Unique Situation - Take the MCAT & GRE to apply to PA school?

[Metroid_]

Here's a summary of my current situation.

Undergraduate track record is dismal. I can only point to three or so semesters where I did fairly well (more on this later). It also took me about 6.5 years to graduate with a B.S. The reason for this performance is because I dealt with chronic major depression for 8.5 years, from when I was 18-26. I am now in remission. I have been for almost three years now.

Initially in my undergraduate I was stubborn and isolated. I thought I needed to isolate myself in order to get my work done. This wasn't the case. By the time I realized the error in my ways it was too hard for me to get out of the pit I had created but I kept on struggling trying to overcome it. I was stubborn in that I didn't want to give up, period. I did take a few semesters off but they weren't productive/developmental; I just mulled. Initially I wanted to overcome depression without any prescription drugs, then I tried them for a bit but I went on and off them a few times due to stubbornness and getting the boost I thought I needed to finally overcome depression once and for all. Eventually I was prescribed Adderall and I took it for a year. Horrible drug. Constant rebound effect and it seemed the dose needed to be continually upped for the same effect. I'd have 1 day of being productive and then the next day I would be destroyed energy wise along with not being able to concentrate. It certainly didn't level me out. It was an extreme approach. God knows why I took it for a year.

Anyways, I could go on and on and analyze what I think didn't work and what I should've done differently.

Here's more back to the question at hand.

I have repeated classes. I have failed/withdrawn from classes. I have dropped out of classes. I have taken semesters off.

However, I know personally when I was dealing with depression I can point to three semesters when I did well, took a full load or one credit short and got between a 3.3-3.5. I know there's not a fault in terms of my ability to comprehend and utilize health/science related information.

So... starting last summer I decided to kick things into gear more and prove myself a bit and be more representative of what I could've done academically/otherwise in my undergrad if I hadn't been dealing with depression.

Last summer I worked full time (nothing special... dental claims associate), volunteered 10 hours a week as a Clinical Research Associate in a metropolitan hospital ER, and I went to school full time too (statistics & microbiology... both of which I'd never taken before). I excelled in this venture. I got a 4.0 in terms of GPA & I was well liked as a Research Associate that they accepted me into the program again for the fall. That fall I no longer worked at my job simply because of scheduling issues with me wanting to go back to school full time for another semester. So that fall I went back to the University of MN again, full time, took a full load (American Literature 1, Nutrition, Immunology, Common Prescription Drugs & Diseases, and Public Health - Personal and Community Health). I also continued to volunteer in the ER and did that 8 hours/week with 1-2 overnights a month (~10 hours/week average). I did extremely well academically that fall, 3.834 GPA. I had never done that well before and was proud of what I could do when I wasn't depressed off my ass. So, I had 7 months of continuous progress, no regression in terms of depression...

Anyways... that's my situation as of last December. Initially I was going to apply to PA school immediately last summer but decided to wait to get a job with patient care experience (now I've been working as a dialysis patient care tech for 3 months). I have taken practice GRE tests and have scored ~157. My test is scheduled for the 24th of this month. I will apply to PA school next year.

I'm just wondering though... if I shouldn't take the MCAT. My reasoning would be that taking it would further prove I know the material representative of what I should've learned in my undergraduate. That even though I have failed/withdrawn/etc. I know (well can relearn) the material representative of a doctor but I want to go the PA route (hopefully surgical PA).

Any comments would be much appreciated. I have no idea how schools would view candidates like myself. In the past I definitely had a disability. Luckily I was able to overcome it and now have a loving fiance.

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[pamac]

Congratulations on making the kind of progress you want to see. Its frustrating to be in a position where you feel like you have what it takes and have to deal with the past.

It might be tempting to reach out to any avenue to try to prove yourself academically, but I'm not sure that taking the MCAT to do it is the right way to move forward. PA programs don't require it, and it has the possibility of backfiring on you by muddying the waters as far as your intentions. I would liken it to someone who wants to be a police officer so badly after being rejected that they join the army hoping that if they stand out by handling guns and seeing combat, that would make them a natural fit for the police force. In my example, there certainly might be parallels between police and military, but there is more to being a policeman than violence and weapons, and a better approach might be to obtain more education or study harder for exams. Taking the MCAT might make it look like you might really want to be a doctor instead of a PA, and it would require you to go out of your way to clear that up for a program ahead of time. That kind of thing then becomes the center of attention rather than the other things you would want a school to focus on.

One thing to prepare yourself for is for programs to be reluctant to veer too far from the traditional ways of evaluating academic abilities. I had this problem as well when I applied years ago (and I didn't get accepted). I had mediocre grades in some subjects, and went on to work hard to bring my GPA up and prove that I really did "get it" at that point. I went on to get perfect grades, and saw how hard it was to get the academic establishments to respect that. They have so many people applying who do things the right way the first time, that they are hesitant to risk any kind of gamble on a student with a checkered past. I can't imagine any PA school gets less than 5 applicants for each seat they have, and I've seen some as high as 11 or more applicants per seat at some schools. Imagine that if even one quarter of those applicants are not very accomplished students, that still leaves a lot of very qualified students to compete against for each seat. The numbers are very daunting, but they are pretty realistic. Most of the folks applying to PA schools can be expected to be at least average students, and even more of them are probably above average. When PA schools look at your GPA, they average the attempts as well, so that causes some folks a lot of problems.