Anyone else applying to US med schools?

I am currently studying for the MCAT and will apply in june. Just wanted to see if anyone else in a similar boat as I am. I am looking into DO schools as well as MD schools and some foreign schools. Let's see what happens come June.

HI Sam212,

I wanted to first welcome you to medstudentz. I think we need more individuals such as yourself on this site to create diversity.
Well, with that said, I have two questions for you. I wanted to know what does DO stand for and also, what foreign medical schools were you interested in?

Thanks for your welcome Natacha, yeah, I don't see any other person who may be applying to US med schools. As for DO, it stands for doctor of Osteopathy. DOs have same rights as MDs. They practice along side MDs in hospitals. They do the same residencies as MDs. The problem is that DOs only comprise 5% of the practicing population of US physicians, therefore, your regular Joe doesn't know about them. There are currently 22 DO schools in the US. Getting into DO schools is slightly easier than US MD schools. They are a little more forgiving of bad grades and MCAT. Check out www.studentdoctor.net and their DO forums. They are very informative. As for the foreign schools, I am looking into two options: The Australian med schools and the good ole caribbean. Only caribbean schools I am interested in are SGU, AUC, Ross, and Saba. Australian schools are almost as competitive as US schools so chances are that if I get into Australian schools, I will get in to US schools as well. Well, first I like to maximize my chances to get into US school before I try for foreign schools. So that was a skinny on my plans

If anyone needs any info regarding US application system, ask your questions here. I will be more than happy to answer your questions. As I have already mentioned, there are two type of medical degrees in the US: MD and DO. They both have similar practicing rights. They can both practice in any field they want. DOs study Osteopathic Manipulative medicine in addition to regular subjects in their first year. They also have a mandatory clinical rotation of OMM. DOs have their own residencies as well, which include all of the specialties, including Derm, Optho, Ortho, Neurosurgery and etc. However, 70% of DOs match into MD residencies. This however can't be done the other way, by this I mean MDs can not match into DO residencies, why? I don't know. At this moment, there are 125 MD schools and 22 DO schools with 1 more MD and 2 more DO schools await to open in 2007. AAMC has talked about raising the seats for applicants by 20% to meet the demand of physicians, which is going to be on the rise until 2020. I guess this is enough for now, if anyone has questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you for all the wonderful information Sam! And welcome to our board!

Oh wow, Sam, Thank you so much. You were really good at explaining everthing. You see, you ended up helping me...lol.
Thanks again!

I should have tried for DO. DOH! :shock: :shock: :shock:

If I am correct aren't you a med student at Shifa? That means you decided to ditch college and went straight to med school. For DO route, you would have to go to traditional 4 year undergrad. Anyway, good luck to you.

It sure seems like it'd be that way, but most of the foreigners at Shifa have at least two years of college under their belts from back home and some have their b.s. as well. Well, at least the cool people do I mean. 8)

Well, that's a bummer. I guess better late than never. I am pretty old myself by pakistani standards. 22 and still in undergrad. ughhhh!!

Now that MCAT is over, I am starting to work on PS. It is pretty tedious.

Don't lose hope, sister. Think of it this way, this is only momentary! Best of luck to you. Take care and God bless.

Hey Natacha, thanks for the good wishes. Just a note that I am not a girl, I am dude. I know those eyes can be decieving.