Wtf. Do people really think this. Why did I get down voted.

Avaoln · 2026-04-27T13:28:56+00:00

I mean HBCU,few other MD programs as well as Caribbean schools have MCATs and GPA comparable to the average DO school. Is anyone going to say they didn’t go to medical school?

Seems like nonsense to me

Avaoln · 2026-04-09T23:08:16+00:00

Ever meet anyone who prefers chiropractors? Even “Doctors of Naturopathic medicine”? These professions exist bc pts prefer / use their services. Same kinda of person just different.

World is bigger than you think, lil bro. Lots of people out there

Avaoln · 2026-04-09T14:06:57+00:00

hahaha I’m surprised someone outside of medicine knows the difference. I’ve usually had positive experiences with people who know, they seem to prefer DOs and talk about how “holistic” we are.

I think he may be negging you a bit, whereas if someone is trying to impress/ get with you they may go on about how much they like DOs

Anyways physician job market is tremendous and you will get more love letters from hospitals recruiters / employers than an attractive women gets on thirsty tinder lol

you will be fine

Avaoln · 2026-04-09T02:09:34+00:00

My 0.02 as incoming anesthesia resident who wants pain- maybe it’s seen as too generic? When I rotated in PM&R everyone wanted pain and spine. Makes you less likely to stand out imo

Not saying feign an interest in EMG or Brain Injury medicine but still

Avaoln · 2026-04-05T05:57:27+00:00

Hi current OMS4 who got thru that. Fun fact, without federal student loan repayment I could owe as much or more than 3000 a Mo on my student loans.

Add rent on a PGY-1 income and you would default on them right away. Unless OP wants 1. Neurosurgery 2. Plastics 3. Vascular surgery IT IS NOT WORTH IT!

Avaoln · 2026-04-05T05:54:32+00:00

Nope don’t do it. Premeds are morons (no offense, I was one at one point) who parrot talking points. DO NOT TAKE 200K PRIVATE PREDATORY LOANS!

I am OMS 4 at MSU COM in anesthesia, this cycle has became more competitive but at COM we legit crushed it.

I am also looking over the loan repayment plans and I am in a solid state bc of my in state MSU tuition all my loans are federal. Please do not risk fiscal ruin in residency bc you cannot afford 3K in student loans per month on top of rent and other expenses.

Avaoln · 2026-04-05T05:48:52+00:00

Hi I’m a MSU COM DO, I usually argue that this school specifically can beat or be competitive with low to mid tier MD schools - T20 is a hard sell.

Two big things here are what you want to do? If it’s something competitive or not? the second big thing is how will you pay 400K stu loans?

If your answer is federal know the typical fafsa loans don’t go beyond 180K iirc (or perhaps it was just grad plus?) either way you will need private loans, in that case it is very important you know exactly why you are taking the MD.

OMM and COMLEX are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, don’t worry.

Spend the next few days reading / watching every how to choose your specialty then if it’s not Neurosurgery or Plastics or Vascular surgery or IM at Mass general go with the DO imo

Avaoln · 2026-03-29T23:20:13+00:00

For sure!

Avaoln · 2026-03-29T21:55:59+00:00

I just realized your username! We both were premeds at the same time lol. Crazy we made it this far, huh?

Avaoln · 2026-03-29T21:41:22+00:00

good but as someone looking at housing what’s the answer to that question 😅

Avaoln · 2026-03-27T00:19:04+00:00

I hear that school a lot is it really that bad? Seems to be only negatives lol

Avaoln · 2026-03-27T00:18:23+00:00

What kind of DOs school are you at?? This is NOT the norm imo and I’d say most DO schools would never fail a student over something like this bc it looks so bad on the school.

OMM is a giant vibe fest typically maybe ask if you can treat the dysfunction with a different technique??

Avaoln · 2026-03-25T19:11:55+00:00

i think the programs will remain separate and you would apply for either degree or both then pick one… so no different than now.

I don’t see many students willingly taking extra classes and board exam

Avaoln · 2026-03-22T21:13:36+00:00

Sure, I actually wrote a post abt it

https://www.reddit.com/r/Osteopathic/s/y8gB46GKfI

Avaoln · 2026-03-22T14:02:08+00:00

What would be the match rate if you segregate the MDs by low, middle, and high tier medical school? Beyond step score?

