 Now please give a warm welcome to our guest speaker, Donna. She's known as the Donna the PA on YouTube. Six. But obviously, you guys want to be a PA. So now what do you do, right? So that's what this presentation is going to be about. And you guys are pretty much like a PA class right now. There's a bunch of females and like five males. And that's typically what you see in PA school anyways. So the males kind of have an upper hand because we want more men in the PA profession. So they typically like get into PA school. I know what I was interviewing and I saw a guy. I was like, oh man, I know he's getting in and he did. So I was right. But you guys kind of have a foot up in the door in that way, but this will kind of break it down a little bit more and I guess I'll email you all this so that you guys can have it so you can kind of go back to it. So that's me, Donna, MPAM. You see that little PAC right there? Yes, that's me. About me. Who am I? So that's my like government name. I am a Christian. That is like the main thing that got me through PA school. Prayer, lots of prayer. And then having like that day off. So I, you know, I worship on the Sabbath. And so having a day where I did not do anything at all PA school related was a lifesaver for me. I'm a life mother, PAC and YouTuber. And I don't have anything to disclose. All right. So there's five main steps to become a PA. I'm pretty sure most of you know about this, but you have to get a bachelor's degree that's like across the board now. There are some programs. I mean, this doesn't really apply to you all because you're already here at Temple, but there are some programs that are direct entry. So from high school, you can go straight into like a five year or six year program, but you guys chose Temple. So that doesn't apply to you guys, but after that you have to gain experience in healthcare. You apply to an ARC accredited PA program and then you complete your master's. It's two to three years. Arcadia has a dual program. So their program is three years. And then you pass the pants. Okay. So to complete your bachelor's degree, obviously you have to like get all of these requirements. And a lot of people ask me like all the time, like, what's the right major? Like there is no right major. You can be a music major. You can be an accounting major. You can be anything you want to be. You can be any major you want to be. It's just that as long as you have those prerequisite requirements, that's all that matters, okay? And I think that it's a little bit easier for people that aren't science majors to get into PA school, because all you have to do is like kind of cherry pick which prerequisites you want to take. And then your science major is, your science GPA is like a 4.0, you know? And then you were a music major and you have a 4.0. And so now you like look like this amazing candidate, but you know, for a science majors that had to take a bunch of science classes or like struggling with like a 3.3 and were like, man, we're not competitive enough, but that's just like my bone to pick. Anyway, so after that, after you get all of those various different prerequisites requirements, and let me just actually go back to that. So these are your general ones. However, PA school is not like med school where like everything is across the board from each PA program. So you really have to go and do your research and find like, all right, so Arcadia says this, Temple says that, Lynchburg says this, Kettering says that. They're not all gonna be the same prerequisite requirements. So you might have abnormal psychology as your second psych for one of your, one of the schools that you're applying to, but the other school might want developmental. And so now you have to decide, do I wanna actually take developmental psychology as well or just apply to schools that only require abnormal psychology? So that's just kind of some of the things that you'd have to do to make sure that you're doing your research. And there's this really cool app. It's called MyPA Box. They make this really, really easy. It's $65, but like it's $65 well spent because you can just put in all of your stats and then it will pull up schools that you match with. So it makes it pretty simple for you and they do a really good job of updating it. So gaining healthcare experience, there are different types of healthcare experience that can be PCE or HCE, which is direct patient care experience or healthcare experience. So healthcare experience is anything in the healthcare field. So you can be a front desk worker at your doctor's office. You can be a security guard. I was that at a nursing home for a little while. So all of that goes under healthcare experience, but when it comes to patient care experience, that's what PA school is really looking for. So are you taking vital signs? Are you doing injections? Do you know how to start lines where you would nurse before? Those are the types of experience that they're looking for and that's really what weighs heavy. So I know a lot of students, when I do my consultation sessions, they're like, yeah, I'm volunteering and that's nice. Volunteering sounds nice, but I would rather you be working and getting experience in sticking little kids at the Peds office, doing all of these various different injections than volunteering in the hospital because you're not actually touching the patient and directing their care and that's what is required. And these are just some types of direct patient care and CNA depending on what they allow you to do because sometimes you're just wiping butt and that's not really directing the patient's care. So all right. So the next step is applying to an ARC accredited PA school and this is really important because you cannot sit for your certification exam, the Pants, if you did not attend an ARC accredited PA program. Okay. So to do that, you have to start your CASPA application. I don't know if everyone knows what CASPA is, but it is our central application website. I think it's really important. If you're trying to go directly into PA school from undergrad, then it's important for you to start your CASPA application, obviously your senior year. If you're taking a gap year, like you can start it in April of that year. It's a lengthy process, but I mean, as long as you get it done, everything transfers over the next year. If God forbid you don't get in that year. So you take your entrance exam. I just did a YouTube video on this. There's a new PA entrance exam that is launching this May. It's called the PA cat. Generally you would take the GRE. Some schools will allow you to do the MCAT, but that's quickly fading away. It's mainly the GRE, and there's also another exam called the CASPA. CASPA is not really knowledge-based. It's more so situational. So you are a PA, your attendant asks you to treat their girlfriend that they're having an affair with, and then she goes home, and all of a sudden now she dies. Who's to blame for her death type of thing? So try to figure out what that situation, what would you do as the PA? So that's what the CASPA is. But the PA cat will be nine science courses. And you can go to their website, which is this PA-cat.com to get that information. So after that, you'll obviously get your letters of recommendation. Everyone's gonna give you a good letter of recommendation. Like that's not really a big thing to be concerned about. The main thing is your personal statement. So if you have a mediocre or subpar GPA, or even experience your personal statement will help you get into PA school. I really think that that's the main thing that allows you to get the interview. And then once you get the interview, now it's up to you to make sure that you sell yourself, and you're like, yeah, you deserve me at this school. So the personal statement is that first step. And then from that, you obviously prepare for the interview. You do your research on the school and the program, what they do if they're doing any type of community service, or if they're doing mission work, and then kind of say how you can fit into that. Because they like to ask questions like that. My program did at least. So after you do all of that, you complete your PA program. And this is a short, simple slide, but this is the hardest thing that you have to do is complete a PA program because PA school is not easy. It's like cramming four years of med school into two years. I know like they go in a little bit deeper than we do in PA school, but it's still a ton of information that you have to get in 12 months of studying because it's 12 months of didactic gear. And then you're in your rotations the next year, depending on if you do a two or three year program. But it's pretty hard. I mean, I can spend like an hour on this slide, like in and of itself, but that's it, complete a PA program. Okay. So after that, you pass the pants. So I didn't pass the pants the first time and I was devastated and sad. And PA programs make this really big deal out of having 100% pass rate or passing the pants the first time. And it's mainly because of accreditation. So if your pants pass rates start to drop, accreditation starts to come into play. But it's not a big deal if you don't pass the pants the first time. It just passes the second time, which I did. So that is why you have to do this. You have to pass the pants to be certified. After getting certified, you still have to get licensed and they don't really talk to you about that whole process, but your exam is $500. It's 300 questions and it's five to six hours. You get 15 blocks. You get 45 minutes for a break, but you can break it up however you want. So you can choose to skip a break and then get 30 minutes for your other break, however you want to do it. But it's a six hour exam and you have to get a 350 or above that's new from last year when I took it because last year, in 2018, it was a 300 or above, but the year I took it, they slid the scale up. So it was 350 or above. After you do that, then you have to pay your particular state that you're working in to get licensed, which is another like $200, $300. And then you have to pay for your DA license, which is like another $700. So it's like a process that you guys should take into consideration when you're like getting towards the end of PA school. Make sure that you still have some of that loan money to pay for these fees. But after that, you will be a certified PA. You can go for a job. And that is really all that you need to know to like become a PA. I know that was really quick and dirty, but I want to give you guys the opportunity to ask me any questions. I saw you guys with your little pens and pads. So like I'm excited to see what questions you may have, but that's really it, honestly. So you get a loan from the government or a rich uncle or something. I don't know, but you literally like, the majority of students got loans. It's really just like med school is just your loans are less. So instead of getting a $300,000 loan or being $300,000 in debt for four years of med school, you're like $100,000 in debt. And you come out and I was talking to someone over there about negotiating contracts currently. So right now, the average new grad PA makes $95,000. There are people that are making more money, depending on the specialty. But really, you went to school, you have a six-figure brain, you should making six figures. So it's