Is Podiatry still a viable option ?

[Mapper]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum ( been visiting for a while though). I am having new doubts about podiatry school and I'm hoping you guys can help me out.
Here is my situation:

I recently graduated from a top 10 public university with a bachelors in a field related to computer science. I have options regarding jobs. I can get a job with a starting salary of 50-60k.

I have been interested in the field for several years now. I've been shadowing a Pod for a few years now and the work he does it great ( he is a older guy though). I have not finished my prereqs because it was tough to fit them in with my major. I have 4 prereqs left.

Here is what I'm worried about:

I have been hearing so much negative talk online in different areas about students not getting matched or getting jobs that only pay starting 70k. I feel like that pay would not be worth the debt.

I like the field a lot, but I keep thinking about losing 10 years of money and time only to build up a lot of debt and getting paid very little.

Thanks in advance for the help.

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[Sweatshirt]

I don't have much time but here's my 2 cents real fast. If you love medicine and podiatry more, do that. If you love computer science more, do that. You'll have to figure that out yourself. It would suck to pick a job and be unhappy for the rest of your life.

About residencies... It's been the growing consensus that the residency shortage has been resolved/will be resolved in a few years. Also, if you have a decent GPA, pass boards, and act normal, it shouldn't be hard to get a residency position

And that 70k thing is beyond false. It may be true for a 1% of graduates, but 100K-ish is normal to start out. Check out the podiatry residents and physicians forums. There's a pretty recent thread that has a lot of good and true talk about starting salary and salary ranges

 

[Zaiko]

I agree with Sweatshirt in that if you've shadowed and had interest for years now and you feel you heart is in it, that is a good indicator. I would advise since you're choosing a field that will be at least 7 years of training, shadow other podiatrists and get a feel for what they do and their opinions (younger and older). On the residency issue, while the 2015 match rate was pretty good for the graduating class, I would say we are still not sure how that will all pan out in the years to come. You still have to take into account that the future classes (2016, 2017 etc) may still run into an issue. Their class sizes going into match may be larger not to mention the few from previous classes that may get spots as well. While there are some new spots opening up there are also some that are downsizing as well so the net gain isn't that much. And on the last issue about income, I wouldn't say that the 70k thing is completely false rather not the full truth. If you are very particular about you location (ie. saturated cities) you may be looking at that. 70k may be the base pay and bonus structure may allow that to increase to a little over 100k in some instances. But like other threads have mentioned, the 100k offers are out there with some even starting in the upper 100k to low 200k.

At the end of the day as mentioned earlier, being that it is a 7 year commitment for training and potential salary loss you and anyone else must assess what will truly make you happy. Financially speaking run your numbers too. Just to kindof lowball it:

4 years of school= -200k (quitting your current job)
-250k (school loans +interest)

 

[HappyHobPod]

I have been hearing so much negative talk online in different areas about students not getting matched or getting jobs that only pay starting 70k. I feel like that pay would not be worth the debt.

If you are very particular about you location (ie. saturated cities) you may be looking at that. 70k may be the base pay and bonus structure may allow that to increase to a little over 100k in some instances.

Yes that $70k is most definitely a base salary in, like Zaiko said, what could be a saturated area and without taking bonus pay into consideration, which could drive your income up considerably depending on how many patients you see, does not reflect your net income. There are more opportunities out there starting at higher base salaries. You just need to figure out where you want to live and what kind of work you want to have (private practice vs hospital vs multidisciplinary group). These factors can highly influence your income. And that base salary could very well increase after your first or second year depending, again, on the type of work setting you are in. Check out this thread https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/current-salary.1171620/ It has some very good information regarding your potential income.

 

[PodasaurusRex]

Here's the way I look at it. The whole residency shortage is incredibly blown out of proportion. Roughly 2800 allopathic medical students did not land a residency in their match in the year 2000. Last year close to 1000 allopathic med students didn't land a residency. Improvement? Yep, but they, as well, still have this worry. The same goes for pod med. If my memory serves me correctly around 7% of podiatric med students didn't match a couple years ago, so around 45 students. This percentage is just slightly over what it was for an MD student. It just seems like such a huge deal because we're a much smaller, sometimes unknown, community of med students. Of course it's going to look like so much of a bigger issue. Our student pool is literally less than 1/4 of MD students alone. The point I'm making is that in any of our health professions there is this chance, but it just comes with the territory. Its quite obvious some schools do admit applicants that are not made to be in a medical school environment, which makes sense that some people aren't getting a residency. If you excelled in undergrad, hit all of your milestones (MCAT, EC's, etc.) there should be no issue finding a residency that is right for you. And you might hear that story from some guy on SDN who was top of his class, did everything right and supposedly didn't get matched, I call BS. Some people like to think the world is against them and I believe that's the case with these situations. From what I've read on here and experienced in my shadowing experiences the job outlook is so bright and the horrendously low numbers have not once made sense. I think what's said by Sweatshirt as the super low salaries being around 1% is probably accurate. Have people ever thought maybe that doc that's pulling 70k a year is a part-time stay at home mom or dad that works 3 days a week doing general care? Moral of the story is if you know your strengths and weaknesses and know what is expected of you, there is no reason podiatry wouldn't be there perfect field for someone that wants to be a physician and surgeon.

 

[Mapper]

Thank you guys for the help. Definitely puts my mind at ease.