Shot at US DO schools?

[oldermedhope]

Hey all,

 

Is it worth my time and money to apply to some DO schools close to the boarder? I made this post here http://premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60067

 

In a nutshell: I graduated from mcmaster almost a decade ago with a gpa of about 3.5. After graduating I took a few courses here and there just for fun while I worked (I worked at a bank) but didn't put much into them and got poor grades. Long story short, my gpa now is only about 3.1 overall on the omsas scale. The UofT weighted gpa gives me about 3.62 only.

I wrote the mcat about three years ago and got bio 9, phys 9, vr10, and ws Q. Since the, I entered a different health profession but the degree I got was pass/fail courses (also from mcmaster) so there is no gpa attached to it, just qualitative statements (all of them good!) about my knowledge, skills, and professionalism.

 

 

I see that MSU has a Canadian initiative and financially this might be something I can swing.

 

Thoughts?

[Slashsev]

Hard to say

 

Wgpa is just can med bull****..

 

Msu will be hard bc now all can are applying there and many can are looking at us DO now over an international school

 

If msu get a good edorsement in can...the DO Will be the next big thing Can med hopefulls will apply to as many people are clueless about DO

 

Your old gpa is decent n mcat is ok

 

I'd apply early

 

I'd Ty lmu Azcom touro nova western

[oldermedhope]

In looking at pre-reqs I notice the MSU requires English. I never took an English course (though I took lots of essay based lib arts courses). Does this make me ineligible?

[Slashsev]

I'd call them and aacomass bc they determine where everything goes

Aacomass has a list of what goes where try to find that

 

I don't think it will

 

Msu per req is kinda crazy

 

If not u can always take while applying

 

ESP at the rye

[ShootingStar]

I know for a fact that you can't matriculate MSU without the pre-reqs, it's a part of the contract that you sign when you accept your offer. And with reference to MSU, the matriculate cGPA average is 3.6.

 

With that being said, 3.1 is very low. I know certain schools are putting out harsher cut-offs. TouroCOM-NY for example experienced the most increase in number of applicants of all medical schools in the US for 2012 (both DO and MD) at 7000 applicants as compared to 4000 from the year prior. They had to cut everyone with lower than 28 mcat scores automatically due to the increase in number of applicants. The reason their cutoff is not 30 is because, word for word from the clinical dean: "we think the verbal section of the mcat is racist, therefore we discount it". I know this because I interviewed there and the dean out right told us. And this is one of the newest DO schools in the states with one of the higher acceptance rates and lower entrance stats...

 

DO schools are getting increasingly popular in Canada. I was talking to my academic advisors who said that he has been recommending both DO and MD schools to his students with reference to their personality and not one as a backup of the other. it's interesting to see how Canadians will embrace the DO philosophy...

 

My point is: yes apply to DO schools, because more application will open up your chances at getting accepted, but look at it as applying to "another medical school" and not a "backup medical school" because the harsh reality is: more and more people are learning about the DO opportunity, and although a lot of people saw it as a backup years ago, it may not turn out that way for applicants in the upcoming cycles.

[Mashmetoo]

I know for a fact that you can't matriculate MSU without the pre-reqs, it's a part of the contract that you sign when you accept your offer. And with reference to MSU, the matriculate cGPA average is 3.6.

 

With that being said, 3.1 is very low. I know certain schools are putting out harsher cut-offs. TouroCOM-NY for example experienced the most increase in number of applicants of all medical schools in the US for 2012 (both DO and MD) at 7000 applicants as compared to 4000 from the year prior. They had to cut everyone with lower than 28 mcat scores automatically due to the increase in number of applicants. The reason their cutoff is not 30 is because, word for word from the clinical dean: "we think the verbal section of the mcat is racist, therefore we discount it". I know this because I interviewed there and the dean out right told us. And this is one of the newest DO schools in the states with one of the higher acceptance rates and lower entrance stats...

 

DO schools are getting increasingly popular in Canada. I was talking to my academic advisors who said that he has been recommending both DO and MD schools to his students with reference to their personality and not one as a backup of the other. it's interesting to see how Canadians will embrace the DO philosophy...

 

My point is: yes apply to DO schools, because more application will open up your chances at getting accepted, but look at it as applying to "another medical school" and not a "backup medical school" because the harsh reality is: more and more people are learning about the DO opportunity, and although a lot of people saw it as a backup years ago, it may not turn out that way for applicants in the upcoming cycles.

 

THAT.. is awesome!! Lol You know, I always thought the same thing, so did my minority friends. But I never felt right expression that opinion on a public forum. In fact, a minority DO friend of mine got into a heated argument over the "unfairness" of VR (for usually immigrants/ ppl not born in North America) with a supposedly caucassian user on SDN lol... He got so mad that be stopped going to SDN.

 

Anyway.. this dean is awesome, amazing he'd actually say it..

 

I'm assuming a lot of applicants to his school are minorities that got destroyed on the VR, but good on everything else, and basically automatically got cut for the MD schools?

[ShootingStar]

Yup. TouroCOM-NY's philosophy is to give minorities the chance to practice medicine, and to train physicians to serve underserved/rural communities like harlem. They have the highest proportion of African American students at ~10% (which is still quite low in my opinion but I don't want get into the topic of systemic racism on a public forum lol..) it was pretty awesome for the preclinical dean to say that, which made me all the happier for my career choice haha.

 

Edit: The preclinical dean was a white upperclass male born and raised in America! Which makes it all the more awesome.

