Anyone who went from Ivy UG -> DO?

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lnvictus

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Ok, I know that the title sounded really snobbish and I apologize for that. Allow me to explain: my school is known for the extreme amount of pre-professionalism; freshmen are already talking about where in Wall Street they want to work, students are talking about the med schools they want to go to, and a lot of people are already asking about how much money they expect to earn right out of UG. Needless to say that aspect of the culture sucks, especially because since DO school aren't as well known as their MD counterparts, I'm kind of afraid to ask people on campus without being looked down on as a "failure pre-med" (my GPA isn't that low - it's that people here aim really high for their med school choices even if they have lower GPAs).

So, I'm asking on SDN which would be the next best available resource to find someone who was in a relatable position to me. I want to talk to these people by PM so if you want to answer my questions, then message me! :)

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You probably aren't going to get a lot of love asking these kind of questions. Of course people from Ivy League schools go to osteopathic medical schools. It's a ridiculous question. Medical school is not easy to get in to, and really nobody cares where you went to undergrad. People come from all walks of life, and all levels of prestige. It sounds like your school is full of very arrogant and uninformed people. That really is a shame. Don't let it bother you. If you are too afraid to ask a pre medical adviser about going to osteopathic school, I would advise you not to apply. If the letters in your title are going to bug you for the rest of your life, go to an allopathic school.
 
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You probably aren't going to get a lot of love asking these kind of questions. Of course people from Ivy League schools go to osteopathic medical schools. It's a ridiculous question. Medical school is not easy to get in to, and really nobody cares where you went to undergrad. People come from all walks of life, and all levels of prestige. It sounds like your school is full of very arrogant and uninformed people. That really is a shame. Don't let it bother you. If you are too afraid to ask a pre medical adviser about going to osteopathic school, I would advise you not to apply. If the letters in your title are going to bug you for the rest of your life, go to an allopathic school.

I know, I just want to ask someone personally who has been in a similar scenario. I can see how it's a ridiculous question though, but it's just that the pre-professionalism here is starting to affect my own approach to my future. I probably should ask about my advisors regarding the DO option though - ultimately my goal is to reach medical school and I'm not declaring MD as the only option to reach it.
 
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You should never feel like a failure for going DO. I am sure some might be inclined to think this way, but when you start working in a hospital it wont matter in the end. What matters is how well you serve your patients and that's it.

I do feel sorry that you are in such a negative environment, but the whole world is not like that. I can promise you that. You are in a tough situation that I cannot fully understand from my background and I hope you can find someone to talk it out with. But there are people that have done what you have done and got through it. I would suggest just focus on what means most to you and go for it. If it means talking to a pre-medical adviser then do it. If they act arrogant and haughty around you then just move on.

Good Luck!
 
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So if going to a DO school is a failure, do you think everyone else in the world who didn't become an MD is a failure?
Do you think paramedics are failed at their life? Nurses? PAs? chefs? businessmen? school teachers?

If you base your life path on what others might think, you are doing it wrong.
Screw what others think and do what you want to do. At the end, you will become a doctor.
 
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Yah, there are plenty of people who go from Ivy Ugrads to DO school ( One of the DO Mods is a Upenn Ugrad who went to PCOM). That being said, I'm inclined to believe that the door is a bit more open for Ivy grads than it is for everyone else. It's not only the fact that Ivys have some of the brightest minds in their halls that they tend to be successful in life, but rather because they more often than not have add extra weight added through their school's name.

In the end, for many Ivy Ugrads they likely don't need to consider DO unless they have had enormous experience and discovered that they want to learn OMM. Many of them simply already have a decent enough chance of getting into a MD school just by being in an Ivy than the rest of us, and if given the chance it'll be a better deal for their aspirations which may include far more than just being a doctor.
 
Ok, I know that the title sounded really snobbish and I apologize for that. Allow me to explain: my school is known for the extreme amount of pre-professionalism; freshmen are already talking about where in Wall Street they want to work, students are talking about the med schools they want to go to, and a lot of people are already asking about how much money they expect to earn right out of UG. Needless to say that aspect of the culture sucks, especially because since DO school aren't as well known as their MD counterparts, I'm kind of afraid to ask people on campus without being looked down on as a "failure pre-med" (my GPA isn't that low - it's that people here aim really high for their med school choices even if they have lower GPAs).

So, I'm asking on SDN which would be the next best available resource to find someone who was in a relatable position to me. I want to talk to these people by PM so if you want to answer my questions, then message me! :)
Ugh sounds like you go to a school in New England. But during my interviews, we had to go around introducing ourselves and what school we went to. I heard a couple kids say they came from UPenn and Columbia. So yes, people from Ivy Leagues do DO.

