Two weeks before class started, the phone rang.

Joshua Rozanski was on a waitlist at Sacred Heart University and had pretty much accepted that it wasn't happening. Then they called him in, two weeks out from the start of the program.

Getting there took rejections. Plural. He's honest about what that did to his head and how much doubt he was carrying by the end of it. If you're sitting on a waitlist right now telling yourself it's over, listen to him.

Before PA school he did a Master of Public Health, and he explains how that changed the way he thinks about medicine and got him used to graduate-level work before he ever set foot in a PA classroom.

What we cover:

• Getting pulled off the waitlist two weeks before class started
• Handling repeated rejections without quitting
• What waitlist limbo actually feels like
• Why he did an MPH before PA school
• How the MPH prepared him for graduate coursework
• Sacred Heart University's PA program

Resources:

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

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

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

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Alright, if you got pulled off a wait list for PA School two weeks before the program started and had to move to go to this program, would you do it?

Well, Joshua did and we're gonna hear from him today.

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.

All right, before we get to our interview, we are welcoming a new sponsor on the podcast this month and I want to introduce you to Stride Funding.

Everyone always asks about how to pay for PA School and this is a very interesting, innovative alternative to traditional student loans.

Instead of being faced with ridiculous interest rates and paying for 10, 20, 30 years, Stride funding offers income share agreements, which means you would pay a small percent of income after you graduate over a shorter time frame than a traditional student loan.

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No interest, no principal amount, and a grace period that will start before, well after graduation, but before payments begin.

And then there's also flexibility around some unexpected life events.

But you can go to stridefunding.com to learn more and we will have a link in the description as well that will get you straight there so that you can check it out, see if it's something that's going to work for you and maybe save you some money in the long run.

Hey guys.

There are so many goodies in today's episode.

So number one, Joshua got his MPH before going to PA school, which is interesting because I know we've been talking about some combined programs lately, but he actually did it ahead of time and so we're gonna talk about that.

And then his story of getting off the wait list I think is one of my favorite ever.

It's great.

And I remember it, and I didn't tell him this, but I remember he seemed just kind of exhausted by the process, just kind of over it at that time, which he talks a little bit about and sometimes you can definitely see that in the interview, but he made it happen.

And he is now a PA student at Sacred Heart University.

So we talk about that in today's interview and it is a good one, like just definitely someone who has a very realistic journey to PA school.

Great advice and I'm so thankful that he reached out willing to share his personal story.

So I think you're going to enjoy this.

Let's see.

So today, I don't know if I have any big announcements for you.

I hope everyone's CASPA application stuff is going well.

I'm Savannah, by the way, Durham pa PA platform person.

But yeah, caspa's in full swing.

And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on instagram @the PA platform or just shoot me an email savannahepapapaplatform.com or if it's easier info because my name doesn't have an H on the end.

Little fun fact there.

All right, well, we'll get into the interview because I know you guys just can't even wait.

But before we do, let's talk about MyPA Resource and PA School Prep, our sponsors of the podcast, which we're very thankful for.

MyPA Resource is a personal statement editing service specifically for PA school applicants.

We edit on content, grammar and flow.

And mainly that content is the most important part and making sure you're answering the prompt of why pa?

I've been editing a lot of State lately and that is one of the biggest mistakes I see is that at the end of it, I can't find your answer to why you want to be a pa.

So if you have your essay edited, I can guarantee we're going to help you find that and put it in there.

So if you need that help, check out myparesource.com and use future PA as the discount code as well as PA school prep.

If you are getting ready to start school in the fall or struggling to kind of figure out if you need to refresh on anything, just check out paschoolprep.com and see if that looks like a good option for you.

It's an online course that focuses on a refresher on anatomy, physiology and med terms.

So you can look at that and also use that code, future PA for a discount as well as on the PA platform.

All right, let's hear from Joshua and I think.

I think you're really going to like this one.

So my name is Joshua Rozanski.

I'm currently a PA student in my didactic year.

We're coming towards the end of our second trimester, which is really exciting.

Got one more left before clinicals, so I did.