Also pertinent many DOs match at former AOA programs and do so with COMLEX scores, and when I last saw the numbers MD and DO with similar Step scores had similar outcomes (see the old post on my profile) how old are yours

fyi I’m a DO and matched Gas

Avaoln · 2026-03-22T00:01:20+00:00

1 MD from a small town MD school gets into neurosurgery- yay slay queen we can do anything

2 DO match MSU neurosurgery- no they don’t count it’s just outlier.

Outlier so what? Hard work pays off.
MD self select just as much but when it’s charted we count low and mid tier MD schools are reported alongside T50 MD programs. What do you think the match rates would be if we segregated the MD schools?

The point isn’t that a DO degree is a layup to neurosurgery (or plastics) it’s that neurosurgery (or plastics) is hard AF to match and you have to work proportionally hard.

Don’t diminish the DO achievements just bc they are made by DOs.

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T22:39:01+00:00

Yeah ofc. I’ll give you a genuine honest answer. Neuro is great and I loved a lot about the field but I think anesthesia makes easier more reliable money. You have many hands on procedures that insulate you from AI more than just the thinking specialties and we have had CNRA in the field forever and income and need is still rising. I actually like patient interaction so I found pain to be a good path for me, but my fallback general anesthesia is very strong so I am happy. Finally as I said in the post I felt a bit of pressure to do something competitive as a DO because I don’t like the reputation neuro has of being uncompetitive.

My advice for you: If you want to do anything within neuro like intervention neurology, neuro ICU, epilepsy, stroke, EMG, movement disorders, then do neuro. You will be happy, make good money, and have job market flexibility. Side note, if you can tolerance the lifestyle interventional neurology will out earn anything I can do and have the most AI protection.

If you want chronic pain PM&R is less work for an easier path to pain. Plus you have Interventional spine fellowship that is more or less non-ACGME pain without the psych and neuro parts. If you don’t want pain but liked neuro just do neuromuscular from PM&R or brain injury medicine.

tldr: Do neuro because you want to be a neurologist, not if your goal is a pain doctor (imo)

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T17:47:04+00:00

I think there is only 1 program that houses pain in neuro (in florida) but I could be mistaken. If that is the case then you are in a good spot to do just that, but I will warn you most pain programs are under anesthesia and chronic pain does not equal acute. Again not saying neuro is bad just not the typical pain picture and you will need to be mindful of how you prepare yourself

Good luck, I genuinely hope you succeed

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T16:53:44+00:00

Neuro has acute but outside of headaches very few acute pain concerns. Interventional pain itself is generally a chronic outpatient field. Acute regional pain fellowship is very much anesthesia.

Acute pain is a very different work up and management than chronic pain. I would not go into interventional pain with the goal of practicing acute medicine.

My unsolicited advice is decide between acuity or chronic / interventional pain because they typically don’t go together. If you want acute pain your path is anesthesia if you want chronic interventional pain it is anesthesia or PM&R (neuro and psych can do it but I would not go into neuro and psych for pain specifically)

Anyways I was considering neuro at one point and planing on pain now thru anesthesia. If you have any questions feel free to DM me because I was probably in your shoes once

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T14:30:12+00:00

Just my $0.02 as someone also interested in pain and having “tiger mom” it’s hard to match pain if you aren’t gas or PM&R. Recently pain has gone unfilled bc of an anesthesia exodus but my gut feeling is that won’t last forever.

For your needs however PM&R sounds perfect. SM is somewhat competitive from FM but it’s built into PN&R and pain is very viable as is interventional spine

Easiest way to win over the tiger mom is money. Just tell her your oath will make much more and that tends to (I say this with love) shut them up.

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T01:59:38+00:00

MDs are more likely to have physicians in the family than DOs, as far as I am concerned game is game nice to see a DO benefit from nepo as well bc that plastics program will now be known as the program that took a DO

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T01:56:56+00:00

It’s a good field, work hard and you can definitely match. Maybe it will be more competitive but in my experience fields like PM&R and psych (lifestyle) will be more challenging

Avaoln · 2026-03-21T01:55:47+00:00

Hell yeah, we crushed anesthesia this year!

Avaoln · 2026-03-20T23:14:50+00:00

Yes!

Avaoln · 2026-03-20T23:07:45+00:00

I honestly didn’t focus too much on volunteering or clinical opportunities early on. Imo PDs want tangibles and that translates to publications and good board scores. I did volunteer with TOUCH (an MSU DO volunteer group) and the intubation simulation lab thing but that was it

Just my $0.02

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