DIY Post Bacc vs Formal Post Bacc? Deciding on my path to PA school.

[wolfxmirage]

Hello everyone, I just have some general questions regarding whether it'd be more beneficial to pursue a DIY vs Formal post bacc for my case. I am one year out of my undergrad, BS in human bio. I was a student athlete in school and did some volunteer coaching during the summers. That was pretty much the extent of my EC's during my undergrad. My grades were decent, had a bad semester my sophomore year (personal family issues) but I bounced back pretty strong after that. You can find my gpa spread below. 

Cumulative GPA total: 3.44 --- Per-Year Cumulative GPA: 1st year 3.09, 2nd year 3.0, 3rd year 3.39, 4th year 4.0, Post bacc (2 courses so far) 4.0

BCP GPA total: 3.37 --- Per-Year BCP GPA: 1st year 2.93, 2nd year 3.04, 3rd year 3.4, 4th year 4.0

Non-Science GPA total: 3.52 --- Per-Year Non-Science GPA: 1st year 2.94, 2nd year 3.18, 3rd year 3.35, 4th year 4.0

I took two classes at my local JC the semester after graduating (2nd Writing course, and Spanish, A's in both).

Over the past year, I have been working as a clinical research associate at a prestigious cancer research hospital. This role is research focused of course, but the vast majority of my time is spent consenting patients in clinic and collaborating with providers across multidisciplinary oncology teams. Due to this, I would count my time here as a direct patient care experience. Planning on doing this for at least one more year, totaling ~4000 hours of paid patient care experience. After this, I plan on getting certified as an EMT and working part-time during my post bacc. (Currently volunteering at my local ED and in process of starting volunteer work at a suicide hotline)

I have a few pre-reqs left to complete. Anatomy and Physio are the two major ones; planning on taking care of these at a 4-year institution once I leave my current job. Medical terminology is the next pre-req I need to complete; planning on finishing this at my local JC this coming spring alongside a Spanish course. The last prereq is microbiology. I have taken this course before but for P/F (will this be an issue?) during covid; I passed it, but I now know that it needs to be taken for a grade to be considered (didn't really know what I was going to do with my life until my senior year). 

Now that you have some background on me, what do you guys think? If I go for the DIY route I will most likely only take the remaining classes for pre-reqs. If I go the formal program route, I will take these pre reqs along with some other upper-level science classes which could boost my GPA if I do well. Is my GPA in dire need of repair? Am I on the right track to reaching my goal? 

I know this is a long post, so I appreciate you all taking the time to read it!

 

[ohiovolffemtp]

My path as a person who had a 30+ BS in computer science was to go to a community college branch of a major university and just take all of the PA school pre-reqs.  This was all of the sciences: bio, chem, o chem, A&P, physics, micro, genetics, pathophys, cell biology, also  psych, sociology, and stats.  I didn't get any additional degree.  I did wind up with a very good GPA and sGPA.

I applied to 2 PA schools.  Was accepted by 1, waitlisted and then accepted by the other.

So, based on my experience, the DIY route, especially at the lower cost community college, is the way to go.  From what I saw, the GPA and especially the sGPA are what matters, not the additional degree.