 Hey guys, my name is Boris. I'm a second year physician assistant physician associate student and today I'm actually doing kind of a special video. This is actually a response to a comment I got on YouTube on my video called engineer to physician assistant PA major career change. So in that video I actually answered an email question from a viewer who was a biomechanical engineer and was actually thinking about transitioning from that career over to physician assistant physician associate. Alright, I'm going to use the two interchangeably. I'm not sure if it's like transitioned officially. I'm just going to use physician assistant or PA for short. Hopefully nobody gets too mad about that. Okay. So anyway, so this video was all about answering that person's questions, what I would personally do and recommend that they do as they're considering this transition and then how to use their degree and their experience to make themselves more competitive to be a PA school applicant. So that's what that video was about. This comment on that video is from someone named Kyle and in that video, I actually said that there's a member of my own PA school class. We have like 75 people in my class, but one of those people was a former engineer. I think she was a mechanical engineer or an industrial engineer, some kind of engineer and she actually made the transition from engineer to PA and now she's graduating in a couple of months with me and she's going to be a PA. So I actually mentioned if anybody has specific questions about transitioning from engineer to PA, if they really want me to relay those questions to her, I'll see if she can answer some of them. So this person actually commented on that YouTube video saying, if it's not too much, can you ask your friend that has the mechanical engineering background? I have the same degree and I actually work in aerospace. I would appreciate reviewing her path for her career change, much appreciated. So the question wasn't really specific. It sounds like Kyle really just wants to get the story, kind of some details on what made this person transition, how she went about doing it and just some general questions. So basically what I did is I just screenshoted this question and I sent it to her and just said, Hey, if you want to respond, anything you think might be helpful to this kid, just let me know and I'll relay it to him. I honestly thought she was going to answer just in a couple of quick sentences like I wanted to transition from engineer to PA for this, this and this reason. And here's how I did it. But instead, she actually sent me a lot of really good details. So what I'm going to do in this video, I'm just going to read what she said word for word and just kind of comment and riff on some of what she said because a lot of what she said is actually a lot of the stuff that I keep preaching over and over again in my videos for not just engineers, but everybody how to get into PA school, how to be competitive. So anyway, without further ado, I'm just going to read her responses. And like I said, just kind of riff on them. All right, so here we go. She said, I first made sure that PA is what I wanted to do. I shadowed doctors, nurses, PAs and asked my physical therapist a lot of questions about his job as well. Once I decided on PA, I researched the requirements for two programs that I really wanted to get into. I contacted both schools and asked how to get in there. I met in person with admissions at both schools. Then I completed all the requirements to get into both programs and apply to both. I got into one. The requirements involved quitting my job in engineering, getting a job as a scribe, taking pre rec classes and taking the GRE. I had very good grades, but both schools expressed strong interest in my background. PA schools really like unique applicants. Engineering is actually a great background to start with. I've done well in the program. The pre recs prepare you just fine, and I did the bare minimum to get in. So a few things about these responses. Number one thing I want to talk about is the first thing she said, I first made sure PA is what I wanted to do. I shadowed doctors, nurses, PAs, and my physical therapist and asked a lot of questions about his job. So the biggest question that you really have to answer when you're applying to PA school, it's actually the prompt for the essay is, why do you want to be a PA? And a lot of people have trouble answering that. They end up writing like a narrative of their whole life, or why they want to work in medicine, or something like that. But a lot of people don't actually end up answering the question specifically, why do you want to be a PA? And the best way to answer that question is to see what everybody in healthcare does, and see how PAs are unique. What PAs do that's unique and really resonates with you as a person, why do you want to be a PA? So notice what my classmate did. She shadowed basically every kind of medical job, doctor, nurse, PA, physical therapist, I know there's many others, but she shadowed quite a few of them. And what she did was just like see what they do on a day to day basis, weigh the pros and cons, see what her personality was like, and just really truly see what she could see herself doing for the rest of her life. And she decided on PA. That's just a really mature, really good way to go about deciding what to do with the rest of your life, instead of just deciding, oh, I think I want to be a PA, so I'm just going to apply to PA school. Like no, she did her research, and she really put her time in and got after it and knew for certain this is what she wanted, because she could see what all those jobs do, and compare the pros and cons and see what she actually really wanted. Then she says, once I decided on PA, I researched the requirements for two programs that I wanted to get into, contacted both schools and asked how to get in there. I met in person with admissions at both schools. What do I always say? In my videos, in my pre-PA counseling sessions, anytime somebody emails me, what do I say? What's the best way to get in? Research the school specifically that you think you want to get into, call admissions and schedule an in-person meeting, exactly