Before going to PA school, I did a mph.

I did that at University of Albany.

It's one of the SUNY schools up in New York.

And before that I was working as a scribe, getting my experience Working as a physical therapy, Aiden, really trying to soak it all in, really try to learn as much as I could before I got into PA school.

You have a lot of different experiences for us to touch on.

What kind of brought you to the PA profession.

So when I was first looking at the PA profession, I didn't know much about it.

My dad actually brought it up to me.

It was similar to how your story.

Yeah, same.

Um, and I, I looked it up and I was like, okay, this is similar.

I was originally thinking medical school, kind of like the, The.

The normal route that usually people would take.

And then I started working in the field, and I really liked working directly with the patients, you know, having the time to really get to know them as a person.

Because from my perspective, I thought, okay, you're going to have better patient outcomes if you really get to know your patients, you're able to tailor treatment to them.

And I, as I was reading up on the PA profession, that's something that I saw they did.

And it wasn't.

And it wasn't so significantly different from going to medical school and becoming a doctor.

And to be honest, like I was when I was going and working as a scribe, I was working in urology at the time.

And just to see the life of what a physician went through, it was so different to.

Compared to their PA counterparts in the same office.

And.

And there was just something about that that I didn't enjoy as much as what I saw the PAs doing.

Interesting.

Okay, so shadowing or not shadowing, but working actually is kind of where you got your confirmation or decision there.

Okay.

So I'm gonna jump, like, a little bit ahead and then go back.

Okay, you took you into an MPH program.

Was that to help you to get into PA school or because that's something you have an interest in or.

A little bit of both.

So originally I was looking at PAMPH programs.

Okay.

And I thought.

I thought originally, okay, I want to have my MPH no matter what.

I think that will be a great addition to eventually working in clinical practice and addressing whatever I would learn as an MPH and be able to translate it over to touch on the getting in part.

I mean, I did a little bit, but I didn't so much think that it would be the, like the, the diamond thing that would get me in.

It was more of a, I want to do this anyway, so if I have to take the long road, I'll take the long road to go to school, because no matter what, it's gonna help me in the end.

Okay, so it wasn't like you had a very low gpa, you were trying to improve or anything.

I mean, I'm sure it boosted it and helped everything.

Everything helps.

But it was more of.

Of an interest.

Yeah, it was more of an interest.

I did a.

My concentration was in biomedical science, so I was able to tailor it to more of the things that are, like, going on right now.

With COVID 19, I was able to learn, like, all the emerging infectious diseases, the different technologies, how this epidemiology impacts later on.

How can you do just a variety of things that can affect different patient populations?

And I think it really helped me as of right now, being in PA school.

I think it's really helped me really connect the two, I would say, because it's.

There's more to medicine than the clinical side, and there's a lot of external factors that play a significant role.

That's interesting because I've.

I've talked to a couple people recently who did the combined programs, and they also just had, like, a very genuine interest in.

In public health and involving that in the PA profession.

And I think it's cool and a good thing that more programs are focusing on that and offering that, because it does, you know, just make us more well rounded overall.

Okay, so let's jump back a little bit.

So walk us through kind of your timeline and your PA school application cycles.

Okay.

And I don't think that was the best idea because I felt I maybe wasted some money on that part.

And looking back at it, I was not ready.

I wasn't mature.

I didn't.

I don't think I knew exactly where I was going with it.

I just knew I wanted to do medicine so bad and wanted to get in and get right to it.

But looking back, I definitely was not ready for that.

Wasn't ready for PA school.

I wouldn't be doing.

I wouldn't have done well in PA school.

There's definitely a maturity component that comes with it, and that's something I can definitely advise to some people.

If you don't.

If you just want to go in there and do it, um, that's great.

But I think you got to be mentally ready also, and I think that's what's been helping me as of right now.

So that was the first one.

I applied to, like, 12 programs.

I heard back.

And it was rough getting rejection letters at least twice a month.

It was.

It was.

It was hard.

It was.

It was something that I was I wasn't used to getting rejection after rejection after rejection.

