Osteopathic Applicant

Hi Dr. Levine,

I am currently an osteopathic student interested in pursuing a career in orthopedics. My question to you is, how does your program and other programs in general (more specifically Chicago ortho programs) view osteopathic applicants applying for an allopathic program?

If an osteopathic applicant has good grades, both clinical and pre-clinical, research, great LORs, and a good USMLE/COMLEX score, are they considered on a level playing field with allopathic students or is it still an uphill battle?

Furthermore, would you advise against forgoing the osteopathic match in hopes for landing an allopathic position or do you not give up a good chance in matching in the DO match for a shot in the MD match?

Another question I have is how do you view a few abstracts presented at the Orthopedic Research Society meeting vs. having a published article in a research journal? Will the abstracts hold their own when viewing an applicants file vs. an applicant with a journal publication.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,
OrthoChiDO

Up to this point we have received 370 applications for our 6 residency positions at Columbia (if numbers hold out like the last 11 years we will eventually have ~500 applications). Only 3 of the 370 applications are from DO students but these 3 applications are reviewed just like the others as I have outlined in previous posts (USLME scores, medical school performance - especially 3rd year clinical grades, letters of recommendation, research experience, undergraduate performance).

At the end of the day, however, I think all students (osteopathic and allopathic) need to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and determine with the help of their faculty supervisors/mentors how competitive they will be in one of the most difficult specialties to match. I meet with students all the time (admittedly mostly allopathic since that's where I work) and we candidly review their application and there are some students who I counsel to strongly consider another specialty given their situation and others who I counsel to at least strongly consider a back-up plan if they unfortunately do not match in orthopaedics.

I would give you the exact same advice - understand the strengths and weaknesses of your application and act accordingly. I am not sure it would be wise to forgo the osteopathic pathway so I would defer to your mentors on that question.

As to your final question - ORS is a very prestigious organization and meeting and presentation at that meeting is certainly impressive for any student. Publications are challenging and students often have little control over whether their research will ultimately be published so demonstration of research (i.e. presentations at meetings) is certainly viewed positively.

Good luck

wnl

Thank you for the response. It is greatly appreciated.

My pleasure