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A different PA ranking list..


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http://www.paeaonline.org/index.php?ht=action/GetDocumentAction/i/118967

 

 

I interviewed at Northwestern last week and the Program Director told us about a study he did a couple years ago about PA rankings. He said that the list created by US news report was made by sending surveys to different PA programs asking them to rank other schools based on reputation.

 

He then did a research study ranking PA programs using criteria that is actually useful and came up with a new list. I linked the study above...hope you guys find this interesting. I definitely wish I knew about this when I was applying to schools. =)

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Just to play devil's advocate... pamac and emedpa, can you provide evidence that supports your disagreements with the ranking of these schools? I understand that those schools you listed are reputable schools, but can you actually produce any objective information that supports your opinion that they are in fact better than u wisconsin? The study provided the exact methodology as to how these rankings were calculated. Do you have specific issues with the methodology?

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pance scores are more about individuals than programs.
That still isn't a reason to debunk the ranking. And I would be hard pressed to argue that PANCE scores should NOT be used in ranking schools. Unless you have a very good reason why, I am not going to be convinced that that shouldn't be used when putting together a list of top schools.
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Do you have specific issues with the methodology?

I do. Not with the use of the PANCE pass rates. Those are important. And perhaps not even with the number of years the school has been accredited, although I'm sure there are new programs that have their acts together and deserve higher placement.

 

I take issue with the other two criteria. Student-to-faculty ratio penalizes larger programs that operate on a lecture format. The explanation for using doctoral degrees as a measure of the quality of the teaching or competency of the graduates contains a logical fallacy, and is subjectively silly to me. Both of these criteria ignore the fact that many programs invite guest lecturers who are experts in their fields to provide content to their students.

 

*shrug* YMMV. This director was promoting this last year when I interviewed too. I am wary of someone who pimps his own work so aggressively.

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You know the best PA program out there? The one that YOU get to attend. That's right...the one that puts you through a PA program that successfully prepares you to sit for the PANCE. It's the one that allows you to get into the work force and start helping people. No school is going to teach you how to hurt patients, there are no malicious programs out there.

 

Do I believe that there are too many schools using the PA program to generate revenue and have different acceptance criteria than I would choose? Oh yes, very much so. Do I think they are creating evil PA's that will subvert the profession? Not on purpose...the production of PAs with limited to no previous medical experience sets the whole profession back by making mandatory Masters programs (essentially strangling our Military trained medical folks) and the under-experienced make things like residencies more commonly needed.

 

But despite that, their intentions are pure. So despite my slight diversion/rant, I still say the best school is the one that you get to attend.

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You know the best PA program out there? The one that YOU get to attend. That's right...the one that puts you through a PA program that successfully prepares you to sit for the PANCE. It's the one that allows you to get into the work force and start helping people. No school is going to teach you how to hurt patients, there are no malicious programs out there.

Good post really enjoyed it.

Thanks

LesH

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any ranking that puts u.wisconsin higher than duke, U.wa, emory, yale, drexel, stony brook, cornell, etc is faulty as far as I am concerned.

 

I'm going to attempt to change direction and see if anyone goes along:

UT Southwestern gets ranked in the top 10 in all the published lists I've seen, but rarely do people on this forum mention UTSW as a top choice. I hear MEDEX, Duke, GW, Emory, Yale and a few others a lot. (Maybe this question would be better in another section, but it seemed remotely on topic.) Why do you think this is?

 

I'm assuming it's due to geography more than anything, and in no way am I trying to bash UTSW. Just looking for feedback. Thanks!

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I could be wrong, but I always just assume Texas schools like Texas applicants more than they would like me. I feel like I would get a fair shake with those other schools. That's just my unfounded perception. Steve is right though. If I had to choose between Harvard or my low ranked local school, geography and low tuition would rule the day. Even with a Harvard degree, my SP could have graduated from a Caribbean med school and he or she would still make a lot more than me.

 

Thank you...and I definitely agree with both of your points.

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I'm going to attempt to change direction and see if anyone goes along:

UT Southwestern gets ranked in the top 10 in all the published lists I've seen, but rarely do people on this forum mention UTSW as a top choice. I hear MEDEX, Duke, GW, Emory, Yale and a few others a lot. (Maybe this question would be better in another section, but it seemed remotely on topic.) Why do you think this is?

 

I'm assuming it's due to geography more than anything, and in no way am I trying to bash UTSW. Just looking for feedback. Thanks!

 

Perhaps the fact that they only accept 36 students has something to do with it. With a class that small, makes it hard to find people who have interviewed/attended/have first hand knowledge of the program and arent just speculating....

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I could be wrong, but I always just assume Texas schools like Texas applicants more than they would like me. I feel like I would get a fair shake with those other schools.

 

UTSW currently has accepted 2 from Florida, 1 from Vanderbilt, 1 from Pepperdine. I'm guessing only 1/3 of the class is filled so far.

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I'm with Khoifish on this one... residency isn't a factor for admissions in most Texas PA programs and there are scholarships to make an out of state student eligible for in-state tuition.

 

Residency is a huge factor for most Texas PA programs as public universities here are required by law to have 90% in-state students. The only private school off the top of my head is Baylor. IPAP would also be exempt of course.

 

/edit - I know this applies to entering freshman classes and even entering med school classes so I can only assume it applies to PA programs as well.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

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so I can only assume it applies to PA programs as well.

 

I know that law applies to med schools, but not PA programs. FAQs on the admissions page at a couple schools state specifically that residency is not considered. Not sure which schools say that off hand, but I read them over a week or two ago and remember that. I know UTMB was one, and maybe UNT. UTSW says something vague about it, but I remember it coming up at an information session last fall (my friend that attended with me is from out of state so we talked about it). I could be totally off base though, leave it to TX to change the rules as we go!

 

I can see why applying from out of state would be daunting though-- a very small number of out of state people attend, but I think that is more because of the huge applicant pool which statistically is majority in-state and also because of the emphasis in the application process on working in TX post graduation. I was surprised at the number of out of state applicants that I met at interviews. There were a lot of Kansas, Oklahoma and Florida people and even a few from Hawaii and back east.

 

Anyway, this has strayed. The OP started by comparing different school ratings.... I guess the point is that TX has some great schools that aren't talked about much on this forum.

Have a great one :)

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I can't find anything to support that statement, including the UTMB and UNT websites.

 

http://shp.utmb.edu/pas/Prospective_Students/FAQs.pdf

Do you give preference to Texas residents?

Applicants seeking admission are span states across the nation. More applications are received from Texas residents; however, we do not consider residency standings. Applications are reviewed solely on a competitive basis.

Alright, let's take a leap here. If this 10% law was in place do you think this sentence might end with "...although 90% of the seats are reserved for Texas residents" or something to that effect? For example- admissions FAQ on the TCOM page (UNT med school):

Since we're a state-supported medical school, we're required to hold at least 90% of our seats in each incoming class for Texas residents. The remaining 10% are open to non-residents.

 

This statement (or some variant of it) is also on the UTMB med school admissions page and UTSW as well. The difference might be that PA programs are not in the medical school, since they are a part of the school of health professions so they may have different requirements.

It seems like this is pretty important information. The medical schools are very forthcoming with this and I think that the PA schools would mention it somewhere if it was an issue. I see that I could very well be wrong here, this is just my deduction from the statements made on the program websites.

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