And I was waiting for the time that somebody gave me the shot to go to school and show them I'm ready for this.

And I wasn't ready.

And admissions committee saw that.

They knew what part of your application wasn't ready.

I think it was mainly my personal statement, really.

I. I couldn't.

I couldn't give a legitimate reason for PA Like a solidified reason for PA school.

I really had to.

I think I had experienced more than there than I had in undergrad or even prior to undergrad.

There's just so much more that rounds a person than the curriculum that you go through as an undergrad.

And then we went on to our second.

Our second time applying.

This time I was doing my mph.

And at this point I applied to seven programs.

And I did a practice interview with you.

And that really helped.

So thank you.

And then I also got your book, which was.

I read that like every night.

That really gave me like a.

How to do the interview.

Really get in there and like, show them who I am as a person to help get in.

But even then, I was still getting wait lists.

I was getting.

I got a couple rejections and I was just getting down on myself.

I didn't.

I was.

I was almost about to say, you know what?

Maybe PA school wasn't in my cards and almost didn't reapply, which was.

It was.

It was hard to think that it was something that was very difficult to come to terms with almost.

And so I was.

I was job searching for things related to public health.

And it's a funny story because I was actually on vacation and I hadn't done anything for like three, two.

Three months.

Cause I just graduated from my mph and I was just applying the jobs and I was on vacation.

I was at the beach.

And I just got a call one morning and I was like, I don't know this number.

I didn't answer it because I was like, I've gotten spam calls from plenty of places recently.

And I was like, all right, we're not going to answer this.

And then they left me a voicemail.

And I was.

I was just like, what in the world?

So I.

So I listened to the voicemail and it was one of my professors saying, hey, we want to discuss you coming to school.

We want to take you off the wait list.

And that's pretty much it.

Then.

It was pretty much a decision where I knew where I had to go, which was.

And it was.

It was.

It was it was so exciting.

I was running around the house, jumping up and down.

And of course I called my parents and they were like, what?

What?

Wait, what?

They were so confused.

They were like, you're really just.

And you're really just gonna go do this?

And I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna go do it.

It was like two weeks before the semester started.

Oh, my gosh.

So I had to get all done to find a place to live, like the whole, the whole nine yards.

So wait, when did you interview?

I interviewed in December.

Okay.

Okay.

I got in August.

It was like August 1st.

Oh, my God.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it was.

My girlfriend wasn't happy about it.

No.

That's gonna get so many people tons of hope.

That, that's my.

That's one of my biggest things that I can tell somebody is like, don't lose hope.

Like, as many rejection letters as you get, you got to keep, keep going.

Keep your, your positivity there.

And like, don't, don't discount yourself because somebody's going to give you that chance that you deserve to, to be there.

That is awesome.

Well, yeah, congrats.

That's one of my best friends and she was my medical assistant.

She had where she got off the wait list and she had a month essentially until school started.

So it was this really.

A little bit longer than you, but it was, it was pretty, pretty quick turnaround to get in, so.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, that's awesome.

So then how has school been?

It's been really good.

Yeah.

I can't really complain about it.

It's.

It's.

There's one thing I can say is that it's a.

It's definitely a roller coaster.

Yeah.

You're.

You're gonna have your times where you're upside down and you're doing a corkscrew and you don't know which way is up or down and you're just flying through everything.

Pretty much.

But I mean, it's definitely doable.

It's definitely doable as long as you manage your time.

Do you really.

Do you think.

How do I phrase this?

So like you said, you matured a lot and felt more ready.

Now, do you think going through the MPH program prepared you to handle PA school better than undergrad or.

They're still just very different.

I mean, they're different, but I definitely think the coursework put me at the level that you needed to be at for graduate, a graduate level program.

It's kind of like you expected, you expected to have this type of core float, like you had to take care of it, you had to be up on your stuff, you had to do the reading.

And that's just that that's something that I've learned.

Definitely need to be up on your stuff for every class, no matter what.

It's.

But yeah, I mean the, the MPH program definitely helped.

Like I kind of, I had, I had the standard that you were to be held at and where you're supposed to be.

