Which osteopathic school did you choose and what were your deciding factors?

[surgeryDO]

I am looking into and researching all the osteopathic schools out there and initially leaning towards ones in my geographic preferences. I would like know from research others have done on schools, which ones did you choose to apply to and pursue and which ones did you decide weren't for you and why? Also, I know geographic preference should not be the only factor for choosing a school, of course, but what are some other things that you looked for that were major deciding factors.

I am a sophomore in my undergraduate studies but am trying to compile a list of what schools I will be applying to. Right now my number one school is OU-HCOM, because I am a resident of Ohio. I am also very interested in Nova Southeastern in Florida though. I would like to know what else I can look for in these schools that will be vital to know come my time to apply and admissions.

Thank you in advance for your help!

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[FrkyBgStok]

The schools I applied to were largely due to my own regional preference, and I applied to a few farther ones that didn't require a DO letter and that I could attend if I didn't get into the closer ones. There are a large number of factors that ultimately go into the schools that I applied to but the regional preference is the largest factor.

 

[surgeryDO]

Thank you for your input. Would you mind further discussing some other factors that went into your choosings that you feel are higher in importance?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

my first factor was no DO letter as i have an MD letter. that knocked out a bunch. I also do not have orgo 2 or genetics (kcumb). I e-mailed a number of schools that would take my biochem instead of orgo 2. some yes, couple no, but i didn't ask all. I also looked at how respected the individual school was. i also check on schools that I would be competitive at. very few OOS acceptances didn't get a primary. when i started getting secondaries, timing was the largest factor (not including finding out about ohio's 5 year contract) as well as secondary fees. when schools started being good to me, parochial school prices were a factor. housing prices as well. a couple more small factors that went in to ranking my interviews at this moment. as you can see, it was quite complex.

 

[surgeryDO]

Ok I see what you are saying. Did you visit some schools before applying as well?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

i just visited DMU. I had been on the campus before but I did a formal visit. that is mainly the reason i ranked my schools pre-interview, because i admit that i haven't seen any other schools, so they may kick arse.

 

[GlimmerGlass]

my first factor was no DO letter as i have an MD letter. that knocked out a bunch. I also do not have orgo 2 or genetics (kcumb). I e-mailed a number of schools that would take my biochem instead of orgo 2. some yes, couple no, but i didn't ask all. I also looked at how respected the individual school was. i also check on schools that I would be competitive at. very few OOS acceptances didn't get a primary. when i started getting secondaries, timing was the largest factor (not including finding out about ohio's 5 year contract) as well as secondary fees. when schools started being good to me, parochial school prices were a factor. housing prices as well. a couple more small factors that went in to ranking my interviews at this moment. as you can see, it was quite complex.

Argh! I did not realize that about KCUMB...needing to have genetics. I just looked at their site and you also had to have indicated on your AACOMAS that you intend to take it. Ooops! Oh well I guess I can write them off the list and not expect to hear from them anytime soon.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Argh! I did not realize that about KCUMB...needing to have genetics. I just looked at their site and you also had to have indicated on your AACOMAS that you intend to take it. Ooops! Oh well I guess I can write them off the list and not expect to hear from them anytime soon.

I think that is false. I did not indicate that I plan on taking it and I have an interview there in a little over a week. Maybe they changed it, but I will take it if I need to, but I don't want to have to take it if I don't get in.

 

[Morphy]

You need to be looking at the quality of education you will receive. Make sure you take the curriculum of the school into account i.e. systems based, pbl, etc.
Generally speaking, the older schools will be the better schools (PCOM, KCOM, DMU, CCOM, etc.). They are better established in terms of effective curricula, rotations, facilities, and so on.
Hopefully, these schools aren't too far away from home.

 

[donkeykong1]

strength of hospital affiliations. and breadth of post-grad opportunities (residencies, fellowships...). needless to say, OUHCOM has all the bases covered. good luck

 

[AvidAvatar]

First of all, let me start by saying that I am a nontraditional applicant with high stats and I am interested in both MD and DO schools. I honestly don't care what letters are behind my name, because I believe that letters don't make someone a good doctor. I think both degrees have their strengths, and my goal is to get into a school where my family and myself will be the most happy. I also applied to A BUNCH of schools because flexibility was very important. Before the process started I decided that I would apply to 10 DO schools and 30 MD schools.

