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DO vs. MD

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Thinking about a medical school application for 2018, I’ve had a few industrious pre-meds ask me about DO school. There was an excellent article in the New York Times a few years ago about what doctors of osteopathy do and how their admissions criteria are different from allopathic schools’. It’s here and worth a read.

The topic of DO schools is an enormous one. A few quick points many candidates don’t know about DOs:

1. Many doctors of osteopathy practice medicine just like allopathic doctors do. I do per diem emergency shifts at Kaiser and work with many DOs. Candidly, I usually do not know which colleagues have osteopathic degrees and which have allopathic ones unless I see a prescription blank or a signed computer note.

2. If applying to osteopathic school, candidates are generally better off with at least one (strong) letter of recommendation from a DO supervisor.

3. Osteopaths currently take the COMLEX for their board tests, instead of the USMLE. If an osteopathic medical student wants to enter an allopathic residency, s/he may need to take the USMLE in addition to the COMLEX. On the other hand, there are many allopathic residencies that accept the COMLEX. Also, there is talk that in the future (when exactly is unclear, however) there may be just one board test that both groups take.

4. The osteopathic Match occurs before the NRMP Match, a fact that can be difficult for osteopaths applying to both types of residencies. If those applicants are successful in the osteopathic Match, they cannot enter an allopathic residency. If, on the other hand, they wait and enter the NRMP Match, they run the risk of simply not matching.

Again, this topic is complicated and nuanced, but the DO option is a great one for some applicants.

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Some People Have Real Problems

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The residency and medical school application processes are anxiety-provoking, but in honor of Thanksgiving, I’m posting this guest blog from CrispyDoc David Presser about a truly stressful, heartbreaking choice a patient recently had to make…

Years ago, I bought an album because the title caught my eye: Some People Have Real Problems. I was browsing used CDs in a music store back when both of those existed, and I felt the universe trying to restore perspective to my personal pity party.

Fast forward a decade, and I had fallen off the wagon again into whining doctor mode: headed into my second weekend night shift in as many days. The first night had been a killer, where the spigot of patients opened to a steady gush around 1 A.M. and all four of the late shift docs stayed several hours past the end of their shift to flush the proverbial toilet that our waiting room had become.
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Medical School Interview Questions: How to Handle the Illegal Ones

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In the United States, a professional interview is subject to basic legal rules. Specifically, admissions officers should refrain from asking medical school interview questions that are not relevant to the position the interviewee is seeking. Questions about race, religion, sexual orientation, and marital or family status fall into this category.

If you are asked these types of questions, you can simply answer – if it’s not distasteful to you – or respond by addressing the intent of the question without revealing personal information. (“I think you’re asking if my home life will affect my ability to carry out my medical school studies or my clinical duties. I can assure you it won’t, and I’ll complete my full tenure here at your school.”)

If you have the opportunity to give feedback to the institution about your medical school interview questions or experience, you can consider doing so after the interview. When I was interviewing for residency, I was asked by a faculty member if I had a boyfriend. After the interview day, I talked to a faculty mentor at my school who reported the situation to the other institution. The faculty member who asked me the illegal question was no longer permitted to interview.

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Ten AMCAS Mistakes You Absolutely Want to Avoid

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Here’s a quick and dirty list of AMCAS Work and Activities section errors to avoid at all costs:

1. Don’t write to write, and don’t fill to the maximum character count unless necessary. While you want to include many strong achievements, you do not want your AMCAS to be so wordy that your reader is tempted to skim.

2. While you need to be brief, don’t write in phrases; use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.

3. Don’t assume your reader will carefully study the “header” section (including the title of the activity, hours, etc.). Make sure your descriptor could stand alone: Instead of “As an assistant, I conducted experiments…” use “As a research assistant at a Stanford Medical School neuroscience lab, I conducted experiments…”

4. Don’t be vague or trite. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly and substantively. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you will not get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions.

5. Avoid abbreviations. Again, you want to be formal, and abbreviations you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.

6. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Doctors without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Doctors without Borders.

7. Avoid generalities and consider using numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 300 participants says it all.

8. Don’t merge the descriptors with the most meaningful paragraphs because they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with up to 700 characters each plus up to three most meaningful paragraphs of up to 1325 characters each.

9. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.

10. Get help. Do not submit your medical school application without having it reviewed. You do not want to showcase suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.

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Ten Ways to Improve your Medical School Application

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Please check out my latest Student Doctor Network article here. Enjoy!

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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