Please help! NP or PA in Illinois? Can I even get into to Pa school?

[Laura25]

Hey everyone,

I don’t want to make this too long ordrawn out but I just wanted to clarify a few things before making the plungeinto studying to become a PA. First off who has better job prospects here inIllinois a PA or a NP? I noticed that NP’s seem to run the take care clinics atall Walgreens and am unsure as to why PA’s don’t work in them. I know that’sjust one place out of many places to work but it almost seems like NP’s havemore power here in Illinois than PAs. Since the two relatively do the same thingand would take the same amount of time to complete for me I can’t figure outwhich one to do however I am leaning more towards the PA. So I guess my firstquestion is based on Illinois law who has more power in Illinois a PA or NP? Nextproblem I’m having is can I even get into a PA program? Currently I’m lookingto apply for Midwestern’s PA program this year when apps open up soon, and thereason being because so many other schools have such lengthy lists ofprerequisites and being completely honest I’m getting a little burned out afterjust graduating with a Bachelors from a notable school and having a family tohelp take care of, and I don’t just mean my only child. If I opted to apply to thecheaper and closer Malcom X program, or Northwestern program I would seriouslybe spending the next 2 years at a community college which just doesn’t seem reasonableas I will be going through a rigorous 2 and half year program already to becomea PA. I don’t want to come off as lazy because I know if you really want to dosomething you will find a way but I’m sick of being a broke college student andwant to actually work a good job and very soon. Right now my overall G.P.A. isa 3.54, and my science G.P.A. is a 4.0 but that only includes a Biology andGeology class. Also I know most of these programs want a Biochemistry courseand I can’t even find a community college that offers that, will I be at adisadvantage when applying to Midwestern because Biochemistry is stated asstrongly preferred but not necessary. I also have no experience in healthcarewhatsoever but have an aunt who is PA and led to my interest of becoming one.In sum will I have a chance of being accepted to Midwestern’s program? I planon studying and scoring very well on the GRE and getting A's in the chemistrycourses I'm going to begin taking since they will be my only classes. Thanks

By the wayafter reviewing Malcom X why are they considered such a bad program and readyto lose accreditation if they require all those prereqs ? it’s one of the worst lists I’ve seen.

[ventana]

post in PRE-PA as a start