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Baylor PA Program 2020-2021 Cycle


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1 hour ago, PAReady0001 said:

Hey all! Congratulations to those who were already interviewed. To those who are in Group B, I look forward to meeting you later today! Can anyone tell me what the attire is for orientation day? The student social information says business casual but I wanted to be sure. Thank you in advance!

Yes, Business/ business casual. Everyone was in interview-appropriate clothing. Women in blazers and blouses. Men in suits

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12 hours ago, PACaptain said:

For those in Group A who finished interviews, do we return the outstanding prerequisite checklist by responding to the post-interview email  or do we send it as an attachment to the paprogram@bcm.edu email? Thank you!

I was unsure as well but I only did the post interview email since it mentioned it on there.

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Now that some time has passed, how do you guys feel about the program? 

I thought it was awesome and the faculty and students were great but there were a few things that stood out to me that I did not like. I may be off base as it is hard to get a real feel of a program over zoom but here are my thoughts.

1. Gross anatomy being shared with med students with them having priority of dissecting and us only having the learning objectives of identifying.

2. No clinical electives.

3. Class sizes of up to 240 students. 

4. Lack of innovative tech for teaching. 

I could be wrong about the last one but I did not see any presentations on what they offer in that category.

Would love to hear you guys thoughts as well as current students as decision time is coming soon and I want to be prepared as possible for one of the biggest decisions of my life. 

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3 hours ago, Thenerdyatc said:

Now that some time has passed, how do you guys feel about the program? 

I thought it was awesome and the faculty and students were great but there were a few things that stood out to me that I did not like. I may be off base as it is hard to get a real feel of a program over zoom but here are my thoughts.

1. Gross anatomy being shared with med students with them having priority of dissecting and us only having the learning objectives of identifying.

2. No clinical electives.

3. Class sizes of up to 240 students. 

4. Lack of innovative tech for teaching. 

I could be wrong about the last one but I did not see any presentations on what they offer in that category.

Would love to hear you guys thoughts as well as current students as decision time is coming soon and I want to be prepared as possible for one of the biggest decisions of my life. 

I don't know where you are getting class sizes of up to 240 students. They interview 150 and their class size is 40. They have interviewed 150 students for the last 5-10 years per the orientation day so it isn't really even possible to get up to 240 students haha.

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21 minutes ago, WeBeLungTogether said:

I don't know where you are getting class sizes of up to 240 students. They interview 150 and their class size is 40. They have interviewed 150 students for the last 5-10 years per the orientation day so it isn't really even possible to get up to 240 students haha.

During orientation they talked about this. You take a number of classes with other professions. Classes range from 40-240. 

Edit: What are your thoughts on the program from orientation? Pros , cons?

 

Edited by Thenerdyatc
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Hi everyone!

I interviewed with the program last week and really enjoyed the presentations! It was so informative and the faculty and students were so kind. I don't know if this was talked about and I just missed it but do they accept deferment to the PA program? With the increase in COVID cases and the uncertainty surrounding it.. I guess it's just something to think about.

Good luck everyone!!!

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On 11/15/2020 at 11:27 AM, Thenerdyatc said:

Now that some time has passed, how do you guys feel about the program? 

I thought it was awesome and the faculty and students were great but there were a few things that stood out to me that I did not like. I may be off base as it is hard to get a real feel of a program over zoom but here are my thoughts.

1. Gross anatomy being shared with med students with them having priority of dissecting and us only having the learning objectives of identifying.

2. No clinical electives.

3. Class sizes of up to 240 students. 

4. Lack of innovative tech for teaching. 

I could be wrong about the last one but I did not see any presentations on what they offer in that category.

Would love to hear you guys thoughts as well as current students as decision time is coming soon and I want to be prepared as possible for one of the biggest decisions of my life. 

I interviewed last week as well. Here are my thoughts:

1. I've heard varying opinions on this, but a significant amount of PA students I've talked to (who have had full cadaver dissections in their programs) told me that they would have actually preferred prosected cadavers. Full dissections are obviously very time consuming, and from what I've gathered, students would much rather be able to spend that time in the library studying rather than standing over a lab bench for hours. On the flip side, my sister is a ophthalmic surgeon (not a PA, but I felt this was relevant anyway) and she says that the experience of performing a full dissection and becoming familiarized with all the nerves, vessels, etc. is invaluable, especially if you're interested in going into a surgical field. Kind of sounds like it comes down to personal preference.

