DPM Students with High Admissions Stats

[Grant1357]

I am a pre-medical student with a significant interest in podiatry. I have shadowed various physicians of many differing fields, but found podiatry the most interesting, by-far. Not at all to smear the profession, but I know many of the applicants of podiatric medical school typically do so because they couldn't get into MD/DO programs. I have the stats to get into some MD/DO programs (cGPA = 3.85; sGPA = 3.81; MCAT practice test scores have ranged typically between 507-511, take the actual test in a month), and many of my family members and friends want me to go this route, but I really want to pursue a career in podiatry.

My question for current podiatry students, whether they were in the same position as I am during the application process or not, do you stand by your choice of going to podiatric medical school after being there for some time now, and is it a profession you are thoroughly excited to be a part of?

Thank you

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[DexterMorganSK]

Can you talk a little more about why you want to pursue this field?

As in, what made you decide to become a specialist in the lower extremities vs going through the traditional route to becoming a "general" physician?

 

[Grant1357]

Can you talk a little more about why you want to pursue this field?

As in, what made you decide to become a specialist in the lower extremities vs going through the traditional route to becoming a "general" physician?

Shadowing podiatrists entertained me significantly more than any other specialty, as the podiatrists I shadowed saw an incredible amount of diversity in the cases they saw. When shadowing other specialties, however, I saw constant repetition of the cases and became bored over time. I recognize that podiatrists also see a lot of the same cases on a regular basis, but their scope of practice covers so many different fields of medicine (dermatological, pathology, wound care, surgery, etc.).

In addition to this, the quality of life associated with podiatry is also a huge plus in my eyes. For the most part, podiatrists work regular 9-5 schedules, which gives them the ability to have a family and social life outside of their profession, something that is very important to me. I know this isn't always the case and many podiatrists do work long hours or are on call at odd hours of the night, but the likelihood of a set schedule and working in private practice is much higher than that of many other medical specialties.

Lastly, my ability to be a surgeon following my residency, regardless of where that residency is, is incredibly attractive. Many surgical residencies in the MD/DO route are incredibly competitive, while every podiatric medical student is required to become a trained surgeon via their residency programs.

 

[GypsyHummus]

I’d take a look at the pod practicing form s to see about the pod hour lifestyle. It’s not all 9-5 as you would believe.

With MD school, surgery is a real possibility, but DO school, especially with the massive expansion of DO schools now, it’s gonna be tough to match anything but primary care.

I’ve met a lot of people who picked podiatry over a DO acceptance. I have yet to meet someone who had an MD acceptance and picked Pod.

Shadowing podiatrists entertained me significantly more than any other specialty, as the podiatrists I shadowed saw an incredible amount of diversity in the cases they saw. When shadowing other specialties, however, I saw constant repetition of the cases and became bored over time. I recognize that podiatrists also see a lot of the same cases on a regular basis, but their scope of practice covers so many different fields of medicine (dermatological, pathology, wound care, surgery, etc.).

In addition to this, the quality of life associated with podiatry is also a huge plus in my eyes. For the most part, podiatrists work regular 9-5 schedules, which gives them the ability to have a family and social life outside of their profession, something that is very important to me. I know this isn't always the case and many podiatrists do work long hours or are on call at odd hours of the night, but the likelihood of a set schedule and working in private practice is much higher than that of many other medical specialties.

Lastly, my ability to be a surgeon following my residency, regardless of where that residency is, is incredibly attractive. Many surgical residencies in the MD/DO route are incredibly competitive, while every podiatric medical student is required to become a trained surgeon via their residency programs.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Shadowing podiatrists entertained me significantly more than any other specialty, as the podiatrists I shadowed saw an incredible amount of diversity in the cases they saw. When shadowing other specialties, however, I saw constant repetition of the cases and became bored over time. I recognize that podiatrists also see a lot of the same cases on a regular basis, but their scope of practice covers so many different fields of medicine (dermatological, pathology, wound care, surgery, etc.).

In addition to this, the quality of life associated with podiatry is also a huge plus in my eyes. For the most part, podiatrists work regular 9-5 schedules, which gives them the ability to have a family and social life outside of their profession, something that is very important to me. I know this isn't always the case and many podiatrists do work long hours or are on call at odd hours of the night, but the likelihood of a set schedule and working in private practice is much higher than that of many other medical specialties.

Lastly, my ability to be a surgeon following my residency, regardless of where that residency is, is incredibly attractive. Many surgical residencies in the MD/DO route are incredibly competitive, while every podiatric medical student is required to become a trained surgeon via their residency programs.

Those are all good reasons to chose Podiatry as your profession. Based on your current stats, you will be accepted with great scholarships (granted an MCAT score of 500+).

To answer your original question, while I did not have the same stats as you, I did have options to pursue other fields, but I chose Podiatry over them for many of the reasons you listed above. And, I happy to say I made a good decision (but I'm in the first year so hopefully I'm still positive few years down the line). After you take the MCAT, I suggest you shadow physicians in other areas of medicine such as those in EM, Anes, general surgery, plastic surgery, etc. Like Gypsy mentioned above, Podiatry will not always be the 9-5 hour work life, especially if you're doing surgery (read everything you can in the pod resident forum here). In addition, opening your own clinic as an IM/FM doc will also give you the hours and the "life" you are looking for (without some of the limitations you might face as a Pod). Read over the limitations you might face as a Pod vs any other specialty in medicine.

To summarize, becoming a DPM will take 7 years, it also takes roughly 7 years to become an IM doc, but I made my decision based on shadowing both fields, and I suggest you do the same.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

I am a pre-medical student with a significant interest in podiatry. I have shadowed various physicians of many differing fields, but found podiatry the most interesting, by-far. Not at all to smear the profession, but I know many of the applicants of podiatric medical school typically do so because they couldn't get into MD/DO programs. I have the stats to get into some MD/DO programs (cGPA = 3.85; sGPA = 3.81; MCAT practice test scores have ranged typically between 507-511, take the actual test in a month), and many of my family members and friends want me to go this route, but I really want to pursue a career in podiatry.

My question for current podiatry students, whether they were in the same position as I am during the application process or not, do you stand by your choice of going to podiatric medical school after being there for some time now, and is it a profession you are thoroughly excited to be a part of?

Thank you

My advice is to ask current practicing podiatrists on this forum. It seems like it’s all rosy during school and residency, but that afterwards your eyes become opened up to the reality of the profession.

 

[de Ribas]

My advice is to ask current practicing podiatrists on this forum. It seems like it’s all rosy during school and residency, but that afterwards your eyes become opened up to the reality of the profession.

I think it is a good advice to do. But, I have seen similar complaints from MDs/DOs. There are people in every profession that don't like something. Any healthcare professions will be stressful and not without issues. I hope everyone who goes to medicine realizes that and has a realistic approach and open mind. Even being MD/DO is not that rosy. Pre-meds tend to think that MD cardiologist or brain surgeon are all about wearing nice suits and white coats and getting praise in the public and get paid ton of money just talking with patients.

Not exactly like that.

Similar with podiatry.

 

[de Ribas]

There are 15,000 practicing podiatrists and only 3-5 podiatrist that are on SDN that regularly participate. Not a good size sample to represent the whole field.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

There are 15,000 practicing podiatrists and only 3-5 podiatrist that are on SDN that regularly participate. Not a good size sample to represent the whole field.

^^ this is what I referred to. To me, it seems like more complaints are heard from medical STUDENTS and then once they get in the work force, most like it. A lot of the pods I’ve shadowed loved it in school and residency, but then felt like their job prospects after residency were wayyy under what they were qualified to do. They didn’t feel like they were able to practice to their full scope. It’s a different complain than MD/DO who complain about paperwork and work hours.

 

[GypsyHummus]

I think generally while people end up “settling” for podiatry, they end up liking it. I mean think about it, what doctors would come to the forum on the first place? The ones that either A) really love the profession or B) don’t like it. There aren’t a lot of in betweeners that are like “much better than working in coorperate America, but it’s still just a job”.

For what it’s worth, every doctor has told me dentistry is the way to go, even if they like medicine/podiatry. On the flip side, I’ve heard no one recommend pharmacy.

