Hi, I'm thinking of becoming a physician assistant. I am about to go into my second year at University of California, San Diego, and my GPA is 3.56 so far. I just wanted some advice on where and how I should volunteer to get those hours needed for schools that provide PA master degrees. I would also like to know which schools I should apply to, how much tuition it is, and about how much money I would make yearly. In addition, should I get a medical assistant certificate so that while I'm still in undergrad, I can get more opportunities at hospitals and such? Also, I originally wanted to be a veterinarian so I have about 200 hours of vet experience. Would that matter at all when I apply to PA schools? Any other suggestions or advice will also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Advice on pre-PA
- Thread starter kururu16
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First off, I am no longer Pre-PA but still got PA in the back of my mind. Keep in mind, California has what many consider the toughest Pre-PA route. They may have 10 schools, but California also has the most college graduates by state in the nation.
-Patient Care Hours: Start looking into a CNA or EMT certification. Now that the summer is practically over for most places enrollment you may have to wait till your Fall to Spring semester break. Basic volunteer hours aren't going to cut it (in my opinion) because you don't really do much except be an unpaid janitor or errand boy. Keep in mind that most first year PA students spent at least one full year out of college. Many people spend one full year out of college before they even apply because to stay competitive at many PA schools you need 1,000 hours. You should start emailing PA schools in California to get some information. Don't ask for just the MINIMUM requirements in patient care hours, but also ask about the average accepted students patient care hours or a "competitive" patient care hours amount. A school may say "minimum 300 hours" but that is the bare minimum just so you make it through the first of several screening processes. If you get 3-4 weeks off between your final exam and your first week of class of your Winter/Spring semester I would look into a short CNA course that will get you that certificate then take the state test, which is pretty easy, soon after so that you can attempt to get a few hours a week at a local rehab or nursing home center per week. Up in East Lansing the pre-PA students could easily find jobs at any one of the dozens of nursing homes within 5 miles of campus because they all worked part time maybe just 2 shifts a week that ended up being 16 hours per week and these places were willing to hire the young students over the middle aged CNAs simply because they knew that the pre-PA students were intelligent college students whose reason to be there was to better their lives. It may sound like a d*** thing to say but some of the management would rather have the students who don't plan on being a CNA until they're 28 than some 35yr old woman who couldn't find a career in anything else. Also, if they hired a bunch of younger part time employees they are less likely to be tired and quit than someone who works 40 hours a week changing bedpans and have bags under their eyes. I bet there has to be a good amount of nursing homes near the San Diego area willing to hire a part time college student for 16 hours a week, but you may get stuck working the 11pm-7am midnight shift. A Medical Assistant certificate would be a better fit for job prospects, but the issue is that the length of that program is at least 8 months. Medical Assistant programs will cost much more than a CNA and take way longer.
Which schools to Apply to: That is what GOOGLE is for. Here is the link to the US News Week PA School Rankings:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankings...p-health-schools/physician-assistant-rankings And really these rankings I think mean little. My cousin's boyfriend is graduating from a school ranked in the 80s and he is now doing a residency at Johns Hopkins, which is considered one of the best PA residencies in the nation in which he can practically write his own ticket to nearly any hospital in the country after he completes this residency. The ranking is more for you to see an easy location for the schools based on a ranking system by News Week. Michigan State's website has a great PDF of the Pre-PA guide for Michigan programs and unfortunately my advisor told me that we were the only school that actually made something relatively close to this type of guide that compares all the schools in the state and we don't even have a PA school: http://ns.msu.edu/premed/PrePAGuide.pdf
Tuition: GOOGLE is your friend. Like I said earlier, email the schools for it. At the time the tuition isn't gonna change your mind because we all know that anything in the medical field will have a high graduate tuition. If the person responding to your email is lazy and doesn't know their facts they may just give you a URL that gives you just the basic tuition rate and doesn't give you much info on all extra fees. Best advice other than email is take a couple hours and research each program close to you (start in CA if you want to stay there and then move around the nation if you want) and make an Excel spreadsheet with all the info you can find on their website.
Salary: You could easily make $85K a year in your first year out of PA school. My cousin's boyfriend turned down a $92K+ offer to do the residency program that can practically write him a ticket anywhere.
