Please help!! PA or MD!? ............

[mystic river 00]

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I'm a sophomore in undergrad school, and wow, I have never been so indecisive in my life! I'm tearing my hair out trying to decide which path to go. Can you guys please help me by comparing the two fields? I'm thinking of going into peds, family practice..or possibly something else. Can you compare, for example, the years of schooling, the money involved (to give away for education and recieve). The quality of life, the hours and schedules, the difficulty of PA v.s med school. Also, I'll be completely honest, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box...I'd say that intelligence-wise, I'm an average joe...so, would that make becoming a physician pretty much difficult to reach? Does anyone know a person who went from being a PA (or being in PA school) to a physician (or going into med school) or vice-versa? I need all the help I can get. Also, I'll be volunteering in the hospital...which area do you guys feel I would benefit the most from? Gosh, what else? Do we have any doctors or PA's in the house? hehe If so, please tell me if you're satisfied with your life and job? Was there a time in the whole process that anyone has found to be the most stressful, etc?

Any additional advice/comments/questions gladly welcome!!

Please, please respond! I'd so very much appreciate it..I would..

🙂

 

[lawguil]

I'm a sophomore in undergrad school, and wow, I have never been so indecisive in my life! I'm tearing my hair out trying to decide which path to go. Can you guys please help me by comparing the two fields? I'm thinking of going into peds, family practice..or possibly something else. Can you compare, for example, the years of schooling, the money involved (to give away for education and recieve). The quality of life, the hours and schedules, the difficulty of PA v.s med school. Also, I'll be completely honest, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box...I'd say that intelligence-wise, I'm an average joe...so, would that make becoming a physician pretty much difficult to reach? Does anyone know a person who went from being a PA (or being in PA school) to a physician (or going into med school) or vice-versa? I need all the help I can get. Also, I'll be volunteering in the hospital...which area do you guys feel I would benefit the most from? Gosh, what else? Do we have any doctors or PA's in the house? hehe If so, please tell me if you're satisfied with your life and job? Was there a time in the whole process that anyone has found to be the most stressful, etc?

Any additional advice/comments/questions gladly welcome!!

Please, please respond! I'd so very much appreciate it..I would..

🙂

I'm not a physician or PA, but know a little bit. I think of a PA as having 1/2 the education and make about half the pay of a physician (more or less) depending on specialization and other variables (physicians can make a LOT more). If I remember correctly, PA's make from 50k to 120k depending on experience and specialization. Physicians make from 120k to 500k depending on specialization and there are always numbers outside the box. Physicians have to do a residency after medical school; PA's can typically find a job and work after they are licensed. PA works under the supervision of a physician, but have a great deal of autonomy. Supervision seems to be minimal and varies state to state. You should probably review the professional regulations for the state(s) that you are considering practicing as a PA or physician. You must take the MCAT's and do well to get into medical school; for PA school you probably need the GRE's and decent grades. I've seen students with a 2.7 successfully matriculate into a PA program and a student with a 3.1 successfully matriculate into an osteopathic medical program. However, each of these students had a great deal of life experience and exposure to healthcare one way or another. From my limited experience, student with lower GPA's are only successful if they have some type of life and or work experience that shows you have the maturity and devotion to become a provider of medicine. I can't speak of the difficulty between the two; however, if you can complete PA school, you’re probably capable of completing medical school successfully. As far as tuition is concerned, private schools are more expensive and are probably more of a consideration if you decide to go the PA direction. For private programs expect 20k a year or more.

For Medical School, you will need to complete a year of chemistry, organic chem., biology, physics, and English/lit. and I hear that some schools are requiring biochemistry. For PA school it varies a little more, but expect to need a year of chemistry, biochemistry, statistics or calc., biology, and English/lit. and health care experience paid or volunteer. This is only the minimum; however medical schools like to see diversity on your transcripts. L

 

[doogyhowser]

lawquil gives a nice summary.

pa's go to school for two years vs. 4 for m.d.
you complete roughly 2/3 of med school equivalent curricula

depending on the progra you get into, you may be shoulder to shoulder with
med students for many classes (anatomy, pharm, clin. med.) and on even ground with med students for clinical rotations.

pa education is primary care focussed but you can work in any specialty. people typically are apprenticed in a specialty (on-job-training), have a prior background in the specialty (going into ortho with background as an athletic trainer or ER with a backgroun in EMS), or they do a residency. the residencies are one year in length where you are shoulder to shoulder with interns and residents learning right along with them, with same the kind of responsibilities.

pa's make pretty good dough for the two years of school they have to go to. cardiovasc surg. types can pull round' 120K vs. 50-60K as a rural primary care clinician.

pa's are not the boss. you can get a great deal of autonomy depending on relationship you have with your supervising m.d., but i liken the pa to being a permanent resident.

if you can make it through pa school, you can make it through m.d. school. that doesn't auotmatically mean you'll be a competent clinician though, but i've seen subpar m.d.'s and pa's alike just as i've seen stellar m.d.'s and pa's.

pre-reqs are virtually the same (chem, o-chem, bio, stats, physics, etc). pa schools look more closely at prior experience though, and many even require a certain number of hours of experience to be eligible to apply.
no mcat, just GRE.

pa school is no cake walk. if you really wanna be a doc- be a doc because you won't be satisified as a pa. most pa's i know chose this route because they wanted a life outside of medicine.

i initially chose pa school because i was burned out from school and couldn't see myself in school for four years then residency for another 4. i wanted a family, job, money, and life before i was 30 years old. i also was intimidated by going to med school, i thought doctors were the most brilliant people. going through pa school and now in practice, i see they're just regular folk. of course many are truly genius, but many are also just people that got trained in medicine. so, after all this, i'm going through the process of going back to med school. you can be happy either way, but the two routes are plently different, pick the one that is best for you- don't go by what's easiest because you won't be happy in the long run.