 Hi everybody, my name is Boris, I'm a second year physician assistant student, and this is episode three of my pre-PA Q&A. So this is basically where I just answer PA school questions from people who comment on my YouTube videos, on my Instagram posts. So this question comes from someone who's considering PA school after getting a bachelor's degree. So this person writes, and I'm looking over here, this is where my monitor is, so I'm not ignoring you. I'm just kind of looking this way and I'm going to answer into the camera, okay? All right, let's do it. So this person writes, Hi Boris, I'm here from your YouTube channel. I hope it's okay that I'm emailing you, it's always okay. I love answering questions, I'm really happy to answer questions in my YouTube comments, in my Instagram comments, emails. I prefer honestly that you post your questions publicly, so either as a YouTube comment or on Instagram, so that if it's just a quick question that I can answer, everybody can benefit from my answer. I can help as many people as possible by answering your question. If it's something kind of longer, kind of more in-depth, or if there's, you know, personal details, stuff that you don't want to put out there into the universe, then go ahead and email it to me and I'll answer you directly, and then if it's something I think a lot of people can get a benefit out of, I'll obviously remove anything personal from you and I can maybe make a video out of it like this. But I'm obviously not going to make videos out of every question, just things that I think are really pertinent to a lot of people. So anyway, this person says, I'm considering PA school and as a first-generation student, I don't know too much about applying to PA school, so I have a couple of questions I would like to ask you. And I'm sorry I'm doing so many asides, but this is also really important. I've noticed that a lot of people that come to me for help are either first-generation college students, so they're immigrants like myself, they maybe grew up in a bad neighborhood, something where basically going to grad school in the United States just wasn't a norm for their family, for their friends, for people that they knew. And so no one really talked them through the process of getting into grad school, what it really takes, succeeding in grad school, all that kind of stuff, that is just kind of the norm in some neighborhoods. Some people just never really had that growing up. I didn't have that growing up. It's really gratifying to help people who will be excellent doctors, nurses, PAs, nurse practitioners, whatever it is they want to do, but they just didn't have these simple tools to get into grad school, to succeed in college, things like that. And it's not really fair because a lot of people just had those kind of growing up, their parents went to grad school, or they happened to have a family friend, or a family member, or someone who was a PA or a doctor, and they just like took them under their wing and helped them. Well, most of the people coming to me for help didn't have that. I didn't have that. And it actually took me like 10 years after graduating from undergrad to learn all these things that you really need to get into grad school, especially a really competitive grad school, you know, like PA school, and succeeding in it. And I also had to take some very drastic measures, like joining the military to pay off my debt and to pay for grad school, things that I just couldn't do myself otherwise. And so what I really want to do with this channel, or one of the things, is to help people who are in situations like I was, like I said, first generation Americans, immigrants, people in bad neighborhoods, just people who just don't have access to the knowledge and the experience in their family and their friend group to do things like get into PA school or medical school. So I just really want to help as best that I can. But anyway, moving on to the rest of the question here. So she says, I don't know much about applying to PA school, and I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you. I just graduated with a bachelor's degree in biomechanical engineering, so I'm not exactly on the PA track. Kind of, not really. During the pandemic, I have been self-reflecting on what I really want to do with my future career, and I decided that I want to go forth with becoming a PA. Like I said, I wasn't on the PA track while attending undergrad, so I need to take some prerequisites like organic chemistry and microbiology that weren't requirements for biomechanical engineering. And I'm assuming maybe some of the prereqs for PA school and some of the requirements for biomechanical engineering kind of overlapped, so maybe you're kind of good there and you just have to take a few, but it depends. And a lot of times with these career changers, like I know one person in my program was a mechanical engineer, I think she was a mechanical engineer or something, but it wasn't biomedical, so I bet you she had to take all kinds of classes just to get the prereqs for PA school, and I can actually ask her about that if anyone's interested. But anyway, so this person says they will have to take some prereqs like microbiology and organic chemistry. I'm considering attending a post-bac like you mentioned in your video and have looked at some places around me, I assume they're talking about my video How to Get into PA School with a Low GPA, and she writes, and so I was wondering what I should be doing to make sure that I can attend a post-bac program. Is there anything in particular they look at like transcripts? I don't know how I can earn my patient care experience with my degree, I looked into getting certifications like phlebotomy or being an EKG technician, and so I can work in hospitals. Is there anything you would recommend doing? I look forward to hearing from you. So that was kind of a lot of questions. And I noticed that with these kind of career change people, so this person's an engineer, I actually had somebody write me who was in the movie business or something, NLA, and now she's considering becoming a PA. Like I get a lot of questions from people really trying to make these drastic transitions to be a PA. And it's always basically the same. You kind of have to make a logical plan. What PA school or schools are you interested in? What prereqs do they require? What do you have done? And so what do you have to do? And then what grades do you need? And then do you need to take the GRE? And so on and so forth. It's really, it seems overwhelming until you just break it down into little baby steps and then figure out exactly what you have to do and then do exactly that. And then that's it. It might take you a year, it might take you two years depending on your situation, but it's pretty gratifying to know that it's just a simple plan and you have to follow it. And that's it, that's all you have to do. Take the classes, get straight A's. I know I'm brushing it off as if getting straight A's is easy, it's not, but you have to do it. So get the classes you need, get straight A's in all of them, take the GRE, do really well, do what you have to do. Write a great essay, get to know the admissions people, all that stuff that I always talk about in my videos, do all of that and you can totally switch careers and get into PA school. So anyway, so I'm gonna read my response here. I said, it's great to hear from you. I actually have an ex engineer in my PA school class, like I just told you. And if you have any specific questions for her, I can pass them along. It sounds like you're just getting started on your pre-PA journey and you have a lot to do. So how was your cumulative and science GPAs upon graduation? And I'm asking that because obviously GPA, both cumulative and science, is basically the first thing that PA schools look at. So even though this wasn't a biology major or a chemistry major, that undergraduate GPA is still gonna be the biggest determining factor that's gonna decide how easy it is for this person to get into PA school. I also asked, how many prerequisite courses will you need to take in order to the apply to the PA program or programs are interested in? Is it only organic chemistry and microbiology or will you need things like anatomy and physiology one and two? Psychology, sociology, any other common pre-rex? Have you checked this out? Personally, and then on to the next question. Personally, I can't think of any way to get patient contact hours, patient care experience with a biomedical engineering degree unless you become a sales rep for a medical device company and actually go into operating rooms with surgeons and help them use the devices. So actually, having just finished up my surgery rotation literally yesterday, this is actually a really good way to get patient care experience, PCE, patient contact hours, patient care experience and also make really good money. So a lot of these folks have backgrounds like bio majors, chemistry majors, some of them I'm sure would actually appreciate an engineering major because basically what your job is is you're going into emergency rooms and teaching physicians, basically being like a product, like a product expert research for things like joint replacements, artificial discs, for herniated discs in the neck and the back, all kinds of stuff like that. Companies make these things and they train people to go into operating rooms and help the surgeons use these things. So these jobs are definitely more competitive than like a CNA or an EMT, but they also pay way more and you do get patient care experience doing them. I don't know if every school will accept that kind of experience, but I've certainly seen plenty of PA schools that accept patient contact hours from being a medical sales rep who actually goes into the OR and does what I just mentioned. So that's what I just recommended to this person with a biomedical engineering degree, but I recommend it to anybody else with like a bio major, chemistry major. Companies definitely do hire people with those backgrounds to do this kind of job. Anyway, so I said, I have heard of people getting jobs like that, making great money and also getting patient care experience. If that's not something that's an option for you, then yes, a phlebotomy, CNA, CMA, EMT certificate and then job would be the best way to go just because those jobs are pretty quick to train for and pretty easy to get in order to get your patient care experience. And then onto the final question about post-bacs. I said post-bacs can actually be competitive. They will look at your transcripts, maybe your standardized test scores, so like the GRE and your personal statement. It just depends on which post-bac you're interested in. So you have to remember, most pre-medical post-bacs are geared towards medical school. So the people getting into these post-bacs are pre-med students and on average, their GPAs, their stats tend to be higher than pre-PA students. And so especially the good pre-medical post-bacs, like the ones at Ivy League schools like Columbia's got a great one, those kinds of post-bacs are actually pretty competitive to get into themselves. Now I know there's a bunch of them all over the country, some are more competitive than others and you should see my video called How to Get Into PA School with a Low GPA to really hear what I think about post-bacs. You know, the risks versus the benefits. You know, it's definitely not for everybody even though it worked for me as a good option. I mean, I went to Cornell's and I really don't think I would have gotten into PA school without going to that post-bac. But like I said, it's a very high risk, high reward way to go to get your GPA up and make yourself more competitive. So if you wanna hear what I had to say in detail, go watch that video called How to Get Into PA School with a Low GPA. And so I also told her before choosing a post-bac or just taking classes on your own, you need to figure out your priorities. Do you need to get your GPA up? Do you need a lot of prereqs, things like that? And then with those things in mind, you can choose the post-bac option that works best for you, whether you do a structured post-bac like I did or you just kind of take classes on your own. And so that's basically all I said. So the basic message here is whether you're looking to transition from a career like engineering or some other career or whether you're just getting started on your pre-PA journey or you're already in it, whatever the case may be, the answer is always to logically look at exactly what you need to get into the PA school or schools that you wanna go to. Realistically look at the GPAs of the people that got in last year, see what you would need to achieve that or better. Look at the prereqs, see if you have them and what you need if you don't have them. Look at the GRE requirement if there is one and how you can get that kind of score if you don't already have it. Look at their hours requirements, how many hours you have, how you can get them, what kind of hours they accept. Basically just logically look at it step by step. What do I need? What do I need to do? And how can I do it? It's really simple when you look at it, I guess from my perspective, but I do remember a few years ago when I was applying, it really, really, really seemed super intimidating, super daunting, so I don't blame anyone for getting overwhelmed, but I'm telling you, when you just slow down, take a breath and figure out exactly what you have to do and then make a plan to do it and then see yourself getting progress and getting closer and closer to becoming a competitive applicant. It makes things much less stressful and you just know it's gonna work out in the end because it will. So that's it for this pre-PA Q&A. Like I said, I'm Boris, I'm a second year physician assistant student. If you want my help personally with your PA school application or your essay or you wanna do a mock interview, go to BoristhePA.com, book one of my services. If you just have a quick question, please post it below or on any of my YouTube videos as a comment or on my Instagram, by the way, follow me on Instagram at BoristhePA just to keep up with what I'm doing on a daily, kind of weekly basis. I definitely don't post every day. And so that's it. Until next time, thank you for watching and have a great night.