My journey to PA school

From the service industry to ultrasound to physician assistant (PA), it's been a twisty road.

In 2016, I attended an information session for the University of Washington's MEDEX Northwest PA program. At the time, I had been a sonographer for a year and the expected patient hours to attend were daunting. Years later, spurred by pandemic, I did some soul searching and realized that ultrasound was not going to provide the opportunities for growth that I was looking for. By then, I had over 10,000 hours of patient care experience.

In planning to apply to PA school, I had to take higher-level science classes like biochemistry and retake a few basic sciences that were older, from prior to ultrasound school. Navigating school while working, all during the pandemic, was wild. After researching a lot of the online options, I decided to take my classes through UC San Diego Extension. I had to take an anatomy and physiology class and lab that included a pig dissection. During the pandemic, with no schools or labs open, they MAILED me a pig and we did dissections at home. It was ridiculous, but we made it. I applied to PA school in 2021, interviewed at MEDEX in October 2021, and started classes in June 2022. I was fortunate to know some vascular surgery PAs and met a palliative care PA to shadow. I also chatted with a psych PA, neurosurgery PA, and IR PA about the field.

Readers will probably ask what my stats were, because that's what everyone wants to know. I'll share them below but I'm going to harp with the rest of the world that you are more than your stats. Having empathy, leadership skills, a sense of humor, grit, and self-awareness is so much more important than a GPA and list of accomplishments.

Click here for CASPA stats

Are you trying to get into PA school?

My number one advice is to get more high-quality patient care experience. I may be old school, but PA education was designed for people switching careers and exiting the military and I think that extensive life and medical experience is the cornerstone of being a successful PA student and PA.

There is a very active pre-pa facebook group called The Pre-PA Club, join here. Read through the posts there to learn more about CASPA, interviews, grade and PCE requirements and all that.

I'm going to write more in-depth posts about getting into and surviving PA school in the future.

Post any questions in the comments below!