Med student to Pa?

[aljdflksajdf]

hey everyone, 

I'm currently a med student enrolled in a US DO program. I just passed my first semester and while on break, I've come to the realization that med school may not be for me. I do want to work in health care as I loved my previous job as a medical assistant but I dont think I have the passion for medicine to justify being potentially 250k in debt and giving up family/friends time. I went into medicine for the wrong reasons - money, prestige, etc and after being in school, Ive realized those things don't matter as much anymore. I'd rather have a better lifestyle yet still be in the healthcare field. I've heard that PA Adcoms don't look favorably upon past med students but would I have a chance at PA schools seeing as how I didn't fail out of med school but rather chose to drop out? 

Thanks!

[EMEDPA]

1 hour ago, aljdflksajdf said:

hey everyone, 

I'm currently a med student enrolled in a US DO program. I just passed my first semester and while on break, I've come to the realization that med school may not be for me. I do want to work in health care as I loved my previous job as a medical assistant but I dont think I have the passion for medicine to justify being potentially 250k in debt and giving up family/friends time. I went into medicine for the wrong reasons - money, prestige, etc and after being in school, Ive realized those things don't matter as much anymore. I'd rather have a better lifestyle yet still be in the healthcare field. I've heard that PA Adcoms don't look favorably upon past med students but would I have a chance at PA schools seeing as how I didn't fail out of med school but rather chose to drop out? 

Thanks!

please do not consider PA school if you do not have a passion for medicine. The lifestyle of a PA in most cases is NOT better than that of a physician. we work the crap hours in the places docs don't want to work seeing the patients they don't want to see. Finish medschool or drop out and do something else. PA is not md/do-lite with less responsibility. you will likely not get into PA school and if you did you would finish PA school around the time you would have finished medschool and realize you made a huge mistake.

[MT2PA]

As above.  You also may end up with just as much debt with significantly less salary to look forward to for paying it off.  

Paying off $250k with a $100k salary is NOT a better lifestyle.  You'll be working multiple jobs with no disposable income.

[PAtoMD]

Want to switch seats? But seriously finish out you could very well change your mind once you start clinical rotations. That’s where it’ll get fun. It would be hard to convince an Adcom you wanted to go to PA school cause you weren’t passionate about medical school. 

[Guest HopeToBePAC]

My honest advice for you would be to finish DO school. Dropping out and switching to the PA profession is going to be tough. You'll have to pass many hurdles as I'm sure you'll be asked why you suddenly want to be a PA over a doctor, and why you didn't think of this earlier. The process of applying to PA school will take you a year or more, and then another year or so before you're able to start and the competitiveness increases each year. PA school isn't as much debt as DO school but you'll still have a lot of it. 

[EMEDPA]

Yup, agree with others above. Either quit medicine entirely or finish. The biggest mistake of my life was choosing PA over DO/MD. I would still consider going back even at this point if my situation was different.

[CAAdmission]

Snap out of it, dude. You're talking crazy.