I used a process of elimination to select my school list. I did this by buying both sets of books and flagging each school with a post-it. When I eliminated a school I took the flag off. Note that in the list below, the number of schools left 'in the running' will be presented by (x), these are estimates because I chucked the notes I was using. They will be MD and DO respectively.

1. Bought MD and DO books from AAMC and AACOM. Flagged them. (126) (26)
2. Eliminated 'high stat schools' where I don't have a chance. (118) (26)
3. Eliminated schools in states where I/wife have no desire to live. (90) (19)
4. Eliminated schools in cities where I/wife have no desire to live. (75) (12)

-At this point I took a few minutes reading about all of the schools. I evaluated my desire to go there and ranked it low, mid, high. I also mentally ranked my chances of getting in because of IS preference, stat requirements, prerequisite requirements, and so on. These were also ranked low, mid, high. I created a basic rating rubric for this part and I think it worked pretty well.

5. Eliminated all schools with both LOW CHANCE and LOW/MID DESIRE. (50) (10)
6. Eliminated schools with ludicrously high tuition. (40) (8)
7. Selected 30 MD - 25% safety, 50% good chance, and 25% reach schools.

This ultimately brought me to right at my goals of 30 and 10. My strategy was to apply early to all potential schools and then prune them as things progressed. In other words, I set myself up for success and THEN started to look at the strengths/attributes of the schools listed above - apply early!!! I sent in my secondaries as I received them with some bias to schools that I prefered. I read up on all the schools more thoroughly at this point, and after I started receiving interviews at schools that I liked both academically and 'lifewise', I started ignoring secondaries from schools that didn't interest me. Ultimately I ended up being complete at 20 MD schools and only 3 DO schools. Mostly this is because the DO schools took too long to get back to me and I was running out of secondary money so I had to prioritize and go with the ones that I really liked.

I hope this helps!

Edit: In my opinion, geographic preference is probably the most important part of selecting a school. It is impossible to learn and live a happy life in a place where you are miserable.

Edit2: Also - the DO schools I ended up applying to were my favorite ones - PCOM, LECOM and UMDNJ.

 

[surgeryDO]

First of all, let me start by saying that I am a nontraditional applicant with high stats and I am interested in both MD and DO schools. I honestly don't care what letters are behind my name, because I believe that letters don't make someone a good doctor. I think both degrees have their strengths, and my goal is to get into a school where my family and myself will be the most happy. I also applied to A BUNCH of schools because flexibility was very important. Before the process started I decided that I would apply to 10 DO schools and 30 MD schools.

I used a process of elimination to select my school list. I did this by buying both sets of books and flagging each school with a post-it. When I eliminated a school I took the flag off. Note that in the list below, the number of schools left 'in the running' will be presented by (x), these are estimates because I chucked the notes I was using. They will be MD and DO respectively.

1. Bought MD and DO books from AAMC and AACOM. Flagged them. (126) (26)
2. Eliminated 'high stat schools' where I don't have a chance. (118) (26)
3. Eliminated schools in states where I/wife have no desire to live. (90) (19)
4. Eliminated schools in cities where I/wife have no desire to live. (75) (12)

-At this point I took a few minutes reading about all of the schools. I evaluated my desire to go there and ranked it low, mid, high. I also mentally ranked my chances of getting in because of IS preference, stat requirements, prerequisite requirements, and so on. These were also ranked low, mid, high. I created a basic rating rubric for this part and I think it worked pretty well.

5. Eliminated all schools with both LOW CHANCE and LOW/MID DESIRE. (50) (10)
6. Eliminated schools with ludicrously high tuition. (40) (8)
7. Selected 30 MD - 25% safety, 50% good chance, and 25% reach schools.

This ultimately brought me to right at my goals of 30 and 10. My strategy was to apply early to all potential schools and then prune them as things progressed. In other words, I set myself up for success and THEN started to look at the strengths/attributes of the schools listed above - apply early!!! I sent in my secondaries as I received them with some bias to schools that I prefered. I read up on all the schools more thoroughly at this point, and after I started receiving interviews at schools that I liked both academically and 'lifewise', I started ignoring secondaries from schools that didn't interest me. Ultimately I ended up being complete at 20 MD schools and only 3 DO schools. Mostly this is because the DO schools took too long to get back to me and I was running out of secondary money so I had to prioritize and go with the ones that I really liked.

