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Hey everyone, I created this list of schools for those of us who did poorly in college when we were kids and have desires to be PA's. The list consists of the following: School name, CGPA, SGPA, PrereqGPA, and HCE hours. I don't know if this is ALL of the schools, but it was all of the ones I could find and I looked at pretty much every PA program. I hope this helps some of you out in your application process. If any one knows of other schools you can comment below and I will add them. Best of luck to all. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10DB5YytgTE6oOarGVgJQ_1Mm8Jj6g5J8eS1-yRj1CA8/edit?usp=sharing

yup, I have a lot of free time on my hands working solo night shifts.... anyway, some of these things have been listed here over the years, but thought I would put them all in one place 1. your first job is about leaning your trade, not about money 2. if you can afford to do a residency in your field of choice, do it! see #1 above 3. as a new grad you can have 2 of the following 3 if you are lucky; location, specialty, salary. choose wisely. 4. don't buy a $50,000 car right out of school. a good rule of thumb is take your yearly salary and divide it by 3. at most you should spend 30k on a car if you make 90k/yr assuming no alternative source of income and no other major debt. I have too many friends who have to work extra to make their $700/mo BMW payment. drive a safe and efficient car until you can afford your dream car. 5. don't buy a $500,000 house right out of school if you are single. take your yearly income and multiply by 3. this is a good price for a first house. 90k salary? 270k house. spouse/partner also makes 90k? you can double that. 6. living within your means(see #4 and 5 above) means you can work less, travel more, and take time to enjoy life. I spent too much of my 20s, 30s, and most of my 40s working 180-220 hrs/month. don't do that. now I work 168 hrs/month and have never been happier. I used to never have time to go out with friends. now I go out at least once/week, go to jazz clubs, etc. in 2017 I already have tix for sting, red hot chili peppers, U2, and foreigner concerts. I also now have time to do 2-3 international medical missions/year and taake time out with the family for spring break, cme conferences, etc 7. don't take the first job you are offered unless it's perfect. don't settle for mediocrity. 8. don't work in a field you detest just because it is a job. moving is better. you will be miserable doing surgery, urology, pain clinic, etc if you hate it 9. don't accept a "training salary" unless in a formal residency program. A formal residency program has off-service rotations and dedicated learning time. don't be fooled by training fellowships that are just low paid jobs in one dept in disguise. 10. don't accept a position that does not offer cme, retirement, malpractice, vacation, etc. you have earned a benefits package 11. don't work in a very narrow field right out of school unless it is your dream job and you never intend to leave the specialty. I know lots of folks stuck in jobs they hate who can't leave them. 12. if you are getting burned out consider the following: work fewer hrs/mo, see fewer pts/shift, switch specialty, switch location, find somewhere you are appreciated. I can't tell you how much better my mood is after transitioning from a high volume/low acuity facility(30 pts/12 hrs) where I was treated like an interchangeable worker bee to a low volume/high acuity(10 sick pts/24 hrs) facility where I am valued as an individual for my skill set and experience. 13. don't sign a lengthy contract or a non-compete clause. these are tools to keep clinicians in crappy jobs. If it's a good job, you will want to stay anyway. 14. don't take a job where your clinical supervisor is an RN or office manager. we are not medical assistants 15. don't refer to yourself as Dr Smith's PA. they don't own you. Say instead " I'm John Doe, one of the PAs here" or "I'm John Doe, I work with Dr Smith on the surgical service". language matters. don't let yourself be treated like an assistant. don't regularly take out trash, take your own vitals, room patients, etc unless the docs in the group do too. I can see this in a small office, but there is no excuse for it elsewhere. 16. don't work for free. if you are charting at home, make sure that you get paid for it. may add more later, but that's what I've got for now after a 24 hr shift. 17. don't take a job at far below market value just to be in a particular location. lots of new grads are taking jobs in NYC for example at 55-60k. As a young new grad this may seem like a lot of money if you have never had a real job before. it isn't when the national average is around 90k. know what you are worth. don't accept less. if enough of us do that the crappy job offers will go away. 18. I am not a fan of RVU bonuses. I think they encourage sloppy work and poor charting, because they incentivize you to see more pts/hr and do more procedures(at the expense of good/appropriate workups and good charting) . Go for the raise. You should get paid whether you see 5/hr or 1/hr. Both will happen. Do good work for a good wage

...No one knows. You're receiving moderately-educated guesses at best, and wild shots in the dark from internet strangers at worst. Even an adcom member can't give you a 100% reliable "chance" because each school is different. Your experiences, personal statement, school list, timing, and "fit" all play a role. Even then, adcoms make surprising decisions. It's not uncommon to be accepted to reach programs and rejected from "safety" schools. Instead of risking false confidence or misplaced defeat, ask yourself these questions instead: Are my GPAs, both science and cumulative, competitive compared to this school's accepted student profile? If not, is the reason compellingly discussed in my personal statement? Does my transcript show that I have grasped the fundamental knowledge to succeed with intense, graduate-level medical science coursework? If there are weak areas of knowledge on my transcript, have I put in the work to turn those weaknesses into strengths? Do I meet all the prerequisite requirements for each school on my list? If I have a questionable course, have I asked for clarification from the schools that require it? Is my PCE (hours and type) competitive compared to this school's accepted student profiles? If my GPAs are below the accepted average, does my PCE surpass the average? If my PCE is below the accepted average, does my GPA surpass it? Have I spent time making sure my experience descriptions are comprehensive and accurately convey what I've learned? Have I scored at least 300 on the GRE (if I'm choosing to take it)? Do my other activities show deeper layers of my personality and interests? Have I taken on increasing responsibility as I've grown? If I've stated an interest in a specific area (for example, underserved or rural care), do my experiences show my passion for that area is genuine? Have at least three people agreed to write me an excellent letter? Do my references meet each school's requirements? Does my personal narrative have an introduction that grabs the reader's interest? Do I "show" the qualities that will make me an outstanding PA, instead of just listing them? Do I show understanding of a PA's role? Does the conclusion convince the reader I'm ready for PA school? Have others read and enjoyed my narrative? Is it grammatically flawless? Do I have an overarching passion or theme that ties my application together? Are my future goals guided by my experiences? Am I a good "fit" at each school on my list? If an interviewer asks me why I applied to each school, what will I say? Do I have a game plan for applying? Have I set myself up for success by planning to apply early? Have I thought beyond the finish line of getting a seat to the logistics, pressures, and potential loneliness of devoting the next 2-3 years to school? Am I in a financial position to fund CASPA costs, interview expenses, seat deposits, and relocation expenses? Am I in a financial position to afford PA school? How is my credit score? Do I have significant undergrad loans, car payments, mortgage payments, or other financial constraints? Does my family truly understand the time investment of PA school? Will my partner move with me if I relocate, or will we have a long-distance relationship? Are we both on the same page about these plans? Can I confidently say I'm ready, not just for PA school, but for life as a PA? Gratuitous link to my blog: https://emttopac.wordpress.com

For anyone who closely follows this and/or other threads comparing yourself to others and getting panicked when you don't get that phone call on the day/hour you were expecting: I get it. It's extremely hard to get a type A applicant to desensitize to the idea of having to trust the process and be willing to give up a locus of control; however, whenever you do learn to do so, you'll enjoy the process and appreciate your fellow applicants and their own victories much, much more. Do not panic, do not wish failure upon your peers, and do not despair or give up until you've gotten that final rejection -- even then, don't give up... PA programs love an applicant with some grit and a positive attitude. I am not writing this because an act of providence has occurred and I am reeling from the high that is an acceptance to PA School -- on the contrary, I received a rejection and a waitlist today (no acceptances thus far, in fact) -- I just want everyone to know that they aren't alone in this process, what they are feeling is natural, and that it's all gonna work out in due time.

