Just checked this thread out for the heck of it and really wanted to add some insight to some of you.
ShyRem did a great job of stating facts above. I'm gonna add on that.
I was/am the 2nd graduating class at the Georgia Campus PCOM and of course, for me personally, I love my school and would pick it again, for location, people, academics, friends, etc..
But I need to clarify things:
1. TUITION: You are going to pay a lot to go to school. You are going to "most the time" pay a lot or take risks for what you want to do in life. You WILL PAY IT BACK. Ive never heard of a doctor starving because his med school loans were too high. Yes, be reasonably prudent, try not to over borrow and spend recklessly, but the truth of the matter is that unless you are always terribly late with monthly payments and thus get tons of late fees and upped APRs tacked onto your debt, you will do like the rest of us, and pay it off one month at a time. There are 101 ways/opportunities to expedite the repayment of these loans for those of you who aren't lazy and who take the time to look them up (online, books, refs) and speak with your advisors, family, and other students. I am NOT just talking about primary care field or military loan repayments. So, in the end, isnt ANY amount of money worth your happiness and dreams? To me it was! I will owe ~close to $300 grand. AND I will have most of it paid off within the next 10yrs. Be thankful there is money there to loan you. And find creative ways to pay it back. Or just pay the minimum payment every month and enjoy your life.
2. ACADEMICS/CURRICULUM: I have found that every student at every school will often at times complain of their curriculum or certain teachers; regardless of MD/DO school. And I have also learned that an EDUCATION is what YOU choose to make of it. There isn't one school that wont teach you about the Kidney or Cystic Fibrosis. Now whether you take the time to learn your material or just cram the night before is up to you. Numerous posts on these forums have shown, that despite what people's MCAT scores were, grades in Med school, etc...Many ROCKED their boards and or Step 2s and or Landed Killer Residencies. YOU DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE. YOU decide what kind of a student you will be. You choose to be a lifelong learner and enjoy what you study. I honestly feel all the schools have a decent education system. But truth of the matter is that no two students will learn the same material in school. One may get 75% of the material down flat the other may only get 50%. It is what you PUT into IT! Make the most of it! And dont compare yourself to anyone else. If you are doing the best you can, being the best student you can be, then who cares what scores you or someone else is getting with less study time. Be the BEST only you can be and learn what you can. You'll find that med school only scratches the top of it. You can't Know everything. You'll really only start learning in residency and thats not where you'll stop learning either...
3. 3rd/4th YEAR ROTATIONS: Most schools in DO world dont have affiliated hospitals for their school. Meaning we do not have a GAPCOM hospital, but we do have affiliations with other programs/hospitals. Sometimes you may have a rotation or affiliated hospital one year and the next you dont...those things happen so you can not always bank on going to a school because of an affiliated hospital. We originally were told (when I interviewed) that we had agreements with AMC (Atlanta Medical Center) and GRADY hospital in Atlanta. Both great hospitals that Emory and Moorehouse students went to. Well.......AMC lost their OB/GYN residency accreditation that yr and decided they werent taking ANY med students bc they needed to "FIX" their programs. GRADY almost went /is going broke. Other offices decided they didnt want to take students. OTHER hospitals decided to make agreements with other med schools who paid more to have ONLY their students rotate through. So, just know these things CAN change. Plus a program is only as good as the doctors in it teaching you and only as good as the student who took it say. People leave/change. You may have 2 students on the exact same rotation and one LOVED it and the other HATED it and didnt learn a thing. There are a lot of subjective things that go into rotations and how people get along/interact/study/learn. ALSO NEW programs get added and picked up in future years. Another thing that seems to be a concern for a lot of people is hospital affiliations or offices with residency programs. Well, yes, having rotations set up in programs with a residency program is good in that you will learn the hierarchy, go to grand rounds (hopefully) and get to present and participate in lectures. You will learn and see how the "team" functions and works together. All important things. Things that will help prepare you for residency. It also means that sometimes you are last on the totem pole. I spent probably 65/35 percent of my time 3rd/4th yr in programs that were Residency based/non-residency based rotations. Let me tell you, some of my BEST rotations and where I learned the MOST and got the MOST hands on training (and thus was able to shine on my Sub-Is) were in the NON-residency programs where I was one-on-one with the Drs. I was 1st assist on EVERY surgery, I DELIVERED 5 out of 19 babies on my own! (With the OBGYN standing behind me!), I circumcised 5 baby boys on my own, I literally almost did an inguinal hernia repair by myself while the Attending instructed me on what to do carefully watching me and helping me. Stuff that never wouldve happened in a busy surgery residency program rotation. I learned SOOOO much on a lot of my rotations. Now, I have experience doing a lot of these things and feel very comfortable in practice, with patients, and when an Attending asks me if I've closed before. I can suture and show him. There is no nervousness. This usually got me more OR time and I was able to do more. Unfortunately a lot of times in BIG hospitals with BIG names even, and residency programs, you wont get that experience because the residents want to jump at chances to learn new skills and participate. You'll shadow mostly or maybe remove a foley if you're lucky. Each place is different. And different attendings will let different students do more or less - sometimes for no explainable reasons. Just some food to chew on for you guys.
