Pre-PA, need some opinions and advice please...

[Guest PAhopeful'12]

Hi everyone,

 

I am a new poster on these boards but have been reading threads for awhile now. I have a bit of a complicated situation and would like your advice and help, if you don't mind.

 

I am (obviously) interested in the PA field, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I am currently a graduate student at a school of medicine, working on a Ph.D. in micriobiology and immunology- our lab does a lot of translational/biomedical research, working with (specifically) HIV or HCV positive patient blood samples, doing histology staining, things of that nature. I am in my second year of the program and will be leaving it soon, because I am strongly drawn to the clinical side of things and would like to actually practice in a clinical setting, rather than do research the rest of my life. I should note that when I applied to Ph.D. school I was torn between the medical field and the research and chose the research field for various reasons, not the least of which was that I am in a stipended position with benefits, whereas my medical education will be an out of pocket expense... worth it, of course, but I digress. I now know that the Ph.D. was the wrong career choice.

 

Anyways, so after a lot of soul and career-searching, I am convinced that PA school is PERFECT for me. I am so excited. I currently have applications in process and was planning to submit them by the end of August, although I have learned that that is a bit late in the application cycle to submit. Due to family constraints (I am married and my spouse has a great job we don't want to give up) I can only apply to the two schools that are in my area (IN), neither of which seem to require much experience in terms of HCE- great for me, as aside from a few years volunteering in the ER as an undergrad and my translational research experience (which I'm not sure counts, anyone know? it IS biomedical research...), I don't have any other patient care experience.

 

I am working on changing this... I have several PA's set up to shadow starting next week and I am going to take a class to get my EMT-basic cert this fall, so that I can work as an EMT come spring and get more patient experience (not to mention have a job to support myself and my family once I get out of this Ph.D. program). I also had a great undergrad GPA (though a mixture of A's and B's in my graduate-level coursework) and got a 1300 on my GREs I took two years ago (plus 5.5 writing).

 

I guess my question to all of you is, what else would you be doing, in my shoes, in order to get into PA school? This is a passion I have and I am committed to getting in and changing my life direction, whether it be this application cycle or the next. Does anyone have any advice? Should I even bother applying for this app cycle, or should I just wait until the next one (at which point I will already be an EMT and have some HCE hours under my belt). Advice sorely needed!

[Hemegroup]

This belongs in the pre-PA section, why would you post it here?

[cinntsp]

It won't hurt to go ahead and apply this round. Two schools probably won't break the bank for you. Even if you don't get in, you will have put your name out to those schools and have established a baseline application. You will then be able to expound on that in the next cycle's app with details of how you have improved yourself as an applicant(HCE, shadowing, etc.). It will show that you are dedicated to this goal.

 

And yes...this belongs in the pre-pa forum. Can we get a mod to move it?

[Guest PAhopeful'12]

Sorry, you're both right, it definitely does belong in the other forum! My bad, but I also can't move it myself...

[Hemegroup]

You can volunteer in the ER and/or with Hospice.