Physician's Assistant Admissions

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

<p>After posting this under careers in medicine, maybe it belongs here instead.</p>

<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 would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>i was considering being a PA myself, but i decided on going pre-med, im from michigan so ive mainly looked at instate schools. I know that wayne state university has a guarenteed admission to their PA program. its called health pro start and it might have scholarships attached to it. If your daughter does ever consider premed, they also have a guarenteed med school admission/full scholarship through a program called med start.</p>

<p><a href="http://honors.wayne.edu/healthprostart.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://honors.wayne.edu/healthprostart.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>many colleges also offer a pre-health as a major, for students intending to pursue graduate studies in programs such as PA, etc. I work as a CNA so i am familiar with the medical professions, and another career she might also consider is a nurse practitioner, their work is very similar to that of a PA
i hope this helped some sarah</p>