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Heritage University 2015-2016 Application Cycle


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Hi there!
I am a current first year student at Heritage and wanted to start a thread for those interested in applying to Heritage this year. (They still haven't added a subforum for Heritage on this website, so we've been posting topics under MEDEX's.) I want to be able to answer any questions that potential applicants have about this program, so please feel free to ask them and I will respond when I can- classwork permitting! :) We are in our third week right now so there may be some things that I'm unable to answer right away because we haven't experienced them yet, but as the year goes on, I should be able to expand! Good luck to everyone applying to school this year!

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bleu,

 

Congratulations first off!

 

I'm curious what your typical week is like? When does class officially start/end, how long do you end up studying before/after class to feel prepared enough for the exams and such?

 

Thanks so much for offering your advice, I'm sure this will be read by many!

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We're only a few weeks in so far, so I may have more to say as the year goes on. :) But there isn't really a typical schedule other than class is usually 9-4 Mon through Fri. Sometimes we're out a little earlier and every once in a while we start at 10. Every week is different though, so it isn't that you have the same classes every week on Mondays for example and Tuesdays are all the same, etc...each week the class schedule is different. We do split time between the Heritage campus and the D.O. school (Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences) that's nearby as well. We're at the D.O. school usually 1-2 days a week and at Heritage the other days. Our first midterm is this week so as far as studying time goes, I'll have to update that as the months go on. 

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From what I understand from Monica, it's going to be similar to last year. There weren't any individual interviews. There were 3 different interviewees with 2 interviewers and it rotated groups so in total, we were interviewed by 6 different people.

I highly recommend reading the "How to Ace the Physician Assistant Interview" book by Andrew Rodican if you haven't already. Read that book and practice by having someone else ask you interview questions to answer. That prepared me well for all of my interviews last year.

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The interview day is extremely straightforward and exactly as described above!

 

Advice: Be yourself. You've already shown that you have the necessary academic and professional credentials for the faculty to see you as a viable candidate. Beyond that, I have no clue what the faculty factors into the admissions decision. My anecdotal observation is that the students who ultimately became part of my cohort are socially adept, able to play well with others, and very genuinely enthusiastic about the physician assistant career field.

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Tha

 

There isn't anyone in our class that lives in Toppenish. Most people live in Yakima. A few live in the Tri-Cities area. Yakima isn't very exciting, but we're studying a lot anyways! :) A lot of people go to Seattle or Portland on the weekends.

 

Fewer distractions are always good. I have always liked smaller towns anyway. I like the festivals and traditions they usually have. My friend said they have awesome produce there and I love cooking. I am going to keep my fingers crossed this sounds like  a good program. 

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I'd recommend staying away from Toppenish. It isn't necessarily a bad place or overtly unsafe, but I think you'll find (like literally everybody else has) that Yakima's proximity to services (like a full sized grocery store, gas stations and restaurants) makes it a much more desirable place to live. Living in Yakima will put you closer to your classmates and to PNWU, where you spend at least one or two days every week.

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Congrats to all who have received invites for the 12/5 interview! Ill be there as well very excited to meet you all. Thank you bleu and RealWayPa for your willingness to answer our questions!

 

I'm not sure how much information you are able to provide regarding the interview day, but how were the writing sample and group exercise structured for you? During the days at PNWU how often do you interact with the DO students?

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We have a fair amount of activities with the PNWU DO students. We have case discussion groups and standardized patient encounters with them and a lot of clinical skills classes with them- suture lab, IV lab, CPR class, some sim labs, etc. It ends up being maybe every other week or so, on average that we are with them.

I know that Monica would like for us to refrain from going into too much detail about the interview day and what is involved in the group activity and writing piece. But feel free to ask RealWayPA and myself any additional questions about the program. We are here to help!

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I'll be flying in for the Dec 5 interview. I can go to either Portland or Seattle. Should I be concerned about winter weather driving from Seattle through the snoqualmie pass? Which is a better drive?

 

Are there any breaks between semesters or is it pretty much straight through for 2 years?

What's the average commute for some of the clinical sites? What's the farthest commute?

What was your hardest class so far?

How has the clinical portion been, since this program is pretty new, do the docs and precepts enjoy teaching?

 

Thanks!

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