This is my reponse to the ACEP current Presidents response to comments in this months issue of Emergency Physician Monthly. I will list the link at the end. February 28, 2021 Dr. Rosenberg, I read your most recent interview in EP Monthly with great interest. You and I can agree that emergency medicine has changed in ways that none of us expected during the current pandemic. Who would have thought the ED volumes would drop to such a degree as to lead to layoffs and furloughs of EM physicians, PAs, and NPs. I have no doubt that these trends will turn around in time. There are a few points you made in your article that I would like to address. You state that the #2 problem in emergency medicine is the utilization of APPs, “the nonphysician providers are constantly saying they’re cheaper than we are, and they can do our job.” You go on to state, “When we look at the workforce and when we look at the job opportunities and we look at rural emergency medicine, and rural is almost every state in the country, has some rural challenges and western Texas is obviously very different than northern Maine, but nonetheless, many similar challenges. In those rural areas, we have PAs in Maine that have independent practice. We have nurse practitioners in other states that have independent practice. And we have primary care physicians who are working in many of these locations who don’t have access to resources from ACEP. And yet, we at ACEP consider ourselves the gold standard of board-certified residency trained emergency physicians.” This is the statement that deserves unpacking. I am a solo emergency medicine PA covering multiple rural critical access emergency departments in northern Maine. PA’s in Maine do not have “independent practice”. We have a system of graduated autonomy that is based on practice setting and years of experience of the PA. The final determination of the level of autonomy is at the practice level between the PA and the MD/DO. This allows for greater utilization of the highly skilled PA workforce. This makes far more sense than a “one size fits all” model created by the state. NP’s are the only “APP” that have successfully achieved fully independent practice in 28 states. ACEP is doing itself a disservice by refusing to recognize the difference in training and the mission behind the PA and the NP. There is a remarkable difference and the persistent use of the term “APP” or “Mid-level” is simply lazy. I began my medical career as a Navy Corpsman, then 10 years as a Paramedic and finally I achieved my goal which was to become a PA. After completion of PA school, I elected to do a 12-month emergency medicine PA residency program. Fast forward to today, I have been practicing as a PA for 15 years, I have over 30,000 practice hours in the ER and have treated more than 80,000 patients. I have worked in just about every ER setting, from large urban academic ERs to small critical access ERs. I have seen the misuse and abuse of the PA and I have had the pleasure to work in areas where the MD and the PA were truly a respectful and collegial team. In your interview you seem to attack the notion of PAs and even non-ACEP trained physicians covering these rural critical access ERs in areas like northern Maine and west Texas. I am disturbed by this. Is there evidence that a disservice has been done? You have presented yourself as the “gold-standard” of emergency care. This may be true, but it does not mean that safe and excellent emergency care cannot be provided by non-ACEP trained providers. There is no data to support this insinuation. What are these areas to do when ACEP trained MD’s do not want to live in these very rural areas, much less work there at what they can afford to pay? An ACEP trained MD has loans to repay and vastly most choose to work in large urban ER’s where they are paid much higher and have far greater back up and support. When I speak to physicians at the larger regional hospital here in Maine where we transfer our sicker patients and those who need any specialist, they have frequently thanked me for being out here. They have said to me “I don’t want to go out there, you don’t have much support or backup.” So, who is going to come out here? If the ACEP MD is not, then who? Rural America still accounts for tens of millions of people who are sick, getting sicker and have the fewest resources. I was excited to see you mention the power of telehealth. Let me tell you, I believe that I have seen the future of the ACEP MD, and it is telehealth. At one of the remote facilities I cover, we have an ED telehealth relationship with Dartmouth. It is an incredible and awesome service. In the trauma bay we have a full telehealth set up with monitor and microphones and a large red button on the wall. If I have a patient I need to consult on, all I must do is hit the button and I have an ACEP MD in the room with me. It may be a trauma, it may be a complicated septic patient, whatever it is, they are there like an angel on my shoulder. At that point I become their hands and together we deliver the best medical care possible in these austere and rural settings. If ACEP wants to remain relevant in rural America, this is how you do it. The PAs are on the front line because there is no physical way for there to be enough ACEP MDs to cover the need in rural America. But through “force multiplication” with systems like what Dartmouth is doing, ACEP can expand its abilities to be available and provide that guidance in the areas where they are most needed. ACEP MDs are not needed in large urban ER’s where you have 5 MDs on at a time. They are needed out here where you have 1 MD for 100 square miles. I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this and I apologize if I strayed at times. But I felt compelled to respond. I ask ACEP to stop fostering the attitude that PAs are a problem, we do not want your job. But we do want the right and respect to walk beside you. I will close with this personal story. On the first day of my PA EM residency program, I introduced myself to my attending, a retired Army Colonel; “Hi my name is Rob I am one of the new PA residents.” His only response was “I don’t care if you are a PA, I will hold you to the same standard I hold my residents. There is only one standard of care in medicine and if you can’t handle that, get the hell out of my ER.” That statement shaped my career. Respectfully, Robert D. Booth, MSPAS, EMPA-C, CAQ-EM ‘The Future of Emergency Medicine is Bright’ (epmonthly.com)

