In retrospect: Most Important Qualities of PA program

[nish318]

Hello!

 

I am currently applying to PA school and have a few questions for practicing PAs:

 

What do you personally think is the most important quality of a PA program?

 

Do you think that a "big name" program helps your chances of getting a job?

 

Did you have 4, 5 or 6 week clinical rotations? Which do you think is better - getting experience in a wide variety of fields or building knowledge in specific fields?

 

Go to a program with good PANCE rates because of low tuition cost?

 

Also, from your experiences when it is it better to graduate (a program that ends in May, August or December). Does one graduation date give you an advantage over another?

 

Thanks in advance!!

[EMEDPA]

in my opinion the most important feature of a pa program is its rotation sites list. programs need to be able to place ALL students at quality sites with preceptors who are dedicated to the students learning. too many programs(mostly newer programs) can not guarantee this.

the big name school might help get your first job. after that it's up to you.

4-6 week rotations in most specialties with a longer block in primary care/fp around 10-12 weeks seems to be a good mix of rotations.

don't consider pance rates when looking at programs. pance pass rates say more about the students than the program. good students at bad programs do well on pance. bad students at good programs do poorly on pance. that is up to you. graduation date doesn't matter. there are always jobs and residency slots open.

[dm123]

A variety of rotations at a variety of sites. I went to U of F. We were allowed to set up our own rotations with new sites that met their criterion. Sometimes a new place would pave the way for other PAs to follow in a new site. Mine were scattered all over the state of Florida. One was with a health department in a little town called Apopka. Dealt mostly with migrant farm workers and I slept in a farm worker's camp. Air-conditioning was by an out of balance ceiling fan. Learned about kerosene in medicine. Also their primary way of controlling insects on their body was to spray each other with insecticides before they went to pick oranges. Another was in a retirement community out in the middle of no where. We still had the hospital experiences available at our teaching institution but the real world experiences were invaluable.

 

Cost does not necessarily equate to quality. Of the four schools I got into, Florida, Bowman Gray, Emory and Georgetown, I picked Florida due to cost. Florida was the cheapest. Paying for education with personal savings and loans from relatives (working class parents) was a big consideration. At the end of the day, the quality of my education couldn't have been better.