Pre-Podiatry

About the Profession

Doctors of Podiatric Medicine are healthcare professionals that diagnose and treat diseases, injuries, or disorders of the foot, ankle, and structures of the leg.

Preparation Starts Now

From the time you begin college, you are assembling a complete dossier with which to apply to podiatry schools.  Applicants are expected to have:

  • Completed a bachelor's degree in any major, though many of SUNY Geneseo dental school applicants complete a major in Biology, Chemistry, Sociomedical Sciences, Neuroscience, or Psychology
  • Completed podiatry school course requirements
  • Achieve excellent grades; overall and science GPAs should, at a minimum, be at a 3.3
  • Earn a good score on the MCAT; ideally scores should minimally be a 508
  • Involve yourself in sincere, sustained health-related shadowing, volunteer, and research experience
 
Course Requirements

Start planning as a first year student to meet the following course requirements for podiatry schools.  Below are the courses at SUNY Geneseo that are recommended you complete to prepare for the MCAT and meet podiatry school requirements (please note, there may be some variation in course requirements for podiatry schools, so be sure to check the requirements of the schools you plan on applying to):

Course Requirements
SUNY Geneseo
Notes
One year of Biology

BIOL 117 and119

BIOL 118 and 120 (labs

 

Pay attention to course offering schedule (i.e. Fall/Spring)

 
One year of General Chemistry CHEM 116 and 118 CHEM 119 and 129 (labs)

 

Pay attention to course offering schedule (i.e. Fall/Spring)

 
One year of Organic Chemistry CHEM 211, 213, and 216 (lab) Pay attention to course offering schedule (i.e. Fall/Spring)
One year of Physics

General Physics:

PHYS 113, 114 (lab), 115, and 116 (lab)

 OR

Analytical Physics:

PHYS 123, 124 (lab), 125, and 126 (lab)

 Pay attention to course offering schedule (i.e. Fall/Spring)
2 semesters of English INTD 105 and one ENGL course INTD 105 is the Basic Communication General Education requirement
One semester of Math  

 

Some schools specifically require statistics and/or calculus
One semester of Biochemistry* BIOL 335 or CHEM 300

Pre-reqs for BIOL 335: BIOL 117, 119 and CHEM 211

Pre-reqs for CHEM 300: CHEM 213 and 216
One semester of Psychology* PSYC 100  
One semester of Sociology* SOCL 100  

*Courses generally not required by schools, but MCAT covers this material.

It is recommended that course requirements are completed at SUNY Geneseo, but there are instances where a student would need to complete one or two courses elsewhere.  If that is the case, it is suggested that coursework be completed at a four-year higher education institution.  All course requirements must be taken for a grade and demonstrate mastery, no lower than a C, for most professional schools.

Review the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine (AACPM) website to learn more.  The members schools of the association participate in a centralized application service sponsored by AACPM.