This is copied from paadmissions "Ask a PA Admissions Director." I found it hiding in the bowels of that forum (page 81), and I figured placing it here would make it very handy for those perusing personal statements and seeking advice. Posted 20 May 2014 - 02:46 PM Hi guys! I've put together some hints for writing a good personal statement below. These hints were gathered from several medical school websites and from our own experience with our program. Hope this helps! The personal statement is required as a part of any application to PA school. Many applicants make writing a personal statement a daunting task, but it does not have to be. Below are helpful hints and topics to avoid that can help you write a good personal statement. Topic: Why you want to be a PA? Personal Statement Helpful Hints: · Engage the reader and create interest. · Get to the point. There is a character limit for personal statements. One page is usually all it takes to make your point. · Avoid using flowery language and/or big words throughout your statement. · Make sure the statement is structured in a logical order and flows nicely so it is easy to read. · Do not restate your resume. · Incorporate how your healthcare experience and non-healthcare experience (academics, volunteer, and leadership positions) prepared you for PA school. · Be insightful and analytical about your understanding of the role of the PA. Use your clinical experiences to draw this conclusion. · Call out the elephant in the room. If you had a “hiccup” in your academic career, you should BRIEFLY address it (i.e. death in the family, immaturity factor, poor study habits), state what you did to overcome it, and what you have done to sustain an upward trend in your academic performance. · If you have a strong desire to enter a certain field of medicine, explain why. For example, if you want to go into primary care, what have you done to prepare yourself for this field (i.e. clinical experience opportunities, skill sets, are you from a disadvantaged background, etc.), and the challenges PAs face, if any in the particular field. · Have more than one person review your statement. An advisor, career services representative, or a writing center are good resources to utilize. · Avoid contractions. · Avoid acronyms that the common person would not know (this is especially true for military applicants). Qualities to Portray · Maturity · Reflectiveness · Honesty and integrity · Clarity of thought · Passion · Individuality · Positivity · Logic · Distinctiveness · Commitment · Ability to relate to diverse people · Insight into the chosen health profession · Compassion and empathy · Genuineness and sincerity · Leadership · Insightfulness · A realistic perspective · Lessons learned · Self-awareness Themes to Avoid · Clichés: Avoid starting a statement with a famous quote or with cliché’ filler statements like: “I want to be a PA because I like science and I want to help people...” “Ever since I was five I played with my mom/dad’s doctor’s kit..” “I loved to play the game Operation as a child and that sparked my desire to be a PA...” “As I watched my beloved family member pass away, I knew then I wanted to be a PA...” · Restating your resume’: We have already read the majority of your application up to this point, so do not retell your life story again. · Story Time: Limit your personal stories about a patient or incident in the clinic to ONE no more than TWO. The statement should focus more the topics mentioned above. · The “epiphany into medicine”: Your pursuit of the PA profession should be based on your adult experiences up until this point, NOT an instantaneous realization. · Manifest Destiny: You have not always known you want to be a PA and the fact that someone tells you “you’ll make a great PA one day” does not justify why you should be a PA. · Grandiosity: Claiming that you plan to eliminate all the healthcare problems in an area is not realistic and shows a grave lack of understanding of the profession. · The “humble brag”: Of course you’re special, but claiming “you probably do not see many applicants like me” is not only arrogant, but is likely untrue. We’ve seen it all! · Remember your audience: Remember people do have other biases and views that may not agree with yours so avoid controversial topics and statements that could offend someone. Also, remember the admissions committee can be made up of all types of members of the healthcare team. Avoid statements like “I want to be a PA because PAs spend more time with their patients in comparison to physicians.” These types of situations are not always true and you do not want to stereotype an entire profession when you’ve only been around .00000001% of them. · “I am a victim”: Victims are never attractive applicants and any difficulties along the way should be dispassionately addressed. These explanations should be brief and also address what you have done to overcome the situation and what you learned from it. · Excuses: Never, ever blame anyone else for difficulties in your life or academic career. Topsy's 2 cents: Show, don't tell. Don't tell me you're great at multitasking. Show me! Describe it instead: "Despite having to care for my ailing mother at home, work the graveyard shift at the hospital, and help victims of abuse at the women's shelter, I still managed to keep my by grades by merely studying instead of sleeping." What makes the PA profession personally meaningful to you. Do not reiterate catch phrases like autonomy, flexibility, and all those other words that you can find on countless websites/blogs. Do mention personal things you've seen! Like the time you shadowed a PA talking to a family who was strapped for cash, and the PA was sensitive and attentive enough to notice the dilemma and was kind enough to provide their family with ample samples. Again, show, don't tell. Overall, a great personal state can be achieved by getting the reader think - yes. I want to meet the person who wrote this.

Normally I don’t respond to these type of forum posts because it usually does no good. But since you used my name (Jim Van Rhee) in the post I feel obligated. So, a few points: 1. Diversity- so for you, diversity is based on the school photos. Did you recognize the LGBTQ students in the photos? Did you recognize the military veterans in the photos? Did you recognize the students from rural underserved communities in the photo? There is more to diversity than any photo can show. 2. Money and Tuition- yes, the Yale tuition is $105,812. So, and I quote “ALMOST 30% higher tuition than every school!!!” To be 30% higher than every school that means all other school tuitions are around $74,069. So, I looked at a few other programs. A program in California tuition is $174,380. If you say just schools in the Northeast, then a program in Massachusetts I found has a tuition of $109,039 and a program in Connecticut at $102,955. None of these are 30% lower, some are higher. 3. Money again- application fees and I quote again “I really advise Pre PAs to spend their money wisely before applying to a school that’s making well over a quarter million in application fees just so they can tell you no .” Yes, the more people who apply the more admission fees are collected and yes, the more people that apply the more people are denied because we can only take a certain number of students. I think this is the same for every PA program in the country. Using your number of $250,000, you said over but I will use $250,000, with the application fee for the program being $50 that means 5000 applied and submitted a fee to the program. We have not even have half of that number of completed applicants. 4. No respect and faculty and staff a mess- this based on your online interview with us and may be some interactions with the admission team. How dare you. The faculty and I work incredibly hard every day, as do all PA faculty around the country, to make sure students have a great experience. And it starts with admission. We have an admission team that works with students through the admission process, we were doing interviews online before COVID saving students travel money, we revisited the prereqs to remove hurdles to students applying. Once in the program we have created a Well Being program for students to help them with the stress that comes with PA school and life. We have a Career services team to help students with CV writing, interviewing and job placement for after graduation. One last thing- you said last 5 years of school photos. We have only admitted 3 classes. Are you even talking about the right program? You said 1-6 out of 50ish or so, if you mean 50 classes then you really have the wrong program. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but they are not entitled to present false or misleading information or information without context. If you discover you are wrong I hope you apologize and post it to the forum.

I have been with the VA for several months and it has a lot of challenges. Many days I'm one irritation from flipping furniture. Today I had a young man come in for a routine/annual visit. He had a TBI from getting blown up by an IED. He was full of hardware, had a limp, had low T from a testicular injury, has a cough every 10 or 15 seconds that was a reflexive remnant of his injury, and had limited use of his right arm. As part of our typical conversations he talked about seeing a therapist from time to time for PTSD. Then he said "I'm doing ok. I don't know why I'm complaining." I told him he had earned the right to complain and if he wanted to talk about it we would sit and talk. Well he just stopped and stared at me for about 10 seconds....totally quiet. I thought maybe something bad was about to happen when suddenly he started crying. Once I got him settled a bit he said nobody every told him he was entitled to complain and it just struck a cord in him. We sat and visited for a while until he was ready to go and he thanked me and limped off to make his next appointment. THAT is why I came here. In the midst of complainers and people gaming the system I got a solid reminder of why I come to work each day.

Live look at all applicants frantically refreshing their emails daily waiting on Tampa interview email

Hey all! First year PA student here. I didn’t hear about an interview until 9/23/19 and they gave us four days in October to choose from. With COVID, idk what that means for you guys but thought I’d share the process. Good luck! If anyone has any questions about anything feel free to ask!

