A doctor of the foot and ankle. Own doctorate, own schools, own licensing exam, and only eleven colleges in the country.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $160,300 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $66,010 at the lower end to about $309,670 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
11 to 12 years after high school, on the usual route.
$185,000 to $245,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a license or registration before you can work.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$160,300
Bottom tenth
$66,010
Top tenth
$309,670
The 2025 national median is $160,300 a year, and the bottom tenth earn $66,010 or less. The federal wage survey has its own line for podiatrists, so this is not borrowed from a broader group.
$103,730 a year or less
The 25th percentile of the national wage survey, 2025
This covers everyone in the job, not only beginners. Before it come three years of residency as a salaried hospital employee, while you carry the debt from four years of doctorate.
$225,910 a year or more
The 75th percentile of podiatrists paid a wage, 2025. Owners who take profits are not counted
The survey does not say who is at the top. Many podiatrists own their clinic, and owners who take profits are not in these figures.
Roughly, all in
$185,000 to $245,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The spread here is narrower than for other medical paths because there are only eleven podiatry colleges and almost no in state tuition bargains, so the school itself costs around $40,000 a year whoever you are. The low end is community college credits and an in-state public university before that, with the admission test, applications, the three part national exam and a first state license. The high end is four full years of public university tuition, a wider application round and a pricier podiatry school. Graduates commonly leave with large debt, and residency at a nonprofit or government hospital counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as does a later job at a veterans hospital.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year. Podiatry graduates commonly leave with large debt. Residency at a nonprofit or government hospital counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and so does a later job at a veterans hospital.
Malpractice insurance is cheaper here
Lower than for most surgical specialties, which matters when you own the practice and pay it yourself.
Federal jobs at veterans hospitals
The Department of Veterans Affairs employs podiatrists, posts openly on USAJOBS (the official federal hiring site), and qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Predictable hours
Most podiatry is clinic-based and scheduled. Very little emergency work compared with other surgery.
You can own the whole operation
Clinic, imaging, orthotics and surgery under one roof is normal in this field.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A separate doctorate with its own schools, its own exam and its own residency. Eleven years in total.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, physics and math. Nothing decides this now, but weak science makes the pre-medical courses brutal.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
At least three years of basic science courses are required, and nearly everybody finishes the full four-year degree. Most colleges ask for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), the same test medical school applicants take.
Podiatry school
4 years
A four-year curriculum ending in a DPM (Doctor of Podiatric Medicine). Two years of classroom science alongside medical students in many schools, then two years of clinical rotations.
Residency
3 years
A three-year hospital residency is mandatory. It covers foot and ankle surgery, wound care, trauma and general medicine.
Licensing
Spread across training
Pass all three parts of the national licensing examination, then apply to the podiatry board in the state where you want to work.
Biology and chemistry
Every prerequisite later is built on these.
Physics
The foot is a mechanical structure, and gait analysis is applied physics.
Anatomy, if your school offers it
You will learn 26 bones in one foot, twice over.
Business or accounting
Many podiatrists end up running a clinic, which is a small business.
Podiatrists are licensed separately from physicians, usually by a state board of podiatric medicine. The national examination is the APMLE (American Podiatric Medical Licensing Examination), run by the National Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners, and it comes in three parts taken at three stages of your training. What you are allowed to operate on, ankle included or foot only, is written into each state's law and does differ between states. Check the rules where you plan to practice.
The American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine counts eleven accredited colleges of podiatric medicine in the United States. That is the entire supply. It makes admission less of a lottery than medical school, because far fewer people apply, but it also means you will almost certainly move states to study, and in-state tuition savings mostly do not exist here.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Foot and ankle surgery
Reconstruction, fractures, bunions and fusions.
Diabetic limb salvage
Wound care that prevents amputations. Hospital-based, demanding, and genuinely life-changing work.
Sports medicine
Running injuries, orthotics and biomechanics. Often attached to a team or a clinic.
Pediatric podiatry
Gait and deformity in children, when there is still time to correct it.
Wound care and infectious disease
Bone infection and antibiotics, usually in the hospital.
Shadow a podiatrist, more than once
Most applicants have never seen the job. Admissions committees notice when you have.
A strong science GPA
Applications are screened on numbers first, just like medical school.
Comfort with feet and wounds
That sounds obvious. Spend an afternoon in a diabetic wound clinic before you commit eleven years.
Spanish or another second language
Diabetes clinics serve communities where it is used every day.
The Department of Veterans Affairs runs a large podiatry service, because older veterans and diabetes go together. Those posts are advertised on USAJOBS (the official federal hiring site), pay on a published table rather than by negotiation, and count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness from your first paycheck. Less risk than private practice, and no business to run.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Clinic days are a long list of patients: ingrown nails, heel pain, diabetic foot checks, injections, casting for orthotics. Surgery days are a few cases at a surgery center. Then wound rounds at the hospital for the patients you are trying to keep out of an amputation. Paperwork, insurance authorizations and orthotic orders fill the gaps. Very few night calls.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Podiatrists hold a DPM (Doctor of Podiatric Medicine), not an MD (Doctor of Medicine). Separate colleges, separate national exam, separate state board. They still prescribe, order imaging and operate, just only from the ankle down in most states.
Federal projections expect slower than average growth for podiatrists from 2025 to 2035, with only about 200 openings a year across the whole country.
Each foot contains 26 bones and 33 joints, so both feet together hold roughly a quarter of all the bones in your body. That complexity is the reason the foot ended up with a specialty, a doctorate and a licensing board of its own.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Therapy and rehab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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