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Major required for PA school?�


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53 minutes ago, brooks23 said:

You can get into PA school with virtually any degree. As long as you have the pre-requisites completed, and have sufficient and compelling HCE/volunteer hours, etc., psychology should be more than fine. 

brooks summed it up - any bachelor's degree will do, just need the pre-reqs. My roommate and PA classmate has a degree in fine arts.

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This should be in the "Pre-PA" section.

But yeah you can do it with anything, and it seems like Adcoms like diversity. BUT, I will say, I was a bio major and hit the upper level classes hard (my whole senior year were upper level bio electives). I came in very prepared, some of my classmates however lack some of that high level awareness and struggle with some pretty fundamental topics. From time to time there are also questions asked during class that are, ummm, "silly."

My struggle is the colossal amount of information to memorize in a very short period of time. I'm glad that I'm not struggling with or having to learn new concepts like some folks are. Think of prereqs as the "bare minimum." Not in terms of admissions, but as in the foundation to start a PA program.

But undergrad programs are different, PA programs are different, and people are different, so "your results may vary."

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16 hours ago, LilyCxoxo said:

I am currently stuck between biology and psychology since I have a love for both, however I'm leaning more towards psychology. Is it okay to major in psychology and just take pre reqs required for PA school? I am interested in becoming an NICU PA.

During my undergraduate program I was a neuroscience major, which ended up basically being a double major in biology and psychology with the types of classes I ended up taking. So if you're interested in those fields that's something to take a look at.

Otherwise, like others have said on here, it really doesn't matter what your undergrad major is as long as you hit the prerequisites. But I'll agree with @Anachronist in that a hard science major will certainly better prepare you for didactic year since you'll already have familiarity in studying those subjects and a strong foundation in many of the courses PA school will cover. But by the same token, don't force yourself in a major you don't enjoy just because you think it'll look good on paper. Just be sure to keep your GPA up in whatever major you choose (especially aim for high grades in those pre-requisites), focus on getting quality HCE/PCE, volunteer & shadowing hours and you'll be a solid applicant. 

Good luck!

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On 11/19/2018 at 6:59 PM, UGoLong said:

I recommend taking something useful in case you don’t get into PA school or want to branch out someday.

I agree with this.  However, for a useless-at-a-BA-level major, Psych is a large part of what I do in patient interactions in primary care.  Motivation, counseling, dealing with depressed, anxious, and sometimes outright psychotic patients...  I only had to have one course of either general, abnormal, or lifespan/developmental psych; I have all three, plus a couple of pastoral counseling classes from seminary, and I use every last thing I've learned in them on a regular basis.  Bottom line? People with physical ailments very often have comorbid emotional or psychological issues as well.

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