Why does a dermatologist have to go to med school before their derm. training but a podiatrist doesn't?

Always found this to be quite curious.Why does a dermatologist have to go to med school before their derm. training but a podiatrist doesn't?
Podiatrists have their own four year schools, although as Pangolin already said, they only have to do three years of undergrad even though most get their bachelors.


We have a podiatric program at my med school, and they take about 90% of our first year classes. second year they spend the fall going though systems about half as long as we do, similar to what the PAs here do. Then in the spring they do nothing but study the foot and ankle. They start rotations their third year.


While podiatrists are usually quite good at what they do, the sad thing is over half of their students are med school rejects. You can always tell the ones because they walk around like they have something to prove, where the ones who went into it as a first choice don't.Why does a dermatologist have to go to med school before their derm. training but a podiatrist doesn't?
A dermatologist is a medical doctor first, and a dermatologist second. ALL medical doctors go to college first. We are educated professionals, and college is just the beginning of our education.





Although podiatrists do not have to have a bachelor's degree, according to the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine, 95% of podiatry students do: http://www.aacpm.org/html/careerzone/req鈥?/a>





Medical schools have higher standards.