- Joined
- Mar 12, 2013
- Messages
- 12,075
- Reaction score
- 8,039
If you are going to try for MD, you will likely need a year post-bac to have a good shot next year. As you know, your app is good/ready for DO.To give some background I applied this cycle and am beyond thankful to have received 7 DO acceptances out of the 10 DO schools I applied to but recently I have started entertaining the idea of re-applying MD. The main reason for this is that I am worried that by going to a DO school, I will be limiting my residency options down the line. I am a non-traditional applicant who has worked in the medical field for years and am fairly certain I would not be happy in primary care and would much prefer to go into some surgical subspecialty (be it ortho, GS, anesthesia, ENT, etc.). Another consideration of mine is that I am married and my spouse's career (which she loves and hopes to keep) is limited to a dozen or so major cities most of which are located on the coasts. While being apart for med school is a sacrifice we have discussed, I would really like to obtain a residency in a city where she can keep her career in.
When I started the application process back in June, I had yet to take my MCAT due to COVID delays. Recognizing that my GPA was weaker than most MD averages, I originally planned on only applying to DO school with the exception of my state schools UW and WSU (WA resident), however once I received my MCAT score in early August I rushed my application out to 18 other MD schools (mainly low yield/low tier WedgeDawg). I have since been rejected from 11 (including my state schools) and have yet to receive an interview so needless to say I don't believe I will.
So in the end my question is, should I take one of my DO acceptances or given my goals is re-applying MD a reasonable risk to consider taking? If I am being ridiculous and need some sense talked into me feel free to do so. Really appreciate all the help provided by all the experts on here, it has guided me through the process. Without SDN I would have been lost!!
My stats are:
WA ORM (27 years old)
cGPA 3.45, sGPA 3.3 (V shaped trend: 3.6, 2.9, 3.6, 3.6)
MCAT: 517
Scribe: 3000 hours
Clinical Research Coordinator: 4000 hours
Non-Clinical Volunteer: 500 hours (was 10 when applying, biggest weakness of application IMO)
Unique Non-Medical work experience: 4000 hours
Other Work Experience: 2000 hours
Your worries with DO:
You can get into most specialties as a DO, although the surgical specialties like orthopedics, ENT, and neurosurgery will be limited to smaller, community programs that were previously AOA programs (all programs now are ACGME accredited). Very few DOs match into these programs at academic centers.
Anesthesia, radiology, EM, general surgery are all DO-friendly and match a good number of students into good academic programs. It is tougher as a DO to match into higher caliber programs, but if you are a rockstar it's doable.
Your chances of doing a residency in the same place as your spouse really depends on which specialty you are pursuing. For example, if you want to do a non-competitive specialty in a big city (more desired location), it will be much easier for you to do than if you wanted to do ortho/ENT/NSG in San Diego.
Now is it worth passing up the DO acceptance to reapply? Like I said above, it kinda depends on what you wanna do with your life. Pre-med students rarely go into the specialty that they started medical school wanting. I do think you will need a year of GPA repair to have a good shot at MD. If this is something you are willing to do, then maybe reapply.
If it was ME, I would take the DO acceptance to the best, most established, cheapest DO school and get going knowing that if you are seeking residency in something competitive that you will need to be stellar. There are other posts on SDN from students showing their stats and CVs for these competitive specialites. Look into em.