation (if an option not sure) since you could study while commuting, or heavily consider living closer to campus. Time is precious in medical school, and you may save a lot of money living closer to home but it may come at the expense of your performance in medical school (which could affect residency placement in the competitive LA region). I had a similar option during undergrad, and ultimately chose to live closer to campus. Sure it cost a lot more but I couldn’t imagine surviving undergrad with so much time spent in the car, let alone medical school.

Appreciate the response, I'm afraid you might be right. I may just still be in denial 😅

 

[Banco]

Yikes 400k in loans? I'm guessing OOS tuition is just insane there. You should wait it out until you hear from your other MD choices before worrying too much though.

 

[IDPathDoc]

Hi everyone, I am still waiting to hear back from a few other MD programs, but as of right now am between Western COMP (Pomona, CA) for DO and SUNY Upstate for MD. I know that normally everyone's advice is to go MD over DO always, but I have several contributing factors to my dilemma.

COA:
Western COMP is about 40 minutes away from home (LA). I could possibly commute and save a lot of money, taking out something like $250k out in loans vs. ~$400k for SUNY Upstate. I don't qualify for any federal aid or loans due to my current immigration status (prefer not to go into detail, but 100% cannot qualify for any federal aid), so I would have to take these out in private loans.

Location:
My SO is also in LA as is my entire family and friends. It is very important to me to stay close to them if possible, which is what makes this decision especially difficult for me. Whereas I have never been to NY before. And again, this ties in to COA, it would be much cheaper to stay home vs. move to Syracuse which is not cheap. However, I might decide that commuting 40 minutes is too difficult and eventually have to move out anyway for Western and take out additional loans in the end, which would mean something closer to $300k in loans? Maybe a bit more.

Specialty interest:
I am not yet sure what I want to pursue, which also makes this a difficult dilemma. I am not interested in super competitive specialties, however. Have been juggling IM, anesthesiology, psych, neuro in my mind. What is most important to me is increasing my chances to hopefully match back in LA for residency. I don't need to match into a prestigious program. Does anybody here have any input on what school might be better in terms of increasing my chances at matching back in LA in the future? I know MD>DO for residency placement, but would that still be true in this case?? Since SUNY-Upstate is a public school program in NY, whereas Western offers clinical rotations all over LA which might increase my chances of matching back here later? I am not sure how these factors would affect my options for residency. I can't really judge based on SUNY Upstate's match list because the majority of students are NY residents and thus end up choosing to match locally, so it skews the match list to appear as though everyone matches back on the east coast by default when that may not be the case for the OOS students.

I would appreciate any information or feedback. Thanks in advance.

Also: I am still waiting to hear back from more "prestigious" MD programs which might make the decision to go for the MD a lot easier, but I am not sure if SUNY-Upstate is worth the sacrifice of moving away from my SO and other support system, and the higher COA (though I don't know much about the program, their website is not the most user-friendly or informative so if anybody is a current student who could give me some info that would also be much appreciated!) Any comments from current Western COMP students are also welcome.

If anyone has ever had to make a difficult call between a DO vs. MD acceptance, I would also love to hear how you made your decision and how you feel about that decision now. Is the bias against DOs really that bad in the long run or is it only a "thing" among premeds?

I would go to SUNY-Upstate personally. There will be more research opportunities, chances for better letters of recommendation and higher school prestige for the match. Unfortunately the match has become more challenging every year. I am a DO, and while I value my education, going to SUNY-Upstate would likely provide a more stable education (rotations, research). If your trying to match a competitive residency I would definitely go USMD. If your interested in family medicine, sports medicine fellowship or PMR, osteopathic education may have some benefits (OMT).

 

[drgoldenboy]

I am at the same stage as you, but from all the research I've done and physicians who I've met, there is a strong bias against DO (which I know that you are aware of). You do lose a lot of really important stuff by going MD here (family, social network, 150k debt which is a ton), but I think the MD is the stronger long term investment. You don't know what speciality you might become interested in yet. No reason to set the bar low when you can aim high. It's also only 4 years -- You can video chat family and friends and be back soon enough.

That said, it's hard to answer such a personal question for you - only you know what you value most. I would go MD though, as hard as it might feel for me if I were you.

 

[m1redsox]

I actually don't subscribe as much to the MD over DO bias. It still exists, but it is going away, and we can only expect that it will get better. If it were me, I would choose SUNY-Upstate simply because (even as an M1) I don't have a clue what I want to do, and Upstate undoubtedly matches better than WesternU (Plus who wants to take twice as many board exams as a DO?). However, if your primary goal is to match in CA, and you are POSITIVE that you don't want a competitive specialty, then Western isn't such a bad choice. 53% of their 2020 matches were to CA programs, and they have no difficulty matching IM, anesthesia, psych, or neuro. Saving $100k would be nice too, but I don't think a 40 minute commute in LA traffic is sustainable.

 

[applicant20]

SUNY Upstate is an amazing school that matches pretty broadly across the country.

Upstate NY is culturally very different from NYC, but in my opinion that's a good thing for medical school; instead of it being an "every man for himself" environment like in a lot of NYC schools, SUNY Upstate is a close-knit community and all the faculty are super invested in helping you succeed. It's also the most chill and laid-back of all the SUNYs. There's a LOT of research opportunities, and combined with the supportive environment that they're known for, I don't think you should worry about this school hindering your match opportunities in CA.

HOWEVER, if you think you'd be miserable in Upstate NY while being away from your family and support system, that's the only reason I would consider going the DO route. There's no reason to put yourself through 4 years of medical school in a place where you'll feel miserable. I'm sure there will be other OOS students at Upstate, but if your family is across the country, Upstate's community might not make up for being so far away from home.

Personally, I would probably still choose Upstate. But if you have your hesitations, maybe make a visit to the area before you decide?