Torn in My Decision: NYCPM (Podiatry) versus TouroCOM master's linkage program versus Stonybrook MBS

[MedKid8399]

Just accepted to TOUROCOM linkage program which links to its Osteopath school, as well as Stonybrook Masters of biomedical sciences, and NYCPM. I have several years of research experiences at NYU Winthrop, 3 publications, many hours shadowing doctors, volunteer experiences, and a year scribing with an orthopedic surgeon. I went to Tufts University. My GPA took an upward trend at Tufts University, and finished with 3.1 science and 3.3 cumulative GPA (I know, very mediocre, which is why an MBS would help me out). My last 4 semesters at Tufts, I received honors with 3.6 GPA. But this is because i got my **** together, did not have baseball anymore, went out less, and started studying with he right group of people. I even pulled off an A in Orgo once I knew what I was doing. I really got my priorities together and started studying for tests way ahead of time. I was not killing myself, but just worked on correct habits. Freshman year and some of sophomore year was what really brought the average down.

I have 3 difference routes I can take, as shown above. I know that Stonybrook on its own has a solid name, while Touro offers a linkage into its DO given I achieve a 3.4 GPA in the masters, and then I am already accepted into NYCPM in which I would just start right away in Harlem this fall.

I want to preface by saying that, I understand I must choose the field that would make me happy and best match my skillset. However, I have come to crossroads in which I have been accepted into all 3 of these programs and I am unsure in which way to proceed. It's best to listen to my gut, but I have some mentors telling me one thing while others say to go to the other school. I shadowed a hematologist, pediatrician, and scribed with an orthopedic surgeon for an entire year. I enjoy interacting with patients, but also highly enjoy hands-on procedures and technology.

I believe I would enjoy the hands-on and bio-mechanical aspect of being a podiatrist, with the opportunity to perform surgery and join a private practice or a hospital. I'd say about 2 of 4 podiatrists I spoke with mentioned that unless you are 100% on narrowing down your field to foot and ankle, apply to DO or Med school. And I have heard that some kids who did not get into med school, just applied to podiatry school. I know that there would be specialties I would enjoy in med school, such as PM and R, family medicine, sports medicine, psychiatry or even radiology. Hell, ophthalmology, although competitive, would be an awesome specialty to be a part of.

Finances:
I don't like to make decisions just based on finances, but NYCPM would cost about 150,000, and TOUROCOM plus the masters would be about 400,000.
Stonybrook is a state school and the price would be fantastic.
I'd take out loans to help with payments, and parents may help to cover half of the expenses. Hopefully, by either working in family medicine or by living frugally, it would not be a problem paying this off.

Hours per week:
I have heard from some that podiatry can offer a nice work-life balance, although I assume hours would be longer with more surgeries performed, especially in a busy orthopedic practice. Furthermore, I have heard being a physician overall means being accepting of potentially long hours. How true is this in residency and how true is this after residency? I do get that certain medical specialties (dermatology) could be less hours than working as an orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon.




TLDR:
Should I go to NYCPM this fall in Harlem, go to a great-priced Stonybrook program and use the masters to enter dental or MD/DO school, or go to the TOUROCOM linkage program, which guarantees acceptance with 3.4 GPA.

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[hungrydoc710]

Obviously no one can make this decision for you, but here's my 2 cents:

You need to figure out what you want to do. You've mentioned dental, podiatry, and physician in this post - that's 3 entirely different lines of work - you need to pick one and the decision will guide you on your path. Before that is done, your running circles and wasting time on SDN.

I'm a med student. I can't imagine doing anything else.

I want to be the top dog at the table when discussing a patient. I want to be the leader in patient decison making. I want to decide what I want to go into when that time comes. I want to max my earning potential. And the list goes.

That being said, my back up plan was pod school.

PS. Don't you also have to pass a cumulative test at the NY masters?

 

[Prehealth1011]

Pick the one with linkage. You can get into a Podiatry school this year, next year, or the year after. It'll be there for you whenever you decide to apply. It's not competitive. You listed ~5-6 specialities you might enjoy in med school and all of those (except Radiology/Ophtho) are achievable without killing yourself in med school. For someone like you, i wouldn't do Podiatry. It's a 7 year commitment into one speciality.

