What are the things that are going to help me become a Physician Assistant?

Question

Okay when school starts back I'll be in the 9th grade and my career goal is to become a physician assistant. I need to know what are the courses I need to take in high school to help prepare myself for this career? I already put down Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 on my career planner at school, but I need to know what type of math,science,english,history, or electives I need to take. Also I put down Allied Helath 1 and 2 on my career planner as an elective. I'm also choosing between Duke University and Univesity at Chapel Hill as the colleges I want to go to but I need to know which University should I go to? Which one is cheaper on expense but also is a very good university to go to for my career as a physician assistant? And if you can please give me some information or a website that I could go to in order to apply for scholarships now that would be great also. Last but not least how much does a physician assistant make if they work in a clinic? Like a family clinic? Also is it possible for a physician assistant to just work 8 hours and not be on call. Because I want to have a life at home with my family besides being at work 24/7. Thanks and God Bless!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Hi Linda, I am a physician assistant who graduated in 2006 from USC!  when i was back in high school, i didn't know what i wanted to be and i didn't know that there was such a thing as a PA.  when i got to my undergraduate studies (I majored in spanish and psychology), that was when i knew i wanted to be a PA.  since I didn't have the required science background (such as chemistry and regular biology), i had to go to a Junior college after i graduated from my undergraduate program to get courses as chemistry, microbiology, regular biology and one semester of organic chemistry.  then i applied to PA schools and now am a practicing pa.

to answer your question, right now in high school, concentrate on what you need to take to get into a 4 year university.  take your foreign languate, science courses (1 year of biology, 1 year of chemistry, 1 year of physics), 4 years of english, 4 years of math, 4 years of history, arts, electives etc.  if iwas you now, on your spare time, try to volunteer at a hospital or senior citizen housing etc.

when you go to a 4 year university, you can actually major in anything you want.  if you're not going to major in biology or health sciences just make sure that you take science courses on the side (biology, general chemistry, microbiology). if your school does not offer these courses for non-biology majors, you can enroll at your local junior college while attending the 4 year university.  a lot of poeple do this.  

you can go to any university you want. (whether it be private (like duke), well known public schools (like UCLA) and not so well known schools (like Gonzaga university).   in my class of 42 people in PA school, some came from well known universities and some came from not well known universities. so it doesn't really matter where you come from as long as you have your degrees and diplomas.  a lot majored in the sciences, but a handful like me, graduated with non science major.  one girl was a sociology major and another girl was a graphic design major.  both just took science courses on the side..but majority were biology majors.

when you're at the university, try to get certified to work something in the health field, whether this be as a pharmacy tech, nursing assistant, medical assistant, as an EMT etc.  the more experience you have, the more schools will be interested in you.

i don't know of any websites for scholarship info..ask your school counselor for those, as they have tons of information on that.  

physician assistants can make from $50,000 to 120,000 (more or less, depending in which field they want to go into.) i am in between.  when you become certified PA, you can work in any field under physicianj supervision. you can be a family medicine, orthopedics, pain management, in surgery etc.

depending on your job, you can work an 8-5 schedule.  mine is.  if you're a workaholic or if you do surgery (like another PA i know) you can work much more than just 8 hours daily...

good luck! if you have any questions, do not hesitate to email me!

Answer 2

Wow already thinking of your future, I just started thinking of mine and I am a senior in high school LOL!

Anyways since you want to go into something medical related, like me, here is what I did:

Blew off 9th, 10th grade.  Take the easiest courses you can, in 9th I took biology + physical science, in 10th I took chemistry.  No AP courses.  In math just take honors (or AP if you can at that grade).

In 11th - I took AP biology and honors precalc, I blew off biology and had a B average and a 4 on the AP exam.  Maintained an A in precalc.  Again I pretty much blew off another year.

In 12th grade I am taking: AP Physics C, AP chemistry, AP calculus BC, AP government.  As you can see that will not be easy considering those are some of the hardest courses offered in my school (at least Physics C and BC are).  Since you are going medical related, you should take Physics B(C is for engineering, I am taking it for fun), and or AP chemistry.  I don't think you will need math very much if you are not going to med school.  Also physician assistants make: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=...

As you can see, you will make about as much as an engineer does when he/she starts when you have worked for 20 years.  TBH I recommend going straight to medical school because you do same thing but you get paid more.  Espically with a build like yours, I decided last minute(I am very lazy, but smart enough to be anything) to go into medicine

:-)

oh one more thing:

if you do decide to become an MD you will be living a very easy life though you will work long and hard hours