I think, I mean, I think anything.

It's just PA School is very different and it's hard to explain to someone how, how different it is and how intense it is.

And I'm sure people get sick of hearing that, um, before they actually get to it.

So.

Yeah, it's just tough.

And I could definitely say that the MPH wasn't as intense as this by far.

Gotcha.

When you compare the two.

I had time to.

If I wanted to sleep in, I could sleep in on a weekend or, or I had time in the morning before class to just relax.

It's just not, not the case right now.

Yeah, definitely.

It's definitely like a.

If you're going 100 miles an hour on a roller coaster.

Not all the time.

All the time.

So how many people are in your class?

So we have 41.

Okay.

Pretty common, kind of mid size.

Okay.

This question would get you in trouble if you asked it in an interview, but how many guys and how many girls are in your class?

So we only have seven guys and we have.

There's not.

The whole rest of the class is girls.

So I mean, it doesn't bother me because we all get along so well.

So because we all know we're all in the same boat, there's no, no differences.

Honestly, I, I think our class gets along really well.

Yeah.

Which is a lot of fun.

I just, I mean there's a lot of talk and sometimes that comes up in like the PA groups.

I'm in on Facebook about how the profession is so much skewed towards females, which is interesting because even I think in the past couple of years, it was one of the very first years that more females were accepted to medical school than guys.

Like it was I think like 51% or something.

But I know at my program they always wanted guys.

Like they wanted to have more male presence, but for some reason it was just more the way they described it was like there's more qualified females applying but like if a qualified guy applies, like we want him here, if he is a good fit.

So I was just Curious since I graduated a while ago if that had changed at all, but nope, about the same.

So we had 44 and 11 guys.

I mean, that's kind of like.

I have friends in other programs and that's kind of how it is.

Yeah, I think it's really all that much.

Yeah.

But I mean, from what I've heard is that the PA profession was male driven in the beginning.

Right.

Until about recently.

And the same thing with medical school.

And a lot of our leadership is male, which is interesting to me because of.

I don't know, just curious.

How long is the program?

It's 27 months.

Okay.

Gotcha.

That's not that far away.

Yeah, no, I'm getting excited.

My girlfriend actually has a countdown in her phone and I looked at it today and I was like, holy moly.

We started at this many days and now it's only this.

Yeah, it's gonna fly.

Yes.

Especially once you get to clinicals because it's the.

How long are Yalls rotations?

So they're five weeks and it's 15 months.

Okay.

So we only have a 12 month didactic, which I heard is.

Is rare for.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

Ours was the opposite.

It was 15 and 12.

So.

Okay.

Yeah, but that rotations are interesting because like ours were four weeks.

But as soon as you get comfortable somewhere, you move on and it's time for something new.

And so those fly by too.

And as soon as you know it, you're kind of.

Kind of done with those.

But what has been the hardest class for you so far?

Oh man.

Pharmacology is pretty hard.

Farm.

Farm is.

That's a whole other animal.

Yeah, our.

We actually have a pharmacist who teaches us pharmacology and he, he even said it's, it's.

It's hard.

Like you have a whole degree on far on being a pharmacist.

Yeah.

So to really learn pharmacology and in your own.

Your window of time for didactic, whatever that is, it's hard to do.

Yeah, it's a lot of memorization at that stage.

And then it's really not until clinical that you can apply it and understand it versus when you're just trying to memorize it and read about it.

That was mine too.

Only test I failed.

Yeah,.

I haven't done that yet.

Okay, good.

You're probably in the clear.

It was my very first farm test and.

Well, and I say failed.

I got like a 70.

I don't remember our cut off?

I think it was 75, and I got, like, a 74.

So.

Yeah, that's what I. Yeah, 75.

And like, okay, I was close.

Come on.

But it was fine.

Okay.

So, yeah, a little while till clinicals.

We talked a little bit about this beforehand, but with all of this Covid stuff, y' all have moved to primarily online.

How has that transition been?

It's been different, especially with the testing way we're doing it now.

Do they video you or something?

Yeah, they video us.

