PA school is generally a 2-3 year program. Cool, right? In a short amount of time you can be a practicing provider! But have you realized and accounted for all the pre-requisites you need to take?
I think this question is especially relevant for people like me -- working adults who didn't decide they wanted to pursue this dream until after their college education was complete. In my last post, I talked about how I started as a copywriter and then went back to become a registered dietitian. Luckily, my dietetics education included a lot of science courses, which meant I already had a good number of pre-requisite courses checked off my list. But I still had plenty of classes I needed to get done.
Here's how I figured out what I needed to do (and, importantly, how I needed to make some big adjustments in my life to get it all done).
I also made notes about any other requirements. For example, some schools require certain courses (like A&P) to be within a certain time period of applying. Some schools also allow you to have a certain number of courses in progress at the time you apply. Additionally, some schools require you to take the GRE, so I made note of that, too.
Now, keep in mind that I was working full-time as a dietitian. So, I could only take so many classes at a time, and even though my job was somewhat flexible, I needed to select classes around my work schedule. So, that takes us to step three...
Winter 2018: Personality Psych (online)
Spring 2018: A&P I (took late afternoon classes and adjusted my work schedule); Biochemistry (online, which was a terrible decision and a real struggle)
Summer 2018: Medical Chemistry II (online)
Fall 2018: A&P II; Zoology with Lab
For the sake of my sanity, I tried to take all of these courses through the same university, and was able to do that for everything except the medical chemistry course. Also, I was allowed to have two courses incomplete when I applied to some schools, so it's important to note that I applied right after the completion of my summer course and my fall ones were incomplete. This is tricky because generally you should try to apply at the beginning of the CASPA application cycle because lots of schools have rolling admissions!
But back to the pre-reqs. While I was lucky enough to be able to adjust my work schedule early on, the class times for my Fall 2018 classes weren't as well-timed, and unfortunately I had to go down to part-time at my job in order to make it work. I picked up a second part-time job that I could work nights and weekends to try and recoup some of the lost income.
You have to really know you want this because you are probably going to have to make some significant adjustments to your life well before PA school even starts.
I think that was a hard pill for me to swallow. Here I was, letting go of my full-time status at a job so I could take classes and be able to apply to PA school. There was no guarantee I would get in. That's scary.
But I had done my research. I knew this is what I wanted for my life. Yes, it meant going back to school yet again and living like a poor college kid yet again, but I felt like PA was the logical next step for me. And if I had to make sacrifices along the way, I was willing to do that.
If you have questions about my process for tackling my pre-reqs, leave a comment below. :)
Be well,
Olivia
I think this question is especially relevant for people like me -- working adults who didn't decide they wanted to pursue this dream until after their college education was complete. In my last post, I talked about how I started as a copywriter and then went back to become a registered dietitian. Luckily, my dietetics education included a lot of science courses, which meant I already had a good number of pre-requisite courses checked off my list. But I still had plenty of classes I needed to get done.
A&P lab... brains, anyone?
Here's how I figured out what I needed to do (and, importantly, how I needed to make some big adjustments in my life to get it all done).
1. Make a list of your top schools and get their list of pre-reqs.
What's super annoying as a pre-PA is that every school has a different list of pre-reqs you need to complete in order to apply. Like, they can be wildly different school to school. How did I choose my schools? Well, I had an initial goal of staying local. If I didn't get into a school in my state the first round I applied, I decided I'd cast a wider net the second round. So I made my list of schools, found the pre-reqs, and moved on to step two...2. Create a big spreadsheet to keep it all straight.
I put together a Google spreadsheet to try and figure out how I was going to tackle all this. I've included an image that's an example of how I laid everything out. The first column was all the classes I've taken that I figured I might need. Then, each potential school got two columns; first, what their pre-reqs were and second, what I would need to take to meet them. I organized the courses by row and grouped them together by topic (ie., all the chemistry together).I also made notes about any other requirements. For example, some schools require certain courses (like A&P) to be within a certain time period of applying. Some schools also allow you to have a certain number of courses in progress at the time you apply. Additionally, some schools require you to take the GRE, so I made note of that, too.
Now, keep in mind that I was working full-time as a dietitian. So, I could only take so many classes at a time, and even though my job was somewhat flexible, I needed to select classes around my work schedule. So, that takes us to step three...
3. Figure out what classes to take and get crackin'!
It was pretty clear that the school required me to take 5-7 additional classes wasn't going to be an option, so I looked at my more attainable schools and started planning out my courses.Winter 2018: Personality Psych (online)
Spring 2018: A&P I (took late afternoon classes and adjusted my work schedule); Biochemistry (online, which was a terrible decision and a real struggle)
Summer 2018: Medical Chemistry II (online)
Fall 2018: A&P II; Zoology with Lab
For the sake of my sanity, I tried to take all of these courses through the same university, and was able to do that for everything except the medical chemistry course. Also, I was allowed to have two courses incomplete when I applied to some schools, so it's important to note that I applied right after the completion of my summer course and my fall ones were incomplete. This is tricky because generally you should try to apply at the beginning of the CASPA application cycle because lots of schools have rolling admissions!
But back to the pre-reqs. While I was lucky enough to be able to adjust my work schedule early on, the class times for my Fall 2018 classes weren't as well-timed, and unfortunately I had to go down to part-time at my job in order to make it work. I picked up a second part-time job that I could work nights and weekends to try and recoup some of the lost income.
You have to really know you want this because you are probably going to have to make some significant adjustments to your life well before PA school even starts.
I think that was a hard pill for me to swallow. Here I was, letting go of my full-time status at a job so I could take classes and be able to apply to PA school. There was no guarantee I would get in. That's scary.
But I had done my research. I knew this is what I wanted for my life. Yes, it meant going back to school yet again and living like a poor college kid yet again, but I felt like PA was the logical next step for me. And if I had to make sacrifices along the way, I was willing to do that.
If you have questions about my process for tackling my pre-reqs, leave a comment below. :)
Be well,
Olivia
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