hoping to attend PA school

[jtrabant]

Hi, My name is Jeremiah and I am a Junior at winona state university in MN. I am an athletic training major and have a 3.94 GPA. The only problem is I have no "hands on" experience. I have worked in a hospital for about 5 years, but in food service, so it doesn't exactly count as experience. My hope is to have an orthopedic specialty and thought having an ATC certification will help in that aspect. Is there any chance of me getting accepted in the future?

[pacman54]

Look in the accepted students statistics sticky thread and see if you can find someone with similar stats. There are a lot of posters like you recently with high GPAs and no direct experience. You may want to read through those threads. HCE is essential to becoming a PA

[jtrabant]

Thanks for your response. I had a possible plan of graduating and using my degree and working as a physician extender in an orthopedic clinic to get my experience. However while looking at schools, some will reject you if you haven't taken their pre reqs within the last 5 years. Is there a way around this? Otherwise, by the time I have experience, I may just need to retake classes that I already completed.

[Acebecker]

I think you'd be a fine candidate in the schools who require little or no HCE (health care experience). That said, you can get a job as a highschool ATC for a year or two and have all the HCE that even the "high level HCE schools" require. Better yet, get a job with a PT group who farms out their ATCs to the local high schools - that way you can garner perhaps more HCE than most schools require. Being an ATC is invaluable in PA school and beyond, in more specialties than just ortho. I worked in family practice prior to my current urgent care job and I can't tell you the amount that having the ATC behind my name helped me. Get your ATC, work for a while, then start applying. With a solid GPA, I think you'll be competitive.

 

Andrew

 

ETA: I graduated from MEDEX Northwest, one of the schools who requires HCE; they require 4000 hours of paid experience minimum. A good portion of mine came from athletic training.

[jtrabant]

Wow it's great to hear that my major will be of some help to me. Thanks for your reply. although are there any schools that actually require no previous experience? I haven't seemed to come across any of those where I've been looking.

[pacman54]

In your area of Minnesota, I do not believe there are any schools that do not require HCE. I am from the same area as well.

[jtrabant]

no there is definitely not. Augsburg and St. Kates are the only schools that offer programs and both require experience. Not to mention both programs cost around 80K with no in-state tuition..

 

I would be willing to move if that's what it took.

[Acebecker]

There are a host of minimal or no HCE programs out there, though I wouldn't recommend them. Work for a couple of years as an ATC first, as mentioned above. You'll be a far better candidate if you do, you'll handle PA school better, and you'll hit the ground running out of school better. Trust me.

[jtrabant]

There are a host of minimal or no HCE programs out there, though I wouldn't recommend them. Work for a couple of years as an ATC first, as mentioned above. You'll be a far better candidate if you do, you'll handle PA school better, and you'll hit the ground running out of school better. Trust me.

 

What kind of work did you do as an ATC before applying to PA school? Did you take pre reqs as an undergrad or while working?

[Acebecker]

Did all pre-reqs in undergrad - they were required (luckily) for my athletic training degree. I worked as an athletic training intern part time for one year (800 hours), then part time for one year at a high school (800 hours); had a concurrent CNA job which I'd worked in during college - total of 4000 hours at that job and another like it. I also added my EMT certification and a few hours. However, if you get a job at a PT clinic with 1/2 time in a high school, you'll get 1000-1200 hrs/yr in the clinic and about 800-1000 hrs/yr in the school. Even 1 year would be a huge benefit. These jobs aren't super hard to come by. But given how many ATCs there are, it can be competitive.

[jtrabant]

I really appreciate all your messages. It's really helpful to hear about someone who was in the same position as me. Did you have any trouble getting accepted into school? Also, I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that a lot of schools want you to have taken pre-reqs within a certain time period (5 or so years) within applying. Did this cause you any problems? I just don't want to have to retake classes like A&P that I took freshman year because it wasn't recent enough if I work for a year or two before applying.

[Acebecker]

No problems with the pre-reqs. I was 7 years out from A&P which was right at the end of the expiration date. I did not get selected the first time I applied but it had nothing to do with my HCE or grades. I was not very experienced with PAs - had never shadowed PAs, no letters of rec from a PA. I got interviews both times I applied, accepted the second time. Only applied to one school - there was no other school adequate for my needs and that fit me.

 

Andrew