A quick question about including Religion/Faith in your Personal Statement

[123]

After lots of soul searching, some major reasons (among others) why I want to do medicine is because:

 

1. I find it interesting

2. I can easily incorporate medicine into some sort of ministry/missions work.

 

Part of choosing PA school instead of med school is that the process is shorter and costs less. This means I can pay off debt quicker so I have the options of working part time while going to seminary (and being able to pay for it), getting into part time ministry work earlier, moving overseas to work in a mission hospital sooner, etc. Point being, PA school opens up a lot of doors for unique ministry opportunities and allows me to start doing that sooner (vs. going to med school) But, I'm worried that admissions will see this as me just "using" PA school or that I'm not actually dedicated enough to medicine. Not to mention, some people on admission teams may not view religion in a positive manner.

 

I have shadowed a lot and have worked as an EMT for a couple months now so I do know for sure that medicine is something I want to do. I just know that at some point in the future I'm going to want to go part time so I can delve into other work opportunities. Indicating this in anyway in my personal statement will probably make me seem uncommitted but it is a major factor of why I want to go to PA school. 

 

Any advice on how I should proceed? And thanks for reading this

[rev ronin]

Many PA programs are run by universities with a specific and explicit religious affiliation.  I find it hard to believe they would look down on your application for that reason.

 

Figure that about 5 years of PA work is when part time is going to make sense.  That 10,000 hour rule is actually a pretty good guideline--after 4 1/4 years, I do not feel like I would be getting behind by seeing fewer patients per week.

 

Be aware that there are multiple organizations who set out to help religious medical professionals.  That will vary depending on specific faith, of course.