Now that I’ve collected my thoughts, I got an email that I was taken off the waitlist yesterday! Interviewed 9/22, waitlisted 9/29, offer of admission 10/18. I’m shocked. This was my third year applying, first time interviewing at Duke, and first acceptance I’ve ever received, and it’s from the best program in the nation!? After so many rejections and heartache...

Here's my insight: The time to question if you should have joined the Army is not when you're in a landing craft and heading towards the Normandy beaches! Finish this one term! Honor your dream that much. Commit to doing the best you can for that long, whatever your best turns out to be. Go to your school's learning center and see what they have to say about your learning style. I personally got punched in the mouth by my first two tests in gross anatomy. And I was 58 years old with two challenging masters degrees already under my belt. I decided that I just wanted to stay and get a chance to see what would happen next. I followed the motto of "improvise, adapt, and overcome." I tried different learning techniques in almost every class and settled on what worked best for me. When the term was over, nothing felt better then pegging my dissection clothes (belt and shoes included) into the dumpster behind my apartment! Maybe you weren't meant to be a PA -- who knows? -- but now is not the time to dwell on that. I'm all for cutting ones losses when necessary but, even if you ultimately decide change your career direction, don't do it now or you'll always think of yourself as someone who flinched when the going got rough. You have been through a lot to get this far and now you need to prove to yourself that you can do anything for a term. Stop dwelling on job ads, the people back home, and ruminations about your desire to study. Tough it out for ONE FULL term and THEN you can see what you want to do. Good luck!

Hello everyone! I am a current first year at MBKU (I also have a pre-PA IG, @whitecoatchasing) to give you all a little context, I submitted August 25th, received an interview November 6th, interviewed December 7th and was accepted December 10th! I wish you all the best of luck

Just a little piece of advice no one asked for, but I will share. On the day I was accepted, many got calls in the morning. I did not. I crumbled. I was devastated and cried for hours. Emailed my counselor, and I skipped out on a meeting I had planned on Zoom for something. I was thinking about what this meant for me and my kids and my future and how everything was about to shift and I had to re-group (yes, my mind was a day full of run-on sentences). I spent all day reading this forum and freaking out. Then in the evening, the forum picked up again and still no call for me. As soon as I began to feel proud of myself and think about how I will make this "rejection" a positive in my life and will find a new path and will make it no matter what is when I felt better. I smiled! I was proud of myself and getting it this far. I decided it was 6 pm on the west coast and 9 pm on the east coast, so it was time for me to call it a night and be happy and go for a walk. What would be would be. As soon as I turned off my computer and set my phone aside....my phone rang!!! I couldn't believe it. I was Accepted! I learned a lesson that day. The forum is fantastic, and everyone is so supportive, and it is nice to get information and comfort. On the flip side, it becomes an obsession and may be toxic. I had a horrible mental health day because I kept comparing my journey to others. Again, no one asked for this story, but I will leave it here. Interpret it as you will, and maybe it will make you revisit your actions during the day. Don't let the forum decide how the rest of your day will be like. YOU have the power to determine how you feel and proceed. Rooting for you all and hope to meet many of you next year!

Hello PA Forum! I wanted to drop in and share how my first year of medical school went. I am just now finishing up studying for my last in house exam tomorrow. We also have a preclinical NBME shelf exam Friday. I'll have a week off before I start my summer research internship for two months. Finding research has been one of the more frustrating parts of school. Certainly have had lots of leads and connections but nothing has come from it so far. Hopefully that changes this summer. It has certainly been the slowest fastest time of my life. It seems like yesterday I was packing up my things at my job and starting medical school a few short weeks later. There are times where I ask myself "why am I doing this" and remember how I enjoyed my job and coworkers or wish I was making money and doing whatever I wanted instead of studying. But I know it's a means to an end and that in the long run it was what I wanted in my career. School has been pleasantly surprising for the most part. I would say that my PA background has helped me tremendously throughout most of our first year curriculum. I was familiar with much of the anatomy from taking it in undergrad and then PA school. I would also say the clinical pearls or pathology they threw at us in first year were things I was familiar with. So given I had seen most things before I could concentrate more time to things I hadn't before. I would also argue that having gone through PA school and learning how I study and learn best as well as learning how to take tests has been my biggest X-factor. I would say the pace is much easier than PA school. For the most part we had two 1.5 hour lectures a day with anatomy lab or another type of lab sprinkled in throughout the week. Attendance is not mandatory and as the year progressed I went less and less. I haven't seen a difference between my study habits or retaining knowledge between the two. Looking at M2 schedule it seems more reminiscent of a PA school schedule. Lectures all days. Multiple tests in a week etc. Throw in physical exam training and multiple OSCEs. I am involved in multiple clubs and SGA. I am PA liaison for the one of them. I had a couple of residency programs and PAs come talk to them to give them a better idea of what their career is to look like. It has been fun giving back to the PA program. Just wanted to share that with you all. Open to questions and hope to be more active this summer with more time away from studying. Also kept the thread open incase more updates are wanted during my time, potentially a pseudo-blog journal update type thing I've seen for residency programs. Would welcome others to join in this thread, MD, DO, APAP students etc, I know y'all are on here.

ACCEPTED TO ARCADIA UNIVERSITY!!!!! Holy sh*t best day of my life. You all are next, I can’t wait to meet all of you amazing individuals!!

To all prePA applicants, I am a recent graduate from this program and just passed my boards! I am writing in here because I remember stalking and refreshing this website everyday/hour. By now, some of you have been accepted and congratulations! Others are still waiting and some may be denied. Whatever the case may be, I encourage you to continue to pursue your dreams no matter how hard it is to get it! Back in 2015, I posted in one of the forum threads about to give up on being a PA but people in here encouraged me to keep going trying. The only reason why I was going to give up was because I applied to PA school 7 times already. Yes. SEVEN times before I got in. I graduated with an undergrad GPA of 2.45. Yes. 2.45! But since then I've worked my butt off to achieve my dreams. So whatever your results may be, please know you are going into a great profession and persistence will pay off!! Also be patient with the school/faculty as interview process is a lot of work for them. I was the last person of my cohort to be accepted. I was accepted off the waitlist as the last person and was not accepted till the FIRST DAY OF ORIENTATION (meaning school technically already started). I walked into that classroom saying "hi everyone! I was just accepted 3 hours ago!". So my message here to you all is to keep trying and that rejections don't mean the end of the world! Good luck and congrats to those that have been accepted!

Guys....I got the call!!!! Just waiting for follow up administrative emails but I'm so excited to join the crew!

Hey everybody!!!! Dylan here, president of the UCDavis PA class of 2021. I'm super excited for all of you guys submitting your CASPAs and getting ready to start your PA journey, whether it be the first time applying or the 50th. You CAN do it! If you are like me, the application/interview process is one of the most stressful times of your life... especially if you don't get in the first time around( it took me two). One of my passions is to help others get through interviewing and into the career of their dreams. Over my time at school and preparing for over 13 interviews I have learned exactly what is necessary to excel in the interview process and have since helped several students get programs around the nation. the If anyone is interested in being a mentee of mine, you are welcome to contact me. Email: hawaiilife93@gmail.com

If I had a dollar for every time I checked this forum, then I’d probably have my PA school tuition paid off by now.