I hope this helps!

Edit: In my opinion, geographic preference is probably the most important part of selecting a school. It is impossible to learn and live a happy life in a place where you are miserable.

Edit2: Also - the DO schools I ended up applying to were my favorite ones - PCOM, LECOM and UMDNJ.

Thank you sharing! That sounds like a great method. Hope you don't mind if I copy that! I will have to grab those books for sure. I was wondering if they were good references or not worth bothering with.

If you don't mind me asking, about how much did it cost you in applying to 40 schools total?

 

[AvidAvatar]

Thank you sharing! That sounds like a great method. Hope you don't mind if I copy that! I will have to grab those books for sure. I was wondering if they were good references or not worth bothering with.

If you don't mind me asking, about how much did it cost you in applying to 40 schools total?

The books are excellent references. As the saying goes around here - 'save yourself from applying to one school and they pay for themselves.'

I don't mind sharing numbers with you at all. This process is very expensive, especially when applying to this many schools, but I saved up and was prepared with about 5k for applications.

40 schools PRIMARY: ~ 1600
23 schools SECONDARY: ~ 1750
Total cost (Before interviews): ~3350

Again, I applied to so many schools because I required a great amount of flexibility, since I have other people to consider besides myself. Also, my stats are pretty high, so I was shooting for the stars to get a few top ten schools as well as some strong 'safety' schools. My efforts are paying off this year.

Don't cheap out on the application cycle. Use the system above and apply everywhere. If you don't have the money, borrow it! It doesn't cost anything to say no to an interview even if you schedule one. It does 'cost' you significantly if you don't get into a school you love or even...at all - I know from experience.

There is a good chance that medical school will cost 200K by graduation. By spending an 'additonal' 2K over the 'normal' application to make sure that the 200K is well spent is a good deal in my book. Also, there is a chance that I might get a scholarship at some school and save 50K. The bottom line is...who knows! Play the entropy of the system and flood the universe with positive probability in your favor. Surprises happen and they are great!

 

[AvidAvatar]

Whoops! I forgot that the osteopathic school book is free from the AACOM. Also, just a personal note, applying to DO schools is way 'friendlier' of a process than MD in almost every regard...including free materials.

http://www.aacom.org/resources/bookstore/cib/Documents/2012cib/2012cib-whole.pdf

 

[surgeryDO]

The books are excellent references. As the saying goes around here - 'save yourself from applying to one school and they pay for themselves.'

I don't mind sharing numbers with you at all. This process is very expensive, especially when applying to this many schools, but I saved up and was prepared with about 5k for applications.

40 schools PRIMARY: ~ 1600
23 schools SECONDARY: ~ 1750
Total cost (Before interviews): ~3350

Again, I applied to so many schools because I required a great amount of flexibility, since I have other people to consider besides myself. Also, my stats are pretty high, so I was shooting for the stars to get a few top ten schools as well as some strong 'safety' schools. My efforts are paying off this year.

Don't cheap out on the application cycle. Use the system above and apply everywhere. If you don't have the money, borrow it! It doesn't cost anything to say no to an interview even if you schedule one. It does 'cost' you significantly if you don't get into a school you love or even...at all - I know from experience.

There is a good chance that medical school will cost 200K by graduation. By spending an 'additonal' 2K over the 'normal' application to make sure that the 200K is well spent is a good deal in my book. Also, there is a chance that I might get a scholarship at some school and save 50K. The bottom line is...who knows! Play the entropy of the system and flood the universe with positive probability in your favor. Surprises happen and they are great!

Thank you very much. This information is invaluable. I had never thought about it that way but you are right. It would definitely be wise to spend some extra cash in the application process. Again, many thanks, this probably will have saved me many troubles in the future.

 

[SFO-IST]

I chose Western University:

-close relationship with Arrowhead Regional Med Center, the 2nd busiest ER in California (among numerous other high quality rotation sites).
-a dean of research and whole school of research
-brand new facilities
-Spectacular anatomy program -> dissection based anatomy with the opportunity to teach to your peers
-awesome location since it's in the LA area and near Claremont, CA
-best west coast match list amongst all DO schools
-mix of standard didactic, case based, and group learning
-all lectures recorded, videotaped, and available to be played back at high speed

most importantly: an overall feeling of supporting students to become independent, creative, scientists instead of the more parochial vibe I got at other schools.