Students
There are three classes of students: Regular, Special and Post-graduate.
Regular Students must have academic qualifications in keeping with the standards adopted by the various state education authorities. In most of the states two years of high school work, or its equivalent in academic counts, are pre-requisites. This standard is being advanced each year until all regular students in all schools will have to have a minimum education of graduation from a high school or its equivalent in academic counts.
Special Students are admitted to these teaching schools without academic qualifications. They may take the full course, but cannot graduate from the schools which they attend, nor can they practice in any state where laws regulating the practise of chiropody are on the Statute books. Provision has been made to educate these special students so that those contemplating practice in the states and countries where there are at present no laws governing chiropody may secure the knowledge imparted in the schools. It is fair to assume that within the next five years every state in the United States will have a law governing chiropody practice whereupon those from foreign countries only will be admitted to the course as special students.
Post-graduate Students. Practitioners of medicine or of chiropody, who have been reputably engaged as such for at least six months, and who wish to acquire the knowledge imparted to the regular students so that they may become better fitted for their vocations, are eligible as post-graduate students.
Duration of Course
In most of the established schools of chiropody the day course is of from eight to nine months’ duration. The hours are as follows: from 9 A. M. to 12, from 1 to 5 P. M., and during the last three months of the course, additionally, from 7:30 to 10 P. M.
The night course is of two years’ duration, three hours each night for eight months in each year.
Degrees
Graduates of the various schools receive titles and degrees. Some of the schools give the degree of D.S.C. (Doctor of Surgical Chiropody); others the title of M.Cp. (Master of Chiropody).