So they're.

We have to set our.

We have an app.

It's called.

It's WebEx.

It's like a.

It's almost like that zoom thing that everybody's using right now.

But we're.

We're.

We're set into proctor groups, and we have to have our phone at such an angle and such a position to make sure that there's no funny business going on it.

Like, we thought that our tests were strict in the classroom.

We've taken that about 100 more than how strict it now is.

Oh, my God.

It's crazy.

Like, you have to, like, show them the whole room.

You have to show what's on the desk.

You have to show them your scrap paper front and back.

You have, like, it.

I'd rather just take a test in the classroom.

That sounds very intimidating, which was originally what was happening.

So we were actually.

We were able to be in class taking tests, though, but we had to have the lectures outside of class online.

So originally we were starting off.

We'd come and take our test leave, and then what happened is, as more Covid cases came out, we went directly to online.

So it's been interesting.

It's been very different than in class.

And sometimes it's like, it's a little lonely because you want to.

You have the people that you sit next to, and you're.

You're so used to just, like, saying something really quick in class, like, little, like, joke here and there to lighten the mood.

And then you're by yourself and your mic's off, so you can't communicate with them as well.

So, I mean, it's.

It's different.

Does it make you wish your.

Your whole program was online, like the Yale programs, or you prefer the in person?

I'm an in person type of learner.

So it.

I don't know.

It.

It's.

Sometimes it's hard to be online.

Like, it's hard to be in class for the amount of time you are during school, but then it's that Much harder to do it online because you have like everything else around you.

You have like, you have tv, you have, you're in a comfortable chair.

You're.

You could be sitting on a.

Sitting in a lazy boy, relaxing with your cup of coffee and you barely paying attention.

Um, so that's definitely one of the challenges.

Um, yeah, I mean, it's just a whole different environment.

Hopefully they'll be able to get you, get you back, back in the classroom soon.

Is there anything that you found that makes it easier or.

A little.

I feel like I have more time, like I have a little more time to learn material because it's forcing you to go over it.

So.

So, like, at least with the way I would studies, I have class, I'd go work out just to get away from medicine for a little bit and then I'd get back into it with this.

I'm able to go right from class to.

If I wanted to take like a break and just watch TV and study, or I could just go straight to working out because once I turn the class off, I turn the class off and I can do whatever.

So it makes my schedule a little bit easier to go around.

But yeah, for anybody that's going into a program soon, it's, it's.

You're going to notice that.

It's.

You're going to start on.

If you start online and you go, then you're in class, it's gonna be really different.

Yeah, I think you'll probably like it being in class because you have people to interact with.

Yeah.

And especially like coming in as a new student, I think that's gonna be a little hard to settle yourself and really get to know everybody just because, like, at least where our program is right now, it's.

Everybody's on each other's side.

And that's what I've heard about every program so far, is that you're there for each other.

And I think it's going to be hard.

Like you have that moral support from everybody just being with each other every day.

So I think it's going to be a little hard in the beginning, but once you.

I mean, hopefully this doesn't go on long.

So once you get back in the classroom, it'll be nice to see everybody's face, to really get to know them as a person, because you'll be with them every single day for as long as your didactic year is.

Yeah.

Well, hopefully you'll get in, in the classroom soon and this won't disrupt too much for you because, yeah, it's it's definitely tough.

Well, thank you so much.

I'm so glad you got into school and were able to share your story with us.

But.

Yeah, is there anywhere where it's up to you if people can send you questions or they can send them to me and I can forward them to you?

But.

Yeah, I mean, you have my.

I can.

You can give people my email.

I'm on Instagram.

You can shoot me a message.

Yeah, I'm pretty open.

If you want to ask me questions and get to know what PA School is like, what the profession's like, what.

Just what my life is like in school.

Shoot me a message, email me any.

It's.

It's completely fine.

I have no problem helping people.

Well, I'll send them your way.

I'm sure you.

I'm sure you'll get some questions.

Well, thank you so, so much.

No problem.

It was my pleasure being on here.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks.

All right.

I stopped our record,.

Sam.