4. ROTATIONS/ELECTIVES: Coming from a DO school that had only 1 yr of 70 something grads ahead of us, I was able to get EVERY single AWAY rotation/elective I applied for and I applied ALL MD programs. You guys have GOT TO QUIT THINKING WITH SUCH LIMITED MINDSETS! You can and will get MOST things you apply for. Do not always be so certain to think because you didn't get a rotation somewhere it was because you were a DO. There are so many factors that play into things. Quit acting like you know them all. For example: There were 6 people in my class who got rotations at Hopkins for electives. 8 people applied for rotations. Only 2 didnt get them...One of those 2 was a Top student academically. But 2/8 didn't get electives. Why?? Who knows?? Couldve been anything.
People in our class matched and rotated at Fantastic MD/DO places. My advice: apply early, email the program secretaries, BE KIND, COURTEOUS, and like-able, aka polite and friendly. That will get you in most doors 80% of the time. Work Hard, dont complain...can I say that again, DONT COMPLAIN!! I can't tell you how many times I capitalized on opportunities because I wasnt sitting in a room complaining with fellow students about stuff, I was smiling and doing whatever I could to help or make things better. I guess Ive said all I can about this. YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN rotations/electives for where you want to go. I was always polite and most the time emailed programs I was interested in EARLY, even before rotations to ask about the program and go ahead and establish a "connection" be it just 1 or 2 emails. ...did I do that on every elective I applied to ? No. Did I get all 6 I wanted ? Yes. 4 spots were at top 10 MD programs, and 2 were at fantastic DO programs. But I applied where I wanted to GO for residency, not based on program. PLUS I learned a lot about the programs and ones I originally wanted to go to, I changed my mind about after rotating there. Never discredit what you can learn about a program during a Sub-I!
5. RESIDENCY: I matched MD program. OVER half my class matched into MD programs that were somewhere in their 1st-3rd choice list and we are a 2 yr old DO school (rather we are only the 2nd graduating class from this new school). You can see our match list posted on another forum. We had Rads, Anesthsiology, Uro, Neuro, EM, OB/GYN, etc, etc, and it was what my classmates WANTED TO MATCH INTO!! Yes, some people LOVE FM, some dont...My advice - dont settle. Go for what you want.
What was the ONE common factor that every person in my class had that matched into some supposedly "impossible" great MD spots? Persistence, hard work and optimism. They didnt all have Stellar scores as one might imagine. Some did, some did not. BUT they all worked hard, most did Sub-Is at places they really wanted to go, stayed positive, and went after what they wanted despite people telling them it would be "impossible, too hard, waste of time, no way, they dont take DOs, they arent DO friendly, etc etc etc etc"....
I also learned an important lesson myself on my 2nd sub-I during 4th yr - I WAS THE ONLY PERSON THERE THAT FELT MY BEING A DO WAS INFERIOR. That was the best lesson I ever learned. Everyone else was taking me for what I was: How I acted and performed on that rotation.
So try not to make up things in your head as to what you think a program/attending/resident may be thinking of you when you're on a rotation with 10 other students from UCLA, Stanford, hopkins, cornell, washU, Penn, etc and you're the only DO. NOBODY CARES BUT YOU! And in fact, most the time more people than you realize, just dont really know what the differences are between us. (not much in my opinion- but they just dont know!) They arent trying to be mean or rude when they ask you things about your school or you or being a DO. They just dont know what your school was like or what you are like. More importantly: YOU are going to form that person's first impressions EVER of a DO. So go out there confident and be yourself and be friendly and work hard! Dont slack off, talk crap, and make us all look Bad! Dont limit yourself by your own thoughts and words! Goodness! Be nice to yourself! And dont step on others to get there!
When people quit limiting themselves, then they will really see how much they can accomplish. When you quit listening to THOSE voices, THEN anything becomes possible to you.
Be thankful you got accepted into MED school! YOU are going to be a DOCTOR!! Thats huge!! Now go celebrate and work hard in school and apply yourself! After 4yrs now...and matched into my top choice...with 1 month left to go.....I seriously wonder why we ever worried so much in the first place! It all works out! You are NOT limited! (UNLESS YOU SAY/THINK YOU ARE!) Go pave the way for someone else!
Ok - done with the peptalk. Apologize for the length. Best of luck and wishes to you all as you start your med school careers or choose schools. Make them what you want! You certainly can!
