Career Help!

[Purdue]

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I am currently entering my senior year at Purdue University majoring in Health Science, minor in Forensic Science, I volunteer in the ED at the local hospital and have shadowed various MD's, DO's, and DPM's along the way. I have taken a leadership role in my fraternity and have participated in several clubs and intramurals. My GPA is a 3.3 and projected to increase this last year, and I take the MCAT in one week. I am not 100% definite on going to pod school as I still desire to be an MD. I am considering doing a masters to better my credentials for allopathy but then being a year or two behind and more money spent.

After reading many of the posts, it seems I have a fair chance of getting into a pod school but if I apply now and go that route, I assume I will always have that "what if" thought in the back of my head of going to med school.

I know I'm the one that has to make the decision but can anyone offer some unbiased input of what they would do in my situation. Any comments and criticisms are welcome, I won't be upset haha.

 

[msa786]

Why not apply to both types of schools and see what happens?

Personally, if your not 100% sure about being a pod, then your going to take the spot of a person who probably really wants to enter pod school. Shadow a pod for awhile and see if this is really what you want to do.

 

[ckjets]

I am currently entering my senior year at Purdue University majoring in Health Science, minor in Forensic Science, I volunteer in the ED at the local hospital and have shadowed various MD's, DO's, and DPM's along the way. I have taken a leadership role in my fraternity and have participated in several clubs and intramurals. My GPA is a 3.3 and projected to increase this last year, and I take the MCAT in one week. I am not 100% definite on going to pod school as I still desire to be an MD. I am considering doing a masters to better my credentials for allopathy but then being a year or two behind and more money spent.

After reading many of the posts, it seems I have a fair chance of getting into a pod school but if I apply now and go that route, I assume I will always have that "what if" thought in the back of my head of going to med school.

I know I'm the one that has to make the decision but can anyone offer some unbiased input of what they would do in my situation. Any comments and criticisms are welcome, I won't be upset haha.

Pod School should not be a backup for having not made med school. If one thing bothers me about admissions of pod schools, is that they do not detect this even when its obvious, or they simply ignore it (I don't know). If you do not love pod school than teach urself to love it when shadowing a DPM (apparently you have and still are unsure) , or you will hate it in while in school and then for the rest of ur life. Do not apply just as a backup. Dentistry use to be not so competitive years ago, and many dentists hate their profession.

For now, Pod Schools are not competitive and will even give you a scholarship for ur gpa, but if you do not like it and will wonder the whatifs of med school, then u should not even try. better ur gpa and apply to med school. Do not trust me; let mighty air bud guide you 😉

 

[PADPM]

I don't agree that you should "learn" to love/like the profession of podiatry. However, I do agree that podiatry should not be a second choice or default profession.

If you are not happy with your career choice from the start, you have a very strong chance of spending many unhappy years in your profession and being a "self-hating" DPM.

It's a much wiser decision to pursue your goal for whatever your first choice happens to be, whether it's an MD degree, DPM degree or dental degree. But don't compromise with your future.

 

[ldsrmdude]

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!" John Greenleaf Whittier

It seems like you are pretty sure that you will always wonder what might have been. That's not a good place to be, for you or for those of us who are satisfied with our choice. My advice would be to apply MD/DO (your stats are probably good enough to get into a program somewhere) and if that doesn't work, try for the masters degree. No matter what you choose, best of luck!👍

 

[spo01]

This is a VERY common concern. Your problem seems to be "I'm afraid of not getting into MD school and wasting precious years and money" as opposed to "I'm not sure if I want to do MD or Podiatry". It's understandable especially since your GPA is already low for MD and there is not much room for a drastic increase since you're already a senior. Bottom line is if you do your masters and shoot for the MD and fail you will be unhappy and eventually get over it... but if you truly want to go MD but don't even try and settle for something else out of fear of failure the 'what if' will haunt you for the rest of your life. There is MD (United States), DO, and Carribbean MD.....you will get into one of them for sure so don't let failure influence your decision. You just have to find what interests you the most.