Posted by Chris Maloney on 07/20/03 at 10:28 PM Dear Janey, Since Darren and Andrew also want to know, I\\\'ll give a shot at my answers.

1. work, the most impressive is research, but hard to get. Check out the www.naturopathic.org site and see if anyone licensed is there near you in PA and talk to them. Check for certified homeopaths, herbalists who\\\'ve gone through a program, and any holistic MDs.

2. Competitive? Varies from year to year. NDs are very individual, the admissions office miscalculates, and so it can be anywhere from one in five to one in two (my estimate from the four years intake I heard talk about).

3. Grades, If you don\\\'t have the minimum pass grades, go get them. If you\\\'ve got them, don\\\'t worry about them. The admissions people don\\\'t concentrate on that (generally). But if you struggled to get them, here\\\'s the rub. All joking aside, it is medical school. I wish it could be all touchy feely, but here\\\'s what I saw. First year-everyone busting to get top grades, sort of bored, because many of them had already had things like anatomy. Second year-instead of four finals per quarter, think twelve. And you had to synthesize everything you learned first year. People dropped to the five year track like flies winter term because they were still trying to keep all honors and their adrenals failed. You don\\\'t get second year summer off because you are studying for basic sciences boards. Third year-same second year testing (which you\\\'ve gotten used to somehow) but now you\\\'re juggling clinic shifts as well (which can be anything from boring to a madhouse.) Fourth year-fewer classes, but endless checkoffs (clinic procedures you must do before graduation)plus you must find a position or prepare to set up shop on your own. The summer after graduation, you get to spend in a small room studying for clinical sciences boards which you have to pass or you don\\\'t get a license. If in all this, science classes are a struggle, it\\\'s going to be a looong hard four or five years.

4. Professors against. Of course they are. Externally, being a doctor is like being God. Ask some MDs what you should do. It was a Harvard/Brigham and Women\\\'s MD who wrote my recommendation into NCNM. He told me the system was killing him and to get out now. I wrote myself a letter to remember what my life would be like as an MD, and I\\\'ll send it to you if you\\\'d like. On the other hand, I like the D.O.s up here in Maine and I think UNE might have been a possibility. But honestly, to most laypeople they are just second string MDs. I have a relative in med school right now. Remember that recent reduction in resident hours to 80 hours a week? Guess what? The med students are now doing the 120 hours a week shifts to make up for it. I know from experience I can stay up for nine days straight, but you couldn\\\'t pay me enough to make that my life.

5. Typical salary. Plan to starve the first five years. People go to NDs via word of mouth, and if you start your talks during breaks while in school you can decrease your familiarity time. After six years out, NDs make $110k a year. I got this figure from a survey, and I suspect it is a bit skewed. Most NDs here in Maine work three or four days a week (lifestyle choices) so they make less, but if they were working full time they wouldn\\\'t come up with $110k. On the other hand, several of my professors were making $250k. Realize that is not real money, because they have staff, office, etc. But you make a living. Seeing my fellow grads, I think a medically related part-time job is a great idea to take the pressure off until your practice takes off. The only practices I\\\'ve known that failed are those people who took out $50k in business loans, build a clinic, opened doors, and had to shut because they didn\\\'t have the patient base to support it. Start small, and build.

Ok, that\\\'s my two cents. All of you should be talking to NDs in your home states and around. These people are going to be your colleagues and they will give you some good focus (and maybe a job) for when you get out.

Best of luck, Chris Maloney, Naturopathic Doctor www.maloneymedical.com Portland Maine