Online PA school is real, and people have a lot of opinions about it.

Sara is a first-year in the Yale Online PA program, and she came on to tell you what it's actually like. She was a child life specialist before this, which is one of the best backgrounds I can think of for understanding patients and families under stress.

Her main warning about online: you have to be able to teach yourself. Nobody is walking you to the next assignment. The content is just as hard, and the structure is looser. Some people thrive in that and some people drown.

We also talk about Yale's early decision option and why submitting on time matters more than people think.

And yes, we address the program's probation status head on. Sara explains why she's still confident in it. If you're considering any program, look up its current accreditation status with ARC-PA yourself before you apply - this episode is from 2023 and those statuses change.

What we cover:

• Going from child life specialist to PA student
• What online PA school actually requires of you
• Yale's early decision option and application timing
• Clinical rotations when your didactic year is remote
• Talking honestly about a program's accreditation status
• Who online works well for, and who it doesn't

Resources:

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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Today we get to hear from Sarah, who is a current first year PA student in the Yale Online PA program.

So I know this is a popular program and we'll get all the insights and things you need to know if you're considering applying.

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.

Alright guys, before we get into the podcast, I wanted to tell you about a new course from Roche Review, which is a blueprint prep company specifically for PA students who are about to take pants.

And then there is an option now for current PAs who are recertifying with the Panry or Panre La, which is what I am currently doing.

But this review course is live and the first one is June 12th through 15th.

It's very dynamic.

There are two instructors who will be leading you through all of the information you need to know for boards.

The pants can be a little bit intimidating.

It's a lot of information and everything you've learned during PA school, so it's tough.

There is a 100% pass guarantee and there will be future dates and if the June date doesn't work for you, this is a course that will be offered monthly.

It'll be four days that you can sit and learn and take in all this information to make sure you are ready to go for boards.

So this is a really great option, especially if you're someone who needs that intensive learning experience to make sure that you feel confident on test day.

I would not underestimate the pants and Roche Review is definitely proven in this space to have the best study resources and knowledge as far as what you need to do.

Well, their QBanks are amazing and so this course is a really, really great way to kind of condense everything and give you the information that you need to get a jump start on studying for either the pants or or the pantry.

So yeah, it's a great value.

It's $350 for the course, which is fantastic for a live course.

And if you have any questions about it, feel free to reach out to me.

I'll put links in the description with all the information so that you can find out more about the live Pants Review course and I might even see you there.

Alright, so definitely check that out and I have so many other cool things.

To tell you about before we get.

To our interview on Instagram.

We have been hearing that some schools are starting to interview, so not too many.

I've seen Chapman University, I've seen University of Michigan come in.

Turo Yale usually Yale online usually interviews fairly early.

So if you are procrastinating your application waiting scared all of the above, go ahead and get your app submitted so that you can hopefully get an interview quickly and take advantage of that rolling admissions.

So that's one thing.

We have an interview webinar coming up on June 8th.

It'll be at 8pm we would love to see you there.

It's a free webinar.

We'll just be talking about interview prep, how to get ready, things you can be doing and we may do a little bit of practice if you've come to any of our webinars in the past we love to bring people up on the quote stage and practice do some live practice.

So that would be fun.

And so I think all of our webinars afterwards there is a replay that you go up on YouTube for this year so you can watch it if you aren't able to watch live.

But if you want that email with the information go ahead and sign up and all of the information and links will be in the description for you.

Let's see anything else before we jump in with Sarah.

So we do talk about in this interview the fact that Yale is technically on probation right now and I was informed actually yesterday that Yale will not be filling all 80 seats of their online program.

They will only be filling 440 seats this year.

That probably won't affect whether you apply to them or not.

And probation again is a fully accredited status.

That happens a lot of times with newer programs.

I'm not particularly concerned about a program on probation especially if they are upfront about why and you can always look that up on the ARCPA website.

But it is something that we talk a little bit about since that is something a little bit new since the last time we've about talked talked about Yale online.

So I hope you enjoyed this interview with Sarah.

Oh the last thing I wanted to mention is and I'll be sharing a lot about this on social coming up in October which is you're like why are you talking about October?

