mazahir786 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I graduated in 2007 with a Biotechnology degree from UC Davis and have never taken human anatomy or physiology. My undergrad GPA was 2.4 overall. I am planning on taking classes at junior college and feel I am a better student now and less distracted however I am also 30 years old and am wondering if it is realistic to go after the PA school dream. What is the competition like out there and are there many people who successfully become PA's and find jobs in late 30's and early 40's or is there a age discrimination factor to consider.... What do you reccomend? I currently work in pharmacuetical manufacturing and want to change careers into a patient facing role and want to help people I am also in the process of trying to get paid experience at local hospitals as a scribe. Any feed back guidance is appreciated as my family all seem to think this is a pipe dream and a bad idea... I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and it is an expensive and very competitive job market from what I can tell.... So PA school overall is looking like $200K in student loans... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 2, 2015 Moderator Share Posted December 2, 2015 you have a long road if you want to make it work. likely several years of class with all As to get your gpa to at least 2.75-3.0 , which are the cutoffs for most programs. also, don't do scribe. you need to get some solid pt care interaction that involves touching pts and being responsible for elements of their care. maybe do a 2nd degree bsn and become a nurse or do a community college resp therapy or paramedic program. scribe is the lowest tier of pt care experience, only slightly better than "researcher". folks on here love scribe experience and have goitten in with it, but most of those folks also have solid gpas. you need the best of everything from here on in and that means all As and the strongest possible health care experience. you might even consider becoming a navy corpsman or army medic for a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guiriguiri Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 It will take 2.5 years full time of 4.0 to get your GPA above the 3.0 mark, which is the pretty standard minimum. Also, FWIW from the programs I talked to, scribing is being viewed more and more favorably by adcoms. However, I'm one of those ppl who got in with scribing experience and a good GPA. Either way, you're years away from applying, so there's no reason not to augment your scribing experience with more hands on patient care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeredithD Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 It's not impossible. I left a cushy office job to literally start college at 30. I did 2 years of community college and 3 years at a four year for a biology degree. I got my HCE as rescue squad and a psych tech. I just got accepted to PA school. Best of all, it's a joint program between a community college and university which makes the price considerably lower. I'm on the East Coast, it's expensive to live but my husband has a decent job to support us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompkbr Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 are there many people who successfully become PA's and find jobs in late 30's and early 40's or is there a age discrimination factor to consider.... No age issues from my personal experience. Recently graduated and started a surgical residency at 39. I'm older than most of the interns, residents, and fellows I work with, and haven't had any problems with age discrimination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 You didn't mention it, so I'll suggest that you find some time to shadow some PAs and MDs before you get too far into the process. Make sure PA is what you want and not just a fantasy. Getting into PA school is incredibly competitive but from what I can tell the job outlook is quite good currently - if you get the degree you hopefully won't find yourself with no job opportunities. Age won't be a factor, but your grades and lack of HCE mean you have a long way to go. If you really want it, take the time to do it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-wade Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 you have a long road if you want to make it work. likely several years of class with all As to get your gpa to at least 2.75-3.0 , which are the cutoffs for most programs. also, don't do scribe. you need to get some solid pt care interaction that involves touching pts and being responsible for elements of their care. maybe do a 2nd degree bsn and become a nurse or do a community college resp therapy or paramedic program. scribe is the lowest tier of pt care experience, only slightly better than "researcher". folks on here love scribe experience and have goitten in with it, but most of those folks also have solid gpas. you need the best of everything from here on in and that means all As and the strongest possible health care experience. you might even consider becoming a navy corpsman or army medic for a few years. I'm not so sure about scribe work being the lowest tier of pt care experience; I really believe a lot of the resistance accepting this as health-care experience is somewhat based on neophobia. When many PA students are struggling with their EM clinical rotations, most scribes are already able to tell what labs and studies to order, and what problematic symptoms and complications to look for... even if it's somewhat algorithmically based (which really the same could be said for most other areas of HCE prior to formal PA education). You can't really discount intuition and experience that comes with thousands of patient room visits, watching emergent interventions, charting, and following labs/radiology reports. The one downfall of course, is like you said, lack of pt interaction and direct care, however, in its stead you do learn by proxy how various PAs, and physicians interact with patients. I can hardly see how this is only slightly better than researching, or so much worse than basic, or even intermediate EMT, where your actual responsibilities are very limited, and your experiences are very restricted. As a scribe, at least you are being exposed to what your actual duties will be later on. I think with most forms of HCE, you end up deficient in at least one aspect or another of health care, and really arguing one over the other is somewhat a practice of establishing an artificial hierachy. I mean, there has to be a reason why Emory, one of the top 3 PA programs in the nation is accepting mostly scribes now. With that said, if you do scribe, it's not unreasonable to expect some discrimination, which can hinder you, even if it is neophobia, so there is that to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 5, 2015 Moderator Share Posted December 5, 2015 as a PA student preceptor for almost 20 years and probably personally responsible for > 100 students I can honestly say those with hands on experience consistently do better on their EM rotation than those without it. There is something to be said for actually being responsible for elements of a patient's care beyond their chart....deciding if they need a second neb treatment, finding difficult veins and doing unpleasant things to people and dealing with their reactions and dealing with difficult patients yelling at you, not the doc in the room with you..being in charge of others and having to delegate tasks is also an important aspect of pt care that medics, nurses, and RTs have that many others do not....aka people skills.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 As far as age goes, I have seen no issues. I started my first PA job when I was 60. Didn't even know what a PA was until I nearly 50 and I had NO college biology until I started my prereqs at 51. In other words, you've got time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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