2. This was an area of concern for me as well - I've seen other programs that didn't offer clinical electives because they were heavily primary care-focused programs, but I specifically asked Professor Elliott about this during orientation and she said that BCM is not intended to be a PC-focused program. I also asked one of the PA-S3, and she said that she didn't feel any less prepared because of the lack of electives, but I guess she wouldn't really have true insight on it since she hasn't yet graduated and entered the workforce. But it's nice to remember that BCM graduates have been able to successfully find jobs in all specialties.

3. I attended a large public undergrad institution which meant I had classes with up to 300 other students, and I personally didn't feel like that negatively affected my learning experience at all. Especially since BCM's PA program assigns each student a faculty advisor, and all of the faculty seem extremely approachable, it sounds like there is always an opportunity for one-on-one help if needed.

4. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by innovative tech, but I agree that they didn't mention much about any special technological teaching tools used by their program. I can't imagine that a program of BCM's caliber wouldn't implement these sorts of things, but who knows. 

Like you said, it's hard to really get a feel for a program over Zoom, but I do feel like BCM did a phenomenal job of trying to help us make as informed a decision as possible.

Edited by mjw0106
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5 hours ago, mjw0106 said:

I interviewed last week as well. Here are my thoughts:

1. I've heard varying opinions on this, but a significant amount of PA students I've talked to (who have had full cadaver dissections in their programs) told me that they would have actually preferred prosected cadavers. Full dissections are obviously very time consuming, and from what I've gathered, students would much rather be able to spend that time in the library studying rather than standing over a lab bench for hours. On the flip side, my sister is a ophthalmic surgeon (not a PA, but I felt this was relevant anyway) and she says that the experience of performing a full dissection and becoming familiarized with all the nerves, vessels, etc. is invaluable, especially if you're interested in going into a surgical field. Kind of sounds like it comes down to personal preference.

2. This was an area of concern for me as well - I've seen other programs that didn't offer clinical electives because they were heavily primary care-focused programs, but I specifically asked Professor Elliott about this during orientation and she said that BCM is not intended to be a PC-focused program. I also asked one of the PA-S3, and she said that she didn't feel any less prepared because of the lack of electives, but I guess she wouldn't really have true insight on it since she hasn't yet graduated and entered the workforce. But it's nice to remember that BCM graduates have been able to successfully find jobs in all specialties.

3. I attended a large public undergrad institution which meant I had classes with up to 300 other students, and I personally didn't feel like that negatively affected my learning experience at all. Especially since BCM's PA program assigns each student a faculty advisor, and all of the faculty seem extremely approachable, it sounds like there is always an opportunity for one-on-one help if needed.

4. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by innovative tech, but I agree that they didn't mention much about any special technological teaching tools used by their program. I can't imagine that a program of BCM's caliber wouldn't implement these sorts of things, but who knows. 

Like you said, it's hard to really get a feel for a program over Zoom, but I do feel like BCM did a phenomenal job of trying to help us make as informed a decision as possible.

To add to this in regards to our class size, the only course we have that big is anatomy because we take it with the med students. However that is only for lecture. In lab we have less than 10 students in a room with each professor and usually a med student to help, so I come to all of the labs with a list of questions of things that are unclear to me and the professors all take so much time to go through it with us on the cadaver repeatedly until we understand. We have time for that because we don't have to do the dissections, which I was bummed about when starting but am now so happy for with our busy schedules. 

The courses where you need to ask questions the most (especially clinical medicine which is the most content dense class) it is only us PA students together! 

In regards to technology I am not sure what you are specifically looking for, but we practice on the medical simulation manikins a lot and practice our physical exams, ultrasound, etc on each other weekly. Please reach out to the program with any concerns you have, they will be honest with you if it is valid and will offer you information that may have been missed if not 🙂

-Leah, PA-S 

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10 hours ago, danianderson said:

Do you guys recall if they said only accepted students would get a call and we would get emails with our estimated waitlist spots? Or do you think we will have to ask for the rank?

Yeah they said only accepted students would get a call and all others would get an email. I’m not sure about the waitlist rank though. 

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11 hours ago, danianderson said:

Do you guys recall if they said only accepted students would get a call and we would get emails with our estimated waitlist spots? Or do you think we will have to ask for the rank?

I remember them saying we would know our relative rank based upon the waitlist email (ex. 1-10). Good luck everyone! 

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