But ivy league schools are what you make of it. I knew a guy from high school who went to Harvard, and now he's a high school teacher (and his mom too). Then there are some people who never went to college and became billionaires. Your success depends on YOU ;)
 
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So if going to a DO school is a failure, do you think everyone else in the world who didn't become an MD is a failure?
Do you think paramedics are failed at their life? Nurses? PAs? chefs? businessmen? school teachers?

If you base your life path on what others might think, you are doing it wrong.
Screw what others think and do what you want to do. At the end, you will become a doctor.

I don't think he thinks that going to DO school is necessarily a failure. But that it in many higher tier undergrads is not as respected or coveted as going to an enormous research institute state school. I mean, when your friends are talking about going to UPENN Med or Warton for Business school, you saying you want to go to a DO school can be like talking a different language that doesn't quite translate well to prestigious uttering.
 
I don't think he thinks that going to DO school is necessarily a failure. But that it in many higher tier undergrads is not as respected or coveted as going to an enormous research institute state school. I mean, when your friends are talking about going to UPENN Med or Warton for Business school, you saying you want to go to a DO school can be like talking a different language that doesn't quite translate well to prestigious uttering.

100% spot on.

And who is this DO mod you were speaking of?
 
You won't be the first nor the last to go to DO after an ivy education. I shadowed a doctor that went to Columbia and then TU-CA.
 
If you're afraid of friends looking down on you for going D.O. then they aren't really your friends. I don't look down on my friends that didn't go to college or who have dropped out of graduate programs. It sucks you're in such a negative environment. Life doesn't always go as planned and it's up to you to make the best of what you've been dealt.
 
Your success and failures are based on what your priorities and standards are. If you think being a DO is a failure, that's your own personal assessment. But think about this: If you had to choose....would you rather be an MD but you only make a gross salary of $180k, or a DO that makes $300k?. This depends on your priorities. Is it more important to you to have an MD title, or to have the most money? In the real word, you don't always get to have your cake and eat it too.
 
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Your success and failures are based on what your priorities and standards are. If you think being a DO is a failure, that's your own personal assessment. But think about this: If you had to choose....would you rather be an MD but you only make a gross salary of $180k, or a DO that makes $300k?. This depends on your priorities. Is it more important to you to have an MD title, or to have the most money? In the real word, you don't always get to have your cake and eat it too.

... Why are people thinking that I implied that being a DO is a failure? I personally have never said that or believed that: I go to a school where a number of students do think so.
 
... Why are people thinking that I implied that being a DO is a failure? I personally have never said that or believed that: I go to a school where a number of students do think so.
Because almost nobody bothers to read in detail and insert their own prejudices.

I understand peer pressure can be difficult as a young person, but trust me, come 30 and nobody will be hung up on the dumb prestige stuff. It'll all be about that money.
 
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There were at least 4 from Upenn, 1 from brown, 1 from Yale, 1 from Dartmouth and 1 from Cornell in my class.
 
Its unfortunate that the environment at some schools can be so toxic.
 
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I know a girl from UPenn who is going to Western, so yeah, they are definitely there.
 
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it all comes down to what kind of doctor do YOU want to be. if you want to be more involved in research, possibly get a MD/PhD, then i would say it'd be in your best interest to get into a medical school that is heavily focused on research which are primarily your top/mid tier MD schools. if you want to get into a surgical specialty such as neurosurgery, cardiothoracic, ENT, or plastics then again it'd probably be in your best interest to go to a MD school as well. going MD is the path of least resistance for some of the more competitive residencies since they tend to favor MDs over DOs even if the DO applicants have better USMLE scores and a better all around package as an applicant. the bias against DOs is slowly diminishing and the AOA/ACGME merger should help equal out the playing field a little bit more but again for those more competitive residencies it'll still be in the MDs favor to get it most of the time. is it impossible for a DO then to get into these more competitive residencies? no, but you'll definitely have to jump some extra hurdles to get there and out perform the other MD students applying for them. if you want to be a primary care physician, EM physician, or just about anything else in medicine then I'd say it doesn't really matter whether you go MD or DO. actually if you're thinking about going into primary care or something else along those lines then i think going DO could even be more beneficial to you than going MD in some ways. so going DO isn't going to limit you of choices per se, but it sure can make things harder if you're going to be applying for those very competitive residencies that most MDs can't even get in to.

i know what you mean since i went to a prestigious school for 3 semesters and a lot of the people that went there had this "i'm smarter than everyone" attitude which i couldn't stand. they were all talking BIG about their future and let me tell you, they sure can talk BIG but give it a few years and see how many actually make it BIG. some will, but most won't, so don't let their BIG talk bother you or influence your decision whatsoever. best of luck
 
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I
I know, I just want to ask someone personally who has been in a similar scenario. I can see how it's a ridiculous question though, but it's just that the pre-professionalism here is starting to affect my own approach to my future. I probably should ask about my advisors regarding the DO option though - ultimately my goal is to reach medical school and I'm not declaring MD as the only option to reach it.

