DO vs. MD

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Can someone tell me roughly what proportion of OPMs tend to go the DO route as opposed to the MD route?


I just realized that the title on this post is probably going to elicit an MD-DO debate but that is certainly not my intention. I just realized over the past few days that a lot of posts related to people applying to osteopathic schools and not many were on MD applicants.


Finally, is it perchance because allopathic schools tend to ‘curve’ their applicants differently than osteopathic schools thus disadvantaging OPMs?

2

The difference in age between actually matriculated populations is a tiny 1.2 years. I was unable to find any stats showing what percentage of APPLICANTS are accepted/rejected at the different age ranges.


Mean age of DO MS-1:


25.2


Source:


http://www.aacom.org/data/studentreport/st udentrep…


Page 23


Mean age of MD MS-1:


24


Source:


http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2006/2006a ge.htm


Three observations (OPINIONS-- ONLY OPINIONS!!!)

  1. The differences between individual schools in their treatment of non-traditional applicants differs much more than MD vs. DO.

  2. The differences between individual schools in their treatment of non-traditional applicants 25-30 and NTA 30+ is little remarked on this site, but I believe it is real and substantial.

  3. If you do not like 22 year olds, if you disdain the company of 22 year olds, if you do not particularly want to collaborate with 22 year olds for the next four years, I would strongly question your decision to attend medical school. That is the ocean, and you are a slightly different fish.
3

Matt, I would say that applicants over a certain age, shall we say 40-ish, are put in a diversity category–e.g. “we don’t want a whole school full of them but one or two will add color to the class and make us look open minded”. Of course the numbers are also driven by supply and demand. Most applicants are early to mid 20s, growing # in late 20s to early 30s, and handful in 40s and above. My impression is that osteopathic schools are slightly more nontrad-friendly. This may be supply-and-demand more than anything else, but osteopathic schools pride themselves on judging candidates by more than their numbers, so perhaps there is a cultural difference.


My DO school average age is 25. I have met many folks straight out of college, age 23, plus a lot in the 28-32 range. I know of no one in their 40s, so far. As school approaches this Monday the attitude is shifting from “who are you and here’s who I am” to “let’s get through this together”. Age is largely irrelevant once the training begins. The main thing I’ve noticed is a tendency to confuse me with faculty, something which will probably get only worse when I’m on rotations (but which may accidentally garner me some undeserved respect from hospital staff). Fortunately or unfortunately I tend to look young for my age (though they have pretty much stopped carding me in restaurants). It’s been a growing experience for all of us, I guess.

4

In contrast the Caribbean has many more Nontrads attending, average age is 28 to 30 there.


I’m 41 when started


50 and 64 were two others with a few mid 30’s in my class.