Dietitian to PA?

[olivia948]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if I could get some thoughts on my situation.

A little background on myself...
I'm 22 years old and almost done with my dietetic internship and Master's program. I finished my undergrad in 3 years with a 3.8 and have a 4.0 in grad school. My Master's thesis is {hopefully} on its' way to being published and has a biochem focus. My internship (1200 hours) had a large clinical focus but also included some community and food service work. I absolutely loved my time during my clinical rotations, but has shown me that I want to do more, patient-wise. I am thinking about PA school and was wondering on how my chances are of getting accepted. I shadowed a PA for a bit during undergrad and really liked it, and seeing what they do in a hospital setting made me want to do that instead of being a RD.
My only concerns are that my science GPA from undergrad isn't that great. I had some dual enrollment courses from high school that transferred over (gen chem, I got a C in the class and B in the lab), a C in organic chemistry, and a B in biochem. I did fine in all the others (A&P, microbiology, etc), but will this look bad? I don't really have the time to postpone applying to PA school and retake the courses, financially speaking. Not sure if the 4.0 in grad school will make it look better?
Also, most of my experience is nutrition focused. I have patient care experience and volunteer work, but all is in a nutrition-related area. Is that a problem?

Overall, I'm just wondering if I would be a good fit for PA school.

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[DizzyJon]

The final answer is up to whoever is reviewing your application. However, I do not think this will be a problem. I had a PA student a few years back who was a dietician. I think her HCE was unique and made her stand out from the typical MA/STNA/EMT. Admissions are tough and calculating what someone's chances are of getting in are nearly impossible. I'm on an admission committee for a program. We had 550 applicants, 450 actually met the basic admission requirements, and we only interviewed 102 of them. That's 102 exceptional students for a mere 18 slots.

 

[pamac]

You will do fine, your grades and background are unique and qualifying. A good portion of folks applying to PA school these days don’t have a ton of worthwhile healthcare experience anyway. Your GPA is really good, and your academics are fine, notwithstanding the struggles in chemistry. The folks that review your application will see that you took on a lot and that those chem grades were just blips and not a huge trend. You crammed a lot into the time you had, which is a lot like PA school. But it’s important that you apply broadly so that you improve your chances. Most folks apply to quite a few schools, and that hyped up the competitive appearance. Yes, fewer than 50% of applicants get into PA school on the whole, but you also have to understand that many folks who apply to PA school wouldn’t dream of applying to something more rigorous like med school, whereas they have the image in their head that PA school is achievable. So folks like that read US news and world report articles through social media clickbait that say that PA is the hottest job around and only takes 2 years to achieve, and they throw their hat in the ring and apply. A lot of folks that have no business applying to Pa school do that, and since many of the prereqs for PA school are obtainable in your spare time, it’s relatively easy to get into a position to think you have a better chance at getting in than one really does. You’ll see business majors and CNAs that are poor students, or one of the masses of med school wannabe biology majors that partied too hard in undergrad applying to PA school as a consolation prize for something like medical or dental school that they have no realistic shot at. BUT.... they also have no realistic shot at PA school either. So look at it this way... if you are a better student than 50% of the population in the sciences (and you are by far), and if you can demonstrate that on paper (which you can), there will be a place for you at a PA program of you do your research and figure out the programs to apply to that will look at your overall profile and see things that appeal to them. That means that you will want to visit school websites and see what kind of applicants succeed at getting into their program. Each school is different, and has different factors that they use to exclude applicants and get the ones that they want to teach. Some like folks with great grades, and don’t care much about healthcare experience. Others will look the other way for people who have 3.2 GPAs as long as they have really awesome healthcare experience. Some really want to see lots of volunteer service. It’s different at each of the almost 200 Pa schools. Most are very expensive, so be ready for that when you get in. And every Pa program will take money from you to apply there, so they are fine with having 100 applicants for each seat.

 

[olivia948]

The final answer is up to whoever is reviewing your application. However, I do not think this will be a problem. I had a PA student a few years back who was a dietician. I think her HCE was unique and made her stand out from the typical MA/STNA/EMT. Admissions are tough and calculating what someone's chances are of getting in are nearly impossible. I'm on an admission committee for a program. We had 550 applicants, 450 actually met the basic admission requirements, and we only interviewed 102 of them. That's 102 exceptional students for a mere 18 slots.

Thank you, great insight.

 

[olivia948]

You will do fine, your grades and background are unique and qualifying. A good portion of folks applying to PA school these days don’t have a ton of worthwhile healthcare experience anyway. Your GPA is really good, and your academics are fine, notwithstanding the struggles in chemistry. The folks that review your application will see that you took on a lot and that those chem grades were just blips and not a huge trend. You crammed a lot into the time you had, which is a lot like PA school. But it’s important that you apply broadly so that you improve your chances. Most folks apply to quite a few schools, and that hyped up the competitive appearance. Yes, fewer than 50% of applicants get into PA school on the whole, but you also have to understand that many folks who apply to PA school wouldn’t dream of applying to something more rigorous like med school, whereas they have the image in their head that PA school is achievable. So folks like that read US news and world report articles through social media clickbait that say that PA is the hottest job around and only takes 2 years to achieve, and they throw their hat in the ring and apply. A lot of folks that have no business applying to Pa school do that, and since many of the prereqs for PA school are obtainable in your spare time, it’s relatively easy to get into a position to think you have a better chance at getting in than one really does. You’ll see business majors and CNAs that are poor students, or one of the masses of med school wannabe biology majors that partied too hard in undergrad applying to PA school as a consolation prize for something like medical or dental school that they have no realistic shot at. BUT.... they also have no realistic shot at PA school either. So look at it this way... if you are a better student than 50% of the population in the sciences (and you are by far), and if you can demonstrate that on paper (which you can), there will be a place for you at a PA program of you do your research and figure out the programs to apply to that will look at your overall profile and see things that appeal to them. That means that you will want to visit school websites and see what kind of applicants succeed at getting into their program. Each school is different, and has different factors that they use to exclude applicants and get the ones that they want to teach. Some like folks with great grades, and don’t care much about healthcare experience. Others will look the other way for people who have 3.2 GPAs as long as they have really awesome healthcare experience. Some really want to see lots of volunteer service. It’s different at each of the almost 200 Pa schools. Most are very expensive, so be ready for that when you get in. And every Pa program will take money from you to apply there, so they are fine with having 100 applicants for each seat.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate this