No one said, or intimated, that going to DO schools is ‘shameful’. DO school admission is a highly desirable outcome.
UC does provide institutional letters of endorsement (from the Health and Medicine Committee (HMC)).
It is fair and reasonable for prospective students to ask for transparency around medical school admission numbers when they are making their ug college decision. Some important factors include:
-What proportion (and absolute number) of students who want to apply to med school receive an institutional letter of endorsement?
-What are the absolute numbers of applicants (not just percentages) who apply and are accepted to med school (DO and allopathic)? Separated out by UG direct, post-bacc, SMP and re-applicants. (Successful med school applicants coming directly out of undergrad are the minority)
-Proportion of accepted applicants that are URM
-Proportion of acceptances by GPA and MCAT score (see WashU for a good example, mirroring the AMCAS report): https://prehealth.wustl.edu/matriculation-acceptance-rates
When counseling students thru the college admissions process if schools/prehealth depts are not forthcoming with the answers to the above, it is a red flag. Why would a school not share these numbers?