The Pre-PA Club

PA isn't the only good option in medicine, and I'd rather you hear that from me than figure it out three years in.

Amanda Dexter directs the Master of Respiratory Care program at Jacksonville University, and she came on to explain what respiratory therapy actually is as a career. RTs are in the ER, in critical care, in home care, and increasingly in telehealth. If cardiopulmonary medicine is the part that lights you up, this is a real path.

Right now you can practice with an associate's degree, but the field is pushing toward a bachelor's as the standard, with 2030 as the target people keep pointing to. Jacksonville's master's program is one of only nine in the country.

A lot of pre-PAs use RT as their patient care experience and then apply to PA school. Some of them stay. Both outcomes are fine. What's not fine is picking a career because it's the only one you've heard of.

Check with programs directly for current degree requirements, since those timelines shift.

What we cover:

• What respiratory therapists do and where they work
• Associate's versus bachelor's versus master's, and where the field is headed
• What a master's in respiratory care adds
• Telehealth and expanding roles for RTs
• Using RT as patient care experience for PA school
• How to tell if this fits you better than PA

Resources:

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

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

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

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

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PA school is expensive, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness is one of the few real ways out from under it. It's also one of the most misunderstood programs in existence.

Meagan Landress is a student loan consultant with Student Loan Planner, and she walks through the five boxes you have to check: you work for a qualifying public service employer, you're full time, your loans are direct federal loans, you're on an income-driven repayment plan, and you make 120 qualifying payments.

Miss one of those and the clock isn't running. That's how people end up ten years in with nothing to show for it.

Her most useful tip is a practical one - look up your employer's EIN and run it through the PSLF help tool on studentaid.gov before you assume you qualify. Don't guess.

Heads up: student loan rules change constantly, and this episode was recorded in 2022. Verify everything at studentaid.gov before you make decisions. I'm not a financial advisor and none of this is financial advice.

What we cover:

• The five PSLF requirements, one at a time
• What counts as a qualifying employer and how to check
• Why your loan type and repayment plan can quietly disqualify you
• Using the PSLF help tool and your employer's EIN
• Common mistakes that reset people's progress
• How to think about loans before you sign for PA school

Resources:

Free PA School 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

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

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Full tuition. Covered.

The Simon Scholar program at Chapman University pays for PA school, and I don't think nearly enough people know it exists. So I brought on Raina Walker and Courtney, two students actually in it, to explain how it works.

The criteria are specific. They're looking for first-generation college students from underserved backgrounds who've been through real adversity and who plan to serve communities in Orange or San Diego County after graduation. If that's you, this is worth your attention.

You can apply alongside your PA school application or after you've been accepted, and the window they described runs May 1 through September 15. Check with Chapman directly for current dates and requirements before you build a plan around this, since these things change year to year.

And the scholarship isn't only money. Raina and Courtney both talk about the support and mentorship that comes with it, which honestly might matter as much as the tuition.

What we cover:

• What the Simon Scholar program covers and who it's built for
• The eligibility criteria and what "underserved background" means here
• Applying with your PA application versus after acceptance
• The application window and how to prepare for it
• The service commitment in Orange and San Diego County
• What being a Simon Scholar has actually been like for both of them

Resources:

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

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

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

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

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Eleven applications. Ten interview invites. Three acceptances.

That's Nelson's second cycle. His first cycle looked nothing like that.

So what changed? He added patient care experience. He knocked out more prereqs. He applied early to rolling admissions programs, which matters more than almost anything else people obsess over. And he rewrote his personal statement to actually sound like him instead of what he thought they wanted to hear.

That last one is the piece I see most often. Applicants write a personal statement performing a version of themselves, and it reads flat. Nelson figured out that being honest was the stronger move.

If you're staring down a second cycle right now, listen to this one and then go make a list. Reapplying without changing anything is just paying CASPA twice.

What we cover:

• What his first cycle looked like and where it fell apart
• Adding patient care hours and prereqs between cycles
• Rewriting a personal statement to sound like an actual person
• Applying early to rolling admissions programs
• Reaching out to current students and faculty before you apply
• Going from almost no interviews to ten

Resources:

Free Personal Statement Worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

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

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

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"Apply anyway."

That's Peter's advice, and I want it tattooed on every pre-PA's forehead. So many of you talk yourselves out of applying because of one number, one semester, one thing you think disqualifies you. Admissions committees are weighing a lot more than you think.

Peter is a family medicine PA and one of our coaches. He majored in Medical Biology at the University of New England, worked as an EMT, and went to PA school at MCPHS. He knew early, which meant he could line his prereqs up from day one instead of scrambling later.

He's honest about the first few months of PA school being rough. The way he studied in undergrad stopped working almost immediately, and he had to rebuild the whole system on the fly. That's normal. Nobody tells you that.

Now he's in family medicine, where no two patients are the same and he's constantly moving between working independently and working with his physician. He talks about how that balance actually feels in practice.

What we cover:

• A pre-PA track in undergrad and whether it's worth it
• Working as an EMT for patient contact hours
• Why the first months of PA school break most people's study habits
• Family medicine and the range of what walks through the door
• Autonomy versus collaboration in a real PA job
• Applying when you feel underqualified

Resources:

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

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

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Emily decided she wanted to do medicine in seventh grade, when her mom went back to school to become a medical assistant.

She kept that thread all the way through. Biomedical science program, then Liberty University, where she built an interdisciplinary studies degree specifically so she could load up on pre-PA courses instead of taking classes that didn't serve the goal. She finished above a 3.8, scribed in an orthopedic office, and is starting at the University of Lynchburg in May.

The part I want to point out: she only applied to six programs, all in Virginia and North Carolina, because staying near family mattered more to her than casting a wide net. That's a real tradeoff, and she made it on purpose instead of by accident. That's the difference.

She also volunteered in Greece working with refugees, which gave her something genuinely different to talk about when her extracurricular list was shorter than some applicants'. Depth beats a long list every time.

What we cover:

• Using an interdisciplinary degree to line up prereqs efficiently
• Scribing in orthopedics and what it taught her
• Applying to only six programs, and why she narrowed by location
• Deciding what you're willing to trade for staying close to home
• Making one unusual experience carry real weight in your application
• Timing PA school around a wedding and the rest of your life

Resources:

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

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

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

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

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Christa took the MCAT twice before she figured out she wanted to be a PA.

That's a hard thing to admit out loud when you've spent years telling everyone you're going to med school. She talks about that pivot honestly - what pushed her toward PA, and why she's never looked back.

She works in urgent care and family medicine, and she loves the range of it. Every door is something different. That flexibility is the whole reason a lot of us picked this profession.

Her best piece of advice is about interviews, and it's one I give constantly: the interview is not an interrogation. You're evaluating them too. Programs are expensive, long, and you have to live there. Ask questions like someone who has options.

Christa is one of our coaches at The PA Platform, so if you want to work with her directly, counseling is the place to start.

What we cover:

• Two rounds of the MCAT and the decision to switch to PA
• What urgent care and family medicine actually look like day to day
• Treating the interview as a two-way fit conversation
• Questions to ask a program before you commit
• Balancing health and wellness with a demanding schedule
• Her advice for anyone changing course mid-plan

Resources:

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

Mock Interview: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/mock-interview

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

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

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Emma didn't get in the first time. She's a GI PA now, and one of our coaches here at The PA Platform.

I wanted her on because reapplicants get treated like they failed at something. They didn't. Emma applied, didn't get in, figured out what was actually weak, fixed it, and got in the next cycle. That's not failure. That's the process working.

She also talks about her jump from internal medicine to gastroenterology, which is a good reminder that your first PA job doesn't lock you in. GI is a specialty most pre-PAs have never even considered, and she walks through what her days actually look like.

The other thread through this conversation is mentorship. Emma had people in her corner, and now she is that person for other applicants.

What we cover:

• Finding out the PA profession existed while she was in college
• What went wrong in her first application cycle and what she changed
• Moving from internal medicine into GI, and why
• What a GI PA actually does day to day
• How clinical experience and volunteering shaped her application
• Why having a mentor changes the whole process

Resources:

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

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

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

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