05/26/2025    James DiResta, DPM, MPH

New Student Recruitment Campaign (Patrick DeHeer, DPM)

I'm not sure how the narrative changed to the
respect for DPM degree and reducing value of a DO
vs an MD degree but the conversation really needs
to circle back to the crisis at hand. There are
not enough qualified applicants applying to
schools of podiatric medicine and if the cohort of
today's matriculants continues it is more than
embarrassing. Dr. DeHeer presented to this forum
the PFE initiative for recruitment and I applaud
what they are doing BUT if you review the data
from the individual podiatry colleges on the link
he provided DiscoverPodiatry.org. you will be
aghast.

The MCAT scores of our enrolled students are very
low across the board and 2 of the colleges have
students at the low end at 476. A 476 score
equates to the <1%tile ie. >99% of people taking
the MCAT test scored better. YIKES, and these are
matriculated students! GPAs are also very low.
Those of us with college age children know how
college grades have inflated since we were
students, I checked my alma mater and to graduate
cum laude today from Boston College you need a GPA
of 3.67 while when I graduated it was 3.0.

Are our podiatry colleges being fair to these
incoming students? Enrolling students with a 2.0
GPA?? Can they pass their boards? Are we going to
waterdown everything to make this work for now?
This is unsustainable. The competition for
students is so great today with so many DO schools
and PA programs that no matter how hard you spin
it we can't in good conscience continue this path.
This isn't Moneyball where we are finding some
pearls among the weeds.

We don't have enough applicants to fill the seats
we have even if we accept everyone and anyone.
That's scary. Rod Tomczak presents a strong
argument for the profession to try and get the DO
schools to work with us so we can have a plenary
degree and provide a pathway that is enticing to
future podiatry students. I see things changing
much faster than most of us had believed and I'm
very sad to watch this scenario play out.

James DiResta, DPM, MPH, Newburyport, MA

There are no more messages in this thread.