Whether to pursue med school or PA school?

[lemurlover87]

Hello all,

I'm turning 23 and currently a post-bacc student volunteering in an emergency room on weekends. I enjoy having direct patient contact paired with shadowing. I shadow both the PAs and the residents and noticed they are very similar in that they examine the patient by themselves, order the tests and prescribe medication. They also have to present every patient to the attending before they can be discharged. I'm leaning towards PA because I love the idea of a medical model education and being able to choose a specialty and switch if I ever wanted to.

I graduated in May 2009 with a bachelors in History and a cumulative GPA of 3.4. I'm halfway through a post-bacc program with a GPA of 3.9 consisting of Biology I and II, Chemistry I and II, Pre-calc and Calc. I was originally a health science major my freshmen year, but switched majors to enjoy college life and chose to pursue law school instead. After working in a law office, and having friends in law school who discouraged me as well as lawyers, I realized it was not my passion so I'm kicking myself now. Medicine has always interested me and my volunteer experience has pushed me to pursue it again.

I know a lot of PAs I speak to love what they do, love their lifestyle and wouldn't change a thing. My boyfriend is starting med school this August in NY and I'm worried if I will always wonder if I could have gone all the way and became an MD or DO. I would hate to go through the rigors of PA school and later regret not going to medical school because of "the amount of time." I'm well aware that medical school is going to be a much more competitive, longer, expensive, and exhausting process and I keep thinking I could just graduate from PA school the same time my boyfriend graduates from medical school and begin working.

Another factor is that many PA programs have the same pre-reqs but vary slightly so there are more required classes to take to cover all of the programs I'm planning to apply to. I would still finish pre-reqs for PA/med school by the end of Spring 2011. I also will have to study for and take a standardized test, GRE for PA or MCAT. I understand the MCAT requires more intense preparation and will probably force me to take an additional year off, but I have to think in terms of the long run.

Has anyone else weighed the pros and cons of PA versus medical school as a post-bacc and made a decision? I'm sorry if this is one of those common threads, but believe me I have researched this topic on here and on the PA forum website. Any advice is much appreciated!

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[mspeedwagon]

This has been discussed in great detail (so definitely do a few searches for the topic). (I just noticed you said you did this, but try a few different key words PA vs MD, PAs etc.).

As a brief overview, they are different jobs. Do you want to become a physician or physician assistant? There are pros and cons to both and there is no right or wrong answer.
Residents and PAs may do a similar patient exam, but the resident will one day become an attending, whereas the PA will not. For the most part, PAs will always have to have their work supervised. Also, while switching specialities as a PA is easier, it's not that easy. People tend to hire you based on your past experience so you can't just speciality jump as you please. Also, if you focused on becoming a primary care physician, you could later specialize further after exploring your interests.

The advantages of being a PA are mainly time to get educated (you are young, so this is not a great reason for you), lifestyle (less stress and responsibility), and good employment prospects. The advantages of being a physician are responsibility, a deeper understanding of medicine, higher salary relatively, and better career advancement.

Do you like calling all the shots OR do you like having clear instructions what to do on a daily basis? I considered PA school, but I would some day like to be the big dog (making the final decision). However, PA school is the right career path for many. If you don't like stress, don't want to be in school many years, want good job employment prospects and are willing to take a bit of a salary cut, PA is the way to go.

Also, college is about exploring yourself and learning more about yourself. It's great that you learned about law and tried to discover more about the field when you were in college, rather than just deciding to apply, becoming a lawyer and realizing you hate it. Never regret anything you did in the past (few exceptions to this such as cheating, felony etc.), but rather be thankful for what you learned from it.

Finally, and most importantly, don't let where your bf is in his career dictate what career you pursue. My gf (who moved to NY for med school, while I'm in CA) just completed her second year of medical school. I'm aiming to start the year she graduates. I'm doing my thing and she is doing hers. We love each other and plan a future together, but even if things don't work out, our career decisions are made independent of one another. Any weaknesses in your relationship are quickly exposed long-distance and it's great to learn about each other from another angle (it this needs to happen to make it possible), so it can be done and done successfully. If you become a PA ONLY because of where your bf is in his path, you will always regret it.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Many PAs have said on both here and the PA forum that if given the chance they would've gone to med school. In their past, they may have not had the drive to go or the background to go. Whatever their reasons for becoming PAs I'm sure they're good as most of them seem to really enjoy their job. I think I'd like either role - PA or MD/DO. I was in the same position you were. Speed it up with PA, or stick it out for the long haul and do med school. One PA in particular mentioned that if you can go to med school then do it. At this point in my, although a non-trad and career changer, I'm at an excellent position to apply to either field. That said, I'm going to shoot for med school. If I don't get there then PA school is still a viable option should I choose to pursue that. I don't think of it as a fall back as much as it is practicality. If you can't go the distance, i.e. med school, then go as far as you can, and in this case that's PA school.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

It is all about what you personallÝ want. I have a good friend that is planning on getting his NP (nursing counterpart to PA). He is definitely smart enough for med school, his GPA on average for top 20 schools, he just flat out would rather snowboard all day then study. He wants close to a 40 hour week at most and less is much better. That's him and not me. So I could sit here and say go to med school, but I have no idea what you really want in life. And I will never know that. You just need to research exactly what each does and entails and make your decision based on how it fits your goals. Good luck.