Episode Transcript
Interviewer: How to know if a physician assistant program is a good fit for you. That's next on The Scope.
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If you're applying for physician assistance programs, it can get very expensive very quickly if you're applying to a lot of schools. And then think about if you've got to fly to all of those schools for interviews. But is that program really right for you, or are you wasting your time and money?
We're going to try to figure out how to determine that right now. We're with Doris Dalton. She's the Director of Admissions for the University of Utah Physician Assistant program.
So, this is a common thing is people applying to programs that might not be right for them and then wasting their time and money. How do you even know if the program's right for you? How do you even go about figuring that out?
Doris: Candidates need to visit each program's website, and most candidates are selecting programs based on geographic area from where they would like to live or can live.
Interviewer: So that's the number one criteria for them?
Doris: It is. It is. But you need to look at the program's requirements, which vary from one program to the next, and you also need to put together a spreadsheet addressing each of the programs of interest that you have and what are their requirements. Do you meet their requirements?
I would say about 20% of our applicant pool, that applies to the University of Utah, hasn't met our minimum requirements. And it's unfortunate because they don't receive a formal review, and it costs them money to apply to that program where they didn't even get an evaluation.
Interviewer: So that 20%, is it something that they realize we're not a match, or they just didn't have something that you required them to have, like the amount of experience or clinical time or whatever?
Doris: That's usually it. I think some people just throw a school into their queue for the programs that they're applying to through the central application service, without having visited their website to understand who they are or what kind of a program they are and what their requirements are.
Interviewer: So on this spreadsheet, what would be some of the things you would recommend putting on there?
Doris: You'll want to list whether or not they require a secondary application, every class that they require for prerequisite coursework, what is their health care experience requirement, do they require the GRE, which will be an additional expense.
Interviewer: So some of those basic things. What are some of the more advanced things? I'm trying to think of a way to phrase this. It's like a lot of times places are looking for a certain type of applicant above just their experience or whatnot. How do you determine that?
Doris: At the University of Utah, our mission is a primary care emphasis, and we work with underserved populations. And so this is the type of program that we are, and if that's not the education that you want, perhaps the University of Utah isn't a good fit for you.
Interviewer: Yeah, that's not the clientele you want to work with necessarily. Those aren't the patients you want to work with.
Doris: Then you might want to look at something that's going to give you a different type of education, a different type of patient care exposure.
Interviewer: So that's a great tip. You can look at the mission statement of each school. That will give you some indication as to what their values are. What are some other ways to determine what their values are?
Doris: You can also look at what kind of a curriculum they have. So if you desire to have, for example, exposure to patients in the first year, many programs are beginning to offer first year patient exposures during the didactic or the academic year of the training. You might look at the type of education that they give. Are they a classroom type of program? Are they a problem based learning type of program? If you don't do well in a classroom, listening to lectures and taking tests, maybe something that's more interaction would be better for your learning style.
Interviewer: That's a good idea. And I would imagine another way you can show your values is, "Did I do my volunteer work at a clinic for underserved?" I would imagine if that's what your goal is for your students, you're going to look at that.
Doris: We do look at that.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Doris: Why would you want to come to this program? What kinds of exposures have you had to prepare yourself for this program in particular?
Interviewer: What are some other considerations when you're looking at a PA program to know if it's going to be the right fit for you?
Doris: Geographic area. Is this program in a place that I think I can live in?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Doris: You'll certainly want to look at tuition. Is it a big program? Is it a small program? What kinds of support they might offer you as a student, and that's something you should certainly explore when you interview. Again, when you're interviewing with someone, not only are they interviewing you, but you're interviewing them . . .
Interviewer: That's a good thing to remember.
Doris: . . . to see if you want to go there.
Interviewer: Yeah. Do they match up with your values?
Doris: Absolutely. Are they going to provide the support that you might need as a student? Are they going to be accessible and help you to succeed as a student?
Interviewer: I think that's brilliant because I think a lot of times we get caught up in, "Oh I want to go here," and we're so eager to please them, but we've got to remember the program's got to please us. Otherwise we're not going to last very long because it's a hard, hard program.
Doris: It is. It's very demanding and very condensed curriculum, and it's the toughest two to three years you'll ever love.
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