<p>Hello everybody!</p>
<p>Class of 2014 Student here and I’m looking for some help and advice on which college I will be attending next year.
As the first in my family to be going into a higher education that High School (In the USA) my parents are both foreign born so they are as clueless as I am. </p>
<p>I have been accepted into an out of state DO Program which essentially allows me admission into the DO School after my 4 years of undergraduate studies. BUT I have also been granted admissions into a variety of state schools (University of California) which are all great and fantastic schools in itself. So far I have been accepted into UCI, UCD, UCSD, UCSB, UCR and I am still waiting for the UCLA decision to come out this coming weekend. (crosses fingers)</p>
<p>Hoping for your opinions on the route I should go?
Combine program school into DO School vs state school w/ traditional route</p>
<p>Pros of DO School
-No need to reapply for med school (which I know is a large deterrent for some people)
-More freedom to study what I want because of the guaranteed admission
-More slack requirements for matriculation into medical school
-Great large city (location is a large factor)
-full tuition scholarship each year (still have to pay for housing and cost of living)
-smaller school thus smaller class sizes
Cons
-Will be matriculating into a DO school, although I understand that the differences are minimal with DO vs MD, there is still the social stigma that DO’s are less respectable and etc. (i’ve read the numerous posts here on SDN about the discussions)
-Not as recognized of an undergraduate or a medical school as opposed to UC system or other DO and MD schools</p>
<p>Pros of UC System School
-Instate tuition, cheaper
-Some of them are more recognized
Cons
-Has to apply for medical school but it gives me the traditional route of applying to MD and DO schools instead of being stuck with just one choice
-Most likely more difficult years in order to maintain high GPA’s, competitive MCAT scores, and even more extracurriculars to boost resume
-State schools make class sizes larger and less 1 on 1 time with professor</p>
<p>Opinions? I’ve been thinking about this day in and out and it’s really been bothering me so I am asking for your input?</p>
<p>Also if you think I should go the traditional route with the state schools, could you recommend which one?</p>
<p>How high are the college GPA and MCAT thresholds to keep the guaranteed DO admission? If they are as high as needed for normal DO admission, then you will still be stressing about grades and the MCAT just as much, but you will avoid the additional stress of applying and interviewing.</p>
<p>Also consider whether you will like attending that school if you decide not to go on to DO study, or lose the guarantee.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, how much debt will you end up with after undergraduate and after DO study if you do that (the full tuition scholarship should help, but check on the requirements for renewing it)? DO graduates appear more likely to do the lower paid primary care specialties, so if you are considering DO, you may want to pay even more attention to the debt load that you will end up with.</p>
<p>Be aware that medical schools in California are very competitive to gain admission to, since the number of slots is small compared to the student population. So do not expect that you will be able to get the lower in-state tuition for medical school – most pre-meds are lucky to get even one acceptance to a medical school.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply! </p>
<p>For GPA it is 3.25 and the MCAT is still unknown due to the revamp in MCAT scores but I believe they said average, so I’m not sure how it is scaled now. Although I do like the school after visiting it and its environment, I don’t think I would go to the school alone without the DO study. </p>
<p>The requirements for the scholarship is a 3.0 gpa which I believe I should most likely be able to handle if I need at least 3.25 to keep the guarantee. Calculating the math out, even with the scholarship the undergraduate study+DO study will end up approximately less than if I went the state school route because scholarships are rare and I did not apply for financial aid and with the assumption of about a 60k tuition for med school. (obviously it’s very rough estimate) but still I end up with the DO school ~25-35k less in total.</p>
<p>Also I just wanted to point out that I would not necessarily apply for instate medical schools, I would still apply out of state as well but it just gives me the option to apply to multiple schools both MD and DO should I choose to do so.</p>
<p>Medical school tuition and fees can be found here: <a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/”>https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/</a>
However, you need to add living expenses to those numbers to get the full cost per year. But that will result in more than $60,000 per year for many of them.</p>
<p>After some rough estimates it ends up that the DO school will end up costing less, but do you think it is worth the ideal of DO degree instead of going the traditional route and possibly getting an MD instead?</p>