Up till now, I know that DO schools had their own protected residencies that they could apply to. They had some of their own competitive specialties, but even those were very few spots. Now with the merger between the DO and MD residencies, where they are technically open to everyone - likely what will happen is some DO residencies will close down due to not meeting MD residency standards and now many of those DO residencies in competitive specialties will take MD students who were more qualified but before couldn’t apply to DO residencies. There may be some that have DOs as faculty and feel an obligation to help their fellow DOs, however, and take them instead. Competititive MD positions now will continue to interview and take MD students even after the merger, so @Johnny H, is right about this.
From a match standpoint, you have more fields opened to you, even going to the lowest tier MD school vs. a DO school. MD schools have higher average GPA/MCAT matriculant stats vs. DO schools, and get higher quality applicants. If it tells you anything, the MD-only students we had in our class, were people who applied everywhere and UMKC’s med school was either their last resort to get into an MD school (either bc of their stats and/or bc the competition was just so great) or they lived in KC.
If your desire is Primary Care (IM/Peds/FM) or a noncompetitive specialty, then DO is fine and you’ll save $180,000 which will buy you a nice house. It’s also very close to your home which is a big bonus. But if you want to subspecialize or specialize, esp. in something competitive, then the MD route is the best. It’s not a guarantee, but at least it won’t be closed off to you in the beginning. That being said, if your niece is someone who will get homesick easily, wants a good study-life balance, doesn’t want to rush things, then UMKC’s program is not worth it, esp. if it will irreparably destroy her performance, which will be hard to recover from.
The ones who got the more competitive residencies coming from UMKC were the ones who were usually at the top of their game and cream of the crop of an already high achieving class. They were the types who were HS class valedictorians/salutatorians, had several acceptances at other more prestigious BS/MD programs but chose UMKC. They might take a year off to do research somewhere else (although this doesn’t guarantee squat). They are very much outliers on the curve and an exception to the rule. I wouldn’t base my matriculation decision on an outlier.
That’s different from other medical medical schools in which being at the very top of your class or AOA is nowhere close to being a requirement for competitive specialties, bc their med school is known to put out good graduates in general and have more opportunities and resources: WashU, Baylor, Brown, Northwestern, UPitt (all of which have BS/MD programs, by the way). These places have higher average USMLE Step 1 scores than UMKC which is not surprising.
I’ve known people who were top of their class and AOA trying to get a very competitive residency and came up short and went for something less competitive later. Would these people have gotten their competitive specialty if they went to a higher tier med school? Most likely yes.
