How To Decide What Physician Assistant (PA) Schools To Apply To

A pre-PA student was shadowing me the other week, so we started swapping questions and stories and going down the rabbit hole of pre-PA stuff. There’s a lot of it! 

His main question– especially as a pre-PA student who is first generation and did not know the first place to start (his words not mine)– was what schools do you apply to?

I love this question. Especially because I think a lot of us are navigating medicine for the first time in our families (Or college! Or graduate school! Or lots of things!) and simply want to know what the heck is normal, what to focus on, and how to do this thing well.

As someone who googles the living sh*t out of everything, is extremely thorough when it comes to making life altering decisions, and has some perfectionistic tendencies that aren’t fun, but they sure as hell get the job done, I’m happy to share with you a little advice so you don’t have to go crazy like I did:)

There are a ton of factors to consider when deciding what PA programs to apply to, so I thought I would discuss the 5 main factors to consider when applying to programs. This is not in any particular order, but I think they are all helpful to consider.

What To Consider When Applying To PA Programs

Pre-Requisite Requirements

This is a huge one, and probably the most objectively important. You have to make sure you apply to schools that you have the pre-reqs for. It’s the first step! Hopefully you can start doing a little research a few years early to know what classes you might need to complete, or what classes most schools require. However, each school is completely different (one of the many annoying things about PA apps). For instance, I knew most schools I wanted to go to needed Biochemistry, so I took that class after college through an online program. However, one specific school I wanted to apply to needed a 3rd math class- this was not something I wanted to pay for after college, so I simply couldn’t apply to that school. I think looking at this point can help you add a few schools and subtract a few schools simply based on if you can objectively meet their criteria or not.

Location

Personally, this was my most important component when choosing what programs to apply to, and ultimately, which program I ended up going to (I <3 Chicago).

I applied to schools where I would ultimately be OK living in that area for a few years. 

My caveat to this: while I do think it is beneficial to go to school in a city you hope to find a job in after school, I by no means think it is necessary (I’m living proof of this!). I found that my PA school had a lot of connections in Chicago, you could make connections through rotations, and there were just a lot of opportunities open to me in Chicago as a student of Northwestern.

However, you can 100% find a job anywhere else.

I would say about 50% of my classmates stayed in Chicago for their first jobs and 50% left. It might be a bit harder to make connections if you move away from the city you did your schooling in, but not impossible. So, pick a location that you would want to live in for 2 years, but don’t put pressure on feeling like you need to find your first job there or stay forever.

Price

This is a hugely important factor that many people probably put at the forefront of their decision making. While price is important, assuming you aren’t in an ultra wealthy family that will pay for your schooling, you are going to have to take out loans regardless. Some important factors to consider though: what is the standard of living in the city you are going to school in (NYC is going to look different than Dallas is going to look different than Milwaukee)? Do you have to take out loans for living as well as school (are you living with a spouse, your family, or by yourself)? How do you plan to pay back these loans (ASAP, NHSC, PSLF, etc)? How much in debt are you comfortable going into?

I lean into the boat of “money is money, it’ll get figured out” but I realize that is an unbelievably privileged view to have (and sometimes stupid lol). I will say though, if you already need to take out 100K for living and school, 20K is not much more. Don’t let 10-30K alter your decision if you really want to go to a certain school. Now 50K+ is a different story– but you get the idea– be mindful of money, but don’t literally go to the cheapest school because it is the cheapest school. There are many other factors to consider, and sometimes, spending a little bit more for an experience that you want is worth it. Especially because we are talking about a decision that will be your lifelong career. It’s worth the investment. Just consider how much of an investment you are comfortable with.

Prestige/Ranking

The prestige or ranking of a school is important to some people. Some people literally just apply to the top 10 PA programs and send a prayer. For other people, it is important that the school name is well known, so they apply to the top 10 name brand ivy league type schools. Where this gets interesting is Northwestern, Yale, Cornell are all “name brand” schools but don’t even make the top 20 ranked PA programs; while University of Iowa and University of Utah aren’t mind-boggling name-brand schools (no shade), but are ranked in the top 5 PA programs which is insane! Finally, other people care about the hospital that the school is affiliated to (so, basically, the prestige of the medical school/program rather than the PA program- since these don’t necessarily match up).

