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. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$160,300
Bottom tenth
$66,010
Top tenth
$309,670
The national median is $160,300 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $66,010. The federal wage survey has its own line for podiatrists, so this is not borrowed from a broader group. The spread is unusually wide because it mixes new residents and part-time clinic work at the bottom with surgical practice owners at the top.
About $60,000 to $70,000
Three years of paid hospital residency after podiatry school
Podiatric residents are salaried hospital employees, paid on much the same scale as medical residents in the same city. It is real income, but you are carrying the debt from four years of doctorate.
$309,670 or more
Surgical practice owners and busy group practices
The money is in surgery and in owning the clinic. A podiatrist who operates, employs other clinicians and bills for imaging and orthotics in-house earns on a completely different scale from one who is salaried.
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 forty thousand dollars 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 examination and a first state licence. The high end is four full years of public university tuition, a wider application round and a pricier podiatry school. Graduates commonly leave owing two hundred thousand dollars or more, 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 owing $200,000 or more. 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 is one of the largest employers of 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
Most 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. Where most of the money is.
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 one of the largest podiatry services in the country, 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 upside than private practice, far less risk, and no business to run.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Clinic days run 20 to 30 patients: ingrown nails, heel pain, diabetic foot checks, injections, casting for orthotics. Surgery days are three or four cases at a surgery center, each under two hours. 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.
The American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine lists eleven accredited colleges of podiatric medicine in the United States. Compare that with well over 150 medical schools. Applying here means being willing to move.
The APMLE (American Podiatric Medical Licensing Examination) runs in three parts that move from basic sciences to applied clinical competence. You sit them at different stages of school and residency, so the licensing process stretches across most of your training.
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.
Last checked September 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.