Prequisites for Physician Assistant Programs: Community College, or University?
November 15, 2010 5:44 PM Subscribe
Prequisites for Physician Assistant Programs: Community College, or University?
Asking for my fiance. As a person from a fine & liberal arts background with a growing interest in health care, he is seriously considering entering a graduate program in physician assistant studies. This means, of course, that he needs to complete prerequisites.
Our question: is there a strong universal preference for post-baccalaureate coursework completed in universities over those completed in a community college? Does this vary from program to program? Community college would be a lot easier for us to budget for financially, but if university classes are the way to go, that would be good to know.
He's already looking into doing all the other good preparatory things, like studying for the GRE and getting some direct care work/volunteer experience in a clinical setting. Any other tips you can give regarding the post-bac process for field changers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
(I tried searching prior and recent PA-related questions, and while they contained a great deal of good information, I didn't see an exact match for this particular question..sorry if I missed an earlier answer.)
Asking for my fiance. As a person from a fine & liberal arts background with a growing interest in health care, he is seriously considering entering a graduate program in physician assistant studies. This means, of course, that he needs to complete prerequisites.
Our question: is there a strong universal preference for post-baccalaureate coursework completed in universities over those completed in a community college? Does this vary from program to program? Community college would be a lot easier for us to budget for financially, but if university classes are the way to go, that would be good to know.
He's already looking into doing all the other good preparatory things, like studying for the GRE and getting some direct care work/volunteer experience in a clinical setting. Any other tips you can give regarding the post-bac process for field changers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
(I tried searching prior and recent PA-related questions, and while they contained a great deal of good information, I didn't see an exact match for this particular question..sorry if I missed an earlier answer.)
Where is he thinking of applying? He should call the admissions offices at these places and ask what they think. They're the ones who matter.
posted by mskyle at 6:01 AM on November 16, 2010
posted by mskyle at 6:01 AM on November 16, 2010
"Forget about community college; there's no way that'll fly."
What do you mean by that? For the prereqs? Or for programs?
posted by artlung at 9:14 AM on November 16, 2010
What do you mean by that? For the prereqs? Or for programs?
posted by artlung at 9:14 AM on November 16, 2010
Forget about community college; there's no way that'll fly
That directly contradicts what the director of admissions at AT Stills told me a few weeks ago. He said that having gone to a marquee school may help a little bit, but they're more concerned with your raw numbers (GPA, experience hours, volunteer hours, possibly GRE score). He said they don't care about community college vs university, except that an admittance committee knows which classes locally are particularly easy or tough. If you get your prereqs done by finding the easiest professors and then apply to schools in your own state, you may have trouble. He said that schools on the other side of the country will have no idea. They'll just care that you got your prereqs done and got good grade in them.
The thing about PA schools is that their admissions very widely from school to school. You need to be contacting the schools you're thinking about and asking them directly. The other thing about PA schools is that they're swamped with applications right now. AT Stills got 2500 applications last year for 68 seats! Getting accepted is going to be random right now, there are gobs of qualified people who aren't getting in because there just aren't enough seats available.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:26 AM on November 16, 2010
That directly contradicts what the director of admissions at AT Stills told me a few weeks ago. He said that having gone to a marquee school may help a little bit, but they're more concerned with your raw numbers (GPA, experience hours, volunteer hours, possibly GRE score). He said they don't care about community college vs university, except that an admittance committee knows which classes locally are particularly easy or tough. If you get your prereqs done by finding the easiest professors and then apply to schools in your own state, you may have trouble. He said that schools on the other side of the country will have no idea. They'll just care that you got your prereqs done and got good grade in them.
The thing about PA schools is that their admissions very widely from school to school. You need to be contacting the schools you're thinking about and asking them directly. The other thing about PA schools is that they're swamped with applications right now. AT Stills got 2500 applications last year for 68 seats! Getting accepted is going to be random right now, there are gobs of qualified people who aren't getting in because there just aren't enough seats available.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:26 AM on November 16, 2010
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Physician assistant programs are exceptionally competitive – think of it as applying to medical school. My Ivy League, 3.9 GPA, long list of health-related extracurricular activities, ethnic minority friend only got into a program after being waitlisted (and she applied to literally every good program that didn't require healthcare experience), and probably partly thanks to the fact that it's closely affiliated with her undergraduate institution.
Is your fiancé currently working in healthcare? Most programs require at least a year of full-time paid experience in a healthcare setting and won't even consider applications without it. Volunteer gigs don't count.
posted by halogen at 6:33 PM on November 15, 2010