Chances of getting into PA school?

[Cturtlegirl2000]

I am considering PA school as a second career and was wondering if anyone could tell me what my chances of getting into a PA program would be.

I have a bachelor's degree in Biology with a 3.5 GPA. I also have a master's degree in Biology with a 4.0 GPA. My GRE scores are outdated so I will have to take the test again, but last time around I got a 1220. I know I am missing some prerequisite courses that some programs require, but I found one program whose prerequisites I fulfill with my current degrees.

For the last several years I have been working in the field of conservation biology with an emphasis on physiology research. I don't have any direct patient care, but I have spent some time working with vets so I am familiar with some common mammalian medical issues and am comfortable in a medical setting.

I know a lot of programs want you to have previous medical experience, but I honestly don't know how I could get this. I am working full time+ right now just trying to make ends meet and pay off debt from my master's degree. I can't financially afford to go back to school to get a certificate to be a medical assistant or EMT, plus I couldn't live off the salary of those professions to get the preferred experience.

Any thought, comments, concerns? I would ideally like to start a PA program in summer 2012.

Thanks!

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[ahyes]

applying is the only way to know for sure if you'll get in or not...

 

[Makati2008]

I am considering PA school as a second career and was wondering if anyone could tell me what my chances of getting into a PA program would be.

I have a bachelor's degree in Biology with a 3.5 GPA. I also have a master's degree in Biology with a 4.0 GPA. My GRE scores are outdated so I will have to take the test again, but last time around I got a 1220. I know I am missing some prerequisite courses that some programs require, but I found one program whose prerequisites I fulfill with my current degrees.

For the last several years I have been working in the field of conservation biology with an emphasis on physiology research. I don't have any direct patient care, but I have spent some time working with vets so I am familiar with some common mammalian medical issues and am comfortable in a medical setting.

I know a lot of programs want you to have previous medical experience, but I honestly don't know how I could get this. I am working full time+ right now just trying to make ends meet and pay off debt from my master's degree. I can't financially afford to go back to school to get a certificate to be a medical assistant or EMT, plus I couldn't live off the salary of those professions to get the preferred experience.

Any thought, comments, concerns? I would ideally like to start a PA program in summer 2012.

Thanks!

Very low chances of you getting in without any HCE. You should find a way for your S.O. to help wth debt load.

Your mammal. work is cool to discuss at an interview but without some type of HCE to talk about and show your committment to the profession then I doubt you will get many(if any) looks from quality programs. I would recommend volunteerring as much as you can and/or becoming a Phelebotomist to get patient contact hours and a few bucks while doing it.

 

[deleted6669]

agree with makati. with zero human pt care experience you are eligible for maybe 10% of pa programs and those are all considered the lowest tier. do yourself a favor, get emt or cna training and at least 1000 hrs of hce before you apply or you will be throwing your money down the drain.
emedpa
former admissions committee member at 2 well known pa programs

 

[Cturtlegirl2000]

applying is the only way to know for sure if you'll get in or not...

Thanks for the optimism. I agree completely. There are 2 programs I am looking into seriously. After I talk to admissions, I will most likely start with applying to those 2.

 

[Cturtlegirl2000]

Very low chances of you getting in without any HCE. You should find a way for your S.O. to help wth debt load.

Your mammal. work is cool to discuss at an interview but without some type of HCE to talk about and show your committment to the profession then I doubt you will get many(if any) looks from quality programs. I would recommend volunteerring as much as you can and/or becoming a Phelebotomist to get patient contact hours and a few bucks while doing it.

I am assuming "S.O." means significant other? If I had a sugar daddy, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place . One reason why I want to go back to school is for the job security and pay potential. Don't get my wrong, I have been interested in medicine for a while and was pre-med in undergrad, I just got sidetracked over the years doing animal research. And as much as I like what I do now, I am tired of the lack of jobs in the field and the low pay. It's a labor of love that I didn't mind pursuing in my 20s, but reality has caught up to me and I need a career.

I don't really see how phlebotomy would help me learn diagnostic skills per se. I guess it would give me patient interaction, but other than taking blood and passing it on to a lab tech, do you really know much about the patient and/or sample you are processing?

What about lab tech positions? I have a lot of lab experience. Do you need special certification to work in a medical lab? Even though the patient interaction would be limited, I feel like I would be learning more of the science behind the illnesses. Are there any positions that blend phlebotomy with actually processing the samples?

 

[Cturtlegirl2000]

agree with makati. with zero human pt care experience you are eligible for maybe 10% of pa programs and those are all considered the lowest tier. do yourself a favor, get emt or cna training and at least 1000 hrs of hce before you apply or you will be throwing your money down the drain.
emedpa
former admissions committee member at 2 well known pa programs

Thanks for the advice, especially since I see you used to work in PA admissions. Basically, for me to get health care experience, I need to be able to get into the field as cheaply as possible, i.e. not take a whole bunch of additional certification courses that are going to cost me money, and then make enough money to live off to get through the required hours of experience. I will look into CNA and EMT options.

 

[Dwindlin]

Thanks for the advice, especially since I see you used to work in PA admissions. Basically, for me to get health care experience, I need to be able to get into the field as cheaply as possible, i.e. not take a whole bunch of additional certification courses that are going to cost me money, and then make enough money to live off to get through the required hours of experience. I will look into CNA and EMT options.

