Well back to the gunner thing,
I think the word is used too liberally. I thought a gunner was anyone who fought tooth-and-nail to be the top of the class by whatever means necessary including illegal/immoral acts such as cheating, moving tags, lying about grades to intimidate classmates, starting rumors, etc. You guys are making anyone who tries hard to do well sound like a bad person. It is perfectly OK to be competitive and try to do well. What is not OK is to let competitiveness be your excuse to be an ass to your classmates only to ingratiate yourself. My view of a gunner is one who reaches the top through ill-gotten gains (ie. nagging professors for points), not someone who reaches the top by trying to "outperform" his or her classmates on test day. I feel like my NSU homies are very cooperative in learning the material and very competitive in taking the tests, and I have yet to run across a "gunner", as I define them.
On the DO vs. MD thing.... AGAIN,
I look at it this way, and I challenge you to do the same. Both are doctors, both treat ppl, both get paid, both get respect, DO's have more honed palpation skills and can do things that MD's have to farm out to others, MD's get to do more research and sell more diet products on late night TV, DO's get to come first in the phonebook, MD's get more pages in the phonebook, etc, etc, etc. I say let the patients decide if one doctor is better than the other. I'd wager the doctor with the best bedside manner gets their vote. And I'd also bet that they wouldn't give three sh|ts what her college/med school admissions stats were. As such, superiority/inferiority/equality will not be decided in some pre-med chat forum thingy by ppl who aren't even med students yet, but in the field where it counts.
The only drawback to some of the DO schools taking ppl with lower gpa's and such is that those ppl increase the numbers who don't pass the boards...But guess what, those ppl also don't become doctors! So the stupid argument that DO's are underachievers because their school gave some applicants with weaker academics a chance to prove themselves is moot. The way it works out, if someone only has a B average rather than the "overachieving" B+ average MDjD is so proud of, then they get a chance to prove they can still do the med school curriculum in spite of their freshman year spent in a drunken stupor rather than in class with their Pre-gunner friends ...hmmm Some of these ppl might still not perform well enough and are either booted from the program (then go foreign MD) or don't pass the boards and choose another profession. The ones who were "underachievers" with only a B average that do step up and perform get to be doctors and beat MDJD out of his residency slot because they also were chosen for their other redeeming qualities and experiences, which are all too often (notice how I didn't say always) lacking in our lab rat counterparts. Case(s) in point; all the 23 year old idiot savant MD's running around out there doing research because they have no life-experience to enable them to relate to actual patients. Don't get me wrong, each person has her place, and I think that if she wants to do research...have at it so I don't have to do it.
I also like to break it down like this:
DO's training qualifies them to:
Use all treatment modalities available to MD's and DO's
Use all diagnostic methods available to MD's and DO's
Do both MD and DO residencies
Be a member of AMA and/or AOA for lobbying power
Do Research
MD's training qualifies them to:
Use only treatment modalities available to MD's
Use only diagnostic methods available to MD's
Do only MD residencies
Be a member of AMA only for lobbying power
Do research
In the world of options, more is better and clearly Osteopathic medical training gives one many more options.
Here are a couple of examples of how the only difference is that DO's learn more:
Harvard (1st year)
Critical Reading of the Medical Literature
The Human Body
Genetics, Embryology and Reproduction
Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Principles of Pharmacology
Patient-Doctor Year I
Chemistry and Biology of the Cell
Integrated Human Physiology
Molecular Biology of Human Disease
KCOM (1st year)
Gross Anatomy I, II and III
Osteopathic Theory and Methods I, II and III
Radiology
The Complete DOctor
Interviewing Skills
Physical Exam Skills
Public Health
Preventive Medicine
Medical Ethics
Human Sexuality
Biochemistry I and II
Clinical Experiences
Histology and Embryology I and II
Human Nutrition
Immunology
Medical Microbiology
Neuroscience I
Neuroanatomy
Neurophysiology
Neurology
Pathology I
Physiology I and II
