what do you think?

[turnster]

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I am currently a MS1 at CCOM and I have a friend that is currently in his first year of podiatry school at Scholl's. When he first applied to medical profesions he only applied to allopathic and podiatry school. He didn't make it into medical school so he choose podiatry (not the right decision for him). Anyways, I have talked to him about applying to D.O. schools and he became very interested and has since applied. Currently he is one of the top students in his class at Scholl's. The question is should he have one of his basic science professors at Scholl write a LOR? He has a pre-medical committee evaluation, but this is a little old (graduated in 2000). He didn't know how professor's feel at podiatry school about students dropping out to enter another profession (whether he could get a good LOR). I know I have seen a few post on this web site about students and graduates of podiatry make the switch to osteopathic medicine. Could you guys please comment?

Thanks

 

[Temple1st]

Again, we see people not choosing the field of interest but choosing whoever will accept them.

 

[Toejam]

I would say that as long as the basic science profs like him, he should definitely pursue the LORs. They don't really care very much if you're going to get your DPM or if you want to be trombone player. They only care if you like their class. Getting LORs from a professional school where the courses were at a medical level is much better than undergrad LORs.

 

[thesaurus1]

I think my comments here might be of interest to you. I also am a P1 at Scholl's right now. I am by no means the top student in my class, but my general feeling is that it would be the wrong move to ask some of our current professors for an LOR. If you do go ahead and ask, but then somehow don't get into DO school, what happens then? I think it would behoove you to not burn your bridges. Those same professors somewhat factor into the matching process because they know most of the residency directors. I'm sure they wouldn't forget that you tried to go to DO school but didn't get in. And then of course, you'd be taking a spot from a student who really cared about podiatry as his/her first choice as opposed to an academically sound student who was just trying to become a "doctor." Again, this assumes that you don't make it. I would seriously consider other alternatives before taking this route. Unfortunately, I don't have any other suggestions though. Perhaps recontact the undergrad professors and restablish that you're again trying to get into professional school. I do agree with Toejam that an LOR from a professional school is far better than an undergrad one, but I would be very carefully treading this area.

 

[Toejam]

thesauras has a good point. I remember thinking about reapplying to either overseas MD school or DO school while in my 1st and 2nd year, but thought that if I asked for a LOR from one of the profs (especially a clinical prof) I may be setting myself up for trouble if I didn't make it. I wasn't so much thinking about residency down the line, but more that the whole school would know in short order that I was attempting to jump ship. I thought that it might breed some contempt among the students and it might even affect some of my grades.

If your friend has good numbers and feels pretty confident about getting into DO school, I say...JUMP! I really don't think that the profs are going to negatively impact his/her chances of securing a good residency (unless, again, it's a clinical prof).