I'll be speaking and helping with the PA aspects the pre PA aspects of an in person conference called mappedcon.

So if you haven't heard of mapt, it's a really cool online free software resource that has the best GPA calculator I've seen a way to track your experiences, track your coursework, basically everything you need to be ready for applications and kind of make sure you're on track.

There's very interactive timelines so that you can follow along and just, you know, check all the boxes.

Make your life easier than trying to track in Google Docs and notebooks like I do with everything.

But we'll put a link to that in the description as well.

There's, there is an advisor option that is paid where you get one on one advising.

I'm also helping with some of that and I think it's, I don't know, $7 a month or something like that.

But with my signup link you get a couple months free and this is the perfect time to take advantage of that, ask all your questions.

So that'll be in the description.

But mappedcon is a pre health conference in Baltimore.

It is October 6th through 8th.

October 7th, it's kind of the big day with lots of talks, panels, there's going to be PA admissions there.

I'll be speaking, lots of opportunities to connect with schools, connect with other pre pas.

So it's going to be really awesome.

And we'll put that link where you can sign up in the description for that.

Would love to see you there and meet you.

Feel free to share with your pre PA clubs too.

You all right?

Sorry for the kind of long intro, but let's get into our interview with Sarah.

My name is Sarah.

I. I was a child life specialist prior to PA school.

I'm not too sure if many people know what that is.

Usually even in the hospital you have to kind of explain what you are.

I worked with the pediatric setting.

I helped children throughout procedures and helped them understand their diagnosis.

So it was much more of like a psychosocial role of support than it was anything.

I wasn't doing anything medically invasive or anything like that to children.

And now I'm in.

I just finished term one of PA school at Yale PA Online.

We had our first immersion where I met the rest of the students in person on campus in March.

That was really exciting.

We also got to meet our faculty in person because right now everything's on zoom.

We have classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday for two hours each and then otherwise all of our lectures are pre recorded.

So you can do it sort of at your own pace, but everything is due within like each week.

You have to finish your content for that week.

So it's still a lot of work.

But right now I just, I'm glad finals are over, we have a week off and then term two starts back up with everything all over again.

Oh man, I want to hear a lot more about that.

I Want to backtrack to child life specialists for a minute?

A couple people I went to college with ended up doing that, and I thought it was so unique because it was something I'd never heard of.

Can you, did that count for your patient care experience?

First of all, yes, it certainly did.

Yeah.

And then what, what are the requirements for that?

Like, how do you get into that?

Is it something you need a bachelor's for or you went to school after?

Like, what does that path look like to become a child life specialist?

Yeah.

So typically, technically, the requirement is you need a bachelor's, but at one point in time, the aclp, which is like our apa, they had required a master's for a short amount of time, and then they took it back.

And after they did that, all of the internship supervisors really liked the master's students.

And so you essentially needed a master's to get in, even though the requirement was a bachelor's degree.

So I did my master's.

And then you need to a 600 hour internship, which is unpaid, and you do that for like a semester worth of time.

And once you have your clinical hours done, then you can sit for the exam.

And once you pass the exam, then you're a child life specialist.

Okay, cool.

I think that's a really interesting option that people maybe, you know, want to check out, especially if they have an interest in peds and, you know, getting involved with the kiddos to kind of see what that's all about.

So that's an interesting patient care experience I don't think we've really talked about before.

So what made you, when you went into that, did you already know you wanted to be a PA or did that kind of come later after you had gotten some experience in the hospital?

Like, how did you find the PA profession?

So it did.

It did take me a little while.

I was.

My heart had been set on child life my whole life.

I knew that was what I wanted to do.

And once I got into it, I still loved working with children.

I loved what I was doing in the field.

I. I just think I found myself being drawn to more of the medical aspects of my work.

And looking up, like, what does this diagnosis mean?

How did they come to that diagnosis?

Just based on how this patient presented?

Like, it was wild to me.

So I wanted to do more of the medical aspect.

And all of my experience with PAs, both in the professional setting and as a patient myself, have been nothing but positive.

And I realized I wanted to have that same kind of connection I had with my Patients, as a child life specialist of being able to sit down and actually talk to them about their diagnosis and spend time with patients.