[Mashmetoo]

Yup. TouroCOM-NY's philosophy is to give minorities the chance to practice medicine, and to train physicians to serve underserved/rural communities like harlem. They have the highest proportion of African American students at ~10% (which is still quite low in my opinion but I don't want get into the topic of systemic racism on a public forum lol..) it was pretty awesome for the preclinical dean to say that, which made me all the happier for my career choice haha.

 

Nice, is Touro NY Canadian friendly? Should it be added to the Canadian - friendly list?

[ShootingStar]

From my experiences, definitely on the Canadian friendly list. The older students mentioned there are many Canadians in their class!

[Mashmetoo]

From my experiences, definitely on the Canadian friendly list. The older students mentioned there are many Canadians in their class!

 

K, added touro-ny to my Canadian friendly list thx for the info, made my day!

[ShootingStar]

No worries! But just a heads up I wouldn't say they completely discount verbal because in the grand scheme of the total score, they still care, (say to get a 30 with 12BS and 12PS you still need a 6 in VR)

[someonenew]

In looking at pre-reqs I notice the MSU requires English. I never took an English course (though I took lots of essay based lib arts courses). Does this make me ineligible?

 

they're pretty flexible about the English prereq requirement. If you've taken liberal arts courses, like mythology or humanities, etc, I think you'll be fine. Just send them an email for confirmation.

 

Another thing with prerequisites is that it's not mandatory for you to have taken all the prereqs prior to your application. Most schools, including MSU, offer you acceptance, and allow you to take the missing prereqs prior to matriculation.

[limoncello]

Yes, Touro-NY is definitely Canadian friendly. A first year student I spoke to told me there are at least 20 Canadians in their class.

 

However, in regards to their MCAT requirement, though I second ShootingStar in regards to their views on the verbal section as I heard the exact same comment from the pre-clinical dean during my interview there, the comment that they cut anyone with an MCAT below a 28 is incorrect. I believe that this only occurred in the later stages of the application cycle this year when they had to decide who to pull of off the waitlist.

[limoncello]

ShootingStar which school will you be attending next year?

[GTP]

I am OMS1 at Touro. We have about 9 canadians in my class right now. 20 sounds wrong. I don't think any year has ever had that many canadians.

 

Touro definitely accepts online classes. I took some online classes at athabasca and even at a college. Doing it at the college was half the price of athabasca. I guess Americans assume college=university even though I explicitly stated that this wasn't the case. Anyhow, the college english course was a joke. I think I finished with a 98%. It consisted of identifying pronouns, prepositions, etc. I don't even remember. It was just basic grammar.

[thegame11]

I am OMS1 at Touro. We have about 9 canadians in my class right now. 20 sounds wrong. I don't think any year has ever had that many canadians.

 

Touro definitely accepts online classes. I took some online classes at athabasca and even at a college. Doing it at the college was half the price of athabasca. I guess Americans assume college=university even though I explicitly stated that this wasn't the case. Anyhow, the college english course was a joke. I think I finished with a 98%. It consisted of identifying pronouns, prepositions, etc. I don't even remember. It was just basic grammar.

 

There were several accepted at MSU-COM last year...

[GTP]

Msu for sure. There was also a year they took 30. I thought the comment was about touro com. Maybe I read the post wrong. My bad.

[oldermedhope]

Hey all,

 

So I took the plunge and applied to MSUCOM. I submitted my app on June 1st and they have had all my transcripts since a few days after that. It still shows "processing" though and not "verified." Should I be concerned?

 

Will I still be early enough?

[MD4ME]

I sent mine in June 1 too and my application has been sent to MSUCOM as of the 14th. If it still says processing maybe send them a message.

[oldermedhope]

I chatted with a staff emergency medicine physician at a major Toronto hospital where I was a student. He is strongly supportive of my becoming a physician (he wrote on my evaluation "would make a great physician! Why isn't he in medical school?" and he is on the admissions committee of an Ontario med school.

 

When I told him I was applying he was excited and agreed immediately to be one of my references but when I mentioned that one of the schools I am applying to is an American DO school he told me he thinks that's a bad idea and that getting a residency spot in Canada will be difficult.

 

He said he worked in the USA with DOs and said there was a difference in quality between DO and MD residents and that he thinks it would be better for me to stay in Ontario in my current profession than to go to the USA to become a DO.

 

This was discouraging to say the least. Any thoughts?

[Mashmetoo]

I chatted with a staff emergency medicine physician at a major Toronto hospital where I was a student. He is strongly supportive of my becoming a physician (he wrote on my evaluation "would make a great physician! Why isn't he in medical school?" and he is on the admissions committee of an Ontario med school.

 

When I told him I was applying he was excited and agreed immediately to be one of my references but when I mentioned that one of the schools I am applying to is an American DO school he told me he thinks that's a bad idea and that getting a residency spot in Canada will be difficult.

 

He said he worked in the USA with DOs and said there was a difference in quality between DO and MD residents and that he thinks it would be better for me to stay in Ontario in my current profession than to go to the USA to become a DO.

 

This was discouraging to say the least. Any thoughts?

 

Well, there are good DOs and bad DOs. I've seen both on my first rotation, but for him to imply that "all" USDOs are of inferior quality is simply wrong in my opinion.

 

And yes, returning to Canada is hard, but to dismiss the DO option entirely because returning to Canada is "hard" is also uncalled for, afterall, USDOs have made it back every year for the last 3 years.

 

Lastly, what he says changes nothing about the reality of USDOs, we still get the same practice rights in the US/Canada, he can question the quality all he wants - whether real or imagined, bottom line is, the USDO training in a US/Can residency will allow them to do the exact same job as the MD trained in that residency - and that's all I care for.