We will end up being Physician's associate. No one will know we practice medicine. The patient will be like "so you are the physician's associate, where is the physician?" Back to square one. I support Medical Practitioner because: Similar naming style as Medical Doctor. “Medical Doctors and Medical Practitioners working as a team”. It will be easier for patients to understand that relationship. We’re not just here to take blood pressure, height, and weight. We are here to make Medical decisions. It will work internationally like MD because it is easier to translate to different languages when compared with Physician Associate/Assistant. We’re always someone’s Assistant or Associate in any other languages. It will differentiate us from Nurse Practitioners. They practice Advanced Nursing and we practice Medicine. Patient understands what we do just by our name. (This is a very powerful reason. The patient will know we practice medicine because it is in our name) Administrative people will finally understand that we are not someone’s assistant or associate. We practice medicine too and should belong to the boardroom table and day to day decision making. There is no physician or doctor in this name, so by definition, we shouldn't be confused with a physician or a doctor. I will no longer introduce myself with an acronym. I will tell the patient I am a Medical practitioner because it is self-explanatory. When was the last time you heard a Medical doctor introduced themselves as an "MD" to a patient?

Hi everyone! I recently got into MBKU this last cycle and will be starting school soon! Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or for any help. I applied to PA school 6 years in a row, wasn't offered a single interview the first 5 years, and was finally accepted my 6th year into all 5 schools I applied too, MBKU being my dream number 1 program! So I completely understand the application process all too well, as well as the reapplicant process for those of you who need any guidance!

I live in a small town in a small county in eastern Iowa. When the Covid vaccines were getting ready to be released to the County Public Health department being on the local Fire Department I had a letter forwarded to me in regards to out First Responders being the first to receive the vaccine. Down at the bottom of the letter was a blurb noting that demand was going to outstrip the vaccination sites. It also suggested that a qualified medical person could apply to set up a satellite vaccination clinic. I'm a Physician Assistant and I applied and was approved. I was able to get all of our EMT/First responders first dose vaccinated two days after the county received the Moderna vaccine.30 days later all were given their second dose. Fast forward to last week. The County Public Heath Nurse called me last week. She explained that the County I live only had one vaccination site. Walmart. The local medical clinics were not giving the vaccine. She said that if they didn't use 80% of their allotment they would lose doses for the next week. She asked me if I would be interested in sponsoring another clinic through the Fire Department. Hell yes I would. She called me Thursday and said she would make 30 doses available but they had too be given to 75 years old and up. She said if I could pull this off she would consider making doses available for this coming week. My wife and I opened the phone book and started calling the people that met the criteria. It was really satisfying to here the joy and relief in their voices that they were going to get a vaccine. We filled up our list in a hour. Most of these people had no access to a computer or the knowledge to go online and make appointment at the CVS or Walmarts. The people that did were driving 50 - 75 miles to the larger cities to get their vaccine. One couple I talked to who were in their 90's paid for a local private ambulance to take them for their shot. So Saturday morning we scheduled from 900-1100. Guess what? they started showing up at 830. We were set up for them and away we went. We were done by 1000. We had one extra dose. I asked the last lady if she knew of someone who needed one. She gave me her number. I called her and asked her if she was interested. Why yes but she was afraid to drive in the ice and snow. No problem, I will come to you. I went to her apartment and gave her the shot. I said I have to stay with you for 10 minutes to monitor for a adverse reaction. As I sat there I learned that she was 91 years old. She was a retired school teacher and lived alone. Her kids were no where around. I did notice some Valentines on a table and commented about them. She said they were from her grandkids except for the one on the end. That one was from her late husband who sent it to her during from Korea during the Korean War. Wow! I almost lost it. I then told her that I would see her in a month. I got up and went to the door and she followed me. She thanked me and gave me a hug. I was on the verge of loosing it by then. Then she said what kind of cookies do Fire Fighters like because she would like to make us some. By then I was a babbling idiot and replied good ones. She said good and I left. I called the County Health Nurse and told her. She said she had her doubts that I could pull it off. I said I would be more then happy to do it again. She said lets start with 50 for Thursday with a strong possibility of another 50 for Friday. I said great! She then said could you do another 50 on Saturday. I said let me see how Thursday goes and I will call you but right now I'm leaning toward yes. She said you got your 50 for Friday. Call me Thursday!!! Our average age of vaccination was 79.9. It was a ggod day. Overall it was a great day to be in medicine. Truly one of the most satisfying days of my 35 years of being a Physician Assistant. Can't wait to do it again!!!

Hey everyone. I'm usually more of a lurker/reader versus poster on here, but I wanted to blast out a message real quick. We all understand how stressful and drawn out this process is - especially all the re-applicants out there (shout out - me too). We're all trying to do something big for our futures and for the future of medicine, and as inspiring as it is to get this far and meet other intelligent, qualified, like-minded individuals, it's still difficult to learn that you or someone you know didn't get an initial acceptance. The selection process is tough and we have no idea what quotas the school is trying to fill or even what they're really looking for in each individual applicant. That being said, if you made it this far you clearly stand apart from the rest and have a true calling to this field. Do not be discouraged by the decisions made by the EVMS admissions committee! Please do not feel any less intelligent or worthy just because you were waitlisted or rejected. I know I struggled with this last year, and will struggle with it again this year in the event that I don't get an offer. The bottom line is that we all worked so hard to get where we are and as long as we don't lose sight of our end goal and give up, we will all be successful P.A.'s one day. Stay positive, y'all. -C

I couldn’t help myself so I called them and they said we should hear something before 5pm. Also they said that if any of the 120 people decline their interviews they will invite more to make sure they interview a total of 120.

Good luck everyone! I bet this will be the week and our wait will be over. No matter what happens, everyone who was awarded an interview has qualifications and skills that would be great attributes as a P.A., I wish there were as many spots as there are great candidates!

Why do you constantly try to bring applicants’ acceptances to other programs onto this page? If they received an invite, they have every right to accept/decline the interview, regardless of their acceptance status at other schools. Yes, the PA program application process is stressful for all of us, but it should be a welcoming and encouraging environment - not competitive.

