Physician Assistant Student Considering Medical School?

[leigh1519]

Hello, everyone! I am currently a 4th year PA student, on clinicals now, and will be graduating in December of this year. First, I'll share a little bit about my path towards becoming a PA and the program that I am enrolled in. I was accepted into the PA program that I am in straight out of high school. Altogether my program is 4.5 years and I will receive a combined BS/MS degree. The first two years of my schooling, including summers, consisted of taking "undergrad" classes and prerequisite classes needed to start the didactic portion of my training. The only sciences that I have taken at a collegiate level have been anatomy and physiology (1&2), general chem (1&2), organic chemistry (one semester), biochemistry, pathophysiology, microbiology, and gross anatomy and received an A in all of these. My third year of school consisted of all my clinical PA courses and then I started clinicals June of 2018 and will be doing that until this December.
After being out on clinicals for awhile now, I cannot shake the idea that I want to go to medical school. I have so much respect for the PA career. I wouldn't have picked it if I didn't. I ruled out medical school when I was a 17 year old high school student due to the time commitment and financial responsibility that comes along with it. Regardless, after having the time to mature over these past couple years and especially the past couple months, I have some different reasons for wanting to go back to medical school.
I do have some concerns/questions about the whole process. I know that I have quite a bit of undergrad sciences that I still need to take (physics, cell bio, genetics, etc) and will need all of these before starting to study for my MCATs. I also know that taking on the financial responsibility of medical school will be a lot on top of my current loans. Additionally, I think I should finish my program. If I don't, I just spent 4 years and have nothing to show for it, plus it's only 9 more months. Here are my questions that I was wondering if anyone had any advice:

1. Should I finish my program and take the PANCE? Does this affect admission to medical school in any way?
2. Should I look into enrolling in a post-bacc program after graduation? Or should I just try to take the classes individually through a college/university as a non-degree seeking student (is this even an option)?
   
3. Should I work as a PA, considering I become certified, to pay off loans before going back?

Any additional advice on any part of my situation would be greatly appreciated!!

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[BiggiePow]

I think post-bacc is the best option. If you can do a post-bacc at a larger research institute and get some time in a lab or clinical trial to get exposed that would be great for extracurriculars and expose you to a large part of many academic physician's lives. Also post-bacc shows clear commitment to medicine and may give you shadowing opportunities? Which even though you are a PA you would still need to shadow docs. Might be cool with all your medical knowledge though.

As for certification. It's up to you. You came this far why not take the PANCE. It I would say definitely if you have gap time between your postbacc. You can save up with per diem work and continue weekends throughout your post-bacc. Very good to have an income lol. If you have a lot of loans you may want to work a little more. I don't think it has a huge effect on getting in. The biggest thing is GPA, MCAT, and evidence that shows you are dedicated to MD/DO. Also they are two very distinct careers, and you should think about why you want to be a doctor because admins will wonder why you want to be a doc. Maybe you want to drive the field of medicine forward through clinical education, clinical/bench research, public health, things that are possible but more difficult as a PA. That'd be a good answer.

 

[MusicDOc124]

I think post-bacc is the best option. If you can do a post-bacc at a larger research institute and get some time in a lab or clinical trial to get exposed that would be great for extracurriculars and expose you to a large part of many academic physician's lives. Also post-bacc shows clear commitment to medicine and may give you shadowing opportunities? Which even though you are a PA you would still need to shadow docs. Might be cool with all your medical knowledge though.

As for certification. It's up to you. You came this far why not take the PANCE. It I would say definitely if you have gap time between your postbacc. You can save up with per diem work and continue weekends throughout your post-bacc. Very good to have an income lol. If you have a lot of loans you may want to work a little more. I don't think it has a huge effect on getting in. The biggest thing is GPA, MCAT, and evidence that shows you are dedicated to MD/DO. Also they are two very distinct careers, and you should think about why you want to be a doctor because admins will wonder why you want to be a doc. Maybe you want to drive the field of medicine forward through clinical education, clinical/bench research, public health, things that are possible but more difficult as a PA. That'd be a good answer.

- yes finish your program.

- yes take the PANCE as medical school admission is not a guarantee - don't shoot yourself in the foot.

- whether to take individual courses or a formal post-bacc depends on your undergraduate GPA and the schools you want to apply to. Some schools have a limit of how far out your pre-reqs must have been taken. for instance, some have a 5 year time limit, and since you program is 4.5 years, assuming gen chem for instance was taken in year one, you'd be nearing the end of that window for some schools and I believe would need to be retaken.

- whether or not to work is up to you. I personally would recommend it because it'll give you a better idea of what it's like to actually be a PA rather than just your observations as a student, along with interacting with physicians to also get a better feel on if you'd like to go back. Also, paying off loans in the mean time is not a bad idea. Working and getting a little more clarity on why you want to change will be beneficial because if you apply to med school, they're going to want to really know why you even became a PA if you immediately are applying, and are going to wonder why you took the seat from someone else who potentially would have kept their career as a PA and when you could have gone to med school in an even shorter amount of time. They might not specific say or ask that, but it will be a thought that they will be wondering.

Don't forget you'll also have to take the MCAT for basically everywhere except one school that I'm aware of, and I don't recommend that school so I won't name it here.

You should also be aware that as a PA, you have the freedom to choose what fields you want to be in and can relatively freely switch as long as a job is open and you can get hired. As a physician, you must complete residency after medical school in a specific field, and depending on your interests, some are more competitive to get into than others. A great deal of the competitiveness is based on step 1/level 1 scores which you take halfway through med school, so if you have interest in a field that is particularly competitive in medicine, there is a chance that you may be better off saving the time, money, and stress risking that things may not go as planned (i.e. mind set on a single competitive field for instance). That isn't to say you won't score well, but there are multiple boards we take before even graduating, compared with the one exam you take as a PA after you are finished. I've seen people go through with their mind set on something, and end up doing poorly feeling stuck with choices they didnt have interest in. This is just something to keep in mind.