This message is an absolute lie. I can break it down line by line. Your first line is that

"Podiatrist are not a salaried position".
Wrong. I know many people that are making a salary, salary plus bonus, etc. If you open up your own practice, then there is no guaranteed salary.

"There has never been a specific or localized study of DPMs earnings. There have been forms mailed out to DPMs requesting their pay."
Thats just a contradiction right there. That is a study of DPMs earnings. APMA does this every year. You can argue that it is not truely reflective of all DPMs since only the ones doing well will respond. But that wasnt even your arguement. Secondly government website list out job opportunities and Podiatrists have consistently been at the top. Where do they get their info? I dont know, but I doubt they just make it up. I will look into that further, but obviously there have been a few surveys, studies, etc on what DPMs make.

"DPMs have the highest loan default rate amongst any other profession."
Show me proof of that. It is true that we have very high debt, so I dont doubt that there are many people out there that just couldnt make enough to pay their student loans, but you are making a pretty bold statement and I have never heard that before. I dont tend to believe statements like that without some proof.

"Applications are down 40%"
What!?! This sounds good, but I think its completely made up. I graduated in 2003. My entering class was the smallest in our schools history. But each year after that applications and enrollement actually went up every year. That trend has happened since every podiatry school opened. Applications are cyclical. So there are about 5-10 year periods where applications go up, then the next 5-10 years they go down. So when are you talking about applications are down 40%. Not since last year, and certainly not over the last 5 years. Applications have been up.

"Schools are integrating with several junior colleges and are accepting substandard students."
Now I know you are just making things up. There are 7 Podiatry schools with one more on the way. None of them are integrated with a Junior college. California is a part of Samuel Merritt College which is a health science college with graduate degrees in nursing, PA, PT, etc. Not a JC. Iowa is part of Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center. Which is an Osteopathic medical school which also has graduate degrees in PA and PT. Chicago is a part of Finch University/The Chicago Medical school. Doesnt sound like a JC to me. Ohio's school is independent. Philly's school is associated with Temple University which offers professional degrees in Medicine, Law, and Dentistry in addition to their Podiatry degree. The florida school is a part of Barry University School of Graduate Medical Sciences. I honestly know nothing about the NY school, but Im pretty sure they arent integrated with a JC. I think they are an independent school too. The last school is Arizona which hasnt opened yet, but is a part of Az college of Osteopathic medicine. So again, part of a medical school, not a JC.

Pretty much all your statements in your short post were outright lies. I know this board is mostly negative and full of people who have failed as podiatrists. Several are justified in their hatred for the profession and post about how they were mistreated or mislead, but your post has no truth to it at all. It is unacceptable to bad mouth the profession with lies. Podiatry has plenty wrong with it that you could have made a podiatry bashing post without lying. You could do the same with just about every other profession though. Im currently in the 2nd year of my PM&S 36 residency and rotate with about 20 podiatrist that are in private practice to help and observe their offices as well as assist them in surgery. All of them are doing well. Im not saying all podiatrist do well or should do well, Im just saying my experiences are vastly different than most of the ones on this board. I have rotated all over the country as a 4th year student and now experence several podiatry offices in several cities (in a larger metro area) and have found plenty of opportunites for someone willing to work hard and plan ahead. Please dont post here if you are going to make up your information. Id rather have an open discussion on what is right and wrong with podiatry so maybe new podiatrists can get together and help improve the profession.

New Pod