And the PA that I had, I had seen around the time that I was kind of changing my mind.

She had sat down with me for, like, 45 minutes to explain my diagnosis at the time.

And I was like, I don't think anybody has ever sat with me for 45 straight minutes in a doctor's office before.

And.

And I think my interactions with PAs, again, both professionally and as a patient, I knew that this was.

I didn't.

I didn't touch anything else.

I had toyed with nursing beforehand, and then I was like, you know what?

That's not for me.

This route of PA is definitely the direction I want to go in.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I think that's a common path is, you know, maybe figuring out that PA is an option and then also feeling kind of limited in what you can do in.

In your role and then seeing it as a way to open doors and give you more involvement with those patients you're already taken care of.

I hear that a lot.

And even, you know, from people in roles like medical assistant and cna, where it's like they want to have those conversations with patients, but you feel like you can't because you don't have that background or that scope yet.

So I think that's a pretty common path.

When you decided, okay, like, this is what I'm going to do, I'm for sure going, pa, what were your next steps?

Did you already have everything kind of lined up that you needed, or did you have to go back and take classes?

How did you research schools?

What did you do next to get there?

So I knew I needed more of the prerequisite requirements, and I flew through them as quick as I possibly could.

I actually did them through.

I think it was called Portage or ABC Nursing.

I think ABC Nursing and Portage, like, came together maybe, but Portage Online, where you could do it at your own pace.

I went through all my prereqs super quick and to make the.

The deadline for early admission to Yale PA Online.

Okay, So I got my prereqs out of the way, and I was only between two schools.

I was between Yale PA Online and University of New England were the two that I applied to.

I had received an invitation for interviews with both of them, and the interview for YOPA Online was before the interview for une.

And then I actually found out about my acceptance to YOPA Online a few days after they had invited me to the interview.

For Une.

And I already knew that this was the program for me, so I declined the interview and here I am.

So I glad it worked out that way because for me it was also partly location based.

I wasn't in a position to just, you know, uproot my life and move somewhere.

So I wanted to stay in, in New England here with my partner and our animals.

So I know other people in my program too, have families and they have kids and they're not in the position to just take their life somewhere else.

So it's one of my favorite things about the program that there's people from all over the country that I'm working with on Zoom and doing the same classes with and studying with.

And it's incredible.

And that's cool.

Just for making connections too.

Like, the PA world is pretty small and well connected.

So even through just social media and conferences, I feel like I know PAs all over.

So when somebody says, do you know a Durham PA in Houston or Dallas or LA or whatever, I'm like, oh yeah, I do.

Like I know somebody there.

I can refer you and get you set up.

So that's like cool.

You have those built in connections from your class.

How were the portage classes?

I see those mentioned a lot in our pre PA Facebook group of people looking for ways to get their prereqs done.

Did you find that process easy?

Would you recommend those classes to somebody trying to get their prereqs completed?

Yeah, definitely.

I.

Especially if you're good at independent learning, which.

Especially if you're applying to Yale PA online.

It is a lot of being in an independent learner.

So if you're used to the online like format, I would say like the trickiest part might be getting used to the technology of it.

Otherwise, if you can study by yourself, if you can learn content by yourself and you're even the professors there, like, they were very receptive, they were very good at communication.

If I had a question about something I didn't understand, they were very responsive.

So I would highly recommend Portage for prereqs.

It was the only one I did for prereqs other than what I still had from undergrad, which I think was two courses.

The rest of the courses I had to take, but I really liked it.

I think it's really convenient for people that are looking for an exact class to take at your own time.

Yeah.

And I know from Yale Online they've mentioned and part of their kind of application process is asking if you've done online learning because.

Because they want to make sure that you know what you're getting into and that you'll be able to do it.

Whereas other people do great with it.

And they are, like you said, a self motivated learner.

They can do it and they can stay on top of it and, and kind of, you know, I think for different types of people.

I've heard some people who are like night owls who love it because they can do it at night.

And then like I'm an early bird.

So like I will get up at 5:00am that's my, you know, most focused time and can get stuff done.

So I think for, you know, people who are in those kinds of note patterns and do well there, it may be a good option.

