Need helping deciding pa school vs med school

[Cfilak1]

Hey so I'm new to this forum. I am currently an incoming junior at college and I have a 3.59 GPA and am pretty good at testing. I'm an insanely dedicated person and am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want. The thing is, I don't know whether I want to be a PA or an MD. I don't have many general health experience for PA school and my GPA is decent for both med school/PA school(i think).

I've always wanted to be a doctor I'm just scared I won't get into med school and I just tell myself to be a PA but I don't think I have the health experience to get into a good school.

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[deleted407021]

@Cfilak1 How much have you educated yourself regarding the similarities and differences between the two careers, what the requirements are to be eligible for consideration and the various other factors which come into play?

 

[Cfilak1]

From what I understand, getting into medical school requires mostly GPA, MCAT score, and volunteer experiences. For PA school it's GPA, GRE score, and health care experience.

 

[Cfilak1]

That is a very weak reason for not applying: You're afraid you will be rejected? You should get some health care experience, clinical volunteering, shadow some doctors and PA, spend an extra year and apply later. Figure out which is better for you.

I'm doing EMT classes as we speak so that's clinical experience and I agree with the shadowing. What do you guys recommend to do when we take the year off or so after graduating with a bachelors?

 

[DokterMom]

Why not dedicate the summer to finding out?
Shadow both. Ask each what they like/dislike about their work.
Figure out if you are the kind of person who needs to be in charge (go MD) or if it's the work itself and human contact matter more (go PA).
How important is your personal life? Future kids? (go PA)
How important is prestige and a big paycheck? (go MD)

These are really good questions that deserve some research --

 

[cheetoh]

PA or MD shouldn't be a choice you're having to make. Doing PA as a "back-up" is going to result in you being a poor PA. If you've always wanted to be a doctor, then your shadowing experience should already be giving you a leg-up in your MD/DO application.

I think you need to spend time researching both positions. There are plenty of PA's who could have gotten a 36 MCAT. There are plenty of MD's with a 3.5 GPA. Their numbers didn't dictate their careers.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Hey so I'm new to this forum. I am currently an incoming junior at college and I have a 3.59 GPA and am pretty good at testing. I'm an insanely dedicated person and am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want. The thing is, I don't know whether I want to be a PA or an MD. I don't have many general health experience for PA school and my GPA is decent for both med school/PA school(i think).

I've always wanted to be a doctor I'm just scared I won't get into med school and I just tell myself to be a PA but I don't think I have the health experience to get into a good school.

I use this as a defense mechanism more often than I'd like to admit. During my orgo 2 final, I felt that my dreams of becoming a doctor were being crushed by that apocalyptic exam. And I ended up doing well in the class.
I know ppl who want to be PA's who seem genuinely excited about that career path. Pick the field that you are more passionate about.

 

[didymus]

It is actually considerably more difficult to get into my state PA school than my state medical school. I know of people for whom medical school is a backup plan if they don't get into PA school.

The truth is, PA as a profession is blowing up these days. The state of healthcare and speculations about the future make it a highly desirable field--trends are constantly towards greater autonomy for PA's (as well as NP's obviously, but docs have substantially more respect for PA's).

There is a great deal of ease in moving among specialties as a PA, most programs are only 24-26 months, the debt incurred is much less than with medical school, and PA's can even open their own practices in most (if not all) states.

Being a physician means you will often have greater responsibility and input in the vast majority of situations, but that responsibility is not necessarily a gift. You will definitely be lower on the totem pole as a PA, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you are content with less responsibility and less knowledge overall, then training as a PA is a pragmatic and worthwhile career choice. That said, it is NOT easy to get into PA school, with many of them requiring a year or more of full time direct patient care experience, the same premed coursework, and average stats of those accepted equal to many MD/DO schools.