^^ this is what I referred to. To me, it seems like more complaints are heard from medical STUDENTS and then once they get in the work force, most like it. A lot of the pods I’ve shadowed loved it in school and residency, but then felt like their job prospects after residency were wayyy under what they were qualified to do. They didn’t feel like they were able to practice to their full scope. It’s a different complain than MD/DO who complain about paperwork and work hours.

 

[de Ribas]

’ve heard no one recommend pharmacy.

So, here on SDN I hear a lot how pharmacy is oversaturated and such. And like you say people do not recommend it and complain about it. But then more schools open, people are applying and so on. I don't get why people then still go for pharmacy of it's so bad out there. Doesn't make sense.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

For what it’s worth, every doctor has told me dentistry is the way to go, even if they like medicine/podiatry. On the flip side, I’ve heard no one recommend pharmacy.

I found this out too, until I started talking to recently graduated dentists haha. Having to pay 70-80k a year for tuition only, and then needing to take out another half million to buy a practice seems like the dental golden days are past.

Point I’m trying to make in my posts is: don’t chase what everyone tells you to chase. Find out what you want to do and just do it. If you wanna be a podiatrist then go for it. Doesn’t matter if your stats are super high. It’s a personal decision for everyone, and was a hard one for me to make. I took the DAT and had a good score, decided to take the MCAT and did average, so I had to decide what I really wanted to do for my profession. And now that I’ve been honest with myself I am pumped! So go with what YOU wanna do.

 

[de Ribas]

Although it's true that it's not all roses for MD/DO's. They do have WAYYYYY more leeway in terms of job prospects. A U.S. trained physician can go anywhere in the WORLD and be guaranteed a high paying salary. You want to move to Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, or work at a mining hospital in central Africa.....Easy peasy. (My cousin is a physician that went to Kansas Univ. SOM, did his IM residency, and moved to Africa).

We don't have that luxury (with the exception of Dubai I guess lol). For us, we have to be concerned with if we will ever get a high paying job at all. That's a huge "load on our shoulders" that we have, on top of everything else MD/DO's deal with.

The concerns for MD/DO has more to do with hours worked and bureaucracy (charting/paperwork/admin). Not being able to find a gig in the first place for 6-figures.

First, how many people are really concerned about their degree getting accepted in other parts of the world. Its really not a major concern from my perspective. If someone plans to move out of US, then maybe they should go with MD. From what I know, DO is not accepted worldwide either.

There are countries like UK, Australia, New Zealand Post Soviet union and some European countries that have podiatrists. I think even South African places.

wayyy under what they were qualified to do.

I somewhat agree with that. But realistically, all med school graduates have gone through the same education and rotation requirements and yet some MDs still settle with peds or FM and spend the rest of their career sitting in small clinics seeing tons of patients every 15 minutes. How isn't that not doing what you are qualified to do. I think people end up where they usually need to end up. People who get good gigs are the ones that work hard. Even if you are an MD. People think that if you are an MD then everything follows fall at your knees. Not exactly true. Not every MD ends up with the best pay, best position or specialty and schedule.

 

[de Ribas]

Point I’m trying to make in my posts is: don’t chase what everyone tells you to chase. Find out what you want to do and just do it.

This is exactly what I am trying to say. People have to do their own research on pros and cons, shadow, and do what they feel is best for them. There is no single profession that can be absolutely perfect. Every individual is different. Everyone has their own preferences, needs and abilities.

So, one should do where they will fit the best.

 

[de Ribas]

A U.S. trained physician can go anywhere in the WORLD and be guaranteed a high paying salary.

Africa

I doubt you can have high paying jobs in most of the Africa.

 

[de Ribas]

Posted by James Burruano, DPM in January this year on PT

"I am the Chief Medical Officer at Neighborhood Health center, a FQHC primary care center in Western New York. We see over 99,000 patient visits a year and are having a tough time recruiting podiatrists full-time. While we offer a terrific salary and benefits package, there are just not enough qualified podiatrists available who are looking for employment. There is certainly a need for more podiatrists for an aging population and for the primary care providers looking to refer to podiatry."

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Posted by James Burruano, DPM in January this year on PT

"I am the Chief Medical Officer at Neighborhood Health center, a FQHC primary care center in Western New York. We see over 99,000 patient visits a year and are having a tough time recruiting podiatrists full-time. While we offer a terrific salary and benefits package, there are just not enough qualified podiatrists available who are looking for employment. There is certainly a need for more podiatrists for an aging population and for the primary care providers looking to refer to podiatry."