I had a decent career. Too much to go into, while not perfect I did save a lot of lives along the way. I raised a family which allowed my wife to stay home with the kids and we never went hungry. Overall I had a good run. Over the last few years I have struggled mightily with the direction our profession has chosen to take. PA leadership has embraced the "assistant/associate" mentality instead of taking our last best chance at relevancy by calling ourselves what we actually are: Medical Practitioners. We had every opportunity to embrace it, but after a million bucks and a reputable consulting agencies' hard recommendation to go "Medical Care Practitioners".....PA leadership said no. They essentially walked away from reality, clinging onto some bygone days when we had the job market to ourselves. The real gut punch was PAFT. I really saw them as having a next gen vision for the profession...and then the infamous letter stating that the consultants got it wrong...then the subsequent reversal. It was just awful and the organization will never be respected again. Which is sad because I think Scott who posts here (previous PAFT president) gets it. He understands just how much danger our profession is in. Either way, I give up. I signed an offer letter today taking a non clinical job making less money but I will not be seeing patients. It's a govt job so the benefits are great even with the lower salary. My wife and I had a long talk last night and she essentially begged me to give up clinical medicine. I'm not going to lie, after taking care of people for almost 3 decades she has had a front row seat to the anxiety, depression and all consuming pressure being a health care provider exacts on a person. She said she just can't watch it tear out the last pieces of me, and to please leave it behind us. That was enough to get me over the line. Lots of tears and memories are what's left. I will still post here, but from what I would I guess call an outsiders point of view. I wish all of you and us, nothing but the very best in the days to come. Good luck to us all.

I just declined my interview for this saturday. I know many people say this but I really had to think about my decision. I interviewed here last year and completely loved it, Marshall was definitely my top choice. I got accepted to a school closer to home and it only makes sense financially, not to move across the country. Good luck everyone, this is a great school.

Not me checking this forum everyday.... Good luck everyone! Thought I'd check in to say still haven't heard anything and hoping for the best

So, I’ve had some job upheavals lately, and I think there are some good enough reasons to share in terms of lessons learned: First, in late summer I was prepared to move to rural Alaska, where I’d been doing short-term Locums work before, with excellent rapport with the staff and patients. This is for a non-profit FQHC, but not a native corporation. I was offered a salary at the 25th percentile; I countered with agreeing to that salary... if converted to hourly and non-exempt. They said “no, we don’t do that” and offered a 50th percentile package instead, which I agreed to. The week after that, the CEO texts me to tell me that he has been let go by the board, and HR confirms my (signed) offer is “on hold” Cue essentially a month of silence, but before they actually confirm that they’re looking elsewhere for a cheaper provider, I hear of this through headhunters with whom I have a preexisting relationship. Cue some more weeks of waiting, and I am paid a modest settlement for their reneging on a signed offer for no particularly good reason. My house, for what it’s worth, is still partially packed up for the Alaskan move. Observation #1: Most nonprofits are managed incompetently. Do not expect them to know how to negotiate, or to be able to follow through with what has been negotiated. So, I un-resign from my various Washington jobs, but a few weeks later, my family/occ med job fires me via email, with the stated justification that I refused to see patients... which were scheduled outside my working hours. Flimsy, stupid pretext, but not an overtly discriminatory one, but neither was it one that attacked my patient care. So, this is a consistent, ~20 hr/week job, so I need to replace that income, because I can’t keep paying all the bills JUST on my eating disorders 1099 job. Signs I should have seen this coming? MD proprietor had fired the practice manager without a replacement, MA who’d been with this doc for 30 years quit on the basis of how the practice manager was treated, NP in talks with the doc to buy the practice. Observation #2: Sometimes, making money hand-over-fist for the practice isn’t enough to keep your job secure. So, I bit the bullet and let my extended networks know I had been fired—first time in my life, BTW: almost made it to 50 without being fired. Ended up with 3 leads inside 48 hours, had a signed offer letter in 9 days from an interventional pain clinic, which actually offered full time, but I’m doing 2-3 days/week through the end of the year, at pretty much the same pay I was getting in family/occ med... and they’re letting my long-term occ med patients continue to see me. Observation #3: Sometimes, having a diverse “box checking” CV is really helpful. Observation #4: Networking is life. Things that I believe helped me slide over into interventional pain: previous experience with tapering opiates for high-MED occ med patients, DEA X-waiver in hand, point of care ultrasound and joint injection experience, and that I’ve been credentialed multiple times with all the major local insurances through my various jobs--In addition to the family/occ med from which I’d been fired by email and the eating disorders work I mentioned, I fill in at a sleep center occasionally. They needed someone because their current PA is taking a VA job, and someone in my network knew that. So, in my experience, switching specialties is easiest to do when the specialties overlap in practice, if not so much in theory. Family med at first, then adding occupational med in year 3 of practice, adding sleep med in year 5, moving into eating disorders in year 7, and now interventional pain in year 8. Each employment shift brought my existing practice to bear, and yet prompted me to add something new to the toolbox. Observation #5: Maintaining a situation where you can “walk away” from a toxic employment environment if necessary is a matter of perpetual CV polishing and personal readiness. Just when you think you have everything balanced well for you, something, somewhere, changes: The SP you love retires and closes his practice. A practice implodes due to mismanagement. Covid-19 hits. Keeping a strong CV, staying debt free, keeping multiple state licenses, keeping up on your “merit badges” like ACLS, and not being dependent on any employer’s benefit packages are also keys to minimal family disruption during an unexpected job change.

I got an interview!!! I’m literally crying at work because I’m a 4th time reapplicant...never give up you guys!! I applied mid May 2020

For anyone who closely follows this and other threads comparing yourself to others and getting panicked when you don't get that phone call on the day/hour you were expecting: I get it. It's extremely hard to get a type A applicant to desensitize to the idea of having to trust the process and be willing to give up a locus of control; however, whenever you do learn to do so, you'll enjoy the process and appreciate your fellow applicants and their own victories much, much more. Do not panic, do not wish failure upon your peers, and do not despair or give up until you've gotten that final rejection -- even then, don't give up... PA programs love an applicant with some grit and a positive attitude. I am not writing this because an act of providence has occurred and I am reeling from the high that is an acceptance to PA School -- on the contrary, I received a rejection and a waitlist today (no acceptances thus far, in fact) -- I just want everyone to know that they aren't alone in this process, what they are feeling is natural, and that it's all gonna work out in due time.

Hi! I am currently a first year at the program here at UT Health! As you can imagine, our experience has been a little bit different than years prior due to COVID, but I can let you know my experience so far. 1) This program is so special. You have one of the smallest class sizes in Texas, so you really get to know your classmates and professors which is so valuable in this profession. Additionally, you don't sacrifice small class sizes for small resources, because our program is part of the very well established UT Health system along with the medical, nursing, PT, RT, dental schools etc. The facilities are great and you are right next to University Hospital where you may have a few rotations at. San Antonio is a great city, so it is really a joy to get to learn here even though everything is closed now due to COVID, but when things pick back up, there is so much to do/see. In my opinion, the BEST thing about this program that no other school in Texas does is that it gives you FIVE elective rotations. Thats 5 rotations to do whatever type of specialty you want. This is so invaluable when figuring out exactly what type of medicine you want do and also when applying for jobs or residencies, if you have experience in these areas of interest before applying. The faculty does such a good job at picking people for their cohort; truly everyone I met is so intelligent, kind and is here for the right reasons. There is no spirit of competitiveness (you only compete with yourself), and we all collaborate and share resources. Very different from undergrad! 2) You have just about all the resources any other school has, and maybe then some. I'm honestly not sure about tutoring centers... I think if you get into this program its sort of expected that you are competent enough as to be able to study on your own (considering you made it this far in your academic career), but there is definitely office hours, open lab, and plenty of student orgs. You also get to do your own cadaver dissection which is cool (if you guys will be in person). We do inter-professional education here too, which is pretty unique to this program. You can do student government too. 3) A typical day in PA school is pretty hard. You're in class anywhere from 4-8 hours everyday. Basically wake, eat, go to class, study, sleep repeat. Some people that really really have their stuff together (or are okay with compromising grades for better balance) can have a little bit more free time. In PA school there are very busy weeks and then super busy weeks. However, everyone says didactic is the most grueling part, so if you can put up with being exhausted for one year, then you will make it to clinicals which are more exciting (but still a lot of work). On the bright side, our program has some of the highest PANCE pass rates in Texas so all that exhaustion pays off in the end. And we still find time to have fun and hang out with each other after exams! With COVID, all of our classes are online except for clinical skills and patient evaluation (which you have to be in person for). Some people really like it that way, some people hate it -- I really don't think it makes a difference in the quality of the education, its just harder to focus at home sometimes, but we are hoping we won't be like this for too much longer. Hope this helps!

