wg1024 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I am currently a senior and i changed plans and will be taking science classes to try and pursue a career as a PA. I will have my undergraduate degree but i canceled graduation to stay and take the prereq courses. I currently have a 3.0 overall gpa and retook too political science courses due to lack of focus in freshman year. I want to go to Pace or Hofstra for the MS. I am looking for volunteer programs to get my hours but currently i am a volunteer police officer ( I dont know if this helps on apps). My question is if i raise my gpa substantially and do very well in my science classes will I have a shot? Or would i be at a disadvantage because my degree will be in English and polisci? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktheshark89 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 You definitely will not be at a disadvantage at most places just based on your undergraduate degree. If you take the prerequisite courses and as many other sciences as you can fit in, AND do well of course, I think you will be even with anyone else applying. I would be more worried about not having patient care experience than about your major, and it seems that you are! I would look into what type of hours those programs will count for patient contact (not all programs accept volunteer hours). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wg1024 Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 i am worried about patient contact, the programs i looked at state paid or volunteer are fine, but when i called a couple of hospitals they stated that the patient care they have is along the lines of tutoring adolescents with mental disabilities after school, and helping patients with food trays. does this sound about right? I will call the schools to see if that qualifies just want to know what do they expect direct patient care to be for someone not really qualified yet to provide direct patient care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorRRT Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Do yourself a favor. if you're committed to becoming a PA, go grab a CNA certification or EMT certification. Depending on where you live, you may not even have to take a course to be a CNA and can just challenge the test. The only way to get quality HCE is to get a certification. Your current 3.0 GPA is going to need improvement to become competitive for admission, so definitely shoot for A's in those prereqs. Good luck to ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beattie228 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I could not agree with Gator more. Take the time to do it right the first time, and get yourself an EMT certification. It's not enough to meet the minimum requirements to get into PA school. Just about every applicant you're going up against will have quality healthcare experience, and many of them will have many more hours than those listed by your desired program(s). You can knock out an EMT-Basic course in a semester, and many community colleges offer the program in the evenings so you can continue to work. The classes will not only boost both your cumulative and science GPA, but more importantly it'll give you some good hands on experience to help you decide if a career in medicine is really for you. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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