Podiatry as a Backup?

[MrSamrtGuy]

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I'm not sure if aiming higher means that much for medicine. If you had certainty of a midlevel MD acceptance, but could take an extra gap year to give you a good shot at Top 20s, would you take that gap year?

Of course I wouldn't take a gap year in that situation. But the poster I was responding to is not in that situation- he/she said that he/she only studied for 3-4 weeks for the MCAT and got a 25. That's just slightly below average for most DO schools. Why not take some time to really study and get the highest score you can? Unless you're a shoo-in, why not put the work in?

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

Former lawyer. admitted to American MD school. From a person who has actually done what you are proposing to do, I feel that being a lawyer was a major advantage in my applications and interviews. You should definitely stress that as a big strength in your application. I didn't really see it as a negative.

I too considered podiatry as an alternative. The hospital i work at now have podiatrists on call; they're a part of the health care team as much as a doctor or surgeon.

Congrats! Yeah, my only concern is my pedigree or lack thereof. I'm employed, but in a small law firm, nothing prestigious. I've disliked law since 1L summer, but I had a scholarship and I'm a finished what I started type.

Could be worse. At least I'm not a med mal lawyers.

 

[chloesilverado]

Congrats! Yeah, my only concern is my pedigree or lack thereof. I'm employed, but in a small law firm, nothing prestigious. I've disliked law since 1L summer, but I had a scholarship and I'm a finished what I started type.

Could be worse. At least I'm not a med mal lawyers.

But you know what, some doctors do need to get sued. There's a time and place for med mal.

 

[chloesilverado]

Congrats! Yeah, my only concern is my pedigree or lack thereof. I'm employed, but in a small law firm, nothing prestigious. I've disliked law since 1L summer, but I had a scholarship and I'm a finished what I started type.

Could be worse. At least I'm not a med mal lawyers.

Med schools couldn't care less if you came from Dewey Lebeouf (Bankrupt and on trial for fraud by the way) or from a small firm. Unless Adcom members have lawyer kids, they wouldn't know the difference.

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

But you know what, some doctors do need to get sued. There's a time and place for med mal.

Absolutely true-my uncle is a urologist and he has a good friend who does med mal (he's also a great lawyer-talk about keeping your enemies close!). There are scumbags in any profession, it's just easy to rag on lawyers. It all comes down to integrity.

 

[efle]

Of course I wouldn't take a gap year in that situation. But the poster I was responding to is not in that situation- he/she said that he/she only studied for 3-4 weeks for the MCAT and got a 25. That's just slightly below average for most DO schools. Why not take some time to really study and get the highest score you can? Unless you're a shoo-in, why not put the work in?

Heh, I was just playing devil's advocate. I chose the gap year in this scenario. I definitely believe in minimizing regrets too.
Question is, how much will OP improve from restudying? It would sure suck to spend all the extra time to go up 5 percentile and end up the same place

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

Med schools couldn't care less if you came from Dewey Lebeouf (Bankrupt and on trial for fraud by the way) or from a small firm. Unless Adcom members have lawyer kids, they wouldn't know the difference.

This is true-I think people within a profession overestimate how much the layperson knows/cares about what they do.

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

Heh, I was just playing devil's advocate. I chose the gap year in this scenario. I definitely believe in minimizing regrets too.
Question is, how much will OP improve from restudying? It would sure suck to spend all the extra time to go up 5 percentile and end up the same place

That is a valid question that only OP can answer. But I would say taking an extra year is Low-Medium Risk and High Reward. Worst case scenario his MCAT drops a point or two he's still competitive for pod school, although going down doesn't look good. But I know that w/r/t learnable standardized tests, I can bring my score up with some effort, especially if I sort of slacked the first time around.

It's just a year, too. I think the average person coming out of college (making a big assumption here, apologies if OP is nontrad) underestimates the amount of maturing they still have left to do (I say this affectionately, not judgmentally). Taking time off between college and graduate school is, in my opinion, a good in and of itself.

 

[efle]

That is a valid question that only OP can answer. But I would say taking an extra year is Low-Medium Risk and High Reward. Worst case scenario his MCAT drops a point or two he's still competitive for pod school, although going down doesn't look good. But I know that w/r/t learnable standardized tests, I can bring my score up with some effort, especially if I sort of slacked the first time around.

It's just a year, too. I think the average person coming out of college (making a big assumption here, apologies if OP is nontrad) underestimates the amount of maturing they still have left to do (I say this affectionately, not judgmentally). Taking time off between college and graduate school is, in my opinion, a good in and of itself.

I've seen this said a lot, along the lines of "I'm glad I took a year to grow up". What exactly are you exposed to that makes you grow so much? Does this apply to people that have already experienced working, being responsible for their finances and college payment, renting their own place etc?

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

I've seen this said a lot, along the lines of "I'm glad I took a year to grow up". What exactly are you exposed to that makes you grow so much? Does this apply to people that have already experienced working, being responsible for their finances and college payment, renting their own place etc?

It depends on your background, of course. If you worked your way through school and didn't have much parental support maybe you don't need to grow up quite as much. But regardless, I think being out of school itself gives you some perspective. You've been in school since what, Kindergarten? See what it's like to not have classes for a while. You're probably a little burned out from all the books at this point. Education can be a bit of a bubble.

Also, working a so-so or ****ty job can motivate you to work even harder in school! Or maybe you'll discover that not having schoolwork is great and you never want to go back! I know a lot of people who were afraid to time off because they were afraid they'd lose steam/motivation. In my experience from law school and non-medical school grad school, I didn't see much difference. Some of the top students at my law school had been out of college for a few years. You may not be as in the groove in terms of taking exams, but I think it's made up for in terms of maturity and the discipline most people gain (by necessity) from working.

