The Best Osteopathic Medical Schools: DO School Rankings List (2024)
/Which are the best DO schools? Explore top-ranked osteopathic medical programs and the best strategies to increase your admissions odds
the us news and world report rankings can help us answer the question “Which are the best do schools?”
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Part 1: Introduction
Your heart is set on becoming a physician. You’re taking medical school prerequisites and working on your extracurricular requirements. But as you start compiling your med school list, you’re intrigued by osteopathic medical schools, or DO programs. You begin to wonder, should you apply to DO programs? And if so, which ones?
We’ve devoted an entire guide to the differences between MD and DO programs, so we won’t spend too much time comparing the merits of each degree here. But we will help you determine if a DO program is the right fit for you.
Maybe you’re considering DO programs for the first time and don’t know where to start. Or perhaps you already know you want to go into osteopathic medicine, but you’re not sure which programs to apply to and how to make yourself a competitive applicant.
To help you reach the next stage in your medical journey, in this article we’ve provided:
A discussion of who should apply to DO programs
Admissions strategies you can use to improve your odds of getting accepted to these competitive programs
A list of the best osteopathic medical schools
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Part 2: Who should consider osteopathic medical schools?
Osteopathic medical schools attract promising applicants every year because they teach a holistic approach to medicine. For many students, the specialized focuses on prevention, the body’s ability to heal itself, and the patient as a whole are exactly what they’re looking for in their medical training.
The majority of osteopathic med school graduates become primary care physicians in rural areas, even though DO physicians have the same opportunities to specialize as MD physicians do. This is because the philosophy of osteopathic medicine is most applicable to a primary care practice.
But not every DO physician becomes a rural primary care doctor, so even if that’s not your career goal, an osteopathic medical school could still be a good choice for you.
Bear in mind, however, that when it comes to the most competitive medical specialties, DO graduates have a harder time matching into residencies than their MD counterparts. While overall match rates are fairly close (91.6 percent for DO seniors vs. 93.7 percent for MD seniors in 2023), a significantly higher percentage of DO grads go into primary care.
One of the most distinguishing factors of DO physicians is that they receive 200 hours of specialized osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). This is a set of techniques used to treat and prevent illness or injury by stretching and applying pressure to patients’ muscles and joints. In practice, OMT can seem similar to chiropractic techniques, but instead of just fixing a patient’s alignment, OMT also treats health problems like asthma, migraines, and sinus disorders, to name a few. In some cases, OMT works as a replacement for drugs or surgery. This treatment method attracts many students to osteopathic medical schools because they’re interested in exploring more natural, holistic approaches to healing.
Holistic medicine takes a big-picture approach by looking beyond the diagnosis and treatment of disease. If you’re passionate about improving community health and preventing disease, a DO program will provide the training to help you pursue those aims in your medical career.
Beyond the emphasis on holistic medicine, osteopathic medical schools appeal to premed students with low stats because they have a better chance of getting accepted to a DO program than an MD program (more on this later). So if your stats aren’t quite competitive enough for allopathic medical schools, applying to DO programs gives you an option to continue pursuing a medical degree instead of taking a gap year to enroll in a post-bacc or retaking the MCAT to improve your stats before reapplying.
However, an osteopathic medical school might not be a great fit for you if you’ve dreamed of attending a medical program attached to a prestigious university or a large medical center. Because many DO programs are aimed at training rural primary care physicians, they’re located in the midst of the rural communities their graduates are meant to serve. You’ll spend more of your clinical rotations in community clinics than acclaimed hospitals. And you won’t find DO programs attached to Ivies or highly selective undergraduate institutions.
That doesn’t mean osteopathic medical schools offer inferior training or produce second-rate physicians. As we’ve mentioned, the approach to medicine is different—not better or worse. But if the name or prestige of your medical school is a key factor in which program you decide to pursue, you’re better off looking at top-ranked MD programs.
It’s important to note that many premed students apply to both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. So if you’re still not sure if an MD or DO program would be better for you, we’d suggest you apply to a mix of both.
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Part 3: Osteopathic medical school admissions strategies
In this section, we’ll explore the admissions strategies—beyond having competitive stats—that will help you increase your chances of getting accepted to a DO program.
Demonstrate interest for holistic medicine through your extracurriculars
DO programs require the same medical school extracurricular activities that MD programs do, including shadowing, research, volunteering, and patient experience. But to be an impressive candidate, you need to convince admissions committees that you’re truly interested in osteopathic medicine—not just looking for an easier route to becoming a physician because you have less competitive stats.
You can demonstrate your passion for holistic medicine while fulfilling your volunteer and community service requirements. You might volunteer to teach healthy living or nutrition classes at your local library. If you have your heart set on pediatrics, become a volunteer at an after-school physical activity program. Look for other opportunities in your community to be a health advocate or spread information about healthy lifestyles and prevention.