So did I. I was offered an acceptance as well

For anyone struggling with doubt or fear, just remember that stats and numbers are just LOOSE FRAMEWORKS by which applications are gauged, they are not the law. This site, and others like it, should help to inform you and your application process, but should not serve to set a bar by which to judge yourself or others. We will all end up where we need to be, we just need to trust the process!

HI all, I am the one who is behind the GFU doctorate and there is good reason for correcting this issue. First, you need to understand that academic awards are based on regional accreditation. Here is what the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities states: Degree Levels Associate A lower division undergraduate degree normally representing two years (approximately 60 semester credits or 90 quarter units) of lower‐division collegiate study, or its equivalent in depth and quality of learning experience. Baccalaureate An undergraduate degree normally representing four years (approximately 120 semester credits or 180 quarter credits) of upper‐ and lower‐division collegiate study, or its equivalent in depth and quality of learning experience. Masters A graduate degree representing approximately 30 semester credits or 45 quarter credits of post‐baccalaureate study, or its equivalent in depth and quality. Doctorate A terminal degree representing three or more years [90 SH] of graduate study that prepares the recipient to conduct original research, engage in scholarship, create artistic expressions of human emotions, or apply knowledge to practice. -- The type of degree awarded has nothing to do with the practice as a PA. That is governed by the state medical board and legislation. It does have everything to do with standards of regional accreditation. It is not degree creep, it doesn't change what needs to be done. It is simply applying the standards of regional accreditation and academic aptitude. oh, and the degree is a doctor of medical science. Not PA Medicine. And the tuition cost is similar to all regional costs (extrapolated out to 2021); the program has no fees. And finally, I was a "certified PA." Please don't get caught up in the falsehood of degree creep or thinking the university makes more doing this. Neither are true. The cost is the same. In fact, it is easier for me to build a Master's degree. But, I am an academic and I intend to pursue a program that meets regional accreditation standards as listed above. Hope this helps. Greg

I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE BARRY ST. PETE CAMPUS PA PROGRAM!!!!! You guys, this is my 3rd time applying to PA school. I have waited sooooo long for this day and worked sooooo hard. I literally started crying. Congrats to everyone else that has been accepted and for those who haven't, keep your head up and if this is what you really want, do NOT give up!!!

Confidence comes from one of 2 places. Hubris or experience. The first gets people killed. The second comes only with time in the trenches. Experience and learning from it never ends and anyone who tells you they haven't had a "miss" in their career is kidding themselves. I have been at this about 30 years and have fairly broad experience. The other day mom brought a baby in because "he just isn't right" and "he seems sleepy" and "the babysitter says he took a 3 hour nap and he never does that." I went over this kid with a fine tooth comb...twice. He was sleepy but aroused and fussed at me when I pestered him.Vitals were perfect. Exam was benign. I told mom to watch him for a couple of hours and see what happened. If he popped back great. If he didn't or anything worsened in any way go to the ER. The next morning I checked and they had gone to the ER. Benzo overdose. The babysitter drugged the kid so she wouldn't have to watch him. Never crossed my mind. It was a hard miss and I'm smarter for it and the kid is going to be fine. It shook me but it didn't break me. Hang in there a while longer and you may find confidence will come to you with more time and experience.

Lol would not want to be classmates with above so angry in response to everyone

Since the "residency journals" already posted on this forum were extremely instrumental in my decision to apply for a residency program, I decided to pay it forward and do the same. As with previous posters, I can't promise any kind of consistency during the busy schedule, but I will try to check in every once in a while and share what I've been up to and what I've learned. I'm also going to follow the cues of those who have gone before me by choosing not to identify which residency program I am attending. One of the things I was most interested in before I applied and during the application process was the experience level of current and previous residents. I myself knew I wanted to be a PA in college, majored in biology, and took a year off to work as an aide in a nursing home, which comprises the entirety of my past medical experience. Many of the people I've talked to in my program had more experience (several CC or EMED nurses or CNAs, some EMTs and paramedics; one was previously a transplant director), but all assured me that they felt everyone started out at about the same level, with their own strengths and weaknesses. They encouraged me to apply despite my lack of experience because the program would likely appreciate having a blank slate to work with (no "bad habits" learned at old jobs). It was addressed directly at my interview, and I got the impression the program directors felt exactly that way, and also that they valued soft skills (adaptability, attitude, and other unteachables) over hard skills. In fact, I decided to do a residency well after I'd already done my elective in school (outpatient GI) and so I never actually had a critical care rotation, just passing time spent in different units as part of IM and surgery rotations. Grades-wise, I believe my GPA was at or *slightly* above average at my school, but I knew I had very strong letters of reference from clinical preceptors. Other things I wondered about before starting... Pay ($60,000). Hours (60+/week). Structure (rotating monthly through ICUs, with one month airway, one month divided between nephro and ID, and one month of elective). Why did I choose to do a residency? I had thought about residencies from the moment I learned about them, and shortly in my rotations, I felt very strongly that I wasn't going to be done with formal, structured learning when I graduated PA school. Taking the pay cut was worth it for me in order to get a great start in a really challenging field. If there's some other question anyone has (if anyone reads this, lol), please feel free to comment below, and I'll try to respond in a semi-timely manner. I'm starting off with bootcamp and then about a month in the OR learning procedures (lines, intubation, etc). I got my work phone and a big binder of info in the mail the other day, but I don't think it's going to feel real until I'm standing back in the hospital on day 1.

Hey everyone I got the rejection email this morning . I did the interviews as well. Back To the grind ! Everyone that got accepted I’m sending a million smiles to you all! I want to help one student with part of their seat deposit . Spreading goodness in light of the rejection is the only way to move forward . If you are a student in need and are worried about this seat deposit . Email me ! No questions asked . Reach me at Angela.giovinazzo01@gmail.com you guys and gals take care out there and I’ll be applying next year . Sending love and all the blessings to those that are embarking on their journey this year ! Sincerely, Angela

Alright gang, I just got the acceptance call! 336 area code! Best of luck to everyone else.

CL bluebonnet here, I created a whole other account at work and hid in a closet to leave this food for thought. Mostly for @bersabeh, but a good reminder for us all. this might double post because I can’t find what I just wrote. Everything you post is public. We have over 50k views in this thread alone. Many of us lurked long before we chimed in. Do you think schools would do this as well? What about current students that can feed info forward? This includes insta-face-tweet-snap as well. Are you encouraging, uplifting, professional? Are you petty, immature, and bring people down? Have you gone through the filter: is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Do you perpetuate rumor and speculation? Do you fact check and refer to a primary source for accurate info? PA school applications are competitive, we ALL look good on paper, we can ALL keep it together for an interview, but what about when we think no one is looking? Check yourselves before you wreck yourselves. We try to support an uplift here. We’ve all struggled in our own way. We’ve all though about giving up. We’ve all gotten frustrated..... no one needs more of that from a forum. As a profession PAs collaborate. We WORK TOGETHER. This is a good place to practice. Marinade on that

I'm a first year PA student at WesternU. I thought I would update you guys about this and calm most of you down. First off, we just went online this past Thursday. The faculty are working diligently to make sure that the first and second year students are well accounted for. They are trying as hard as they can to manage everything with this craziness. Most of us have NO idea when we are going to return. We are purely online now for the time being. Also, this week is spring break for the program so I am not sure if they are going to get back to you guys this week, but multiple people that have interviewed have told me that they should get back to you before the end of March so praying for you guys! As for the risk of a large class, hopefully the situation does die down before the new cohort begins in August. Even so, there are more than enough seats in the classroom to avoid close contact with each other. It isn't just WesternU that is at risk...as long as you sit close to anybody in a classroom, you are at fair risk. Wish you guys well and be safe! Good luck!

Reflections on seven years in PA practice Seven years ago last week, I started my first job in family medicine after graduating from Pacific University. In that time much has changed and much of what is in limbo or actively changing might seem daunting. There’s a lot of frank negativity going around, so I thought I’d take some time and reflect on the state of the PA profession and my part in it. The biggest disappointment in my PA career was how little my corporate background—13 years at Intel, in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility—actually mattered at Group Health. At Intel, I could count on shared values (avarice, mostly) to allow strong-willed people to work together for a common goal. Data became the common denominator, and the coin with which certain projects stood or fell. At Intel, there were two sorts of employees: those who made money, and those who helped the first group. I was in the second group, and was anticipating being treated as a revenue-generator in the healthcare world, where I had been overhead before. I was wrong. So for the past four years, I have been working in part-time and small-practice positions, avoiding in healthcare the things that I had learned to love in my IT career: data, metrics, deliverables, milestones. I have changed along the way as well, becoming less focused on keeping on time, and more desiring to do the right thing for each patient regardless of what the schedule says. I have saved lives. Not in a particularly abstract sense, nor as dramatically as ER PAs might, but I can name names of at least one person per year where I ordered the right test or intervention at the right time that prevented a bad outcome. I have lost patients: a mid 30’s woman dying of metastatic melanoma, a year and a bit after I’d done the biopsy and reassured her that it was probably nothing but pathology would tell us in a day or two. An older gentleman who accidentally died of carbon monoxide a month or two after he’d been pensioned off as disabled. I would not trade the pain of losing the people I couldn’t help for the sense of accomplishment in knowing that people are walking around today in part because I did my job right. I have had worker’s comp patients go back to work after a decade or more off the job; I have seen video evidence that others had been fraudulently exaggerating their symptoms. I wouldn’t trade the disappointment and betrayal of the latter for the pleasure of the former. I used to write purchase orders in the six-figure range and run enterprise-wide risk assessments running into the mid eight figures. Before that, I worked in a few religious ministry positions. Before that, I had a security clearance in the denouement after the fall of the Soviet Union. I have heard bigger, deeper, more monumental secrets uttered in the quiet of the exam room: shames shared in confidence that I will take to my grave, because that’s the promise I made. While much of medicine is repetitive, each new patient is a new opportunity to march off the map, to connect 1:1 with someone different than me for the purpose of understanding their problems so we can collaborate to solve them. Each new skill, each new job is a structured demand that I learn more about a new aspect of medicine, and each in itself is an awesome window into how complex we are as humans. I have the privilege of working with people of all different genetics, all possible identifiers, a myriad of backgrounds. Human diversity comes to see me, and in them I see more than I could if I spent all my time traveling the world. The biggest disappointment for me in PA practice was how difficult it is to find a good physician to work for. So much of medicine is now corporatized, where doctors are employees rather than decision makers, and thus PAs are shared resources rather than a trusted assistant to a true medical professional at the pinnacle of their practice. At the same time, the biggest surprise has been how my patients gravitate to me as a primary provider. While the medical profession and insurance companies may see us as lesser providers, the vast majority of patients do not. I have had hundreds more patients mention they preferred seeing a PA rather than a physician than ever wanted to see a real doctor than a PA (two so far in seven years of practice). I hear “You’re my doctor” weekly, no matter how many times I remind people that I am not a physician. Ultimately, it’s the medicine, the patients’ confidence, the trust, that make this the best career choice. I would absolutely do it again, despite my frustrations with the business of medicine.

I attended! Here are some points I got. SMU will send interview invites at the end of the month 44 accepted in Oakland, 25 accepted in Fresno 3 interview days in Oakland for both sites No housing for either campus as of now $10-20K for living expenses in the Fresno program... it's more expensive in Oakland Interview 48 candidates on each day so 144 total candidates...so 69/144 people accepted into one of 2 campuses 1 on 1 with 2 diff faculty, group interview with 8 candidates and 3 PA students, and a meeting with chair + 3 candidates. Interview on Saturday (2nd/3rd weekend of January and 2nd/3rd weekend February) Roughly 1600 applications this year Let me know if you got any other questions!

Hello Everyone! I am a first year student. And we started hearing around the the first part of December for interviews. However due to the fire we were closed for 5 days plus we had thanksgiving, so who knows if that will delay things. So hopefully not too much longer for everyone to receive calls. Good luck everyone!

Ok up date, if you actually care lol Existential crisis averted. Basically just focusing on helping patients rather the idiocracy that flows around me on a daily basis (psychiatrist of 20 something years not knowing SSRIs cause hyponatremia; taking a paranoid pt, that believes we are helping her attackers get out of prison, off antipsychotics b/c she requested it; not switching a chronic schizophrenic off typical antipsychotic after developing EPS just slowly lowering dose; wanting to call internist consult for HTN when after reviewing chart pt was never started on outpt antihypertensives, etc, etc). What led me to believe that I couldn't be a PA was that I was by myself in making decisions in a field I was new to and the docs didn't provide much help so I questioned everything... EVERYTHING. I've accepted that I won't know everything. Trust me, I understand that the studying never stops. For now I'm going to stay at this job because hell if I leave these patients are S.O.L. At least I'll learn what not to do