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Review of my first week of PA school

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 interviewed with and I loooved her. I now I'll definitely need her friendly face a few months from now when I'm questioning why I put myself through this experience. After that, we made sure we could log onto our blackboard and then we were done with day two.  Honestly, I was expecting our orientation to be a lot longer. Each day we were done in pretty much 2-3 hours. 

Week One
In terms of class schedule, we do have a lot less class time than I expected. It was incredibly nice having most of Wednesday off to adjust to being in a new area and allow for time to review! 

Monday: I decided I wanted to get to class a little early to get a seat in the front (if I'm in the back I get distracted). We had to be at class at 9:30 and I got there around 9:10 and already half the class was there #EveryOneIsATypeA

  • Anatomy: Neuro Intro to CNS 10am-12pm
    • Lots of info packed in here about brain circulation, brodmann's areas, ventricles, and more!
  • Lunch 12-1 pm
    • Our cafeteria is super nice. We have fridges for people to bring their lunches in and microwaves to heat them up! Our cafeteria also likes be "farm to table" as much as they can, which is a complete 180 from what undergrad was like. 
  • Anatomy: Neuron Cranial Nerves 1-2pm
    • All about those cranial nerves! Also shout out to @pa.skyler and @jamienicole_pa.s for their mnemonics!
    • For the order of cranial nerves: " oh, oh, oh to touch and feel very green vegetables and herbs"
    • To remember if they're sensory, motor, or both: "some say marry money but my brother says big brains matter most"
  • Meet your Mentor/Dinner 4:30-6:30pm
    • We met our bigs (second year students)! I can already tell having a big is going to be super helpful, especially when wondering how much to study for an exam or what to focus on. I've also been asking mine about all the cool coffee places nearby that I can study at!
The day felt longer than it actually was as I was trying to get back into the swing of things and sitting in class all day. I decided not to review the information given to me that day as I felt confident with it and wanted to hang out with some classmates instead.
Tuesday:
  • Anatomy: Neuro Spinal and PNS 12:30-3pm
    • Not my favorite part of neuroanatomy. I've found this video extremely helpful for spinal tract pathways! Check it out here 
The spinal tract pathways are really where my confusion hit. I stayed after class to review with some classmates and then we went to chipotle (much needed)!
Wednesday:
  • Physiology: Membrane & membrane potential 4-7 pm
    • The 4-7 time frame is going to be extremely hard for me as I ate two snacks and was still hungry! I bought a monbento box to bring all my snacks and pack my lunch and I loooove it. 
I had some errands to run in the morning, but spent the majority of the day in the library since I felt uncomfortable with the information presented the previous day. To be completely honest, I had not expected to feel so lost so fast and did not anticipate studying as much as I did on days 2 and 3. 
Thursday:
  • Anatomy Lab Neuroanatomy 11:15-12:15
    • We got to look at brains!! Although they were already prossected, it was still extremely helpful. 
  • Physiology: Graded Potential and Action Potential 4-7pm
Friday:
  • No class!
  • I decided to go home for the weekend and enjoy time with my family before school gets even more hectic. 
Although this week has been a whirlwind and I can already anticipate the long hours of studying I'll be doing in the upcoming weeks, I can definitely say that this program is where I belong. My classmates are all so accomplished and outgoing. I definitely have a lot to learn from all of them and I'm excited to share this journey with them.  As we were told on our first day of orientation, "The days will be long, but the years will be quick"

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