Osteopathic school rankings/ratings

[gipper]

Is there a good resource (online or print) that ranks/rates the DO schools relative to each other?

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[xTinaBna]

Is there a good resource (online or print) that ranks/rates the DO schools relative to each other?

this is a rank by mcat only:

http://www.kcom.edu/faculty/chamberlain/ranmcat.htm

 

[czanetti]

no there isn't if you check the FAQ section in this blog you can get some idea. You can check based on MCAT, GPA rankings if you type it in to google. TCOM, UMDNJ prolly highest in that area/hardest to get into bcs they are state schools. But realize that no ranking system will be full proof check this site out to give you reasons why
http://homepage.mac.com/dsacco/rankings.html

Usually people would like to say it is the schools that are the most difficult to get into that are the best. But thats not always the case. Top US News ranked Osteopathic med schools include, Michigan state college of Osteopathic medicine Ranked 4 in Primary care, University North Texas Health sciences College of Osteopathic medicine ranked 28th in primary care, University of West Virginia Ranked 49th in primary care they also ranked pretty high in rural medicine.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdprank_brief.php

The Top Schools for research are arguable, Definetly in the top two would be TCOM (where National OMM research takes place, and have good amount of grant support. UMDNJ (also one of the top for grant funding) I'm sure there are others but there are the ones taht I have found by doing my own research. PCOM is also up there. I am not stating this becuase I'm trying to bash other schools at all I'm just stating based on my own research people are more than welcome to continue listing great schools.

What I did initially was look for schools that had combined degree programs becuase it showed to me that not only can they provide options but they have a good multi disciplinary enviroment for the students.

There were some great info presented in the FAQ listing including much more,

The state that has the highest percentage of DO's in PA

If there is anything else others please add

By the way to check up on current MCAT and GPA info make sure you check out each schools website becuase most of the ones online right now through other websites are old avgs.

Plus if you are going to look for current tuition rates check it out on USNEWS becuase most if not all college websites have not updated this years increased tuition reates

 

[mshheaddoc]

OSU-COM is expanding their graduate programs and trying to get more "grant funding". Great access to resources though as many students have access to OSU technology on the main campus as well as their forensic science program on the same campus in Tulsa.

In 2007 U.S. News OSU medicine is

* 20th in rural medicine
* 45th in primary care

Yet if you look at the most recent match list (and look at this coming years match list when released), they matched students into competitive specialities such as gas and surgery. This school has a "niche" and this year the alumni office reported 51% of graduates remain in oklahoma while 24% are in towns of 10,000 residents and less. This is the need that particular areas of the country have.

There is really not a ranking (I feel especially for osteopathic schools) because EVERY school is different and emphasizes something different. Some schools have it all, some focus on primary and/or rural care, some OMM, some push research, some focus on PBL, etc. Find out what you want and seek out the schools that best suite your needs.

Oh and trivia, UMDNJ graduated 2 20 yo twins and their 21 yo brother this year. talk about being YOUNG ...

 

[czanetti]

wow that's crazy

 

[It'sElectric]

this is a rank by mcat only:

http://www.kcom.edu/faculty/chamberlain/ranmcat.htm

That's definitely not up-to-date, but it's a start.

 

[eddo]

Hey guys and gals,

Rankings...don't exist for DO schools. No USNews....nothing to go by other than word of mouth. You can look at MCAT stats, GPA stats all you want until you are blue in the face.

One thing that I would look into is where students have matched into residency. After all, what are you working towards once you ARE in medical school? Just as when you decided to take the leap to medical school from college, you will be taking the leap to residency from medical school.

Just a tidbit of advice from an intern at UMDNJ =)

Cheers...carry on!

 

[rack]

obviously nsu>all because we have palm trees when we get to go outside every other week or so.

 

[Testy McAterson]

how are you all finding match list info? obviously, some schools make it easy--like kcom and dmu...but where are you looking if the school doesn't post a link or make a search available (ie azcom, nycom, kcumb...)?

 

[mshheaddoc]

You can always try to ask if they release a list. For their own good, they really should. Iknow people have posted on SDN (in the past) the kcumb and nycom match list. I may have seen azcoms list, once.

I know many schools might have it internally but because its linked to "names of the graduates" some schools don't release it to the public. But internal student have access to it through their student webpage. Just a guess from one or two schools that I've seen this issue.