One thing that's interesting about Yale that I think you mentioned is that you did the early decision.

Yeah.

So Yale is one of the only programs that does that.

Med school, it's so common.

But Yale is one of the only ones as far as PA that has an early decision.

Can you tell us that timeline of kind of when you submitted your application and deadline and interview and what that looked like?

Yeah, so otherwise it was.

It was rolling admissions.

But then they had an.

They had a deadline for early admission.

I believe the deadline, if I could be wrong, but I believe it was July 1st.

And then I submitted the very end of June because I had to finish my last prereq, get my transcripts and then send them in.

And that was the last thing I was waiting for.

So I had, I had applied by July 1st and then my interview.

So they had emailed me about, I want to say three weeks later, they had emailed me to set up my interview.

And the.

Or no, I guess it was, it was pretty quick because I saw the rest of July had been filled and most of August had been filled and I didn't get to interview until August 17th.

Okay.

So once I interviewed August 17th, I heard back in early September.

So yeah, it was pretty quick.

And then there had been other people that had already been admitted to the program and now talking to people that are now in my class, you know, learning when people got admitted and like who kind of came in a little later.

And then you could see our Slack channel, like building and building as people got admitted.

So I was definitely one of the, like, closer to the later ones.

I think they accepted people I think the last round of acceptances was, like, mid to late October.

Okay.

So that's pretty quick to get their class filled up.

And it's such a popular program.

Just the convenience, the reputation, the faculty are fantastic.

So I think it gets a lot of attention and a lot of applications.

So looking back at that process of getting ready to apply, your application process, was there anything that you found super helpful or that you wish you did differently, that you wish you knew you were super helpful?

I'm so glad to hear my admissions counselor.

So I didn't really know what resources to use, and I was kind of just like, it was me and Google trying to figure out where I should be going.

And my admissions counselor had said, have you heard of Savannah Perry?

Like, you need to check out her platform.

Everything she has on there is, you know, super, super helpful for getting prepared for interviews.

So I had listened to your MMI podcast probably way too many times.

Even though I'd already heard it, I just wanted to feel prepared.

So I listened to that.

I had printed out your.

I think it was like a PDF of possible questions, and there were so many of them.

And I started doing practice questions.

And somewhere in your podcast, you said, just start talking to yourself in the car, and it sounds weird, and it's going to feel a little weird at first, but just do it.

And I did that on my long drives, so that's kind of how I prepared.

And then I had also printed out, like, I had made myself, like, kind of a template of my thought process, because you had said, they want to know your thought process.

They kind of want to see your ethics and your morals and just who you are as a person and how you're making decisions.

So I had done that because I wanted to make sure that in my interview, I gave the answer that I knew I would choose for whatever I was going to do in said scenario and then give two other answers of, this is what I'm not choosing.

And this is why I wouldn't take that approach.

That way I would remember to go through my thought process and say what I thought was ethically or morally wrong to do in that situation.

So having that, like, laid out next to me in the few minutes that you have before answering the question was super easy because I was really nervous.

And I could see, like, okay, 1, 2, 3.

Like, what am I doing?

What am I.

What are the two things I'm not doing?

And then I would put a few bullets as to why.

Yeah.

So giving myself that template and having something to write down during the interview.

It definitely helped.

Yeah.

So, I mean.

Yeah.

Organizing your thoughts and getting them together.

That's great.

And sounds like you did that perfectly.

And it is something that takes practice.

Like, it's just weird to do until you've done it a little bit and then you get used to it and figure out the timing and all of that.

Clearly we're not going to talk about questions, but.

So you had a virtual mmi?

Yes.

Okay.

Was that weird?

I didn't.

I've never done an mmi, so I don't know.

Anything for you?

Yeah, that's what it's.

We do them when we do mock interviews and sometimes people are just like, this is weird.

Like, I don't know how to respond because it's, it's just a little bit different than being in person.

But I do think that interview style gives you a lot of opportunity to show a lot about yourself that maybe a traditional, like, back and forth question type interview doesn't.

Yeah.

So I see why schools use them and.

But they can be nerve wracking, for sure.

