Advisable to mention what type of PA I want to be in personal statement?

[PA-S LP]

Currently I am a surgical tech but would like to be a surgical PA eventually.

 

Is it recommended not to mention this fact since i might lose the interest of schools that don't want to take aspiring surgical PAs?

 

I am obviously open to other specialities later down the road which is the beauty of the PA profession, but for now, my main goal is to be a surgical PA

[EMEDPA]

I think that only helps if you are interested in a primary care field as that is the focus of most programs (fp, im, peds, ob). I didn't mention EM in my statement but did at the interview.

[fakingpatience]

I wouldn't include it.  I was intentionally vague in the specific fields I'm interested in in my statement; nearly all school have a PC focus in their mission statement.   As EMED says, during the interview I mentioned that I am interested in EM, since that is what I have been primarily exposed to, but am excited to have exposure to different fields during PA school.  

[SoCalPA]

Do mention if you intend to work with certain under served populations

[Sushi]

I would keep your personal statement broad as you are applying to multiple schools with different focuses. Don't shoot yourself in the foot.

[FIBULA12]

I probably wouldn't include it personally.

[UGoLong]

It's sometimes enough to know that you want to be a PA. Many of us found our specific job interest during the clinical year.

 

 

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[M0214]

I would not, most schools are very insistent that PAs should be going into PC (despite almost all of my faculty being non PC PAs), you generally don't have much to gain by putting yourself out there as only interested in one thing. If you have a strong feeling one way or the other, bring it up in the interview where you can then explain why, what led to this interest, how you hope to work at it, etc. I had a great discussion during my interview about being a Wilderness EMT and how the ability to improvise taught by that program helped me when I went on a peds surgery medical mission to Africa where supplies and equipment were in short supply. If I went into the whole discussion during my statement I would not have had anything else, if I said I like peds surgery  and rural medicine and the person reading the statement was looking for PC PAs without understanding why I wanted to do that, I'd be out.

[LESH]

Currently I am a surgical tech but would like to be a surgical PA eventually.

 

Is it recommended not to mention this fact since i might lose the interest of schools that don't want to take aspiring surgical PAs?

 

I am obviously open to other specialities later down the road which is the beauty of the PA profession, but for now, my main goal is to be a surgical PA

I agree with MO214. If you have listed Surg Tech as your primary HCE experience, some ADCOM members are going to assume that's what you are eventually going to do as a PA. At least that has been my experience on an ADCOM. When an applicant interviews and says "They are tired of surgery and want to go into primary care (or same for ER folks for that matter) it is kind of suspect if there is nothing in the application (ie volunteer service in a free clinic or shadowing Primary Care PAs) that supports the "change of heart". I think the advice about being keeping the PS as broad as possible is probably your best bet. Does that make sense? Once again only one person's experience interviewing.Good luck in your future PA endeavors.

[ilovelost]

I thought PA schools just want applicants that wanna practice primary care in underserved areas? :p

 

 

 

But for real, I think it's okay to have an idea of what specialty you're interested in - just stay openminded about other specialties too. Surgery is also very broad - there are so many different sub-specialties to consider. If you were a surgical tech, then an interest in surgery makes sense to me. In your personal statement, try illustrating your passion for surgery (and patient care) without explicitly stating you want to be a surgical PA. I think that comes across stronger.