1. First of all, any good doctor (MD or DO) will view the body as a system and treat the source of the disease, so it is not unique to either degree. DO schools just tend to emphasize that area due to the history of osteopathic medicine. Plus any DO school website you visit can explain "what is osteopathic medicine" without ever mentioning MD.
2. That is true, there could be butthurt DOs. On the other side of that coin though is an MD/DO applicant with borderline stats that is happy going to a DO school until he gets into an MD and suddenly becomes anti-DO. It is at this moment that you realize that this person is a douche and can't wait to look down their nose at others.
3. I agree that there are some parts of the osteopathic curriculum that are questionable, but not many practicing DOs use OMM anyway, and those that due tend to stick with the musculoskeletal manipulation used by PTs. The DO I shadowed used it a little bit when applicable, and it was actually really cool to see and it did help the patient.
4. I couldn't agree more
To answer Sarvish's original question in my own words (since I will probably be going DO myself):
There are 2 routes (or degrees) to end up practicing medicine in the US. MD is obviously the more traditional, with more schools and practicing physicians. DO curriculum is similar, with the addition of osteopathic manipulative medicine courses, designed to relate musculoskeletal issues with other problems if possible.
One of the biggest issues many have with DOs is the difference in stats between the average matriculant each type of school. The way I see it however, is there is a very broad range of stats for matriculating students, ranging from high 30 MCATs and 3.9 gpas to mid-low 20's and 3.3 or something, and there is a pretty sizable area in the middle where lower-tier MD schools and higher DO schools have similar stats. In fact after looking at the MSAR I realized that quite a few DO schools have higher average MCATs than many state MD schools.