not going to take you long to pay back that $100,000 if you kind of live frugally your first couple of years out of PA school. So it's like a really easy process, honestly. But it's a matter of getting a loan, really and truly. There are some people that work. I don't know how they do it, but there were some people that were like still firefighters or EMTs or RTs. I knew a couple that kind of did some shifts here and there. But it wasn't paying for PA school, that's for sure. Yeah? Are you still accepting the GRE after the PA CAT comes out? Yeah. So currently, the PA CAT is only with 10% of PA programs. So there's 282 ARC accredited PA schools currently. So I mean, we do our math. It's like 30 schools probably are thinking about it or recommending it and only a select few are requiring it. And those are the schools whose professors were on the board for the PA CAT. So they're rolling it out in their program, so it makes sense. But no, they're still feeling it out because it's very new. You can't just be like, OK, this is it. Now everyone is doing the PA CAT because it's not through PA education. It's its own separate entity, kind of like the GRE. It's school-based. So I was a CNA, and I worked as a patient service representative at Patient First. But I would be like, hey, so can I do this? Kind of like get a little bit of experience. And so I got people to sign off on that. But I was the main PC that I used with CNA. What were the most varied PC? So it varied. We had a good amount of scribes because our school, they took scribing. So I know I heard someone was a scribe currently, but not every program accepts being a scribe because you're not touching the patient. Yeah, you see a lot. And the scribes knew a ton of stuff. They knew how to treat patients coming in with CVAs and things. I'm like, what? Because I'm sitting up here like a CNA. I'm like, well, I can give you ibuprofen. But they're in it because they're in the ED, right? But our program allowed them to come in. And so we had a good amount of scribes. We had EMTs and EMSs. I had one firefighter, a PT tech, a pharmacy tech, which I don't know how she got it. Because she wasn't touching patients either, but she was super smart. So sometimes it's about who you know with PA programs. So if you know anybody at a program, you use those connections. And other times it's just a matter of your personal statement or how well you interview your personality, how that comes across, and seeing if they want to allow you in their program. But it varied. Because you were trying to play in the day school, or did you take a gap year? So I was telling someone, I took a gap year, but it wasn't planned. It was just like I wanted to be a physician in OBGYN. And I had an epiphany moment with my mentor. And I was like, man, no, I don't want to be an OBGYN anymore. But I still want to do medicine. And I didn't want to practice as a nurse. I looked at certified nurse midwife, and I didn't like the nursing model. So I was like, well, what else is there? And I found the PA profession. And it was really cool. So I was like, OK. And now the profession is changing so much. You're able to do so much more. So I came in at the right time. But no, I don't know how many years I was out of school before. It was a ton of years. I had babies. I got married. So there was a lot that happened before I got into PA school. And I made a lot of mistakes, too, in my first tries of applying to PA school. So that's why I'm telling you. That's why I told you guys about that app. Because had that had been around when I was getting into PA school, I don't think I would have made as many mistakes as I did. I wouldn't have applied to some schools, because I would have known for sure I didn't match with those programs. I saw. Did you have a question? OK. Yeah. So it all depends on the question, right? I mean, honestly, I think you just have to do your research on the school and see what they're about. And see how you can formulate some answers that will align with what they're already doing. I know when I was applying and when I got my interview, there was a PA forum. So if you type in temple PA programs forum, there's going to be this backdoor forum that pops up with people that have been interviewing. Sometimes they tell you the type of interview questions that they had. It's a lot of like, oh, I interviewed two weeks ago and I got called today type of thing. But you just kind of get a feel of the process of interviewing how long it might take for you to actually get a call back to be either accepted or waitlisted or whatever the case may be. But just going on Facebook, the Facebook groups of various different PA schools and things like that is really your best bet in knowing how to approach an interview. Yeah. Applied as many as you can afford. I mean, it's not cheap. It's $55 a program. It's $175 for the first program and then $55 subsequent after that. So I mean, that money racks up. People spend hundreds of dollars applying to PA programs. But again, that app might shrink your load down. So you might think like, OK, I'm going to just apply to all the schools in Pennsylvania because I want to stay in Pennsylvania. But you may only be eligible to apply to two programs. So you apply into 12 schools and you're only eligible for two. That's just a waste of $550. So you really just have to, again, do your research and then apply to the schools that you're able to apply to and as many as you can apply to because you're just increasing your odds. So I mean, I'm a PA. I can be like, yeah, I'm a Donna the PA now. But I'm not practicing yet. So right now, I'm just kind of enjoying going through the interviewing process. I'm looking at three different positions currently, which is a hematology and oncology PA, a rheumatology PA, and then a gen-search trauma PA. And I really like the trauma one. So my husband's like, no. But I'm leaning more towards the trauma PA. So I think I'm going to like that because they do 24-hour shifts. So you're only in the hospital eight times a month, which is amazing to be only working eight days out of 30 or 31. So I'm excited about that. So you can take vacations and sip on some like little virgin cocktails. And you don't even have to take PTO time. So I'm excited about that, honestly. But I'm just kind of enjoying this process. Another thing they don't tell you is that credentialing takes a long time. So even after you've gotten hired, it's like, um, yeah. So I mean, I guess this is like a shameless plug for my pre-PA consultation sessions, because that's what I do there. But writing the personal statement, I think you really, what I tell people to do is you start off with the story of why PA. Because you can be anything. You can be a nurse practitioner. You can be an MD. So why PA instead of those other two professions that kind of function the same way, I think is important in delineating in the first paragraph or so. And then after that, I mean, you have a really cool story. My husband did this one, he wrote it for me, honestly. I just kind of tweaked it towards the end, but he wrote it. But it was like, yeah, you wrote it, you wrote it. So apparently, I was walking down this beach, and I saw this shiny thing in the ground. And it was a genie lamp. And so I'm writing this, and I'm bringing you in this story with me. Already, you caught my attention. As opposed to, hi, my name is Adana. I want to be a PA so bad. I've always wanted to be a PA. Ever since I could remember, it's all I wanted to do. And it's like, everybody is going to have that same story. So if you can come with something that's very eye-catching in the beginning, do that. And then you can go into the things that you've done in undergrad, like your volunteer experience and things like that. If you did have a little mishap in your GPAs, maybe not the strongest, I do suggest lightly tapping it. You'd dip your toe in the pool and you take it out. So you mention it, and then you keep it moving because you don't want them to focus on the fact that, all right, well, she didn't do really good in undergrad. So you just mention it so that they know that it's there. You come back, and then from that, now you tell them why you would make a good PA student at their program. And for the personal statement, it's general across the board to each school because you're putting it in CASPA. But I always tend to end my personal statements with, and so I would be honored or whatever if I can be a PA student at your program. So make it personal to the reader, even though it's for 15 schools. But as long as you have that skeleton, I think that's a good start and just have a bunch of people read it. That's your main thing. Yeah? Do you have any advice for people who like my name? Yeah, I mean, just stuff it up. Honestly, you want to be a PA, right? So you're going, this is the easy part, honestly, because you're going to have people's lives in your hand, depending on the type of PA that you're going to be. So at the end of the day, maybe kind of just compartmentalize yourself. So in your senior year, if you're trying to go direct into PA school, make sure that you have all of the health care hours and the experience and everything that you need for CASPA so that as soon as CASPA opens up in April, because CASPA is opening up in April, so for all you seniors who are trying to get in for next year, you have to send that application in May or June because you want to be ahead of the game. So as long as you're preparing and you're doing things ahead of time, although you may be a sophomore or freshman, you can start working on your personal statement now. And you could just continue to augment it throughout the years as you get more experience. So when you break up the work, it doesn't seem as difficult. The really hard part is the waiting for an actual call back for an interview or getting a supplemental application. And that's another thing that you guys are going to have to save money for because you're paying $55 for a program. But you might have a supplemental application that's like $30. And so if you have like 10 of those, that's another $300 that you have to shell out. So it is like a money-making process like most of these school application processes are. But after it's all said and done, once you're in PA school, you're going to be paid well beyond what you spent in this whole pre-PA process. Was I surprised? No. I was completely sure I did not want to do OB because my mentor was telling me how she missed the time that she spent with her. She didn't get to spend with her kids. And for me, that was really important. I'm super family-oriented. I'm like, yeah, let's go hang out type of thing. That's my thing. So I never wanted to be like, oh, man, I didn't have any time with my kids or my family. They never saw me. In PA school, they're like, oh, you never play with us. And that's just PA school. So I could only imagine being in med school and then residency for another four to six years for my OB-GYN residency. No, that's not what I wanted. And the thing, the beauty of the PA profession is that if I want to go dip into the OB-GYN pool, I can. I don't have to go and get extra learning to do that. But as an NP, you do. As an MD, you do. I can literally be a trauma PA today and then apply to the dermatology position that I see that's open and be a dermatology PA at the same time. Because you get trained on the job. So yeah, no. Yeah? Look, this is your school office. So we had four electives, which is not the norm. Schools typically just have one or two electives. And I got to choose my electives because I set up all my rotations in Maryland. So I did trauma. I did cardiothoracic surgery. I did an OB-GYN elective because I want to be an OB-GYN PA, ultimately, in the future. And then I think I did a blended primary care and PEEDS because I know those were large sections on the pants. So. Definitely. So I don't know if I had a favorite favor, but I really like trauma. And then OB, that's why I did two rotations in it. Just kind of being in the OR, but also being able to manage patients was really cool to me. So yeah. Hi. I'm literally just watching your video like two weeks ago. Did you subscribe? OK, all right. And everybody in here, I need to have like 50 new subscribers on YouTube and Instagram, OK? So go ahead. Donna, the PA, you can like look me up and do that. Like go ahead. OK. So you don't say like I want to be able to different different different specialties, but you say you like like the lateral movement that PA's have. And that's not taboo at all. Like I use that all the time. But you know that's I mean people know that that's what you want. You want to be able to laterally move to various different specialties. And you also like the time that you have with your family or the free time that you have. And it's not as stressful. So that's fine to address those. Like most people say that in their personal statement. Yeah. I thought I saw someone else. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if there was like a biggest mistake. I think like, well, I guess it's just under the umbrella of not doing my research, right? So like I said, it's not across the board that every pay school has the same prerequisite requirements and the same amount of hours. Like some school may require 500 health care experience hours or personal patient care experience hours. And others may require 1,000 or 2,700. Emory requires like at minimum 3,000. But the majority of their students have over 5,000. So for me, not doing that research, I kind of just put myself in this mode where I was like, well, I got into med school. So I can definitely get into PA school. And I was sorely mistaken. You know, I didn't mean like there was some that schools that said you couldn't have anything lower than a B in the prerequisite requirements. And one of their prerequisite requirements was statistics. And I had a B minus in that because I took it in high school as a senior. And I was like, well, I'm not taking, like once I realized that and I didn't get in. And then I'm like, but I'm not taking statistics over for a B minus. Like that's not going to do anything to my GPA. It's not going to do anything to my science GPA if I get an A in it. So I was like, just things like that. You make like really silly mistakes because some of these, this information is like hidden in various different, like you have to click on one link and then go to another page. And it's like, well, why can't everything be just streamlined? And so for me, I think that's why I was like, I made a ton of mistakes because you see yourself, like once you go back, you're like, oh, yeah, well, there it is. Like that's why I didn't get in because I didn't meet the prerequisite requirements. And that's what a lot of people make mistakes on. Like making sure that your last, I don't know, one school said, I needed to have everything within the last five years. I'm like, well, I've been out of school for more than five years. So I have some of these things because I had to retake them, but I don't have all of them. Or some say that there are certain courses that they'll expire after five, seven, or 10 years. And that's something that you also have to pay attention to. So it's like, OK, well, now my courses are getting too old. So I have to retake them. So that was the really stressful part. But like I said, the app that I'm telling you guys about is a good one that you can get. And I'll come to you. So you're talking about that out here. So that's where you yourself now, like, you rank your schools. So if you have a 3.4 or 3.3, and the average, which is a mean, is 3.5, then you know that they're still admitting students with 3.3s and 3.4s. And they're admitting students with 4.0s and 3.7s. So if you look at that and you see, like, OK, I may not be hitting the GPA, but I have more hours than their average matriculated student. Or my personal statement is so bomb, like, I know I'm going to get this interview, like, then apply. But you rank your schools. It's almost like a med school match. So you're like, all right, so I have 10 schools that I can apply to. This is where I fall on each of them. I'm going to apply to this school first and this school last. Because then that way you're not losing anything. You're just applying to the schools that you're better suited for earlier. You have a question? Did you complete your career to take a course that I already took, or I could take for $200 or $300 at my local community college? So I just kind of retook some of those courses at the community college. And there are some programs that don't look, like, highly on that, depending on if it was. They'll say, like, it has to be a 500 or 400 credit course, 400 level course. So as long as it meets that requirement, then you're fine. But you can't take, like, a 200 credit anatomy when they're asking for a 400 credit hour anatomy. All right, so I have to stop you guys real quick. There's, like, a few minutes left. And we got to hear, like, six o'clock, right? All right, so you guys show some love for your mom.