Thinking of Podiatry

Umm may i direct you to the search button. As well as the stickys at the top of the forum.

 

Your GPAs seem fine just try to shoot for >25 on the MCAT, work on your ECs and you'll be solid!

Salary has a pretty big range due to how podiatrists are trained. Old school pods didn't have to go through a residency so they just do basic in office procedures. They probably make around 100K. Newer pods go through either a two or three year surgical residency. From what I've read starting salary out of residency is around $150k. There are some pods that are business savy and make WELL over that amount. Either way, you won't be starving on the streets.

I don't know if any schools give full scholarships. Maybe a Pod student can comment.

 

From the people I have talked to, the starting salary is usually between 80-140K.

 

Large variance there though, don't you think? 80K = Nurse Pract. salary. 140K = her boss, the MD's salary.

 

Every current, and future, pod resident is trained for surgery. Assuming you complete residency, pass surgical boards, etc, you should expect to be doing at least some procedures when they are indicated. How much surgery each pod does after training depends on training level, ability, preference, referral base, etc. If you did a high power residency and end up as the only foot and ankle guy in a large ortho or multispecialty group, I'd imagine you'd be doing a ton of surgery. If you went to a residency where you got minimal surgical exposure and set up shop in a city with many highly trained F&A surgeons, I doubt you'd do much in the OR. It's all relative.

Your stats should be competitive due to high GPA, but taking the MCAT again is a good idea. If you are wanting to start fall 09, apply now and inform the programs that your retake MCAT will be sent when it becomes available. Scholarships may be within range with your app, but you need to get the ball rolling ASAP. Most of the schools offer some half tuition scholarships, but consider their renewal criteria (ie $6k per year easily renewable might be better than $12k first year that only renews if you are top 10%).

GL... shadowing is probably the best way to gain insight.

 

lol...thanks for the clarification

 

Yes, and?

Not everyone is going to get a 150K offer. Infact, the range I gave out was offered in the same residency program.

 

On retaking the MCAT:
Unless you are a nuts you will get into pod school...from what I've gathered on the forums and interview feedback, you will get into any of them you apply to. If all you want to do is get in and are not too concerned with scholarships DO NOT retake the MCAT. If you do about the same of worse your application looks worse than it did before. You MUST do significantly better on the MCAT whenever you retake it (ie improving your 21 to at least a 24 which still is not a great score). However, you will need to have a mid to high 20's MCAT score to get a decent amount of scholarship money.

Me personally, I'm hoping for some scholarship money and posted awhile ago as to how much I could get...no response. I think people were in disbelief of my MCAT score, which wasn't great by allopathic standards, but leaps and bounds above many pod applicants. Hopefully the 31r with a decent gpa, 3.6, will get me some financial help.

 

wait a sec so are you prepod or pre-allo?

 

pre-fab

 

I was pre-allo, until end of my junior year. The more work I did in the ER and the more shadowing I did under the Ortho who fixed my ACL, the more I realized that is not the lifestyle I want. I found podiatry on this forum, started shadowing a local pod and was hooked. I like the constant challenge even though you are so highly specialized as a pod...ortho, vascular, endocrine, ped's, etc. You've got to know it all and you have the training to immediatley solve (as opposed to treat) problems when surgery is necessary. The hours make practicing medicine and having a family (one in which you can be there for) congenial. I'm excited for my fututre and am confident I made the right decision, but as a future pod I would like to see my profession be taken seriously by pre-pods and pod schools. IMO admission standards need to be raised which is going to require an effort to attract a higher quality student, thats why a lot of this talk on here about 16's and 18's on the MCAT bugs me.

I'll get off the soap box now

 

It's safe to say that this is only a part of the story. There is a lot that goes into salary. It may be an 80K base but with incentives, you could make over 150K your first year out. I have a co-resident that signed for a base of 110K but made nearly 200K with incentives his first year out.

In other words, you could sign a base of 80K and make way more than someone who signs for 150K with few incentives. I plan on and will not settle for making any less than around 150K my first year out. This is reasonable and what most people from my program are easily doing.

 

Jonwill, which pod school did you attend? What residency program are you attending? Which states are your co-residents practising at? You can PM me. Hope you don't mind me asking!