In many parts of the country you can find local fire departments (especially volly departments) who are willing to pay for EMS training if you agree to work there for a certain period of time (typically 1 or 2 years).

 

[Simann]

Suck up your pride and start pushing wheelchairs in the local hospital, at least part time. I am absolutely not kidding. The amount of connections you will make with physicians/nurses is worth its weight in gold.


(When I worked in the O.R. (sterile supply) I was known as the "boy in the window"; after running instrument sets to the O.R.'s I would sit in surgeries for a few minutes and hurry back. Met alot of surgeons that way and got to learn alot of fancy lingo/procedures first hand.

Went back and pushed wheelchairs for patient transport a few years later. Thought it was a step "down" job, but boy was I wrong. Got to see the "other side" of the hospital and work with the nurses and physicians on the floor. While doing that job, I was stopped in the hallway by a physician I often chatted with in the hall. Little did I know he was a Cardiologist/EP, he asked me to work for him. He is stil my boss to this day and I would not change a thing! )

 

[wutthechris]

I don't really see how phlebotomy would help me learn diagnostic skills per se. I guess it would give me patient interaction, but other than taking blood and passing it on to a lab tech, do you really know much about the patient and/or sample you are processing?

What about lab tech positions? I have a lot of lab experience. Do you need special certification to work in a medical lab? Even though the patient interaction would be limited, I feel like I would be learning more of the science behind the illnesses. Are there any positions that blend phlebotomy with actually processing the samples?

You're describing a medical laboratory scientist/medical technologist and yes it does require a special certification. Sitting for the boards requires a 1-2 year medical technology/clinical laboratory science program.

Pros: You know a ton about laboratory medicine.
Cons: You lack patient interaction unless you work at a small facility or somewhere rural in which med techs also draw blood. Larger hospitals usually have separate phlebotomists.

 

[Starpower]

Lab Tech is definitely not patient care experience. If you want to be a PA, you need to get your hands dirty. EMT, CNA, MA, those are ways you can go. Some home healthcare companies will hire you as a Personal Care Assistant without anything other than a CPR certification. You can also start volunteering on the weekend in your local ER ... some programs will count this as patient care experience depending on the nature of the work you do, and at the very least you will get some exposure and maybe make some good connections for references later on.

 

[ChillyRN]

I admit to knowing very little about PA education, so take this for what it is worth. At the location where I was gaining clinical experience for my NP education, there was a young girl working in the office as a method of gaining the patient experience necessary to be admitted to PA school. She had a BA in psychology. After college she spent a year (ish) taking vital signs, answering phones, rooming patients and filing. She was accepted and is just about to begin this Spring/Summer sometime. She did not have a CNA or MA certificate, she just got herself hired in a primary care office. She was only 22 years old and still living at home with her parents, so could afford to work for $7/hour. I have no idea what her undergrad GPA was, or how well she did on the GRE. She was very bright and highly motivated, I can say that much. Now, I know that you said you can't afford to do what she did, but I was thinking perhaps you could do something along those lines after your usual business hours/weekends at an urgent care or something. From what she said, the schools she looked at didn't care what she was doing specifically, but were universally requiring a minimum of 1000 hours of patient contact doing something to be competitive. I don't know how many schools she applied to, but she got into University of CO. Hope that helps, good luck!

 

[deleted6669]

I admit to knowing very little about PA education, so take this for what it is worth. At the location where I was gaining clinical experience for my NP education, there was a young girl working in the office as a method of gaining the patient experience necessary to be admitted to PA school. She had a BA in psychology. After college she spent a year (ish) taking vital signs, answering phones, rooming patients and filing. She was accepted and is just about to begin this Spring/Summer sometime. She did not have a CNA or MA certificate, she just got herself hired in a primary care office. She was only 22 years old and still living at home with her parents, so could afford to work for $7/hour. I have no idea what her undergrad GPA was, or how well she did on the GRE. She was very bright and highly motivated, I can say that much. Now, I know that you said you can't afford to do what she did, but I was thinking perhaps you could do something along those lines after your usual business hours/weekends at an urgent care or something. From what she said, the schools she looked at didn't care what she was doing specifically, but were universally requiring a minimum of 1000 hours of patient contact doing something to be competitive. I don't know how many schools she applied to, but she got into University of CO. Hope that helps, good luck!

fwiw most of the better schools do care how you get your hours and don't accept medical front office, scribes, transcriptionists, etc as experience. the general preference is for hands on emt, tech, cna, rn, rt, etc
p.s.- just did a little review of the u. of co. program. it is one of a growing # of THREE YEAR full time pa programs(usc is another) that will accept folks with less(or no) experience because it builds more clinical time into the program. this is not a standard format(yet) but probably will be at some point in the future as "traditional applicants"( medic/rn/rt) decrease in # in favor of younger applicants with less experience. the other change that is likely at some point is a mandated residency for everything outside of primary care.

 

[ChillyRN]

I just hoped that the OP might be able to do something at a health care facility that is open during hours she might be available. That hurdle is a tough one for someone who needs a certain income to keep their head above water! Well, I guess in light of your discovery my anecdote wasn't completely useless. Perhaps the OP can find a program like that near her. Is U of CO a good school? I have no idea.

 

[deleted6669]

U. of co is a good school with a pediatric focus. you must meet all the regular pa school requirements but there is also an extra emphasis on peds. similar to the cornell surgical focus pa program.