 

[hyperbaric]

One thing that I would look into is where students have matched into residency. After all, what are you working towards once you ARE in medical school? Just as when you decided to take the leap to medical school from college, you will be taking the leap to residency from medical school.

Agree. Match list is more important than US News rank (and I go to a US News 'ranked' school).

 

[heyimnick]

Match lists should also be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[stasy]

Match lists should also be taken with a grain of salt.

Why do you say that?

 

[mshheaddoc]

Why do you say that?

To the extent that a school is the sum of the parts I could see what he means. Match lists are only as good as the people who are there. But high caliber specialities (if that is what you want to do) is a good sign that these people probably have decent grades, activities and board scores to get them into that surgery specialty or rads. Just my opinion though.

If you are in a school that is 75% FP matches, while you want to do surgery, you might want to reconsider your schools as probably many of your rotations "might" be geared towards FP and you get minimal chances for electives. A match list will tell you this. If you see alot of gas, surgery, rads, etc matches, you might be a better fit for a school if you are looking at surgery.

Then again, sometimes you have to just take the school that accepts you regardless. But looking at the match list as well as clincal rotations are my top two criteria when evaluation schools. Then I look at the basic science curriculum, activities, research possiblities, etc.

 

[mjos22]

A match list will tell you this. If you see alot of gas, surgery, rads, etc matches, you might be a better fit for a school if you are looking at surgery.

Then again, sometimes you have to just take the school that accepts you regardless. But looking at the match list as well as clincal rotations are my top two criteria when evaluation schools. Then I look at the basic science curriculum, activities, research possiblities, etc.

What do you mean by "a lot" of matchs into a particular specialty? I honesltly have no idea.

Also, what do you look for in clinical rotations? The potential for "many" electives and close contact to attendings? Is this something you can ask about in an interview?

Thank you very much for all of your help during this grueling process!!!

 

[hyperbaric]

Match lists should also be taken with a grain of salt.

I'm not sure what you mean, so maybe I should clarify what I mean. Match lists are better than the US News rankings of schools, IMO. I did not say 'best' and I do not think there is one 'best' way

No measure is absolute. Looking at match list will give you an idea of the general quality of students that a particular school is producing. But, no matter how many students at a given school match into a desired specialty, the best guage of your chances of matching are your qualifications (class rank, board scores, LOR, etc).

 

[mshheaddoc]

What do you mean by "a lot" of matchs into a particular specialty? I honesltly have no idea.

Also, what do you look for in clinical rotations? The potential for "many" electives and close contact to attendings? Is this something you can ask about in an interview?

Thank you very much for all of your help during this grueling process!!!

Well many schools have a focus on primary care so you might look at their clinical rotation schedules and see how many electives you get, how many primary care, etc. Also, not every school has an affliated hospital so some people have to leave the immediate area of the school in order to do rotations. Such as KCUMB ... only 50% of the class (I think, don't quote me it might be less, don't have the #'s in front of me) can stay in Kansas City, the rest go across the nation to Philly, NYC, Florida, Ohio, etc.

As for looking at the match list, you can see what specialities were "matched", whether it was OB/GYN, Peds, Family, Internal, Surgery, Anest, etc. If you are looking to see where they matched and what specialty, you can get a feel with how competitive the applicants from the school might be. To match some of the harder specialities (especially if they are in allopathic programs) you need to have a pretty solid application. But as stated, alot of this depends on the students themselves and might not be totally representative of the school. But I tend to look at the big picture. If you have alot of good matches into competetive programs then that is a good sign. Problem being, many pre-meds don't really know that much about the match and what are "good" programs. So usually this isn't much of a factor into pre-meds. So that is why its not really all that much weight, although maybe it should be.

If match lists aren't available, I wouldn't worry, but I would worry about clinical rotations and clinical rotation sites. Most all schools should have on their websites what their required rotations are, how many months each rotation has to be and what their affliated hospitals are. These are great questions to ask your school and basic sciences are very important but many of the schools are on the same footing in teaching material. Although there are three basic teaching styles emerging: Lecture based (which is self-explanatory) and Problem-based (PBL - small group learning through cases). A subset of the lecture based is the systems based which some schools are moving towards. In which you learn through going through the systems of the body. So you'll work with the cardiovascular system on the whole body learning biochem, pathology, pharmocology, etc.

Hope this helps.