How is it starting to effect your approach to your future? Just do what you have to do. I kind of know how you feel; I know two Ivy grads well with both doing med school/residency/currently on faculty there. They're in their 30s and I'm almost 30 with busy lives and me going to a DO school is a non issue with them(who knows what they say behind my back though lol).

My point is that if you compare yourself to other people, you're going to have a bad time. Invariably, there will always be someone with higher credentials. That and the fact that as you get older and you've completed residency there's really nothing else except taking care of sick people. I have a suspicion that no physicians are racing to their 10000th patient like "ima own this ****". Most likely they're thinking of life outside of medicine at that point.
 
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Its unfortunate that the environment at some schools can be so toxic.

I've learned to choose the right friends over the last few months. Still very difficult to avoid though.

I like to share this story from time to time: last semester, Wongfu Productions came to my uni. They do a Q+A and the first question is from a freshman who asked "how much do you make?" Wongfu looked at him funny and after a quick joke they playfully asked "how much do YOU make?" And the freshman is like "right now or potentially?"

Very cringeworthy.
 
I've learned to choose the right friends over the last few months. Still very difficult to avoid though.

I like to share this story from time to time: last semester, Wongfu Productions came to my uni. They do a Q+A and the first question is from a freshman who asked "how much do you make?" Wongfu looked at him funny and after a quick joke they playfully asked "how much do YOU make?" And the freshman is like "right now or potentially?"

Very cringeworthy.

lol that's so awkward..I would assume that an Ivy League student would realized how inappropriate that is to ask especially in front of every body.

The one thing I looked for in a medical school was how supportive the students were ..I didn't want to attend somewhere that is super-competitive or cut-throat. There is enough stress in medical school that I don't want to spend every minute watching my back

I think you just need to do what makes you happy....you can't change the way people think but you can change how you respond or feel

BTW..I'm super jealous that WongFu went to your school...
 
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I've learned to choose the right friends over the last few months. Still very difficult to avoid though.

I like to share this story from time to time: last semester, Wongfu Productions came to my uni. They do a Q+A and the first question is from a freshman who asked "how much do you make?" Wongfu looked at him funny and after a quick joke they playfully asked "how much do YOU make?" And the freshman is like "right now or potentially?"

Very cringeworthy.

How embarrassing for them.

Like I said in my previous post this has to do with age as well. I've never heard Ivy types in medicine talk about money once. Although they have somewhat of an elitist attitude they're the last to brag about where they work or who they know. In fact, I've never really met anyone with real money who went around showing it off.
 
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In Touro-CA's 2017 class, there are two Ivy league schools represented: Columbia and Dartmouth. (http://admissions.tu.edu/com/demographics.html)

Also, FYI, here are the top feeder schools for DO matriculants in 2012:

1) Michigan State University
2) Brigham Young University
3) University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
4) Rutgers University
5) UCLA
6) University of Florida
7) Penn State University
8) UC Irvine
9) UC San Diego
10) Ohio State University
11) UC Davis
12) University of South Florida
13) Loyola University Chicago
14) Arizona State University
15) SUNY Stony Brook
16) UC Berkeley
17) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
18) University of Central Florida
19) Indiana University - Bloomington
20) Binghamton University-SUNY

(Source: 2012 AACOMAS Applicant/Matriculant Summary)
 
In Touro-CA's 2017 class, there are two Ivy league schools represented: Columbia and Dartmouth. (http://admissions.tu.edu/com/demographics.html)

Also, FYI, here are the top feeder schools for DO matriculants in 2012:

1) Michigan State University
2) Brigham Young University
3) University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
4) Rutgers University
5) UCLA
6) University of Florida
7) Penn State University
8) UC Irvine
9) UC San Diego
10) Ohio State University
11) UC Davis
12) University of South Florida
13) Loyola University Chicago
14) Arizona State University
15) SUNY Stony Brook
16) UC Berkeley
17) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
18) University of Central Florida
19) Indiana University - Bloomington
20) Binghamton University-SUNY

(Source: 2012 AACOMAS Applicant/Matriculant Summary)

Many Ivy League and other elite schools (MIT, Duke, etc) do not count students accepted to DO schools in their statistics that they furnish to prospective pre med students. I remember my school had a book of students, their majors, GPAs, and MCAT scores and the schools they got into, they only kept statistics for Allopathic US schools.

