Step 1) Get a bachelor’s degree.
Years ago, you could get a bachelor’s degree in physician assistant studies and become a PA but nowadays you need to have a bachelor’s degree before applying to a program that is now masters level only. You can get any bachelor’s degree, but a bachelor of science will probably be most helpful as it will include the majority of pre-requisites courses needed to apply to most schools. Pre-requisites vary by school but most schools require a combination of:
Anatomy and Physiology – 8 credits
General biology with lab – 8 credits
Chemistry with lab – 8 credits
Organic Chemistry and/or Biochemistry – 3-4 credits
Microbiology with lab – 4 credits
Genetics – 3 credits
Statistics – 3 credits
Psychology – 3 credits
Medical terminology – 3 credits
Step 2) Shadow a PA
Some may ask, is this really necessary if I have direct patient care hours? My answer is yes. During interviews, even if it wasn’t required, they want to know that you have a strong understanding of what a PA does and how their role differs from the physician if any. Preferably, you should shadow a primary care PA at least, and shadow a second one in a specialty setting. I would recommend 25 hours of each.
Step 3) Get Direct Patient Care Experience
This is required for nearly every school as they want you to have a strong understanding of how healthcare works prior to going into a very intensive clinical program. The easiest way to get these hours I’ve found was getting a job at a physical therapy clinic as an aide, shadowing, and volunteering to assist during a clinical research study. Although this experience counts as direct patient care hours, the most common forms of getting hours is usually getting a job that requires training that can be done in as little as 6 weeks such as becoming a CNA, EKG tech, phlebotomist or EMT. Some of the highest quality experience going into PA school however, comes from people that previously had to make clinical decisions in their prior roles such as paramedics, athletic trainers, and respiratory therapists. Medical scibes and nurses also learn and master invaluable skills that will inevitably transfer towards being a PA.
Step 4) Get letters of recommendation
During your schooling, shadowing and other forms of direct patient care experience, networking and finding someone to learn from will be pivotal once you need letters of recommendation and references for your admission process. It is best to be proactive and to think ahead on who you might ask once you start applying rather than scrambling to find someone you may not have worked with or seen in months by the time your application cycle rolls around. You will most likely need 3 letters, however, I would plan on asking at least 5 people to be safe. I would recommend having at least one professor that knows you well, a former supervisor from a job, and at least one PA and a MD/DO if possible. Make sure you ask people far ahead of time and if you are leaving a class or a job and plan on asking that person later on, check in with them before you leave school or that job so they know to expect to be contacted later on.
Step 5) Take GRE
Most schools will require you to take the GRE. DON’T worry too much about this. I haven’t come across any schools that put much weight on their admission decision from GRE scores. This is just a way to have a bit of standardization to make sure there aren’t any large gaps in your reading or writing skills. If your score is at or above the 50th percentile, I wouldn’t worry or focus too much on the GRE. It’s just a checkmark they look for and move on in most cases.
Step 6) Apply on CASPA
If you ever filled out a common application to get into colleges, CASPA is essentially the same thing that almost all PA schools use to process their applications for admission. It stands for “The Central Application Service for Physician Assistants” and can be found at https://caspa.liaisoncas.com. Once you have all of your grades posted, transcripts and letters of recommendation sent in, allow for another 4-6 weeks for your application to be “verified” by CASPA that everything you submitted matches what’s on your official transcripts. Realistically this usually took about 2 weeks for most people barring any discrepancies. Each cycle opens and closes in mid to late April. You need to apply EARLY. Each “cycle” is for admission the following year. Although there are some January start programs, most programs start in the fall where they begin interviewing a whole year ahead of time. For example, for a cycle that opened in April, I finished up my last class by June, got the final application submitted and verified by CASPA in July to be invited for a September interview to start the following August.
Step 7) Interview Process
If and when you are selected for an interview, I would recommend taking the earliest date possible as schools utilize rolling admissions and seats fill up fast. My most importance advice regarding admissions is this: if you got an interview, you’re already good enough to get in so be confident. They can sense you being nervous and fake from a mile away so just be yourself and be honest on why you want to be a PA. Look on https://www.physicianassistantforum.com/forum/327-physician-assistant-schools/ to get as much information regarding the school you are interviewing for’s process. Some interviews will be very relaxed, and just want to know what you do in your free time to relieve stress. They do this because your grades already show that you’re smart enough, but they want to know you have the support and other outlets to handle the stress of such an intense program. Other programs will have multiple mini-interviews, or MMIs to decide on their admission process. They are difficult to prepare for but for the most part just want to see how you can talk through ethical dilemmas and the non-medical side of being a PA.
Step 8) Pick a school
Most pre-PA students say “oh, I don’t care, I’ll just be happy to get in somewhere”. Once you have a few different schools to choose from after being accepted your tune very well might change. Most schools will require a decision within 2 weeks with a non-refundable deposit. The first school that accepts you, just pay the stinking deposit, and if you sacrifice the $500 after getting accepted to your dream school later on so be it. You shouldn’t apply to a school you wouldn’t actually attend in the first place. Some factors to think about when deciding on schools are location, length of the program, number and availability of elective rotation, previous PANCE pass rates, cadaver anatomy vs. virtual, and cost. A program that cost twice as much is still going to get you the same degree and relatively the same starting salary as the less expensive one so in my opinion, cost and location were the biggest deciding factors for me. Getting accepted anywhere is a huge accomplishment and there really isn’t a bad PA school out there thanks to PAEAs rigorous accreditation process so rest easy knowing you’re going to get a great education no matter which school you choose.