PA in 4 Years?

[RodneyP]

Has anyone become a PA in 4 years?

 

Cause I live in NY and I just saw this from St. Johns. It seems too good to be true........ Is their a catch?

http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/undergraduate/pharmacy/programs/pa

http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/undergraduate/pharmacy/programs/pa/program_requirements.stj

 

Any other 4 year programs? 

 

-Currently a senior about to make my decision on my major soon.

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

There are quite a few bachelor's degree programs, though I believe they are going away. I forget the other ones that grant a BS. According to ARC-PA, the accrediting body, all programs must confer a MS by 2020. You would probably be grandfathered in by your state of practice, but then moving to another state would require getting a MS IF they have a law requiring a master's. Plenty of people get a BS and do an online transition to MS.

[kem2127]

There are a lot of Bachelor programs in the NYC area still. However, very few people that start there as a pre-PA freshmen actually finish in 4 years, as most of those slots are filled with people who are getting their second bachelor degree and transfer in the program as a "junior" status.  SUNY Downstate, CUNY Sophie Davis, CUNY York, St. Johns and a few others still operate with the BSPA. I just completed a bachelor program with 30 students, and only 1 of the students was accepted in as a traditional college junior and graduated at 21. Most of us had at least 1 other bachelor or masters degree and the others were greater than 24 years or older and had associates degrees in RN, RT, or a science associates and were MAs or Phlebotomists. 

 

Here is a link for NYSSPA which gives you some more info.

 

http://www.nysspa.org/resources/programs.html

[lindabose2000]

I graduated from St. John's PA program in 2012, 4 years out of High School. If you get into their PA direct program and maintain the GPA requirement, you will have a seat saved for you in the program. The key is the GPA. My Junior year, which is when we started the PA program out of the ~90 students ~60-70 of us were original St. Johns students. Although by 2020 all the schools will have to offer a Masters level degree, those graduated before hand will be grandfathered in. But it is always good to have a masters degree. The good thing is if you are able to maintain the GPA and graduate in 4 yours, you can work and make a lot of money and then be doing you masters online or part time. And you can invest your time in getting a masters in something like Public health or MBA. But for me I decided to do Stony Brook Post professional Masters, which is only 30 credits. Hope it helps.

Other than for the cost I definitely recommends St. John's!

[JasonD]

There are also several 3+2 and 4+2 masters programs out there (my daughter is in one): you get a bachelors degree in something like medical studies or pre-med in 3 or 4 years then go right into the final 2 year PA program and get your masters.  You get accepted out of high school and if you maintain a high GPA in the undergrad you are guaranteed a spot in the PA program.  Hard to get in and hard course work, but worth it if you know what you want to do. 

 

If you change your mind after a year or two into college you can still switch majors into something like biology, pre-med, nursing, whatever, you're still taking the right courses.