Physician Assistant Admissions

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
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<p>My D is a HS Soph and begining to think about college and her future career. She is interested in PA, so we began to look at schools that offer it and the procedures for becoming one. Unlike med school, there is huge variation in the programs. There are certificate, BS and MS degrees that all lead to PA certification. D definitely wants the whole college experience, so the certificate, which I believe is geared towards someone who has extensive EMT/Paramedic/RN/LPN type experience, is out. There are a few colleges that offer a BS degree in PA. Most are MS programs lasting between 1-2 years after the BS degree, or a 3-2 where the BS is awarded after the first year of the professional phase and the MS upon graduation. </p>

<p>How competitive is admissions to these programs? Some of the various school’s sites list acceptance rates as low as 10%. Some require the GRE, some nothing, some I think even MCAT. There is such a wide variety, can someone tell me what a typical accepted candidate is going to look like statistically? Is the acceptance rate low because people who think they have no chance of going to Med School apply here instead due to the lesser requirements for admission? Is it that there are just too few programs in existence to supply the demand? D is a very strong student and very dedicated, but I don’t want her pursuing an option that has very limited options for success unless she is fully aware up front. </p>

<p>Are there schools where the student can be accepted into the PA major upon admission and be guaranteed a spot if they maintain a specific GPA and meet prerquisites? Any help woudl be appreciated.</p>

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<p>I'm not sure about the specifics of getting into PA school, but in my very, very limited experience in dealing with PA students and practioners, your daughter should aim for a PA school that is affiliated with a medical school. The greater the numbers of affiliations (ie, there is a medical school, a pharmacy school, other allied health fields, nursing schools with nurse practioner programs, etc.) undoubtedly bode well for graduates of those programs. Again, in my very limited exposure to a PA from program that was not at a University affiliated medical center left me very underwhelmed. Meanwhile the PA's that are going through the program at my medical school are getting taught by the same profs who are teaching the medical students. They took the identicle anatomy course as we did, similar pharmacology, physiology, and so on. While the depth of the material might not have exactly the same it is damn close.</p>

<p>PA is a great field though, and the lifestyle is, as a future MD, very desirable. Increasingly, PA's are going into specialties and subspecialties which is undoubtedly a selling point for some people. I did a surgical rotation this summer in a rural town and the surgeon's PA loved her job and the fact that she didn't have to do ONLY general practice stuff.</p>

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<p>Do you know anything about PA school acceptance rates? Thanks!</p>