No one is saying there aren’t jobs... just that the jobs have a lot of pods doing stuff they are over qualified for. It seems the training has advanced faster than actual jobs for most graduates. While it does exist for some DO/MD graduates, it seems to be a lot more prevalent in podiatry.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

First, how many people are really concerned about their degree getting accepted in other parts of the world. Its really not a major concern from my perspective. If someone plans to move out of US, then maybe they should go with MD. From what I know, DO is not accepted worldwide either.

There are countries like UK, Australia, New Zealand Post Soviet union and some European countries that have podiatrists. I think even South African places.


I somewhat agree with that. But realistically, all med school graduates have gone through the same education and rotation requirements and yet some MDs still settle with peds or FM and spend the rest of their career sitting in small clinics seeing tons of patients every 15 minutes. How isn't that not doing what you are qualified to do. I think people end up where they usually need to end up. People who get good gigs are the ones that work hard. Even if you are an MD. People think that if you are an MD then everything follows fall at your knees. Not exactly true. Not every MD ends up with the best pay, best position or specialty and schedule.

FM and pediatricians practice to their full scope. They aren’t trained in surgery so obviously they won’t do that. However, there are pods who go to excellent residency programs, log tons of cases, and then aren’t able to find jobs where their full scope of training is utilized.

 

[de Ribas]

No one is saying there aren’t jobs... just that the jobs have a lot of pods doing stuff they are over qualified for. It seems the training has advanced faster than actual jobs for most graduates. While it does exist for some DO/MD graduates, it seems to be a lot more prevalent in podiatry.

It's true.

 

[de Ribas]

https://www.podiatrytoday.com/if-i-had-it-do-all-over-again-would-i-still-choose-podiatry-profession

 

[de Ribas]

FM and pediatricians practice to their full scope. They aren’t trained in surgery so obviously they won’t do that. However, there are pods who go to excellent residency programs, log tons of cases, and then aren’t able to find jobs where their full scope of training is utilized.

Isn't pediatrics a specialty with a limited scope? You can't see adults at all.

 

[de Ribas]

FM and pediatricians practice to their full scope. They aren’t trained in surgery so obviously they won’t do that. However, there are pods who go to excellent residency programs, log tons of cases, and then aren’t able to find jobs where their full scope of training is utilized.

Let's look objectively,

I shadowed FM DO for a week. He did OMM only once and only to show me how it works. There goes 5 years of OMM training.

FMs are trained to do surgeries, various procedures and injections. How often on a daily basis they do this?

Again, in 1 week of shadowing I have seen 0 procedures.

FMs are trained to do deliveries. How many of them actually do it? Few?

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Let's look objectively,

I shadowed FM DO for a week. He did OMM only once and only to show me how it works. There goes 5 years of OMM training.

FMs are trained to do surgeries, various procedures and injections. How often on a daily basis they do this?

Again, in 1 week of shadowing I have seen 0 procedures.

FMs are trained to do deliveries. How many of them actually do it? Few?

Most DO students don’t like OMM. They usually only do it with family. Pediatricians go into residency knowing they will only see up to 18 years old.. so that’s their full scope of training. And it’s being utilized. No FM doc wants to do deliveries. You can look at the FM forum. Some do fellowships in OB and those that do use it. Yes you can find outliers of people who don’t use their full scope of training; I am not saying it doesn’t exist. I am saying it seems to be common in podiatry.

 

[ldsrmdude]

There are 15,000 practicing podiatrists and only 3-5 podiatrist that are on SDN that regularly participate. Not a good size sample to represent the whole field.

This is something nothing that gets forgotten. The same applies to pre-pod students and pod students. Try to get as much exposure to podiatrists in real life and take what you read on SDN with a huge grain of salt, recognizing it only represents a tiny portion of the profession. As has been mentioned, there is some self-selection in who posts here.

 

[Osminog]

Here's something to keep in mind:

56% of medical students change their preferred residency specialties prior to the completion of medical school. As a podiatry student, your residency specialty is set for you as soon as you start school; you can never switch to neurology or anesthesiology, even if you fall in love with those fields during rotations.