I definitely thought.

I was under the impression that all schools did the zoom platform because I was also still in my Covid where like, oh, MMIs have to be online because they don't want you coming there yet.

Oh, yeah, no.

At last year, a good bit of programs went back to in person interviews, and some did both or they would give an option so they would, you know, say you can do virtual or you can do in person.

A lot still did virtual, but it was just funny because I don't know if, if you were in PA education stuff when Yale online came out, but when they first opened, there was a little bit of controversy of like, should PA programs be online?

Is this gonna work?

Kind of thing.

And I think they got some pushback from that.

Help us.

And a lot of the programs have continued to adopt a lot of that.

Like, so my program that I went to out in Georgia, they never recorded lectures.

They never did anything online.

And now I go and lecture there usually in the fall now they record the lectures and if somebody's sick, they can watch from home.

They have like all this technology that they didn't have before.

So, I mean, I guess that's a plus from the pandemic.

I don't know.

But Yale was like, so far ahead of everyone else.

Like, we're fine, we're good.

And I, I've, I'VE Is Jim Van Ree still there?

And he's not okay.

He left before, like I was accepted.

And then before our program officially started in January, we were told that he was no longer going to be program.

I haven't looked at their website recently.

Is.

And then Jane McDaniel.

She's still there.

He's still there.

Yeah.

We had connected at some point through this process and just everyone there has always been so passionate and so kind and so great and so, yeah, it's a great program.

So what did you do between the time that you got accepted to PA school and you knew that you're going to be starting at Yale online to actually starting the program?

Did you just keep working?

Clearly you didn't have to move, which is great.

You could, you know, stay in one place.

But what kind of stuff did you try to get ahead or did you just, you know, wait till it started and then jump in?

So we had a boot camp that we had to do.

It wasn't required for the year before us.

It was highly recommended and our year was the first year that they had required it.

And it's.

It's none of their professors.

It's def.

It's like an outsourced.

It's similar to Portage almost where it's all online, obviously.

And it's kind of just like a refresher to see where you're at before starting to kind of get an idea of, you know, where were you at during the prereqs?

Because some people's prereqs were from many years before getting accepted.

So it was kind of.

And it was definitely nerve wracking because I was like, do I need to know all of this like the back of my hand.

And some of the upperclassmen kind of.

We had like a mentorship program.

So we were paired with a mentor who could kind of like talk us through the beginning of PA school.

And mine was like, you definitely.

Like, she's like, I didn't even do it.

Like, it wasn't required.

I didn't do it and I'm fine.

I'm passing with honors every class.

So then it kind of calmed me down.

But it was certainly helpful just to kind of like refresh on anatomy, refresh on some like basic science and like microbiology.

It was helpful.

I just definitely, for anybody going into the program or having to do some type of like boot camp before you start, like, don't think too much into it because they're going to end up teaching you what you need to know for your Tests and quizzes and for the pants.

Okay.

And then so now that you're in PA school, is it what you expected or has it been different than you expected?

Harder, easier?

I feel like we, we talk a lot about expectations ahead of time, but until you're in it, you just, you don't always get it.

Really.

Yeah, I definitely.

The advice I got going in, I didn't want to listen to it because I was like, no, I've been a straight A student my whole life and I'm going to keep it that way.

Like A's, if anything like a B.

But in our, in our program, 72 is passing.

And luckily I have done really well this semester.

But going into the program I was like, I need honors in every single class.

Like I need 90 and above.

And then now that I'm here, I'm like, you know what?

Passing is great.

I think I thought.

I knew it was going to be challenging.

That's for sure.

I knew it was going to be hard and it is.

I think it's kind of what I expected as far as like challenging level.

Yeah, it's.

I, you have to like.

I thought about you know, picking up maybe like, like a per diem gig or part time waitress, like.

Nope, I'm, I am 100% fully in school and studying every single day.

Yeah, it's nice that I get to like make my own schedule as far as when I do that, but it's definitely a full time commitment and it's just as challenging as I expected it would be.

Yeah, I get lots of questions like do you think I could work?

I'm like, maybe you could like house sit or something where you are not actually working.

But yeah, it's, it's a lot and that's true.

