Hey all - I am a third year DO student currently doing a teaching fellowship/scholarship at my school in anatomy and pathology. I did well on my DO boards (>90) but have yet to take the USMLE I. I will most likely be taking it sometime in the near future and I understand a score of at least 90 % would be ideal. I will be applying to programs in the fall of 2005. By that time, due to the research I am doing and connections I seem to be making I should have a handful (should have...) of pubs in ortho, a few national conference poster presentations/paper presentations, and some great LORs. I also have some good volunteer work and a relatively decent undergrad name (BU). I also will be graduating in the top 20 percent or so of my class.
What do you guys think my chances are of getting interviews and or spots at middle/low tier ortho programs? I wouldn't apply to HJD, or HSS, Mayo, but more like some of the better community programs in Ohio, maybe some smaller academic programs in philadelphia of outlying penn like Geisinger. Any thoughts would be much appreciated as I am toying with the notion of applying to both DO and MD and I just wanted to stack my "stats" up with the rest of you all. Thanks.
I'm in a similar situation and was hoping to get some input. I'm a 3rd year DO student. I scored a 241 on usmle step 1, I'm in the top 5% of my class, and I have a graduate degree with 2 pubs (non-ortho). I know that there are DOs in AMA programs (2 at Mayo [called the program myself]) but I have know idea if these guys were megastuds posting >250.
hey there all. i'm not a DO student, and i know that it will be more difficult to find a spot competing with the other MD's, but i do believe it can be done. i would do all the things mentioned previously (especially research, publications, etc), but visiting electives at DO friendly programs will probably be your best bet. Start calling all the programs you're interested in and ask if they take DO grads, find the ones that do, and do as many away (visiting) rotations that you can do. remember that some places will let you do less than a full month (ie, 1-3 wks, but realistically 2-3 wks will leave a more lasting impression), so try to maximize your exposure by rotating through as many programs as you possibly can. i have some friends that have done 6 straight months of ortho. not a lot of variety, but you have to do everything you possibly can to get in.
There's a DO attending at U of Cincinnati who is a peds ortho guy. Can't remember his name though. I interviewed with him and he seems cool. So does that makes their program DO friendly? I don't know, but worth checking into.
Also, when interviewing at Maricopa (Comm progam in Phoenix) I met a resident there who is a DO. So, that would be a positive for you if you were interested in that program.
Also, there's a DO fellow in adult reconstruction at Medical College of Virginia who's a sharp guy. Did his residency in Philly in a DO program. But he could hang well with the chiefs and knew the literature well.
I know these are somewhat disparate bits of info, but maybe they will lead you to more info. Best of luck
The chief of the trauma service at Jackson Memorial/Miami is a DO guy (Dr. Zych). I've run into a couple other DO attendings at some of the programs I interviewed at, I just can't remember where off the top of my head (not the aforementioned).
I have no basis for thinking this, but I would think if you're USMLE scores are strong, you're grades and clinical evaluations/letters are strong, then being DO or MD shouldn't be that big a difference, at least at most programs (I'm sure there are some "high and mighty" programs that will look down on being a DO. Then again, there are programs like that who look down on half of the MD medical schools as being "lower tier" I'm sure).