 

[GypsyHummus]

What else are they gonna do with a worthless biology degree?

So, here on SDN I hear a lot how pharmacy is oversaturated and such. And like you say people do not recommend it and complain about it. But then more schools open, people are applying and so on. I don't get why people then still go for pharmacy of it's so bad out there. Doesn't make sense.

 

[GypsyHummus]

Yeah, but if someone had ENT on their mind but scored a 200 on boards, that kind of puts them out of the running. So there is a soft cap on residency depending on your score.

Here's something to keep in mind:

56% of medical students change their preferred residency specialties prior to the completion of medical school. As a podiatry student, your residency specialty is set for you as soon as you start school; you can never switch to neurology or anesthesiology, even if you fall in love with those fields during rotations.

 

[Osminog]

Yeah, but if someone had ENT on their mind but scored a 200 on boards, that kind of puts them out of the running. So there is a soft cap on residency depending on your score.

For obvious reasons, you have a better chance of getting into ENT as a DO student than as a podiatry student. And general surgery is still a possibility for DOs if they go to an established program and perform pretty well.

 

[de Ribas]

Here's something to keep in mind:

56% of medical students change their preferred residency specialties prior to the completion of medical school. As a podiatry student, your residency specialty is set for you as soon as you start school; you can never switch to neurology or anesthesiology, even if you fall in love with those fields during rotations.

Are there statistics how many actually get into their top choice? Or they still just settle where they could match into their 2nd, 3rd or other choices?

 

[de Ribas]

For obvious reasons, you have a better chance of getting into ENT as a DO student than as a podiatry student. And general surgery is still a possibility for DOs if they go to an established program and perform pretty well.

From what I have seen and heard about 60% of DO students end up with primary care (Peds, FM, IM)
Other major specialties for DOs include ER, Psych, and Ob/GYN. These specialties make about about 80-90% of all DO matches. None of these specialties really attract me or people who go to podiatry.

Yea, I have seen people get matched into ENT, neurology, orthopedics and even dermatology. But those are outliers.

You know, its not hard to check. I looked at DO schools throughout midwest. You can look at their matches going years back. This is the best prediction of where you might end up if you go to that school. At one DO school (established one), I haven't seen any matches for ENT for several years. So...

 

[de Ribas]

What else are they gonna do with a worthless biology degree?

I get it. But getting another degree and getting more in dept just not to be able to find a job later isn't smart either. That's based on what people say that it's hard or not possible to find a pharmacy job.

 

[Osminog]

Are there statistics how many actually get into their top choice? Or they still just settle where they could match into their 2nd, 3rd or other choices?

Top choice specialty, you mean? I don't think there are statistics on that... but if there were, they wouldn't be reliable. People who apply to a back-up specialty tend to not be open about the fact that it's a back up.

From what I have seen and heard about 60% of DO students end up with primary care (Peds, FM, IM)
Other major specialties for DOs include ER, Psych, and Ob/GYN. These specialties make about about 80-90% of all DO matches. None of these specialties really attract me or people who go to podiatry.

Yea, I have seen people get matched into ENT, neurology, orthopedics and even dermatology. But those are outliers.

You know, its not hard to check. I looked at DO schools throughout midwest. You can look at their matches going years back. This is the best prediction of where you might end up if you go to that school. At one DO school (established one), I haven't seen any matches for ENT for several years. So...

You can't truly know which specialties are attractive to you until you do rotations. As I already said, 56% of medical students change their minds about desired specialties.

 

[de Ribas]

Top choice specialty, you mean? I don't think there are statistics on that... but if there were, they wouldn't be reliable. People who apply to a back-up specialty tend to not be open about the fact that it's a back up.

Yes, that's what I mean.

 

[UnDecided92]

I was originally a 10 year SDN member but deleted my account. I couldnt take the SDN negativity anymore. I'm crushing it. My practice is thriving and I'm super busy. Maybe I'm lucky but I always took my fathers advice: Hang out with the smart kids who dont complain a lot. It's been the best advice I ever had. All my friends are doing well too........

Just exhibit A of dozens of examples. Research for yourself, shadow podiatrists whose practices you would like to emulate and always ALWAYS take SDN posts with a grain of salt. Good luck dude/ dudette.