 

[Reverdin green]

Obviously no one can make this decision for you, but here's my 2 cents:

You need to figure out what you want to do. You've mentioned dental, podiatry, and physician in this post - that's 3 entirely different lines of work - you need to pick one and the decision will guide you on your path. Before that is done, your running circles and wasting time on SDN.

I'm a med student. I can't imagine doing anything else.

I want to be the top dog at the table when discussing a patient. I want to be the leader in patient decison making. I want to decide what I want to go into when that time comes. I want to max my earning potential. And the list goes.

That being said, my back up plan was pod school.

PS. Don't you also have to pass a cumulative test at the NY masters?

First of all Podiatrist are Physicians and Podiatry students are considered medical students so retrain your thought process. Secondly, Podiatry will not be there next year or the year after. It is not as easy to get into that you probably think and people who get in with low stats end up not making it through.
Thirdly, he will end up specializing anyway so he cannot count Podiatry out.
If you are really want hands on practice and perform surgeries Podiatry can open lots of doors. Podiatrists don’t just treat foot and ankle. We treat the whole person.

 

[Prehealth1011]

First of all Podiatrist are Physicians and Podiatry students are considered medical students so retrain your thought process. Secondly, Podiatry will not be there next year or the year after. It is not as easy to get into that you probably think and people who get in with low stats end up not making it through.
Thirdly, he will end up specializing anyway so he cannot count Podiatry out.
If you are really want hands on practice and perform surgeries Podiatry can open lots of doors. Podiatrists don’t just treat foot and ankle. We treat the whole person.

It will be. It's not a slight to the profession it's just how it is. Noncompetitive =/= **** profession. Every time this gets brought up, someone gets offended and thinks we're saying "Podiatry sucks". Let's try to keep things objective here to help OP out. No one's criticizing Podiatry here. OP listed bunch of specialities you can enter only by going through MD/DO school. MD/DO is just a better option given his interests.

 

[Tozanzibarbymotorcar]

Just accepted to TOUROCOM linkage program which links to its Osteopath school, as well as Stonybrook Masters of biomedical sciences, and NYCPM. I have several years of research experiences at NYU Winthrop, 3 publications, many hours shadowing doctors, volunteer experiences, and a year scribing with an orthopedic surgeon. I went to Tufts University. My GPA took an upward trend at Tufts University, and finished with 3.1 science and 3.3 cumulative GPA (I know, very mediocre, which is why an MBS would help me out). I have 3 difference routes I can take, as shown above. I know that Stonybrook on its own has a solid name, while Touro offers a linkage into its DO given I achieve a 3.4 GPA in the masters, and then I am already accepted into NYCPM in which I would just start right away in Harlem this fall.

I want to preface by saying that, I understand I must choose the field that would make me happy and best match my skillset. However, I have come to crossroads in which I have been accepted into all 3 of these programs and I am unsure in which way to proceed. It's best to listen to my gut, but I have some mentors telling me one thing while others say to go to the other school. I shadowed a hematologist, pediatrician, and scribed with an orthopedic surgeon for an entire year. I enjoy interacting with patients, but also highly enjoy hands-on procedures and technology.

I believe I would enjoy the hands-on and bio-mechanical aspect of being a podiatrist, with the opportunity to perform surgery and join a private practice or a hospital. I'd say about 2 of 4 podiatrists I spoke with mentioned that unless you are 100% on narrowing down your field to foot and ankle, apply to DO or Med school. And I have heard that some kids who did not get into med school, just applied to podiatry school. I know that there would be specialties I would enjoy in med school, such as PM and R, family medicine, sports medicine, psychiatry or even radiology. Hell, ophthalmology, although competitive, would be an awesome specialty to be a part of.

Finances:
I don't like to make decisions just based on finances, but NYCPM would cost about 150,000, and TOUROCOM plus the masters would be about 400,000.
Stonybrook is a state school and the price would be fantastic.
I'd take out loans to help with payments, and parents may help to cover half of the expenses. Hopefully, by either working in family medicine or by living frugally, it would not be a problem paying this off.

Hours per week:
I have heard from some that podiatry can offer a nice work-life balance, although I assume hours would be longer with more surgeries performed, especially in a busy orthopedic practice. Furthermore, I have heard being a physician overall means being accepting of potentially long hours. How true is this in residency and how true is this after residency? I do get that certain medical specialties (dermatology) could be less hours than working as an orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon.




TLDR:
Should I go to NYCPM this fall in Harlem, go to a great-priced Stonybrook program and use the masters to enter dental or MD/DO school, or go to the TOUROCOM linkage program, which guarantees acceptance with 3.4 GPA.

Don’t go to Touro’s program. I have good friends that did it. Your gpa is too low to give any indication that you will succeed in that program. It is very competitive and that 3.4 is not easy to hit. You’d be better off trying to increase your gpa somewhere else and getting a good mcat. Wait what’s your mcat score?

 

[bigt1mer]

I also know someone who didn't make it in Touro's program but excelled in another DO linkage program.

 

[MedKid8399]

Don’t go to Touro’s program. I have good friends that did it. Your gpa is too low to give any indication that you will succeed in that program. It is very competitive and that 3.4 is not easy to hit. You’d be better off trying to increase your gpa somewhere else and getting a good mcat. Wait what’s your mcat score?

Thanks for your response. Because the MCAT was waived for podiatry, I did not take it yet. It is schedule in late July. My GPA was 3.6 in the last 4 semesters at Tufts premed, but some complications in freshman year really brought the cumulative GPA down overall.

 

[calivianya]

I think why your GPA took an upward trend is an important part of this decision.

Upward trend is good, for sure, but if it’s upward because you were struggling the first couple of years, and just maxed out your efforts to do well, that’s not good. On the other hand, if you were just goofing off early on for whatever reason (no offense intended, this is 100% what I did), decided to get your life together, and then started doing well with low to moderate effort, that’s a completely different story.

I can’t speak specifically to Touro’s program, but med school classes are a higher workload and volume than even the master’s science level courses I took getting my most recent degree. If you were having to pull all nighters to pull up your GPA before, or spending huge amounts of time studying every day, I wouldn’t pick Touro’s program with a GPA cutoff.

 

[Hopeful101]

I also know someone who didn't make it in Touro's program but excelled in another DO linkage program.

Does he feel like it was worth it doing 2 masters programs to get into medical school? Sounds like a lot...

 

[MedKid8399]

I think why your GPA took an upward trend is an important part of this decision.

Upward trend is good, for sure, but if it’s upward because you were struggling the first couple of years, and just maxed out your efforts to do well, that’s not good. On the other hand, if you were just goofing off early on for whatever reason (no offense intended, this is 100% what I did), decided to get your life together, and then started doing well with low to moderate effort, that’s a completely different story.

I can’t speak specifically to Touro’s program, but med school classes are a higher workload and volume than even the master’s science level courses I took getting my most recent degree. If you were having to pull all nighters to pull up your GPA before, or spending huge amounts of time studying every day, I wouldn’t pick Touro’s program with a GPA cutoff.

So the last 4 semesters I received honors, with a 3.6 GPA, but it did require a good amount of effort. I was not killing myself, but realized I had to get my **** together. I started hanging out with the right group of people, gave up going out too much on weekends, and set my priorities. I also had tried to balance baseball, independent research, and premed classes all at once freshman year. Although this is doable, I cut 1 or 2 things out of the mix to get the grades up where they should be.

 

[calivianya]

So the last 4 semesters I received honors, with a 3.6 GPA, but it did require a good amount of effort. I was not killing myself, but realized I had to get my **** together. I started hanging out with the right group of people, gave up going out too much on weekends, and set my priorities. I also had tried to balance baseball, independent research, and premed classes all at once freshman year. Although this is doable, I cut 1 or 2 things out of the mix to get the grades up where they should be.