what this person did, exactly what I did. It worked very well for both of us to get into a pretty competitive PA program. Why is that important? So I'm not sure if you did, but you may have seen the statistic, people who apply to 12 PA schools or more have the highest percentage of getting in. Very good to apply to a lot of schools, but also very good is to make a personal contact in the admissions office of the school you want to get into, especially if you're not already a very competitive applicant. So if you're like a perfect applicant, you've got an excellent GPA, you're already pre-PA all through college, you got your hours, okay, apply to a bunch of schools, you're probably fine. But if you're in kind of a special circumstance, you might have a lower GPA, you're making a career transition like this person or like I did, or for whatever reason, you're kind of a unique applicant, the best thing you can do is to make an in-person meeting. I know it's kind of still the time of COVID, maybe do a Zoom meeting, but make a meeting with the admissions office and literally ask them, how do I get into your school? Here's my stats, here's my transcripts, here's my scores, here's my GPA, here's my experience, here's what I want, here's why I want to be a PA. You tell me, Mrs. or Mr. Admissions Counselor, Dean of Admissions, whoever you're talking to, how do I get into your program? And you listen and you humbly implement everything they tell you and you do your best and that's the best way to get in. And that's exactly what this person did. And it's exactly what I did and it's just really gratifying to hear that she did the same thing. Then she says the requirements, what she really had to do to get in, involved quitting my job in engineering, getting a job as a scribe, taking prereq classes and taking the GRE. So think about that just for one second. I know we're talking about transitioning from engineering to PA, engineers make pretty good money, PAs make pretty good money. But think about what this person has to do. A bachelor's level trained engineer makes $60,000 to $70,000 a year starting. A lot of them make a lot more. And so what this person had to do was she had to quit that job and get a job as a medical scribe, which also works 40 hours a week, but makes like $25,000. I mean, scribes are paid minimum wage unless you're a supervisor, then you're paid pretty close to minimum wage. So taking a massive, massive pay cut, giving up this career that she spent several years doing and has been very good to her, giving that up completely to go work as a medical scribe, just to get her hours for PA school. I know it's something you have to do. And I know we're talking about this career transition, but just think about doing that for a second. Imagine yourself giving up all that safety and comfort and security of having such a really well-paying job and then going to work as a scribe. It's tough. It's a big emotional setback to give up all that money and all that safety. And I mean, like, things get real. The rubber really meets the road. When you do something like that, you take such a major shift. You're basically telling your brain, like, we're doing this, come hell or high water, no matter what, we're making this PA thing happen. I'm giving up all this stuff in order to chase my dream. So I'm sure for her it got real right in this moment. And I just want to communicate some tremendous respect to her for doing that and being that brave. I mean, that is a really tough thing to do. And then, of course, she says she took the necessary prereqs, the GRE, everything that we basically can imagine you have to do to get into PA school. Now, this next thing she says, I think is really cool. She says that both schools express strong interests in my background as an engineer. PA schools like unique applicants, and engineering is actually a great background to start with. So most PA school applicants have biology, chemistry, health science, exercise science, those kinds of majors, maybe some psychology majors, things like that. Very few are engineering majors. So this made her stand out. And if anybody's ever been an engineering student or knows an engineering students, it is one of the toughest undergraduate majors to have. I know I was one for one year. It's tough, especially mechanical engineers. Those people are really smart. They have to take really, really hard classes. And there's a lot of weed out courses like calc based physics, all that kind of stuff. It's insane. A lot of you have probably taken physics for your bio major, your chem major, but most of you probably didn't take calculus based physics. That's when things get really, really hard. And I remember like I loved it for the first semester. And they started implementing static forces and centrifugal forces in addition to all the other stuff. And everything was calculus based. That was just really, really, really tough. And I remember I personally struggled with it. So I guess what I'm saying is engineering is a really tough major. And even though it's not traditional pre-PA major, it obviously worked well in her favor. And she said both PA schools she looked at really respected her for having that major and actually even working in the field as an engineer. She was a unique student. And that's really cool. And then she just says she's done well in the program and that the pre-rex prepared her just fine. So even without having a biology, a chemistry major, having a mostly math and physics based major like you would in engineering, still prepared her very well just because she obviously intellectually could handle high level courses, which translated over to PA school just fine. So I guess the major point of this video is if you're an engineer, you're thinking of becoming a PA or a doctor, or just making a major career change, or if you have any kind of non-medical career and you're thinking of transitioning to PA, it can totally be done. I did it. My classmate did it. I'm sure lots and lots of other people have done it. So I just hope this video kind of helps you, kind of motivates you and gives you some ideas of where to get started. All right. Thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next video.