Bingo... THAT is truly the biggest negative aspect and dirty secret of podiatry:
There are only about 100 high quality residency spots... and maybe another 100 adequate training spots.
So, even though there are hundreds of residency hospitals and and ~500 "accredited" DPM residency spots, at least half of them are laughable.
"Everyone gets a three year residency now" is a misleading and damaging misconception by ad coms and APMA cronies.
Many residencies have high ABFAS in-training and board pass rates, but many others have almost 0% cert pass rate among alumni.
The percentage that are high quality DPM spots will only decrease as more spots are added to adjust for the new schools.
In the scramble, there are usually only 5 or 10 quality spots in most years. The rest are the worst of the worst.
Those are BIGtime problems that the schools, APMA, etc won't address...
It takes much time to make GOOD new programs (even without new schools/grads).
The only quasi-solution to the training disparity is to now to add fellowships (which was mostly ACFAS!), but fellowship that won't change specialty is largely superfluous and only takes cases/attendings away from residencies - many of whom didn't have enough to begin with!
...The usual suspect facts that the podiatry job market is ho-hum,
the ROI is questionable with very high tuitions,
the pod schools accept basically anyone,
the pod schools flunk out a good number and have 5 or 6 or 7+ year tracks,
that podiatry is the red headed stepchild of MD in some places, etc are common knowledge. Those are not good things, but they are known by nearly anyone who goes in with their eyes open.
The residency situation, on the other hand, is unfortunate and
baaadly overlooked yet
must be grasped and planned for by pre-pods, pod students, etc... one must know what they are undertaking and MUST make their own luck. Many do. Many others get blindsided. They were not necessarily dumb people or lazy people, but there are some very smart people in podiatry school... and just not enough good residency spots. I know I certainly didn't graduate #1 of my class.
... "C's make degrees" might work for MD. For podiatry, it's a recipe to end up failing boards and in NYC or VAMC nail jail that is called a "residency."