which college should i goto

recently I couldnt make up my mind about what college I should go to. I want to become a physician and I was accepted to New Paltz bs/do program and cornell biology undergraduate program. What makes this descision complicated is that if I goto Cornell It would take me 8 years to become a doctor, but if I goto New paltz it would take me 7. Which college should I goto??

New Paltz has a combined degree program with a medical school? It will take an additional 3-7 years of residency after medical school to become an independent doctor.

Can you cut and paste the BS/do criteria? These combined programs often have stringent criteria.

Are your goals to become a primary physician?

If you attend Cornell and don’t become a physician, will you regret it, or can you imagine working in industry with a Cornell degree?

What’s the net cost* at each and what is your budget?

  • (Tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = net cost DO NOT deduct any loans.

Its an osteopathic school NYIT. The tuition doesnt make a difference for me.

@mansou123443 : can you please answer the questions in #2?

Are you saying your parents make more than 300K a year and have offered to pay everything for college AND med school (that’s half a million dollars)?

So you are planning to be a physician. A career as a doctor is going to take a lot of critical thinking skills. How about you put those in practice to help you make this decision.

The first step is to gather all the relevant data. Costs, costs after scholarships and financial aid, total amounts of loans. Next, do some basic research and come up with a list of pros and cons.

Then write a coherent post with correct spelling and grammar outlining the advantages and disadvantages. Only then, consider a set of well-posed questions for which you still need some outside advice.

cornell

If you are absolutely committed to becoming a physician, and the money works for you to attend New Paltz, and the admission to the DO program is pretty much guaranteed, then that is where you want to go. A DO does not absolutely restrict you to family practice/general medicine. You will be applying to residencies along with the MD graduates. The folks at New Paltz can tell you which residencies have accepted their graduates in recent years.

If you aren’t absolutely committed and the money is better at Cornell, then depending on just how much better, you probably want Cornell.

If you aren’t absolutely committed, and the money is worse at Cornell, then depending on just how big a difference there is, you might want New Paltz.

Not committed, money no better or worse at either place, then your choice can be based on your potential major, the food, the distance from home, or any other random factor(s) you choose.

To crunch the numbers for the undergrad degrees, start here: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletter.phtml

How were you admitted to Cornell when it’s only February? Unless you’re talking about Cornell College and not Cornell University?

You should aim at the BS/MD programs. The New Paltz BS/DO program has a GPA and MCAT requirements. If you did better than the requirements, you will apply for MD schools, so the DO admits is not an issue. If you want graduate DO one year early because the New Paltz program is a 7 year program, that might be the incentive, but a MD degree is much better than a DO degree. The one year advantage does not mean too much when all others considered.

My vote will be Cornell University, because if you change your mind a Cornell U degree is much better than New Paltz. If it is Cornell College, IA, is a different matter.

@artloversplus - What specific evidence to you have that an MD degree is better than a DO? Can you point the OP to residency placement or medical practice hiring statistics?

Yes, there are several issues behind DO school graduates, although it looks like both MD and DO have the same opportunity in become a physician.

I can summarize the disadvantages of a DO school students/graduates as follows.

  1. DO students have a 200 hour additional requirements in OMM classes. Time spend on this technique will be wasted if you have no intention to use it. Time also is wasted in OMM prep for COMLEX.
  2. DO students are required to take all COMLEX tests, in the mean time, better specialty residencies are mostly NOT offered by AOA it is offered by AAMC, so as of now, a DO student want AAMC residency must also take USMLE. The fully merge of AOA and AAMC residency in 2020 may obscure the line between MD and DO further, but the prejudice is going to linger for a LONG time.
  3. Certain top residency programs have not taken DO graduates in its whole life span, no matter how good a DO student is.
  4. DO schools are mostly geared for primary care physicians. I know some MD schools also have that in their objective, but all DO programs are more focused on primary care by design. Case in point, several years ago, A D of my friend, she wanted to get into a California OB/GYN program as an DO, as she applied for her residency, she realized that there was only ONE AOA OB/GYN program in San Bernardino, it was too hard to get in, so she settled for a primary care residency. Recently, she won the "Best Physician of the Year" honor in her hospital.
  5. Salary differences for primary care and a highly competitive specialty could be 3 folded. The earning difference is more so when in private practice, may up to 10x. A friend of mine who ran 3 successful ENT offices could afford a 20 BED ROOMs mansion on a 40 acre land near NEW YORK City, his 200 guests party included the Governor of NJ. Whereas a private practice primary care physician of mine could only buy a standard 4 bed room house in New Jersey.

Sorry it is called ACGME and AOA residency merger.

http://medstudentstories.merckmanuals.com/residency-merger-the-impact-on-current-med-students/

@TheGr8Gatsby I apologize for my mistake in saying that I have been accepted to Cornell, I haven’t yet. I just wanted to make up my mind, if i do get accepted.

I really dont care about the whole DO philosophy, what I really care about is becoming a surgeon.