There are quite a few schools outside of the Ivy League that are of comparable caliber. MIT, Duke, Stanford, Caltech, Northwestern, U of Chicago, and Rice come to mind, these schools are just as tough to get into, and some of them even harder than the Ivy League. Stanford is tougher to get into than Harvard.

I think Stanford and MIT have produced the most millionaires.

Duke has been getting attention lately for all the wrong reasons :).
 
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Dr Caudle teaches at my school, she's in charge of our family med rotation. She does a lot on Dr Oz and other shows. Our school has quite a few Ivy alums.

QUOTE="DreamingDoc, post: 15104435, member: 587226"]Check my blog. I interviewed a DO who graduated from Princeton with honors (http://www.aspiringminoritydoctor.com/2014/01/jennifer-caudle-do.html), and I will be posting another interview within the next week of a DO who graduated from Brown. All types of people attend DO schools.[/QUOTE]
 
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talk about motivated freshmens. when i was a freshmen, the only thing i was thinking about was what to eat after class
 
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The medical school application process [AMCAS etc] overwhelmed me. When the AACOMAS arrived in the mail, I didn't have the stamina or patience to process it.
 
I have two current classmates from Yale And Johns Hopkins at my school, so ya...
 
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I'm a DO student who went to an Ivy League college. A lot of my friends went DO and those of my friends who went MD didn't exactly go to Hopkins either.
 
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Believe it or not most ivy school students are just over pampered children who think they are amazing because they scored well on an SAT exam which tested their reading comprehension and their grades which were doled out at a subpar highschool level. Ivy schools are a joke, and those kids who think they are gonna land job on wall street are in for a harsh reality when they realize undergrad degree, unless you went to the school of underwater basketweaving, doesnt make a difference in job placement.
 
Believe it or not most ivy school students are just over pampered children who think they are amazing because they scored well on an SAT exam which tested their reading comprehension and their grades which were doled out at a subpar highschool level. Ivy schools are a joke, and those kids who think they are gonna land job on wall street are in for a harsh reality when they realize undergrad degree, unless you went to the school of underwater basketweaving, doesnt make a difference in job placement.

The only advantage are the amount of opportunities, or if you're in engineering. For example, it's probably much easier to do research, cool study abroad programs, meet a big shot who can put in a good word for you, etc. For most people though, agreed, undergrad doesn't mean a whole lot.
 
The only advantage are the amount of opportunities, or if you're in engineering. For example, it's probably much easier to do research, cool study abroad programs, meet a big shot who can put in a good word for you, etc. For most people though, agreed, undergrad doesn't mean a whole lot.
Yeah you nailed it right there. Its the connections. But alot of high school kids think connections means they will end up the CEO of jp morgan chase, no they will just end up being regular workers for the most part. And alot of those connections are still available at other mid tier universities like BU, NYU, UC Berkeley, Ann Arbor, etc.
I had quite a few silicon valley engineers tell me they prefer to hire people from smaller quarter based schools because they cover more material and they are also more hands on, IV is usually too theoretical
 
Yeah you nailed it right there. Its the connections. But alot of high school kids think connections means they will end up the CEO of jp morgan chase, no they will just end up being regular workers for the most part. And alot of those connections are still available at other mid tier universities like BU, NYU, UC Berkeley, Ann Arbor, etc.
I had quite a few silicon valley engineers tell me they prefer to hire people from smaller quarter based schools because they cover more material and they are also more hands on, IV is usually too theoretical
None of these schools are mid tier dude.
 
None of these schools are mid tier dude.

My apologies, times have changed I graduated from highschool back in 2011. Back then BU was around 50% acceptance and nyu and Berkeley were like 30.

In most employers minds there are trash tier universities which are just excuses for people to go to college, those are like the 80% acceptance rate programs, then theres mid tier which is 50-30% acceptance. And then there are the top tier. Pretty honest, as far as undergrad goes, there isnt too much of a difference between a student from NYU, Berkeley, or Stanford.
 
My apologies, times have changed I graduated from highschool back in 2011. Back then BU was around 50% acceptance and nyu and Berkeley were like 30.

In most employers minds there are trash tier universities which are just excuses for people to go to college, those are like the 80% acceptance rate programs, then theres mid tier which is 50-30% acceptance. And then there are the top tier. Pretty honest, as far as undergrad goes, there isnt too much of a difference between a student from NYU, Berkeley, or Stanford.

lmao.
 
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