Hi, I'm a DPT student from Taiwan and hoping to apply to schools in the states in 2022. Really appreciate that you're reading this post and would love to hear about your replies and additional thoughts, if you happen to be willing to give some.
I'm currently in clinical year (5th year of 6 year undergrad program) and have loved ortho-related things since I got into PT school. But I have always wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, so that's why I'm giving myself another chance to pursue medicine in the state since they are post-grad degrees. My grades aren't great, currently with a 3.51 GPA and no upward trend, done research and I think a good amount of clinical exposure (does my internship count as clinical hours though since it's PT and mandated for me to graduate). Preparing for MCAT at the same time and will complete prereqs in my last year. According to my stats and interests, I will be applying DO and DPM. I hope this won’t sound like comparing the two professions. If this question does not belong in this forum, feel free to tell me and I'll post it in the right place, but I didn't find a suitable one for my situation so I'll be posting in the pre-DO and pre-DPM both.
Here’s my questions about DO. I read about DO & MD residencies merging, does that mean that if I do well in USMLE, I would be able to get into orthopedic surgery? The reason for asking this is cuz I have heard about DOs having a harder time matching into surgery residencies, but would like to hear from people in the process. Also, I have sent emails UNECOM, TouroCOM & Heritage DO, and only the first 2 are okay with my situation. If you are or know someone that is a US citizen, but had their undergrad outside of the states, please tell which school you or the person you know are in if it doesn't bother you, thank you very much. If you would like to share things you know about DO or your predictions about the future of DO that would be great too, since I haven’t started digging in DO that much compared to DPM.
Then about DPM, currently I know is that you specialize day one on the foot, and assures that you get into surgical residency. I like the fact that I don’t need to choose until I finish med school and get surgery training. But I went through some threads in SDN, and, no offense, it sounds like podiatrists don’t really get to practice their full scope of practice in surgery(by full scope I mean like reconstruction or ORIF kinda surgeries) because of there are ortho surgeons. It sounds like even if you are well trained in surgery, you might still have a hard time finding surgical jobs in the US medical system. Another thing about podiatry is whether hospital jobs are growing, though I don’t really know about the systems in the states, I do know that private practice is not something everyone can do. In my case, I know I am not a business type of person. Can someone in the podiatry system shed some light?
I know asking these questions might seem early considering I haven’t taken the MCAT and haven’t shadowed any DOs & DPMs in the state. I will be doing that in my summer vacation this year if the pandemic can be contained, or if I get vaccinated(unlikely this year). Hope you all well and safe, and thank you even if you’ve just read this post!
I'm currently in clinical year (5th year of 6 year undergrad program) and have loved ortho-related things since I got into PT school. But I have always wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, so that's why I'm giving myself another chance to pursue medicine in the state since they are post-grad degrees. My grades aren't great, currently with a 3.51 GPA and no upward trend, done research and I think a good amount of clinical exposure (does my internship count as clinical hours though since it's PT and mandated for me to graduate). Preparing for MCAT at the same time and will complete prereqs in my last year. According to my stats and interests, I will be applying DO and DPM. I hope this won’t sound like comparing the two professions. If this question does not belong in this forum, feel free to tell me and I'll post it in the right place, but I didn't find a suitable one for my situation so I'll be posting in the pre-DO and pre-DPM both.
Here’s my questions about DO. I read about DO & MD residencies merging, does that mean that if I do well in USMLE, I would be able to get into orthopedic surgery? The reason for asking this is cuz I have heard about DOs having a harder time matching into surgery residencies, but would like to hear from people in the process. Also, I have sent emails UNECOM, TouroCOM & Heritage DO, and only the first 2 are okay with my situation. If you are or know someone that is a US citizen, but had their undergrad outside of the states, please tell which school you or the person you know are in if it doesn't bother you, thank you very much. If you would like to share things you know about DO or your predictions about the future of DO that would be great too, since I haven’t started digging in DO that much compared to DPM.
Then about DPM, currently I know is that you specialize day one on the foot, and assures that you get into surgical residency. I like the fact that I don’t need to choose until I finish med school and get surgery training. But I went through some threads in SDN, and, no offense, it sounds like podiatrists don’t really get to practice their full scope of practice in surgery(by full scope I mean like reconstruction or ORIF kinda surgeries) because of there are ortho surgeons. It sounds like even if you are well trained in surgery, you might still have a hard time finding surgical jobs in the US medical system. Another thing about podiatry is whether hospital jobs are growing, though I don’t really know about the systems in the states, I do know that private practice is not something everyone can do. In my case, I know I am not a business type of person. Can someone in the podiatry system shed some light?
I know asking these questions might seem early considering I haven’t taken the MCAT and haven’t shadowed any DOs & DPMs in the state. I will be doing that in my summer vacation this year if the pandemic can be contained, or if I get vaccinated(unlikely this year). Hope you all well and safe, and thank you even if you’ve just read this post!
