Getting in is only half of it. You also have to make sure the program is actually right for you.

I know it feels backwards to be picky when all you want is an acceptance anywhere. But you're about to spend two to three years and a lot of money somewhere, so it's worth being intentional about where you apply.

Here's what I'd look at if I were building my program list today.

What I cover:

• Accreditation status and why provisional isn't automatically a red flag
• PANCE pass rates and how to read them honestly
• Total cost of attendance versus the tuition number on the website
• Class size, curriculum format, and how rotations are set up
• Location, cost of living, and the support system you'll have nearby
• How a program's mission shapes who they actually accept

Resources:

PA Program Map to compare programs and requirements: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Build your program list with me one-on-one: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys.

Today we are talking about how to choose the right PA program.

And this is a big decision.

This is where you'll be spending the next few years.

This is who's going to be teaching you about your future career, making connections for when you're trying to find a job as a PA and also who you're going to be giving a lot of money to.

So you want to make sure that you're going to have the best experience possible.

I think sometimes with applying to PA school, the process is so grueling and intense and.

And demanding that people tend to get kind of desperate.

And it's understandable.

You just want to get in.

You want a program to just give you that acceptance, but at the same time, you've got to remember that they're not just picking you, you're picking this program, too.

So if you're wondering, how do I actually pick a school to go to?

How do I know if this is a good fit for me?

How do I know if I'm choosing the wrong program?

Those are the things I want to try to help you decipher today.

And only you can make this decision.

And that's ultimately what it comes down to.

I have a lot of people that I work with doing mock interviews that will come back to me later and say, savannah, I was accepted to both of these programs.

I loved my experience at both of them.

One of them's in New York, and one of them is in California.

And this one has a cadaver lab, but this one, everyone was so nice.

And at the end of the day, you have to do some soul searching and figure out where you're going to be happy.

You don't want to end up somewhere where you're going to be miserable for two or three years, where you're going to be sad.

It's already hard enough in PA school without the added pressures of being unhappy.

So just something before we get into some of these more practical things to keep in mind.

And at the end of the day, if you go to PA school, you'll be a pa.

So just don't.

I don't want to say don't put too much weight on this decision, but also just know that if you're choosing somewhere because of location and it's closer to your family because you'll be happier, but you feel like maybe you didn't get as much of a feel about their education and what they would offer.

That's okay because you need to be able to have a support system that's going to help get you through school.

But anyways.

All right, let's talk about some of the things to look at when you are evaluating programs and trying to decide if they would be a good fit for you.

So, number one, look at their accreditation status.

And this gets a little bit complicated.

Traditionally, a program that's been around forever and has never had any problems is just accredited.

And so you shouldn't have any issue with applying to these programs.

It shouldn't make you nervous.

They've done what they need to do.

They've maintained the standards that something called the ARC pa, who decides whether or not a program is accredited, puts in place.

And so don't be worried about applying to school that is considered accredited.

Then we get into some other classifications.

Provisional programs mean that the school is somewhat new and they have applied for accreditation and that the ARCPA has given them kind of a go ahead with a little bit of reservation.

So they've said, we think you're on the right track.

We're probably going to accreditate you within the next few years.

You can go ahead and accept students, you can go ahead and get your program going.

And we'll be watching closely to make sure that you're doing what you need to do.

And so we'll talk more about provisional episode or provisional programs in another episode.

But in my mind, if it's provisional, go for it.

If it's something, a location that you like, you like the school.

Maybe go into the interview with a little bit more reservations about seeing if it seems like they have all their stuff together.

But provisional programs typically are fine.

Then there are schools that are on probation.

These are a little bit more iffy, but you have to look at why the school is on probation.

It's sometimes just something that's very small and administrative and not doesn't say anything about their education or what they are able to do for their students.

It can be a paperwork issue or just something that's not a big deal.

On the flip side, it can be something that's a big deal if they're not managing their finances correctly or not offering what the ARC PA has set as the standards for all PA programs.

So you want to be cautious with these programs, but ask them why they're on probation.

They should be very honest about that.

They should have a very good reason for why they were put on probation and what they're doing to get off of probation.

