<p>I got accepted to Seton Hall, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and Rutgers University in New Brunswick. I would do the dual degree program at Seton Hall and at USP and Rutgers they are associated with a medical school. Which school has the best rep for a PA or pre-PA program?</p>
<p>ITT Tech trumps them all.</p>
<p>US News and World Report ranked them, but it’s was about 5 years ago. I think somone posted the rankings on this board, under the graduate school section. Personally, I’d choose the campus you like most. No matter where the degree comes from, you’ll have plenty of job opportunities.</p>
<p>Not sure if all schools have a P.A. program but I know RIT has an accredited program where your professional/clinical time is done during years 3 and 4 of undergrad Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistant degree. Kids I know who did PA, went to grad school AFTER completing their BA in Bio or some related major. Seems it would make sense to finish it in 4 years if possible (less tuition and time).</p>
<p>Univ of New England has a post bachelors PA program.</p>
<p>Im not sure which school has the best rep per say, but I am actually a student in the PA program at usp and i can give my opinion. We are a very VERY close knit group of students in this major (about 25 per year). It is a 3+2 year bachelors/masters in physician assistance science program with the last 2 years being completed at the Philadelphia college of osteopathic medicine (pcom) about 10 minutes away. the program is NOT continuous though, you do have to reapply to pcom in your second year, but as long as you do all the completed work and keep up a reasonable GPA you should be fine.
Now you have to look at other things considering schools too…do you want to attend a small school with a close knit group of students or a very large school where you may have a few more opportunities. Because usp is a SCIENCE school, all the students in every major take the same courses so no one is ever left out. Where as if you go to a bigger school you may be surrounded by students who are education and communication majors and there is a potential that you may be discouraged from studying as much as you should be. the professors here are really great and they all understand how much work we have to put in for our degrees.
any other questions let me know! i could talk for hours about this!</p>
<p>To become a P.A should you major in BIO and then apply to a P.A program or just major in P.A studies for 4 yrs?? Im really confused</p>
<p>Yes. The best PA programs are like Med School Lite. Its a graduate program essentially.</p>
<p>Wake Forest University. Top drawer. Elite.</p>
<p>There are two routes for becoming a P.A. with a masters degree. I don’t know how desirable a bachelors degree would be in this field.</p>
<p>Nicole, who seems to have disappeared from the discussion, mentioned 3 schools. I believe one is a 3/2, one is a 3/3, and Rutgers is a 4/3 traditional program.</p>
<p>My son chose a 3/2 program, just like Phillagirl. At the end of 5 years, he will have his masters degree in physician assistant studies. He has a guaranteed spot for all 5 years, as long as he maintains a 3.0 GPA. Seton Hall’s has the guarantee, but it’s a longer program and you graduate with the same degree. There are at least 20 schools offering the 3/2 program now, with most being schools in Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>The traditional route is a regular bachelors degree, followed by a separate masters program. The biggest drawback to this route is that most of the schools require you to have 1-3 years of direct patient contact before beginning their masters program. This means that most students will take at least 8-10 years to obtain a P.A. degree. This program is offered at close to 200 schools nationwide, and yes, many of these are well-known schools. </p>
<p>So anyone considering becoming a P.A. must decide how committed they are to that goal and how much prestige matters in choosing a school.</p>
<p>Hi I also have a question for Phillagirl. If you don’t mind answering my question because I have too applied for the PA program at USP and am going to apply for the program at Rutgers also. USP was always my first choice until i started doing more and more research on the school. I found information on how the school focuses too much on academics and there is a high retention rate. I wanted to know how true this really was. I am a smart student and I am really dedicated into becoming a Physician Assistant, however I am scared that if i decide to go to USP that the course load will overwhelm me. I also heard that it is a five year program, however a lot of students end up staying an extra year because they cannot finishes their classes in the amount of time. I also have a question about how many students on average from USP get accepted to finish the program at PCOM.</p>
<p>The way i see it, no matter where you decide to go it is going to be a rigorous program requiring a lot of dedication and hard work. Physician Assistants learn 80% of what you would learn in med school, but only in half the time so there is going to be a big course load heavy in science no matter what the school. I really do not know anything about the program at Rutgers so im sorry i cant give my opinion too much on that. USP is a really great school but keep in mind that it is very small and there are no other majors besides those relating to the sciences to fall back on. The retention rate is average when you compare us to any other small school and i think that you may be confused on what 5 year program means. Take a look at some of the other posts, 5 years means 3 years at usp, and 2 at pcom. Yes it is true that some students choose to stay a 4th year at usp, but that path is generally for students who are also interested in applying to other PA schools or even med school. Generally about 75% of the students who apply to pcom after 3 years make it, and the ones who dont, it is usually because of a maturity problem.
You can PM me if you want to talk more in depth about it.</p>
<p>I am very interested in becoming a Physician Assistant and I have read your conversation about the 3/2, 3/3, and the 4/3 programs but I’m a little confused. I was wondering if any of you could give me some advice as in where to start. I am at Lanier Technical college right now, and I’m in thier CNA(Certified Nursing Assistant) program, so I have a little education in the medical field, but not a lot.</p>
<p>Can someone tell me what the difference is between a PA and Surgical PA (SPA)…besides the obvious…it sounds like the second one prepares to assist surgeons during surgery. But is that the main difference?</p>
<p>I wanted to ask phillagirl, I’m a transfer student coming into the PA studies programs in the Fall '10 and I’m concerned about getting into the Professional years at PCOM. Is it something to be concerned about? Should I be looking into other PA schools too?</p>