 

[de Ribas]

I didn't want to waste a new thread on this so I'll ask here.

I just looked at the budget for the AZ school that they have on their website. It's estimating between 330-353K total!!!!! Tuition being 192K of that.

I knew it was expensive but YOOOOO!!!!!!! haha

Split the difference at 340K. Do people actually take out that much money for podiatry? That's insane. This is supposed to be a cheaper route dam* it.

I was hoping to sneak by with 250k out the door. lol

There are 8 other schools.

Maybe AzPod does it to offset the cheaper living?

 

[GypsyHummus]

I was looking at AZPOD, and it did not cost that much. It costs about 65K/year total. 41K in tuition

Are you looking at total living allowance? THen yes, they allow you to take out 75K/year, but you dont need that much. You can get a place to live in AZ for anywhere between 600 to 1000$/month.

I didn't want to waste a new thread on this so I'll ask here.

I just looked at the budget for the AZ school that they have on their website. It's estimating between 330-353K total!!!!! Tuition being 192K of that.

I knew it was expensive but YOOOOO!!!!!!! haha

Split the difference at 340K. Do people actually take out that much money for podiatry? That's insane. This is supposed to be a cheaper route dam* it.

I was hoping to sneak by with 250k out the door. lol

 

[de Ribas]

It was on the portal for us when it had us sign the thing talking about financial aid. Tuition was a little over 44k for 2018-2019.

Even 75K a year doesn't equate to 340K lol

If tuition is 44K, then total budget would be about 75K or more.

 

[de Ribas]

Yeah F THAT!!! lol

I need to really budget this out and if it ends up more than 250K I'm freaking dropping my seat and just gonna go for ortho or derm or any other procedural field lol.


190K will be tuition and fees for all 4 year (annual increases included). That leaves 60K to live off for 4 years. I have no auto, phone, or insurance expenses (thanks mom and dad lmao). I'll do clinical rotations here in CA since we have a ton of places in socal and I can live at home (so no rent for alot of 4th year).

Do you guys think that's realistic?

On the website it says 41.9K, but their DO tuition is 65K.

DMU tuition for Pod ia 34K. Scholls is like 37K.

I'm freaking dropping my seat and just gonna go for ortho or derm or any other procedural field lol.

Do you have MD acceptance?

 

[GypsyHummus]

I would try and get into DMU with a scholarship. It will save you about 50K when its all said and done.

Edit: Its not any better for DO school. The only way your gonna get a cheaper education is through your state MD school.

Yeah F THAT!!! lol

I need to really budget this out and if it ends up more than 250K I'm freaking dropping my seat and just gonna go for ortho or derm or any other procedural field lol.

190K will be tuition and fees for all 4 year (annual increases included). That leaves 60K to live off for 4 years. I have no auto, phone, or insurance expenses (thanks mom and dad lmao). I'll do clinical rotations here in CA since we have a ton of places in socal and I can live at home (so no rent for alot of 4th year).

Do you guys think that's realistic?

 

[GypsyHummus]

You think AZPOD is bad, look at their pharmacy school.

Yeah I agree. I'd have to go for UCLA or UCI or UCR or something. UCR shouldn't be too hard. But the rest of the Cali schools are CRAZY competitive haha.

 

[Packers4lifeDPM]

I pulled out 64k for my first year at AZpod and had enough left over to buy a 8.5k car this spring since I didn' have one. You can pay back what you don't use at the end of the year if you have left over loans you don't want collecting interest. Everything over the tuition is on you as an individual and your spending.

 

[Perkis]

I’m expecting to be a little under 300k. But that’s with a family. It would be wayyyy less if it were just me. I have buddies who dont even get close to using all their loan money they get.

Podiatrists ive shadowed havent seemed to be that stressed paying off their student loans, so I think it’s made me feel more comfortable with the idea of being in so much debt. Plus ive ran the numbers and I don’t think it will be as bad as some may think, it will be a pain no doubt, but it’s been done and is being done. What would really suck is if I hated my job AND had to pay off 300k in debt, that’s why I think it’s so important to actually want to be a podiatrist and enjoy the work, it will make the debt paying process that much less terrible.