So you want to just check that before you apply.

Because if you feel very strongly that you don't want to apply to any provisional or probational programs, then you want to know that ahead of time.

And let's say that you've set a budget for yourself of $1,000 for applying, and you may prefer to apply to a program that's accredited over a program that's on probation just to avoid that risk.

And same thing with a provisional program.

There is a very small risk that you may get accepted.

And then later on down the line, if they don't get their accreditation, you.

You may not be starting school that year.

And that can be very disheartening.

So just things to take into consideration when you're making your list of programs.

Another thing to look at is the location.

And I touched on this at the beginning, but to me, this is the most important thing, because if you are in a geographical, physical location that you are not happy in, then you will have a terrible experience in PA school because you'll be wishing you're at home.

You'll not want to get involved in your community, and it probably will make others around you unhappy as well.

So think about location.

Do you want to be close to home?

Do you not want to be close to home?

Do you want to be on a location that's more kind of a college town, like with an undergraduate campus and football?

Or do you want to be somewhere in a big city or a small rural area?

It's not a bad idea to think about also where you want to practice after PA school.

And you may not know this yet, and that's okay.

But if you know that you want to work in a big city later on, then it's probably worth working in a big city as a student and doing your clinicals in a big city so that you're getting that type of experience in, in the environment you want to be in.

Personally, I hate traffic and I do not want to live in a big city.

I love walking around in big cities, but I could not stand driving in and out of, let's say, Atlanta every single day.

That's just not for me.

And so cost of living also plays into that, because a big city or.

Or a town that's more expensive means that you're going to have higher loans, too.

So that's just something to think about when you go to your interviews.

Make sure if you are unfamiliar with the area, that you take some time to really explore See what they have to offer.

Definitely ask current students about what the program offers and what the location is like, and if they are happy, if they enjoy the area, if they feel like it's a safe area.

And that should help to direct your decision a little bit.

Another thing is the pants rates, and I have mixed feelings about pants rates.

I'll talk about pants again in another episode.

But the PANTS is the National Boards for PA school.

So once you finish your PA program, you'll have to take boards and you have to pass to be a practicing pa. That's basically one of the only kind of national requirements to be a pa. Everything else is on the state level.

So no matter where you go, the program's gonna be difficult.

The school part of it is going to be hard.

And a lot of that comes from it just being a ton of material that you're trying to learn very, very quickly.

But schools are required to post their pants rates.

Provisional programs are not going to have these rates posted because no one has taken the pants yet.

But you want to look at it.

If it's extremely low, you may want to question that.

But there are a lot of factors that go into pants as far as how many students took it, if all the students took it, if they all took it at a certain point, and some that maybe didn't pass a test, that some schools require to take the pants if they had to wait longer.

So those can be skewed a little bit, but.

But typically, the closer to 100%, the better.

And so just something to look at so that you're making sure you're checking all your boxes.

Another thing is to look at the mission of the program.

And to be honest, a lot of programs have very similar missions.

And you'll find that when you start looking at them.

And that's because of the arcpa, they have requirements as far as far as what the programs need to focus on and include in their mission and their goals.

And so that's why they're similar.

But there are some differences.

There's some schools that focus more on research, and if that's something you're interested in, you may want that to be a focus.

My program had somewhat of a focus on teaching and kind of the administrative side of PA school.

And one of our clinical rotations that we were required to do was as a teaching assistant.

So we actually spent a month at the school and we helped with classes, did lectures.

We also had to write a master's paper during that time and try to get it accepted to be published in a medical journal.

So it was kind of a little bit looking at the writing side of things and also the teaching side of things.

And I loved it.

That was one of my favorite rotations because it was really cool to be on the other side of things and helping the students and learning about everything that goes into making a PA program run.

Some schools have a focus on public health and may even offer a joint public health program with their PA program.

So if that's something you're interested in, if you have a background in that already or you would like that extra master's, you may want to look into that.

Most programs will have some type of outreach or volunteer opportunities, usually in a rural setting or kind of an underserved area.

Our program had a PA run clinic, and we would go downtown once a month and set up a clinic and just do screenings.