Do you feel like being in an online program you are missing out on any part of PA school?

Like the clinical side of things.

This is what, these are things that I hear reservations that people have.

Do you feel like you're missing out on connecting with your classmates or faculty in any way or do you feel like that hasn't been a hurdle for you?

I don't feel like it's been a hurdle.

So I know a lot of my class there was an option to get put into a study group and you did a survey about how you study and what helps you learn best.

And then our advisor had put us into, into study groups on based on how you study.

I opted not to do that.

I know a lot of people really like it and the people that found that they just study best by themselves.

They also kind of steered away from being in a formal study group, but I study with one other person.

Him and I talk every single day.

And, you know, we prepare for the same quizzes at the same time.

We take them at the same exact time, just so, like, we can both get them over with at the same time.

Yeah.

And I found it helpful just to have one other person who studies the way that I do.

And we work on outlines together, so we have all the same study materials.

As far as professors go.

I. I feel connected with my professors just because they're so responsive and they email back right away.

And it's weird because, like, we watch them lecture to us, so, like, I'm seeing them more than they're seeing me.

So that part feels weird.

But we also have PBL groups, which is the two hours.

Like I said, two hours, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

And our instructor for that changes.

So we had.

The first eight weeks we had one instructor, and then the next eight weeks we had a separate one.

And for the next two terms, we have one for every 16 weeks.

So we're getting exposure to different faculty and also different students in those groups.

So it changes.

Your group changes every time.

So I feel pretty connected.

And also immersion helped with that, like, being on campus and feeling like a real student.

The weird part about it was, like, going in person and all of a sudden, like, they're talking to us about, like, lecturing about something, and I'm like, I can't hit pause or rewind on that.

Like, that part was weird because it's the opposite problem.

But certainly I definitely feel connected with my program, with my class.

We're all in Slack and it's pretty much busy all the time.

So it's definitely a weird way of learning.

But it's.

I really like.

It works for you.

I've heard, and this may have changed since the last time I talked to anyone about Yale, that they try to get you in clinical settings pretty early.

Can you talk about what that's like.

And then what rotations will be like for once you get to that point?

Of course.

So our.

It's called seed, which is Clinical Experience in Early Didactic.

And it starts next week.

I'm going to be doing four hours a week.

Some students are doing eight hours every other week.

And it's from May 1st until winter break in December.

So it's.

All of them are supposed to be with a primary care provider because they're training us to be primary care providers.

But some people are doing it in different locations, especially if they want to go into a certain specialty.

So one of my friends is doing it in like an urgent career capacity, but most of us are doing it in primary care.

So that's four hours a week.

And then starting in January is our full time clinicals.

And we do that from January until the following end of April.

So it's going to be 16 months of full time clinicals starting in January.

That's nice.

Our program only had 12 months and I think that's a little bit more common is to have shorter amount of clinicals.

So it's kind of nice that you get that extra time.

Yeah.

In there.

How many times do you have to go in person for the immersions?

So we had the one in March.

We go again in December, and that's where we take the pack rat.

And we have to test out of certain, like, patient assessment things.

So showing that we know how to do certain physical exams.

So we test out of all of the in person stuff in December and then that's before we start clinicals in January.

And then we don't go back again until graduation.

Okay, so three times.

Three times for one week each?

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

I think I would have loved something like this.

This totally would have been something I would have liked to do.

And I really don't think any other program has.

It has become fully online like this.

I think some are, but they're still kind of more regional to where the students are in areas where they can't really access the program or move in rural settings and stuff.

So I think Gail's done a really good job with that.

There's, you know, the elephant in the room is Yale Online is on probation.

Have they talked about that?

Is that anything that you're worried about or.

So they've definitely talked to us about it.

And it was never something I was worried about, even from the beginning.

So I actually.

So back to when we talked about my timeline with applying and everything before I found out that I was accepted.

All of the potential students were invited to these town hall zoom meetings where they talked about it and they told us the changes they were planning on making, what the probation status meant.

They sent us everything that, you know, we'd like to read through.

So I attended the town hall meeting where they talked about what this meant for us as like, in a possible incoming class.