Here’s my two cents. As someone who embarrassingly does care about rankings– to an extent–  if you had to put your weight on anything, I would focus more on the hospital system that your school is associated with, rather than the school name itself or the national ranking of the program. Here’s why: the hospital is where you will be doing your rotations. Those are the doctors and PAs that will be giving your guest lectures. Those are the grand-rounds that you will be attending. Those are the zebra cases you will be seeing. That hospital system will teach you about medicine and give you a foundation.

As we know, a good foundation for a PA is so important. Why? Because you graduate, and then you are a full fledged provider. It’s incredibly important to have good training, especially good clinical experiences, since those are what create your baseline as a practitioner. I can’t stress this enough. If you have to, focus on a school with a stellar hospital system and clinical rotation sites.

Finally, my other two cents- I wouldn’t care about name-brand or rankings too much. It just doesn’t matter as much as I think it did. In my personal opinion, the fact that I went to Notre Dame carries me through a lot of things, and still benefits me to this day (it’s crazy). In contrast, the fact that I went to Northwestern maybe told my employer that I’m a capable person, but didn’t necessarily open doors for me, or really actually truly matter at all. In my humble opinion, at least for PA school, I don’t think school really matters that much. As long as you graduate and you are a good person and a capable provider, you will get a job.

From what I’ve heard, this is a slightly different phenomenon than law school or medical school- where the program you go to, or the residency you go to, kind of does really matter. 

Overall, as someone who cares a lot about rankings, now as an adult with a job and a life, please hear me when I say– it doesnt matter that much for PA school. I promise.

Northwestern’s name didn’t do much for me. But the hospital system, the clinical rotations, the medicine I saw and the teams that I was a part of– that was well worth the price and has paid off ten fold in my clinical practice.

Class Size/Program Details

Last but not least, all of the little details of a program are important to consider when making your selections. Do you want a big class size or small class size? Do you want a newer PA program that might be waiting to get accredited (don’t do this!!) or do you want to go somewhere that has been around for awhile and is fully accredited (do this!!). Do you like a real cadaver lab for anatomy or not? Do you care about their PANCE pass rate? Do you want a few clinical electives or many? Do you want to do a master’s research project or not? Do you like a certain way of learning (problem based, case based, systems based, etc). Do you want to get a dual degree (ask me about this)? Do you want a shorter program or longer program? Do you want the program to focus on rural medicine? Urban medicine? Public health? 

Start to consider what about a program, specifically, are you looking for.

A Case

The way I went about applying and choosing a school was this.

1. I picked the locations I wanted to live (most were in Minnesota, Chicago, and East Coast- specifically Washington DC).
2. I looked at what schools in those areas I met the requirements for (in pre-reqs, number of clinical hours, etc)
3. I narrowed down the schools that I felt were connected to a very strong hospital system, saw a wide range of patient types, were known to have phenomenal medical practitioners, and generally were strong medical institutions.
4. I ensured all of the schools above were FULLY ACCREDITED (not pending accreditation status, or had a history of losing their accreditation- this would mean: you graduating from a school that isn’t accredited= you are not a PA. Period.).
5. I applied to a few dual-degree programs (there aren’t many to choose from) because I thought I wanted a PA/MPH degree.
6. Then I started applying! I didn’t look at price as much because I knew I was going to be living alone and would need to take a ton of loans out for school and living. I knew I would be in six-figure debt no matter where I went basically, so price tag just didn’t matter as much.

Bonus: How Many Schools Should You Apply To?

As a rule of thumb, I say the more the merrier. I would apply to some reach schools, as well as schools in your lane. I think anywhere from 5-15 is appropriate. I would shoot for 10. I applied to 10-13, somewhere around there. I got denied from the vast majority, so it’s obviously important to cast a wide net, while being mindful of application pricing, and realistic expectations of truly being OK to go to that school. For instance, I applied to one California school and I have no idea why because I didn’t want to live there at all lol (waste of money for the application).

All in all, GOOD LUCK. 

You are going to do great!

Just the fact that you are reading this blog post tells me you are a go-getter, you are intentional, and you are truly thinking through this choice. I wish you all the best. Please reach out if you have specific questions about your journey- I’d be happy to answer them.

Always rooting for you.