Basically, if there was anything we found that needed more attention, we would refer them and get them seen.

We always had PAs with us there.

So ask about that and see if they have opportunities for you actually get out in the community and help and practice your medical skills that you're learning other things.

And something that's become kind of a big deal for a lot of schools is international experiences, especially on rotations.

I'm finding more and more programs are offering this, and it's almost becoming a standard that a lot of people do want to have some type of opportunity to go abroad and do medicine and see what is out there from a global standpoint.

And I do think it helps to give you a cultural background.

If you've been following me on Instagram for a while, you've probably seen that I love medical missions.

I went to Kenya in January and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

So I can't wait to go back.

And I just.

I love learning about patients in different areas and really just that reminder that patients are the same no matter where you are in the world.

So I'm a big proponent of medical missions in my program.

When I was there, they had just started a rotation to Peru for the Women's Health rotation.

I did not get to participate, but I did actually do a mission trip to the Dominican Republic as part of one of my rotations.

They let me do that.

So there's all different opportunities.

And I've seen PA programs go basically all over the world.

So that's something to look at and just see if that's something that may interest you.

Another thing is the finances.

Look at the cost of the program.

That can make Such a difference because typically the common applicant is going to have to take out loans.

I took out loans.

I would say the majority of my class took out loans.

It's just something you have to do unless maybe you have a working spouse or a great college fund or really nice parents.

My parents helped me out a little bit, so they, they did what they could.

But at that point, I mean it was my master's.

It, I needed to pay for it, so I took out loans.

What it comes down to is you have to look at the cost of the program.

So my program was a state funded program and that meant as an in state resident, my tuition was significantly lower than if I went to a private program.

And so I was deciding between two schools and the private school I was looking at just the tuition alone was.

Have been about four times what I paid going to a public institution.

And so that was, I mean I was pretty much set at that point.

But also the cost of living was lower at the state school at Augusta University and in the private school it was in a bigger city with a higher cost of living.

And so you have to look at those factors.

That being said, if you are very passionate about a particular program and it's going to cost a little bit more, that's fine.

You just know that you'll have a little bit more loans and if you're okay with that and that's not going to get you down or depress you, then that's fine.

I didn't even look at my loans until the end of school and interest rates are very impressive in a bad way.

And it's amazing how much interest your loans get just sitting there.

So they can be disheartening, but you'll pay them back, don't worry.

We'll talk about that in another episode too.

I have so many episodes to bring you guys.

So at the end of the day, you've got to be passionate about where you want to go.

You've got to go to the interview, fall in love with the school and really feel like it is going to be the best place for you to be, the best education that you're going to get and that it's just a good fit.

And we say that a lot with PA school, but it's got to fit both ways.

They've got to see you as somebody who's great for their program and you've got to see yourself as somebody who is going to be a great member of their class.

And that's what you want to show them in the interview.

As well.

So other small things to think about their facilities, what they have to offer as far as is there a gym, is there a cadaver lab, what's the size of the program, what's the faculty to student ratio, is there a library, are there resources for if you are struggling, what do you do if you are having difficulty with a particular subject and just kind of think about as a whole what your experience is going to be like at that program and if it's something that you're going to be happy doing and that's what it comes down to, are you going to be happy there?

And so I hope this has directed you a little bit.

As a practical tip, I always recommend making a list of programs and if you go on my website or the Pre PA Club Facebook group, we have some files in there that some of our members have created that are awesome as far as keeping track of your programs that you're interested in.

It's very comprehensive.

So if you are in the first stages of planning out where you want to go and working on that list, they actually have worksheets in there where you can make a list.

I would definitely recommend that and I'll link to all these things in the show, notes in the description.

So I also link to some blog posts about choosing PA programs and you can always check out the program spotlights on the PA platform.com Gosh, so many words that start with P. I can't handle it.

But that's all I've got for you today and I hope you enjoyed this episode.

If you did, I would love if you could give me a five star review or let me know in your review what you want to hear about next.

So I'm planning out these episodes and I want to make sure that we're covering all the topics you have questions about and making sure those answers or those questions get answered.

Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next Friday.