As a DO a year ahead of you, I can tell you there are some very important points to take home from my experience....so take it or leave it for what its worth.
1) Never assume that you are locked out by not rotating somewhere. I rotated only at my own school and then at one other place I was looking at.
2) Strive to do very well on the USMLE Step II if your step I is not >220-230
3) Don't rely on COMLEX because my interviewers all commented that they interviewed me because they could compare me equally across the board
4) If there is a program outside the region that you really like, send them emails early, middle, and late to let them know. Find back-door routes to getting in the short stack for interviews because some programs weed out the best they can, and often a DO from 2000 miles away gets in the tall stack even with exceptional stats.
5) Avoid wasting your money applying to Carolinas, Vanderbilt, UC programs, U. New Mexico, UNC Chapel Hill, Hennepin, Hopkins, and a few others I can't recall.
6) Please apply to Indy, Pitt, Maricopa, Duke, Mayo, Penn, Emory, UTSW, and Texas Tech as these are historically allopathic programs with a fair eye for good DO's. There are also many others...see my interview list on the interview thread.
7) Email the DO residents at allopathic programs and make a friend!
8) Make sure you get at least one SLOR done correctly and early.
9) If I did not say it before, rock the USMLE, and especially step II if you can get it in early enough.
10) Schedule COMLEX PE early like around July to get it out of the way and to make sure you have a passing score before rank day....because next year it will be a more univeral requirement.
11) Plan to do about 15 interviews, with no more than half being big name programs. Also save a few really no-name programs for the end when you might need to feel a bit more confident ranking them on your list.
12) Don't listen to what anyone tells you...have a backup plan in place for if you don't match. 75% of DO's match who apply allopathic only, so be prepared for the worst. Have a local transitional year in your back pocket at a DO program or be ready to scramble into one. I know that is not fun to think about and I realize you are probably well qualified to apply allopathic, but I am just mentioning it.
13) Have 1 thing in your application that makes you better and different than many of the typical applicants. Exploit former EMS experience in your PS, as well as any military experience, leadership and real-world work experience, and even non-medical things that make you very well rounded and worldly.
Drop me a PM if you need any more advice. I am still learning as I go. If nothing else, jot down where all the DO's match this year and contact each of us sometime after we start our intern year. And peruse the CORDEM website of SAEM residency programs to see if their new residents include DO's. And do not be afraid of programs that have no record of taking or interviewing DO's because if you are competitive, you will get an interview at 90% of programs. Only the select programs I mentioned are known to bypass DO applicants, and even some of them may have taken a DO or interviewed one that had a connection to them. In their defense, those programs meant very little to me and I did not go out of my way to make connections there. But I did contact several of the programs on my list to let them know I was serious about their program and wanted an interview. Don't be afraid to be a polite aggresor! G-luck OSU, and do us proud next year!
