kcmccoy Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I'm 21 years old and I have had quite a bit of experience thus far. I graduated from a certificate program with a 4.0 GPA for Clinical and Administrative Medical Assisting. While doing such I also got certifications in IV Therapy, EKG, and Phlebotomy. I did my clinicals at a pediatric office. My first employment opportunity was at an optometrist's office. After a few months I was offered a position at an Urgent Care center as a clinical assistant. I was trained on the job as a Practical Radiology Tech to perform X-Rays. After approx 8 months of working there they offered me a Clinic Manager position, where I do managerial duties as well as continue with clinical. Every provider I've worked with has asked me if I was an RN because my triage and my clinical skills are so thorough and fluid. i can also provide multiple strong letters of recommendation from MD's and PA's I've worked with. I love working in the medical field and I would love to further my skills and patient care abilities and am super interested in PA school, but since I have no actual degree, would it lessen my chances of admission to the point where it's not worth applying unless I get some sort of degree? Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggySRNA Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Over 98% (arbitrary number for simplicity) of PA programs require a BS/BA prior to matriculation. There are a few outliers that do not require a 4 year degree, but they are quickly being phased out. Your application won't even be looked at if you are not currently enrolled in or graduating from undergrad. HOWEVER, there are 5 year BS-to-MS PA programs but I'm not sure what the requirements are to gain admission. Of the ones I looked at when I started this journey, you had to be a high school senior to be considered, and since you're 21, this is not an option for you. Your goal for right now is to research programs such as those that award certificates, AS, BS, or the BS-to-MS combination and see which one fits your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcmccoy Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 yes, I've noticed that most programs (masters) require it. I guess I should specify that this is regarding AS or BS programs that just require some course pre reqs. I'm a really fast learner and I'm great at what I do and I want to continue to advance my career in the medical field. but I just hate general education classes, just because in high school I was in all honors and AP classes, and j took a couple classes to work toward an associates degree and it was so far below what I was used to it was just busy work and I had no interest or motivation to do it all over again so ended up withdrawing from them. then I enrolled into the MA cert program and it was all clinical and hands on and I was genuinely interested and excited and made the highest grades in my class. Which is why I was considering an AS/BS program and maybe later bridging, because I don't think I have the patience or the time to get a four year degree in something that I don't plan on immediately being able to use post graduation. but from what I've seen the AS and BS programs are pretty selective with their PA programs even though they don't require a degree, I'm sure it definitely doesn't hurt to have one even if it's an unrelated major. but I guess I'm mostly wondering if I'm against applicants who don't have thorough clinical experience but have some sort of degree, would they be the stronger applicant, would w be considered equivalent, or so clinical skills reflect stronger? I just want to see if it's realistic to apply with my current credentials (pending pre reqs) or would admission be so unlikely Iits not worth going through the process / basically reevaluate and try to obtain a degree before trying to apply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcmccoy Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 Over 98% (arbitrary number for simplicity) of PA programs require a BS/BA prior to matriculation. There are a few outliers that do not require a 4 year degree, but they are quickly being phased out. Your application won't even be looked at if you are not currently enrolled in or graduating from undergrad. HOWEVER, there are 5 year BS-to-MS PA programs but I'm not sure what the requirements are to gain admission. Of the ones I looked at when I started this journey, you had to be a high school senior to be considered, and since you're 21, this is not an option for you. Your goal for right now is to research programs such as those that award certificates, AS, BS, or the BS-to-MS combination and see which one fits your needs. also oopsie, obv new to the forum and didn't include the quote don't mind me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyNameWasUsed Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 You need a 4 year degree. Doesnt matter what major. I have not heard of a PA program that doesnt require a 4 year degree. Even if they say they dont require one (which ive never heard of before), you won't be able to out compete the applicants with a 4 year degree (pretty much all applicants have a 4 year degree). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cop to pa Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 By January 1, 2021, any program not granting a Masters will lose their ARC-PA accreditation. So, if you're going to do it without a degree, start doing it now. Otherwise, get over the busy work aspect. I'd guess that with most matriculants earning a 3.6+ for their bachelors that almost all had at least a few general requirement courses that bored them/ weren't interesting. I know that I did. Suck it up. This is now a graduate level profession and there are no short cuts. Quite frankly hearing you say that your courses were just busy work and you get bored bugs me. You should be commended for your experience. It's likely more than many applicants. But it's not the end all be all. I have 11+ years of experience as a Corpsman, CNA and EMT and still needed to bust my a$$ to get grades and a degree. Again, no short cuts. Best of luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcmccoy Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 You need a 4 year degree. Doesnt matter what major. I have not heard of a PA program that doesnt require a 4 year degree. Even if they say they dont require one (which ive never heard of before), you won't be able to out compete the applicants with a 4 year degree (pretty much all applicants have a 4 year degree). I don't think most applicants for an AS or BS program would have a 4 year degree...? if they did they would just get a masters versus downgrading to an associates degree... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcmccoy Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 By January 1, 2021, any program not granting a Masters will lose their ARC-PA accreditation. So, if you're going to do it without a degree, start doing it now. Otherwise, get over the busy work aspect. I'd guess that with most matriculants earning a 3.6+ for their bachelors that almost all had at least a few general requirement courses that bored them/ weren't interesting. I know that I did. Suck it up. This is now a graduate level profession and there are no short cuts. Quite frankly hearing you say that your courses were just busy work and you get bored bugs me. You should be commended for your experience. It's likely more than many applicants. But it's not the end all be all. I have 11+ years of experience as a Corpsman, CNA and EMT and still needed to bust my a$$ to get grades and a degree. Again, no short cuts. Best of luck to you. I guess I can see how me saying I wasn't interested and it was busy work can be construed as basically me being lazy. who knows, maybe I technically am. but I meant it in that redoing all the core general education classes was literally wasting my time. not trying to exaggerate or anything but for example in my AP ENG class senior year I was published in multiple literary magazines and scored a perfect score on the English literature and composition national exam. the nursing program I had intended on going into did not allow AP credits, just as majority of Masters Degree PA programs I've seen thus far. so I enrolled in English 101, and the first four weeks were learning what nouns and verbs were. basic sentence structure. learning MLA citing from scratch when I had already learned, mastered, and written countless essays in both MLA and APA citing. I agree to an extent, I think at a graduate level program graduate level work is expected. which is why I don't wanna waste time and money on irrelevant things that I'm already proficient in. maybe that makes me lazy or sound immature by I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever feel that way, because they created and accredited AS and BS programs. For some people that might be considered a short cut. But for me I see it as cutting out all the extraneous content so I can fully focus on the field I'm passionate about and immerse myself in the program of study I'd like to make a career out of without the distraction of what was basically busy work. I'm trying to do it the way I think is most logical for me. Who knows, I might be totally wrong for thinking like that, and it might not even work out the way I want it to so I'll have to do it the traditional way. But I figured I'd ask and see what my options were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cop to pa Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Alright. Check out the PAEA program directory. They list no associates programs and 8 bachelors programs. Of the 8, one requires 24 credits of prereqs, the rest are 50+ credits (three links are broken). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 You have the clinical experience, but PA school is intense academically and you need to be able to handle that and nothing in your post indicates you have precedent for that. Not saying you can't, just based on what we know.... You're young. You should seriously consider that taking the time and effort to get a masters degree at this point would be well worth the investment. If you absolutely know that PA is what you want, then consider one of the 5 year BS/MS programs where you get a bachelors and masters (I think that's how they work) for PA. Or take the time to get a BS in something and then consider a further degree - you may find you prefer nursing and want to pursue NP or maybe med school is more for you. If you apply to a university your AP credits may count there and you won't have to take things like english 101 and could potentially be done in less than 4 years while still getting not only all the pre-reqs you need for PA school but a variety of other highly suggested courses. As someone else mentioned, the AS and BS programs are on their way out the door and they were not created recently. You say you don't want to waste time or money so think about this long term - because all of the programs are becoming MS the field could REQUIRE a masters degree in the future and you'll have to find a bridge program or something in order to continue practicing. Not to mention that there's talk about the field moving to a PhD program much like DNP is trying to do. Do you really want to be the person with an AS when everyone else in the field has a masters degree or higher? As a patient, I wouldn't see the PA with an associates over the PA with a masters. Yea, I'm that patient that looks up my providers educational history. Every time. Medicine is simply a field where an AS or BS just doesn't cut it for professional level careers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted January 17, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 17, 2016 Alright. Check out the PAEA program directory. They list no associates programs and 8 bachelors programs. Of the 8, one requires 24 credits of prereqs, the rest are 50+ credits (three links are broken). U. WA still has a BS track. a friend of mine with an AS just graduated from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted January 17, 2016 Administrator Share Posted January 17, 2016 Pacific still lets you complete your BS in Didactic, but they only issue masters':http://www.pacificu.edu/future-graduate-professional/colleges/college-health-professions/areas-study/physician-assistant-studies/prerequisite-coursework You need to have 86 semester hours, including all prerequisite coursework, in order to apply under this option. I was told it was going to be phased out, but it appears to still be going strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdawg1986 Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 You need a 4 year degree. Doesnt matter what major. I have not heard of a PA program that doesnt require a 4 year degree. Even if they say they dont require one (which ive never heard of before), you won't be able to out compete the applicants with a 4 year degree (pretty much all applicants have a 4 year degree).Not true at all... Although certificate programs are phased / phasing out. I graduated from such a program and have been happily practicing for 5 years. I started in urgent care and am in Orthopedics and have never had trouble finding a job, nor have I ever felt I was at a disadvantage in skill or pay. I'm also in a very competitive environment, Southern California. Your milage may vary. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyNameWasUsed Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I mean i guess if you want to severely limit your options of schools then apply without a BS/BA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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