-Patient Care Hours: Start looking into a CNA or EMT certification. Now that the summer is practically over for most places enrollment you may have to wait till your Fall to Spring semester break. Basic volunteer hours aren't going to cut it (in my opinion) because you don't really do much except be an unpaid janitor or errand boy. Keep in mind that most first year PA students spent at least one full year out of college. Many people spend one full year out of college before they even apply because to stay competitive at many PA schools you need 1,000 hours. You should start emailing PA schools in California to get some information. Don't ask for just the MINIMUM requirements in patient care hours, but also ask about the average accepted students patient care hours or a "competitive" patient care hours amount. A school may say "minimum 300 hours" but that is the bare minimum just so you make it through the first of several screening processes. If you get 3-4 weeks off between your final exam and your first week of class of your Winter/Spring semester I would look into a short CNA course that will get you that certificate then take the state test, which is pretty easy, soon after so that you can attempt to get a few hours a week at a local rehab or nursing home center per week. Up in East Lansing the pre-PA students could easily find jobs at any one of the dozens of nursing homes within 5 miles of campus because they all worked part time maybe just 2 shifts a week that ended up being 16 hours per week and these places were willing to hire the young students over the middle aged CNAs simply because they knew that the pre-PA students were intelligent college students whose reason to be there was to better their lives. It may sound like a d*** thing to say but some of the management would rather have the students who don't plan on being a CNA until they're 28 than some 35yr old woman who couldn't find a career in anything else. Also, if they hired a bunch of younger part time employees they are less likely to be tired and quit than someone who works 40 hours a week changing bedpans and have bags under their eyes. I bet there has to be a good amount of nursing homes near the San Diego area willing to hire a part time college student for 16 hours a week, but you may get stuck working the 11pm-7am midnight shift. A Medical Assistant certificate would be a better fit for job prospects, but the issue is that the length of that program is at least 8 months. Medical Assistant programs will cost much more than a CNA and take way longer.
Which schools to Apply to: That is what GOOGLE is for. Here is the link to the US News Week PA School Rankings:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankings...p-health-schools/physician-assistant-rankings And really these rankings I think mean little. My cousin's boyfriend is graduating from a school ranked in the 80s and he is now doing a residency at Johns Hopkins, which is considered one of the best PA residencies in the nation in which he can practically write his own ticket to nearly any hospital in the country after he completes this residency. The ranking is more for you to see an easy location for the schools based on a ranking system by News Week. Michigan State's website has a great PDF of the Pre-PA guide for Michigan programs and unfortunately my advisor told me that we were the only school that actually made something relatively close to this type of guide that compares all the schools in the state and we don't even have a PA school: http://ns.msu.edu/premed/PrePAGuide.pdf
Tuition: GOOGLE is your friend. Like I said earlier, email the schools for it. At the time the tuition isn't gonna change your mind because we all know that anything in the medical field will have a high graduate tuition. If the person responding to your email is lazy and doesn't know their facts they may just give you a URL that gives you just the basic tuition rate and doesn't give you much info on all extra fees. Best advice other than email is take a couple hours and research each program close to you (start in CA if you want to stay there and then move around the nation if you want) and make an Excel spreadsheet with all the info you can find on their website.
Salary: You could easily make $85K a year in your first year out of PA school. My cousin's boyfriend turned down a $92K+ offer to do the residency program that can practically write him a ticket anywhere.
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Hello, you are asking the right questions! I also actually graduated from UCSD..and will be attending PA school this fall! Although my school is not in California, I applied to a lot of California schools and received interviews/acceptances. Your GPA is fine, that is around where mine was as well and I had no problems. Just make sure you upkeep your GPA and even improve it if possible. For your hours, you can for sure try to get an MA or CNA certification and try to find a part time job you can do while in class. You can then work more hours during your summer breaks etc, to try and build those clinical hours. Volunteering is great, but I would highly recommend finding a direct patient care job that is PAID and getting most of your hours from that. This would include CNA/MA but you can also look into things that don't require a certification like PT aide or clinical research assistant that deals with human subjects (these are not too hard to find on the UCSD campus). Personally, I took a year off after graduation so that I could just work and rack up clinical care hours while getting necessary experience you will need for PA school. Most people in PA school have had years of experience...so it is really important you take the time to get some quality experience. It is not too often you see college seniors getting into PA school and going straight after graduation but it could happen.
You can also look into the CCE program in San Diego..I did this, and it is a volunteer internship at a hospital. A lot of people from UCSD do this program, and it is a good way to get your foot in the door and even shadow some PAs/MDs and get some more hours (although they are not paid).
I don't really think your vet hours will count as clinical hours.
As far as which schools you should apply to, that is honestly your decision. Do your research online and visit different program websites. It is up to you whether you want to stay in California or if you are willing to go out of state, how much you are willing to PA school, how long you want your program to be, what kind of curriculum is important to you, etc.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!
You can also look into the CCE program in San Diego..I did this, and it is a volunteer internship at a hospital. A lot of people from UCSD do this program, and it is a good way to get your foot in the door and even shadow some PAs/MDs and get some more hours (although they are not paid).
I don't really think your vet hours will count as clinical hours.
As far as which schools you should apply to, that is honestly your decision. Do your research online and visit different program websites. It is up to you whether you want to stay in California or if you are willing to go out of state, how much you are willing to PA school, how long you want your program to be, what kind of curriculum is important to you, etc.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!
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Also, keep in mind UCSD does not have anatomy/anatomy lab which is required for most PA schools. You will have to take this at a community college most likely so just something to think about!
