Bravo to anyone who actually wants to be a paramedic. It's an honorable profession that is definitely in need of smart people, especially in the years to come.
First, as other have said here before, any research activity (regardless of how practical or meaningful) seems to make most schools salivate. Go spend some time in a wet lab on your college campus, do a poster, or get yourself on a paper and you will probably be looked at higher than nearly anyone with previous healthcare experience at a host of schools. In addition to costing you very little money, I would say the time committment is less than spending 2 years getting an associate's degree in EMS (paramedic). I would say the only corollary to this is DO schools and some select MD institutions, where it seems the admissions process still gives preference to people with an interest in medicine obtained through years of actually doing it. Also, as anyone who had done the process will tell you, nothing substitutes for a high GPA and/or high MCAT.
To clarify my previous point:
I think the larger problem is that ambitious premeds, who are willing to do nearly anything to get ahead, have ruined the advantage that well intentioned and legitimate paramedics used to have in the admissions process. Where I’m from, becoming a paramedic is typically at least a 2-year commitment and the majority of students now take their course in a college environment. When I interviewed I was surprised by how many supposed “paramedics” I found out there. Some states have lax standards on EMS education and there are tons of places where diploma mills, typically anyone willing to hang a shingle and teach anyone for a fee, have popped up. I can’t tell you how many of these “paramedics” I ‘ve met. These applicants were typically ambitious premeds that took a night course over 8-9 months and scrapped together an NREMT certificate. Maybe they “worked” for their campus EMS system, which is to say that they worked in a highly controlled environment where they probably performed with limited autonomy and responsibility (maybe supplementing for a larger 911 system). Again, it’s unfortunate that I obtained this viewpoint during my interviews, let alone an adcom might, since some undergraduate campuses actually do have fairly legitimate 911 services.
The next group contained the “legitimate” paramedics who have actually done the job: which is to say that they worked in a 911 or critical care environment. I found these people to be sufficiently rare because there is a fairly large opportunity cost to working in a respectable 911 system, i.e. attending a fire academy or working for a system with some semblance of standards.
Why do I say all of this? Because there is a substantial variation in the quality of paramedic education in this country. There are some places where becoming a paramedic is every bit as difficult as getting a BSN. There are a surprising number of legitimate, difficult community college and certificate-based courses out there. On the other side of the spectrum are the diploma mills. Sure, a lot of their graduates probably do go on to perform competently, but that’s because their individual students take it seriously and supplement their education with on the job training. I’ve worked with many of these medics and, with time and experience, they're quite good at their jobs. That’s not the case for the ambitious premed that only used the certification to feign legitimacy as an allied healthcare worker to get into medical school. They denigrate the EMS profession and they make the work that actual paramedics perform seem trivial to admission committee members who, understandably, may not have the time or background to know better.
If you're looking to become a paramedic, I would only go to a school that has full CAAHEP accreditation. Unfortunately, as a side-effect of the new National Scope of Practice, many programs applied for a "letter of review" in order to continue producing students who were eligible to take the National Registry exam. Some of these programs are probably legit, but I'd use the search function at the site below to filter out programs that have this "letter of review" and then do substantial additional research on your own to see their quality for yourself. Even still, accreditation is a matter of jumping through hoops. Never attend a program until you've talked to graduates and local employers. A good paramedic supervisor can tell you if their grads are competent.
http://www.caahep.org/Find-An-Accredited-Program/
Edit: When evaluating a paramedic program, here is
generally a list of things to look for:
1) Is the program CAAHEP accredited?
2) Is an associate's degree or higher offered as part of the institution's curriculum? A school offering a degree program has the additional hurdle of meeting accreditation from the school's larger accrediting body.
3) What are the facilities like? Is it part of a larger college campus? Are there simulators?
4) What are the credentials of the faculty? Do your professors/instructors have an educational background?
5) Meet some students. Evaluate their demeanor. Do they seem sufficiently motivated?
6) Meet with potential employers in the area. Do they like the students that come from the program?
7) Does the place feel sketchy? Stick with you gut.