 

[Axes]

One thing I will say (that I've seen first hand from shadowing and have had told to me by millions of physician relatives) is that, at least in private practice, a lot of medicine boils down to looking at X body part all day. I recently shadowed an ophthalmologist, and yeah, he literally looks at eyes all day. Makes a lot of money and impacts peoples lives in a major way, but does it while looking at eyes 8-4 each day. And that makes sense, that's what a job is. So it's dumb to write off a profession because it's just doing X all day..that's what all jobs are.

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

One thing I will say (that I've seen first hand from shadowing and have had told to me by millions of physician relatives) is that, at least in private practice, a lot of medicine boils down to looking at X body part all day. I recently shadowed an ophthalmologist, and yeah, he literally looks at eyes all day. Makes a lot of money and impacts peoples lives in a major way, but does it while looking at eyes 8-4 each day. And that makes sense, that's what a job is. So it's dumb to write off a profession because it's just doing X all day..that's what all jobs are.

This is true, but to play devil's advocate, med school gives you a little extra time to decide. What if you get to your clinical rotations and decide podiatry isn't for you after all?

 

[Axes]

Oh and In the words of Dr Cox, the real reasons anyone becomes a doctor: chicks, money, power, respect, and chicks. Even if we amend that to most or many people, it does well to explain why podiatry is not seriously considered on SDN.

 

[allantois]

This is true, but to play devil's advocate, med school gives you a little extra time to decide. What if you get to your clinical rotations and decide podiatry isn't for you after all?

You don't go into podiatry, optometry, or dentistry unless you are damn sure that feet/eyes/or teeth are what you want to do. IMO podiatry is at least as diverse as any medical specialty, and arguably more diverse than most because you are both a physician and a surgeon in the part of the body than no one but fellowship trained in lower extremities orthopedists know anything about. If it wasn't for their low compensation of labor, I would look into it more closely ..

 

[Axes]

You don't go into podiatry, optometry, or dentistry unless you are damn sure that feet/eyes/or teeth are what you want to do

I don't think this is true for the majority of the people in these professions. When picking a career, people consider more than what they will be doing, because even if it's heart surgery or saving princesses from dragons or whatever, eventually that will get boring, or you'll have boring days. So you think of things like lifestyle, cash, respect, all that. And those 3 professions command a respectable level of those kinds of things by most peoples standards

 

[Axes]

This is true, but to play devil's advocate, med school gives you a little extra time to decide. What if you get to your clinical rotations and decide podiatry isn't for you after all?

Oh don't get me wrong, IMO med school>>>podiatry. I'm just talking about podiatry as a backup for the editorial pre med with a sub par application.

 

[hmmmwhathuhiunno]

iunno, but I bet there would a lot more fuss on these boards if "Axillatry" were a legitimate branch of medicine. There's just something more appealing about armpits than feet. hmmmmm....

 

[Sweatshirt]

Hi this is the 2nd time posting here but I just want a few more opinions about my chances to get into NYCPM and/or Temple PM! I have a 3.9 gpa, 3.8 science gpa, and 25 mcat because I was only able to study for 3-4 weeks. I have extensive research w orthopedic physician, w a professor, volunteer work, and other health care experiences both paid and unpaid. What are my chances!

No matter how high your stats are you won't get into pod school unless you shadow a DPM. Most schools actually require a LOR from a DPM in order to get in. If you do that you'll be good at any school.

 

[allantois]

I don't think this is true for the majority of the people in these professions. When picking a career, people consider more than what they will be doing, because even if it's heart surgery or saving princesses from dragons or whatever, eventually that will get boring, or you'll have boring days. So you think of things like lifestyle, cash, respect, all that. And those 3 professions command a respectable level of those kinds of things by most peoples standards

That's kind of what I meant. What you are doing will determine your lifestyle, cash, and respect.. There is a note of uncertainty with med school, since you are not guaranteed to match anything you want; and then what? being forced into an undesirable specialty and fooling yourself into thinking that you like it. With those other three, you can know for sure what your lifestyle, work, and everything else is going to be. Also, it seems like for the most competitive specialties you need to decide on them as early as before clinical years so that you can start doing research and whatnot in order to match into that specialty.

 

[MrSamrtGuy]

That's kind of what I meant. What you are doing will determine your lifestyle, cash, and respect.. There is a note of uncertainty with med school, since you are not guaranteed to match anything you want; and then what? being forced into an undesirable specialty and fooling yourself into thinking that you like it. With those other three, you can know for sure what your lifestyle, work, and everything else is going to be. Also, it seems like for the most competitive specialties you need to decide on them as early as before clinical years so that you can start doing research and whatnot in order to match into that specialty.

I suppose that's another advantage-pod school and dental school give you four years to convince yourself that's what you really want to do (although arguably dentistry has more specialization options). Med school allows you to preserve the illusion of being the next Ben Carson for a few more years. It seems like you either need to be really confident, tolerant of uncertainty, or comfortable with a specialty that is not your #1 or #2 choice depending on how competitive it is. Tolerance of uncertainty and confidence are in my opinion life skills that can be learned though.

 

[GypsyHummus]

Podiatry should be examined very closely for anyone who couldn't get into an American MD/DO school. It's the best odds that someone will actually have of practicing medicine. Plus, if you have any interest in surgery at all, it can be an attractive route vs the DO route, as it's gonna be harder to get those sweet surgical residencies.

Pods do a ton of surgery in residency.