Again, I didn't know I was admitted yet.

And then once I was admitted, I. I decided like, after that town hall meeting, I felt very comfortable and confident in the faculty and in making the changes that the ARCPA had laid out.

And then since then, they would send us email updates anytime there was something going on.

There was continued town hall meetings for students.

And then just recently, we actually received an email this morning, so I'm glad I had this today.

But the most recent update was that the ARCPA had favorably received their ELPA's report.

So I guess then they wrote it out about what that meant.

So, like, I'm not super, you know, informed about much of this, but as far as, like, what this all means, but they kind of laid it out for us about what it meant.

So they said favorably received means that as of now, we don't have to submit any more reports.

They were happy with the changes.

And right now, like, that's just where we're at.

So it was good news.

And they had told us that they had formed a few more committees.

So there was one committee about, like, assessment of the curriculum, and then another committee about, like, education assessment, and they're hiring more faculty.

That was the end of the emails that they've extended one position and the other position has been filled.

So they've updated us about much of the changes.

And we take a lot of surveys too, is the other thing.

They always want our feedback.

So it's become very evident that they care about our feedback and that they're applying our feedback.

And, and I've, I've never, you know, distrusted them or felt like something was going to happen with this because of how upfront they were and how communication has just been continuous about it throughout my whole process.

Well, and that's why I don't think people realize two things that, number one, you can go on the ARC PA website and see why a program is on probation at any time.

And so it'll list out, you know, if it's administrative, sometimes it's just that they forgot to pay their fees.

Like it's, you know, they didn't get there in time.

But usually it's not anything too major or it's very fixable.

And number two, going from a provisional or new program to probation is actually pretty common just because it's a lot of what you mentioned, like a lot of admin stuff can happen.

There's usually a little bit more faculty turnover at the beginning, and those things can be enough to push a program into probation.

And so that's kind of as they're getting stabilized as they're figuring things out that can happen, and then usually they fix it and are good to go.

And even if you start at a school on probation or graduate from a school on probation, you can still take boards.

So.

Yeah, I didn't really have any issues with Yale being on.

On probation, but I know it was something that people were concerned about and kind of came up.

So what do you see yourself doing?

Do you see yourself ending up in somewhere having to do with kids and peds or something completely different?

I think right now my heart is set on primary care.

I think if for some reason that changes, then pediatrics would be my next.

Nice.

Next.

Go to.

Yeah, I know.

That's awesome.

And rotations are very helpful for figuring all of that out.

So, yeah, I'm.

You have to update us once you finish and figure out where you.

Where you want to end up and all of that.

But thank you so much for sharing and being willing to come on and give all of your advice and insights.

I know this will be.

Thank you for having me.

Yes.

Yeah, so I'll kind of stop it there and edit some stuff, but no, that's.

It sounds like you're doing great.

And yeah, Yale, I think.

I think an online prayer would have been so cool.

I would have loved, loved to do something like that, even though it is a little.

A little different.

Yeah, it's definitely like, the one thing, too, is that no matter if you're online or if you are like an in person, I think the biggest thing is that your whole life changes.

And that was one thing that I guess I wasn't completely prepared for because you don't realize how.

How big of a.

Like, obviously it's a big commitment, but it's just so much more challenging than any other type of, like, undergrad.

Like, it's very different.

Like, you.

You just don't realize how much time you had in undergrad or how much.

And it's like the learning's different, the amount of material, the type of material.

It's just, it's.

And it's a lot all at once.

Like, it kind of is very fast and you have to just be able to jump in and do it.

Yep.

So, yeah, it's.

It's a tough transition for sure.

And I think by the time you kind of, like, find your groove and are doing good, then it's time to move on to something else and you keep going.

So it's.

It's hard to explain that to people, too, because I think, you know, we we all are a little bit type A and feel like we got this, we can do it.

And then we get there, we're like, oh, my gosh, no, I can't.

You don't really know it until you're in it.

Like, it.

You can be as prepared as you, you know, you can feel like you're as prepared as you possibly can.

And once you're in it, it's just.

It.

It's all just.

You just got to take it as it.

As it comes.

Yeah.

And be very flexible and adjust and all those things.