PA Fanatic

Hi everyone! It seems like only yesterday I was applying to CASPA and waiting for an interview; I can hardly believe I'm writing this post right now! This past Monday I took my last final and officially finished my first term of PA school! I always wondered what it was like to be a PA student so hopefully this post will give you some insight! For our first term of didactic year, we take physiology lecture, anatomy lecture, anatomy lab, and a medical terminology self-taught course (which was part of our physiology grade). I think we were definitely eased into PA school, which is something I really liked about my program. For those of us who had just finished undergrad, we were able to have more of a summer and for those who had been out of school for a while, had a chance to ease back into study mode. We were also able to really focus on anatomy, something I found to be very important since I know many of my future classes will build on the information I learned in this course...

Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your July 4th weekend (I had an exam July 5th @ 7:30 am so I had to study for part of it).  I am super thrilled to be sharing a guest post today from one of my friends, Shelby! Shelby took a few years off between undergrad and starting PA school. So, she has all the amazing advice about how to get amazing  DPC  hours and how she was able to improve her application! She would be an amazing resource if you're considering getting a masters, doing a post  bacc  before starting PA school, or gaining tons of  DPC  hours in short period of time! Everyone’s journey towards Physician Assistant (PA) school is unique. I am definitely a non-traditional student. It has taken me longer than I expected to get to where I wanted to be when I first started my path. Although, I would like to share with you how I never gave up. I only applied once and will be starting PA school January 2018. I hope this gives you hope toward...

I officially survived week one of pa school!! As a pre-pa student and a pa applicant, I was always curious to see what PA school was like and I hope that over the next year, I can provide prospective students with an idea of what is it like! To do this, I'm going to review weeks of school that I found to be important.  Orientation Week Our orientation seemed a lot less intense than other programs. We started orientation at 12:45 where we first picked up our student IDs! We were offered some cookies and other refreshments before sitting in the auditorium where we will have all our summer lectures. Each faculty introduced themselves along with other members of the student resources team.  The following day, the director of the program introduced herself (she was at the other campus on the first day of orientation) and went over the student handbook with us. Then we met with our advisors and the other advisees in our group. My advisor was actually one of the women I i...

Dear CASPA Applicant,       I know how much of your time has been consumed with the application process. I know how hard it has been to gather all your LORs, keep track of all your volunteering hours, and edit your personal statement. I know how expensive this process can be (when I looked into my "cart" of programs I had added to my CASPA I nearly screamed). But, I also know how badly you want this, and not just for yourself. I know you want to become a health care provider to provide care to those who in need; to give any family their mother, daughter, son, or father back. I know, I get it.       I know how difficult it is to juggle all of this on top of your normal every day life, whether that's being a parent, being a student, or being an employee. Trust me, there were many a times when I thought, "I can't handle this now, maybe I'll just try next year" (there is nothing wrong with a gap year, but I myself had not wanted to take one and in this ...

Hi guys! I've been getting a lot of emails and Instagram DMs recently about a lot of pre-pa questions so I thought it might be helpful create an FAQ! Where did you go to undergrad? What was your major? Drexel University in Philadelphia! I graduated with a bachelors in health sciences. Where are you going to PA school? Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) Philadelphia Campus! Did you consider other career paths in medicine? YES. There are so many amazing jobs in health care that its so hard to chose one. I originally entered Drexel in an accelerated BS/DPT program for physical therapy, but after gaining more exposure, I thought that becoming a PA or physician would be a better suited career for me. I shadowed both a doctor and a PA, and after learning about the lateral mobility that PAs have, I was sold. What did you do to get your patient care experience? Since I was originally on a PT path, that was where all my experience was so I worked as a PT aide in...