Okay. Based on that, I’d say you may be able to tackle the Touro master’s just fine if you hit the ground running and keep a laser focus.

It’s hard to bring up GPAs from old bad decisions; it doesn’t mean that‘s the person you are now.

 

[bigt1mer]

Does he feel like it was worth it doing 2 masters programs to get into medical school? Sounds like a lot...

They ended up getting off an MD waitlist somehow during our DO orientation.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Thanks for your response. Because the MCAT was waived for podiatry, I did not take it yet. It is schedule in late July. My GPA was 3.6 in the last 4 semesters at Tufts premed, but some complications in freshman year really brought the cumulative GPA down overall.

Take the MCAT first. Your score can decide the field/program for you. Good luck!

 

[MedKid8399]

Take the MCAT first. Your score can decide the field/program for you. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice! That sounds like a good step to take next. It will help me gauge where I stand.

 

[MedKid8399]

First of all Podiatrist are Physicians and Podiatry students are considered medical students so retrain your thought process. Secondly, Podiatry will not be there next year or the year after. It is not as easy to get into that you probably think and people who get in with low stats end up not making it through.
Thirdly, he will end up specializing anyway so he cannot count Podiatry out.
If you are really want hands on practice and perform surgeries Podiatry can open lots of doors. Podiatrists don’t just treat foot and ankle. We treat the whole person.

Thank you for the reply. I think the future of podiatry is bright, and really enjoyed talking to faculty at NYCPM. There's a diverse scope of practice, based on what Ive heard, even if they are focusing on foot and ankle. I would have passion for the profession and be driven enough to work hard in school. Since you are a podiatry student, would you be able to speak on the following questions I have? it would help me in my decision

1)how many podiatrist end up incorporating surgery into their practice?
2) do podiatrist often work in hospitals, or more often private practice?
3) starting salary fresh out of school for a Podiatric surgeon?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Prehealth1011]

@MedKid8399 you might wanna check out the Podiatry forums here you'll find lot of your answers there.

 

[Notquiteanxious]

I would do the podiatry school or stoneybrook. Just decide whether you want to risk it to become a physician that will likely be primary care if you go DO vs the guaranteed surgical field of podiatry. Stoneybrook puts off the decision for a year, but it’s cheap and might help you go MD if you do well, so not a bad choice IMO. Pod is very gaurenteed and cheap, with decent insulation from mid levels. I wouldn’t just toss it aside cause of prestige.

 

[Sardonix]

Guys lets not start a crapping war between DPMs and DOs please.

 

[MedKid8399]

Guys lets not start a crapping war between DPMs and DOs please.

Right yeah, I don’t know why it turned into that. I just wanted to discuss the the logic between all 3 choices and hear people’s experiences in DO in podiatry school.

 

[MedKid8399]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will take this all into account and look at all of my options. I’ve heard a lot here about considering an MBS if I really want to attend med school, and I will do some soul searching between going to podiatry and med school. I want to make sure I’m giving myself good opportunities and ability to make a decent living. I have heard from certain practicing pods that fresh out of school, salaries are not amazing but rise with experience to potentially around 200,000, and that overall, it may be a slightly harder to gain hospital privileges versus an MD. Can anyone speak on on this?

 

[Hippocrates II]

If you want to have a broad range of options upon graduation, I would lean the DO route. Nothing wrong with Pod but you will be a foot/ankle doc, which I personally would not want to shoehorn myself into this early on, but that's just my opinion. I would say the same thing to someone who wanted to choose a DO school over MD because they were convinced they would become a family doc before ever going to school - keep your options open because you never know where your interests will be. Good luck, either way you'll find yourself in a good career.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

We deleted a few posts in this thread due to inflaming and attacking one another, not allowed on SDN.

OP, cross-posting (making identical threads) is not allowed, so I am going to lock this thread and keep one in the Pod forum open for any pod related questions. If you have a DO-specific question, then search or make a thread in this forum; otherwise, all your Pod related questions can be answered in the Pod forum.

Closing!