<p>Well, I recently decided I may be interested in becoming a physician assistant. I understand there is no pre-PA major and that I would attend medical school later on so I was wondering if I were better off going to a school that has given me full-tuition and likely, due to financial need, will be paying more for the rest of my COA, leaving me to pay less than 5k a year. The school: Notre Dame of Maryland University.</p>
<p>I've also gotten into UVA (no merit, we'll see about financial aid) and UMBC (12k in merit a year, also seeing about financial aid). I'll be hearing from GWU (likely to get in), JHU (ehh....maybe), UMCP (also likely), and St. Mary's college of md (almost def.)
So there is a range of choices.
However, I have visited only NDM and I do like the environment, I feel like I would thrive there. But I want to give myself a fair shot at getting into a good program, so I want to make sure I'm giving myself a solid undergrad. education.
What should I do?</p>
<p>if you want to be an MD later on – I would recommend getting a BSN, then applying to med school. getting a nursing degree is a lot lot easier and takes less time. after that , apply to med school…tell the med school admissions dept while going to nursing school you loved helping people so much that you realized your calling is to become a doctor. (and throw in the compassion you learned in nursing school is something you will apply as a doctor) they will probably eat that stuff up.(IMO) anyway, you maybe young , but it is not like you are going to put in years of schooling, internships and work to become a PA and , then turn around and go to med school, residency, internship, fellowships etc and start practicing medicine at 55?</p>
<p>You do NOT go to medical school to become a PA. You do a 2-year masters program.</p>
<p>Check out some of the schools that offer a graduate program for PA and look at their required undergrad classes - there are number of science courses that must be taken. Schools also require a significant amount of direct patient contact hours before you can be accepted into a PA program, so you will need to start working on them ASAP. </p>
<p>It is very difficult to get into a PA program directly from college - when the school that my daughter is in greatly expanded their grad level admissions only 1 of the 25 accepted (and 800 applied for those openings) was direct from college (most PA’s start out on a PA track from high school and do a 5 year BS +masters program, though this is changing now that PAs are high in demand and more schools begin masters’ programs).</p>
<p>To give yourself an edge, if you can manage the time while in college, pick up a part-time job or volunteer position that gives you medical experience. Become an EMT, or CNA, even helping out at a blood donation center or dialysis clinic would be helpful.</p>
<p>KKmama the OP never stated anything about thinking you need to go to med school to be a PA…rather that they would like to go to med school at a later date after they were a PA.</p>
<p>“Well, I recently decided I may be interested in becoming a physician assistant. I understand there is no pre-PA major and that I would attend medical school later on so I was wondering if I were better off going to a school that has given me full-tuition and likely, due to financial need, will be paying more for the rest of my COA, leaving me to pay less than 5k a year.”</p>
<p>S/he does not say that /she wants to be a PA and THEN go to med school. S/he says nothing about wanting to become a doctor… this implies that s/he thinks that medical school is the route to become a PA.</p>
<p>I’m guessing it’s too late now but there are some 5-year BS programs that lead to becoming a PA right out of undergrad, like the Sophie Davis school at CUNY-City College or a similar program at CUNY-York College.</p>
<p>But given that that’s probably a moot point, I agree with the recommendation to major in nursing. The reason is because most master’s level PA programs require a certain number of patient contact hours (usually between 1,000 and 2,000) that can only really be obtained if you’re already working in the allied health sciences. 2000 hours is about 1 year of full-time or 2 years of part-time work. And because PA programs are so competitive, many applicants have far more hours than that. For example, the accepted PA class at Emory had an average of 4500 patient care hours before entering the program, which is a little over 2 years of full time experience or 4.5 years of half-time (20 hours a week) experience. For that reason, most PAs are former nurses, EMTs, paramedics, maybe occupational or physical therapy assistants.</p>
<p>If you major in nursing, get licensed, and work as a nurse for 2-3 years, you can then apply to PA programs (and/or NP programs. NPs do a lot of the same functions as PAs, and they make about the same amount).</p>
<p>The other alternative is to major in a science field (or anything else, and take the prereqs) but get certified as a volunteer EMT during your undergrad years and make sure you log those hours. Here at my graduate institution there is a volunteer EMT program - it takes one semester to get certified, so you have 7 semesters to try to get to at least 1,000 hours, which I think is doable.</p>
<p>If s/he gets a BSN, it would make far more sense to then continue on to become an RNP instead of becoming a PA. Some employers will help pay tuition for their nurses to become nurse practioners, making grad school far more affordable. RNPs can do everthing and more than a PA.</p>
<p>On the other hand, since mdgirl says she MAY be interested in becoming a PA, (and thus MAY prefer something other than direct medical care), she may want some type of science major that will allow her the prerequisites needed for a PA masters. That would keep her options open if, while doing those patient contact hours, she decides that she doesn’t want to do direct care. </p>
<p>Shadow a PA or two now, to get a better idea if that is what you want to do with your life.</p>