physician assitant Navy SEAL to Physician Assistant

[Henphrix]

Good Morning,

Currently, I am on my last semester of undergrad. I currently have my SEAL challenge contract and have a spot to go to BUD/S.

I want to be a Physician Assistant in the future but prefer serving my country as a SOCM. Once I am old and cant go anymore I will apply to go to Physician Assistant School.

My goal was set on SEAL and be a medic but I just heard about SARC and they do more medicine. Plus more people who come out of SARC have a high chance of going into Physician Assistant school, from what I've been told. I never heard of a SEAL being a PA. 

My question is simple. I want to do SOCM before applying to be a PA. My GPA is okay it is a 3.0, trying to get 3.1-3.2 for my last semester, If I do SARC will it give me a boost into PA school or not? 

If not I will stick to my SEAL contract. If it does I will go ahead and try to go for an HM-ATF.

(I have not taken the GRE yet was planning to do it later down the road. Plus I want to keep taking college classes to boost my GPA in the future)

[Navy_PA]

A good number of SOs have gone to PA school. See, just as one example, the book "Battle Ready" by Mark Donald. A good read/listen, IMO. Becoming a SEAL will not, in itself, be a barrier for you should you wish to pursue PA-C. However, obtaining prerequisite coursework and shadowing hours, and then submitting a competitive application package for IPAP (or any another PA program) may be difficult depending on how much downtime you find to commit to coursework, be it on-line or brick-and-mortar. You may have that prerequisite coursework already, confer any of the "get into PA school" books for a standard list of what's required, and the IPAP info for their list as well. IPAP vs a civilian PA program would be another discussion and has been treated elsewhere, but may be worthy of consideration as you will already possess an undergraduate degree.
I am neither a SEAL nor a prior SARC. However, in my observations there has been for the recent past an effort for NSW to make/train their own medics instead of prior SARC/SOIDC pathway. For the SARC/SOIDC pathway, SOIDC is the longer course and would be preferable as SARCs have often had to go back to either re-do the course to become SOIDCs or take the remaining coursework to plus up (this has gone back and forth as to whether to repeat vs plus up and whether to just send sailors for full SOIDC instead of SARC if the thought is they may need it in future anyway -- operational and staffing demands at that moment largely dictate). I admit that I do not know the current status of above, so may be best to ask around SOs or SARCs that you know.
Other members here can also speak to whether SOCM training or other military schools are beneficial in the IPAP application package.
For the civilian side, should that route end up being more convenient or timely, I believe that there is also at least on university PA program (in North Carolina?) which gives some college credits for the SARC and SOIDC coursework in view of PA-school.
Moreover, the SOCM education and the subsequent military training will likely be a plus on a PA school application. The attendant life experiences are likely to be contributory if you land an interview at a PA program, as they take this into consideration for purposes of building out a class with a diversity of experiences.

My $0.02

Ari

Edited February 23, 2020 by Navy_PA

[karebear12892]

15 hours ago, Henphrix said:

I never heard of a SEAL being a PA. 

Look up Kevin Lacz, PA-C, former Navy SEAL 

[TomBombadil]

I'll be graduating SOCM next month. Not a SARC/SOIDC, but if you have any questions regarding SOCM hit me up. 

[BLM8867]

Good on you for attempting extraordinary things! If you make it through and serve your time, I'm sure your training and experiences will give you some leverage when you do decide to go the PA route. As for your GPA question, if you can somehow have all of your training evaluated for college credits (most on-post education centers can help with this) this may help your cumulative GPA (cGPA). PA schools look at your cGP and science GPA (sGPA). Also keep in mind that credits for repeated classes are averaged not replaced. ALSO, keep in mind that science classes have a shelf life when applying to PA school. If you already have science classes taken, after about 7 yrs they will be out of date and you will have to retake them. Hope this helps. Best of luck to you.