If possible, arrange your patient experience to take place in a holistic health clinic where you can witness holistic medicine in action. But you can apply a holistic approach to any clinical experience you gain—look beyond easing symptoms and consider how to improve patients’ overall health through better healthy living practices.
Osteopathic medical schools may not prioritize research experience as highly as MD programs, but they still expect to see that you’ve spent time in a lab. This will demonstrate your ability to understand and incorporate research findings into your practice as a DO physician. You’ll get bonus points if your research focus is related to an aspect of holistic medicine or OMT.
And don’t worry if you’re applying to both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. Weaving a holistic medicine approach through your extracurriculars will look good on MD program applications, too. Many MD physicians apply holistic principles to their practices. As long as it’s your authentic interest, you’ll impress adcoms across the board with your holistic medicine experience.
Obtain a strong letter of recommendation from a DO physician
Some osteopathic medical schools specifically require applicants to submit a letter of recommendation from a practicing DO physician. This is another way DO programs screen applicants to see if they have a true understanding of and interest in osteopathic medicine.
Shadowing a DO physician is the best way for you to obtain a strong letter of recommendation. And, you get to see how an osteopathic doctor treats patients, which will help you determine if you’re compatible with a holistic medical approach. If you have the time and ability, you could shadow both a DO and an MD physician to compare the differences in their day-to-day medical practices and see which appeals to you more.
How do you find a DO physician to shadow? Start by seeing if your own primary care doctor is a DO physician. If not, perhaps they can recommend you to a colleague or another doctor in their practice. You can also use an online directory of Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine to find potential physicians to shadow.
(Suggested reading: How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor)
Express your passion for osteopathic medicine in your personal statement
Your med school personal statement—whether you apply to osteopathic medical school, allopathic, or both—should include your reasons for pursuing medicine, the experiences that led you to a medical career, and evidence for why you’ll be a successful physician. We offer an in-depth look at crafting your statement in our guide to writing medical school personal statements.
Since many students apply to both MD and DO programs, it’s tempting to use the same personal statement for both applications. And, certainly, using the same anecdotes or theme is a smart way to save you time and effort. But be careful about just adding “holistic” throughout your MD personal statement in an attempt to demonstrate your interest in osteopathic medicine—adcoms will see right through you.
Osteopathic medical schools want to see your interest in becoming an osteopathic doctor specifically, not just that you’re applying because DO programs are easier to get accepted to than MD programs. If you’ve committed to the above strategies of gaining holistic and osteopathic medical exposure, you’ll have plenty of meaningful experiences to pull from when writing your statement.
Craft an authentic statement focusing on the aspects of holistic medicine that appeal most strongly to you, whether that’s OMT, prevention, or treating the patient as a whole. Use anecdotes to demonstrate your exploration of and commitment to osteopathic medicine.
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Part 4: The best DO schools: rankings and admissions statistics
To help you identify which DO programs you should apply to, we compiled a list of the best osteopathic medical schools and their important admissions data.
As previously mentioned, students accepted to osteopathic med schools have lower stats than students who enter allopathic medical schools. To compare, among the 2021 entering class, the average GPA and MCAT for DO program matriculants were 3.56 and 504.64, while the averages of students enrolling in MD programs were 3.74 and 511.9.
It might surprise you that osteopathic medical schools as a whole have a lower matriculation rate—in 2021, 31.22 percent of osteopathic applicants eventually matriculated vs. 36.3 percent of allopathic applicants. This is because there are only 40 accredited DO programs, compared to the 150+ MD programs available. With far fewer DO seats available, the competition is still fierce to get accepted, so you’ve got to make yourself a competitive applicant.
And just because the class profiles of DO programs are a little lower than MD programs, don’t think osteopathic medical schools are of lower quality. Of the 40 DO programs, 15 landed in the top 130 medical schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report according to research reputation. So if you want to become a DO physician, you have many respected programs to choose from.
Below, you’ll find the 2023 U.S. News rankings, plus relevant statistics, for the best DO schools.
Final thoughts
If you’re passionate about treating patients holistically and practicing preventative medicine, attending an osteopathic medical school is the perfect choice for you. By employing the admissions strategies we’ve provided, you’ll increase your admissions odds of getting accepted to one of the best osteopathic medical schools available and beginning a bright career in medicine.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
THERE'S NO REASON TO STRUGGLE THROUGH THE MED SCHOOL ADMISSIONS PROCESS ALONE, ESPECIALLY WITH SO MUCH ON THE LINE. SCHEDULE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION TO ENSURE YOU LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE.