MCAT 2015 is going to change Podiatry

[PsychPod]

MCAT 2015 is going to change podiatry.... for the better.

Soon the MCAT is going to become harder, considerably harder. Which sounds like a bad thing for some, but for the majority it should be seen as a step to creating a better podiatric medical landscape.

With a harder MCAT, we will see more lower tiered/unqualified md/do students looking for a possible outlet to still pursue medicine, while having not as good MCAT to get in to where they would like to. This will create where these potential DO/MD applicants will flood Dental/Podiatry schools with applications. When this happens the average DPM student will have to have better scores/ECs/MCAT than the do now and create classes of students with goals of maxing out the medical potential (residency/fellowship/etc) and will be more Type A personality guys.

This means when we have better qualified graduates (not saying currents one's aren't saying they COULD be better) we have a better chance at increasing scope of practice, autonomy within scope of practice and overall respect from the community as a whole.

Honestly feel the MCAT 2015 is going to change a lot. The AACPM and APMA could use this time to really push podiatric medicine into the forefront of thought for pre-health students applying post 2015.

TL;DR

MCAT 2015 will make better applicants apply for podiatry school, increasing the average quality of podiatry graduate and creating more autonomy/respect in the community.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hughesn2]

But at the same time like you said in another thread "It really bothers me that Podiatry is a back up for people." There will be several people that get rejected from MD and DO schools because they got a lower score and they will fall back on podiatry instead.

I think the change in the MCAT will be hard for the admissions committees simply because they will have to figure out their new range of scores for applicants. Yes, the MCAT is based on percentile and not score, so it will be confusing as to how they set the percentiles in the first year of the new test.

It will increase the quality in the applicants, but at the same time it could easily lead to more and more DO or MD rejects. Again, nobody knows the future.

 

[heybrother]

We already have a test that is plenty hard, that does a great job stratifying people, and that podiatry students don't practice for/study for/and in general suck at. This change is great for the people who make study materials and it may benefit people who take upper level science classes rather than the minimum pre-reqs. It also has some sort of new sociology-soft-science section so I guess people can demonstrate their "humanity" through the answering of multiple-choice questions.

 

[PsychPod]

But at the same time like you said in another thread "It really bothers me that Podiatry is a back up for people." There will be several people that get rejected from MD and DO schools because they got a lower score and they will fall back on podiatry instead.

I think the change in the MCAT will be hard for the admissions committees simply because they will have to figure out their new range of scores for applicants. Yes, the MCAT is based on percentile and not score, so it will be confusing as to how they set the percentiles in the first year of the new test.

It will increase the quality in the applicants, but at the same time it could easily lead to more and more DO or MD rejects. Again, nobody knows the future.

As much as I hate it that podiatry is a back up, it's more about the fact that it has no respect for pre-health and general society. I think the best fact of having possible more MD/DO rejects, then we will see an uptick in the quality of students, maybe not an incredible amount but enough that I think we will see a noticeable difference in the quality (i.e. probably an increase of .2ish on the average GPAs and considerable MCAT points).

With better graduates, create better doctors which creates a better perception of podiatrists in general.

I'll agree it'll be difficult at first. In a way I could see the initial change (classes starting in 2016 and 2017) will actually maybe have lower requirements in terms of MCAT then previous, but I guess we will all see in a couple years.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

@PsychPod ... If the MCAT becomes harder, the average (or median) score for accepted applicants will be lower across all fields (MD/DO and pod); therefore, applicants will still be able to get into their chosen field with lower score than before... Besides, the score is also reported in percentile, so nothing will really change...

 

[LittleMopeHead]

“Things are changing, but nothing changes. And still there are changes” - Enigma