DO Degree Option For Students With Low MCAT Scores Who Want To Study in US

After getting your MCAT score back, a lot of the uncertainty surrounding your future begins to dissipate in most circumstances.  You either have a competitive high MCAT score and can expect to receive a few invitations to interview, or you will have a low score and you will not be able to find a school that is interested.  You may consider going to the Caribbean to pursue a degree in Medicine but it is a big gamble and if you do not score highly during your schooling, you will find yourself in a lot of debt and with a meaningless degree.  Staying in the US is the best solution for you if you want to become a medical doctor in the US.  

However, there is an alternative to an MD degree called a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree that is a very practical option to consider if you wish to remain in the country.  I will present some of the strengths and weaknesses about the DO program to help you decide if a DO degree is worth it in the long-run.  

Positives of the DO Program 

There is a growing number of DO programs in the US every year and students can find a spot if their MCAT scores are at a certain threshold.  As of 2016, there are 33 accredited colleges in the United States that are teaching 26,100 future physicians following a DO path.   Many of these DO schools also have their own residency programs and once you are licensed, you will be able to find placement in most hospitals in the US.  Some hospitals with a DO Director are found to "help their own" and may even give preferential treatment to DO candidates over an MD applicant.  

Another positive about this route is the fact that you will be learning almost the same information that you would as an MD degree student.  The basic Sciences will be covered like you have on the USMLE but instead of taking STEP exams to progress along your licensing journey.  Instead of STEP, these exams are called the COMLEX series and also come in a string of 3 separate tests that quantify your likelihood of success in a Residency Program.  

In 2008, a study was done comparing the students preparation for the USMLE should students wish to apply to M.D. Residency Programs as well at it was found that on STEP 1, 92% of the test takers were able to pass on the first-attempt compared to 96% for M.D. programs, 97% on STEP 2 CK compared to 98% for the M.D. program, and 87% on STEP 2 CS compared to the 98% of the M.D. program.  

As the quality of these programs improves across the country, it will be more common-place to treat each degree with the same merit and realize that both titles represent you being fully competent to practice Medicine and be called a doctor.  

Why You Should Hold Off On Sending Out the DO Application

The Negatives About Applying to a D.O. Program 

Although a DO program does represent a realistic avenue to become a doctor in the US Health System, you will be in much more debt that if you were in a traditional MD program.  DO schools are expensive and students can often find themselves paying over $60,000 per year in some institutions in order to earn their degree.  

You may think that Medical School from an MD Program is also expensive but the one factor that and MD and a DO program really differ in is the fact that most DO programs require incoming students to do a one-year transitional year in order to be excepted in the program.  Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale is notorious for this practice where you are essentially guaranteed a spot in your interview if you are willing to complete the transitional year.  This means an extra $60,000 for the institution and even if they advertise they have a growing class size every year, most of those slots are already reserved from those who enrolled in the transitional year so in reality, a first-time applicant may be competing for 30 positions out of the 250 in the class.

Another slight of the DO realm is that rotations can be hard to come by depending on where you are able to schedule them.  When I completed some electives with DO students, they told me that their schools have a pretty extensive network of affiliations across the Eastern US but the hospitals are generally smaller than the main hospitals an MD student would have access too and only a few students are able to rotate at a time.  This can be a big disadvantage if you are not exposed to a lot of cases during your training.  Unfortunately, the learning curve is quite short once you start Residency so you will not be able to just causally learn a problem during your hospital rounds.  You have to master them before and if you are not familiar with a concept, you may need to spend a lot of time in a library researching a disease you may have never seen before.  

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Unfortunately, these DO programs also have residencies that are specific for DO students that can be found in small community hospitals.  It may be a good chance to see a variety of patients but during my rotation, I had to help a few DO students from the Erie campus of LECOM because they had come from the North and had little experience of speaking Spanish with patients.  In this specific hospital, there was a DO program and 90% of the population were native Cubans so no English was spoken whatsoever.  That microcosm of a hospital can make it extremely difficult for a Resident to feel comfortable and I was told by the residents that it is common for DOs to reapply to different programs every year to have a broader overview of the field before finishing Residency.  That can make it difficult if you are supporting a family.  You may not have stability and can lead a nomadic life similar to clinical rotations as you attempt to get licensed.