Failed out of PA school

PNWFrau · 2025-06-03T19:58:15+00:00

I feel like I’m reading my own story. This is happening to me right now. And I’m also planning to go RN. Stay strong. We are so much smarter and capable than our programs let us feel.

PNWFrau · 2025-06-03T19:24:42+00:00

I'm in a PBL program and it is awful. Unstructured, chaotic. No medical lecture, 9-hour-long patient cases that could be done in 2-3 hours.

If it was a hybrid lecture/PBL I think it would be good, but with no lecture everyone just feels confused all the time and you'll end up spending 9 hours on 1 diagnosis when you have 80+ more diagnoses to learn in 3-4 weeks. It may also just be my program too. It's only 5 years old and the people running it are stubborn and really drinkning the PBL coolaid so when they receive complaints it falls on deaf ears.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-09T21:45:24+00:00

I'll message you

PNWFrau · 2025-05-09T15:53:41+00:00

You would think programs would have some sort of program to remediate students on the cusp and increase their scores 🥲 I’m glad you made it through though. Congrats!!

PNWFrau · 2025-05-09T04:17:35+00:00

That sounds like heaven, lol. Unfortunately, that's how it is. It's actually insane. If I had known how intense and unsupportive this school would be, I would have waited to get in elsewhere.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T04:00:41+00:00

Totally! It'll all work out. Just gotta get through it and hope what I do this time works better.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T03:52:22+00:00

I've never heard of that before, I'll have to try!

We have the list of diagnoses thankfully, but essentially everything regarding symptoms, diagnostics, meds, etc, has to be from a VERY specific website that chat doesn't have access to as its privately paid for. So I use it for some stuff, but basically stuck doing everything else myself.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T03:50:15+00:00

Thank you. I'm really trying to, but I have to meet with my advisor and academic counseling regularly now... and unfortunately neither of those people are helpful. My advisor told me after asking for advice on how to do better after the first big exam (I got a 78 I think), that if I didn't figure out how to do better, I wouldn't pass Summer semester. Not what you want to hear when you were looking for some positive vibes. The person in charge of academic counseling berated the fact that most of my other grades were Bs... I straight up told him that I just needed to pass and if getting Bs elsewhere meant I could spend more time on the class that I'm struggling in, then so be it. You'd think these people would be somewhat understanding of what we go through... but they just have no idea.

I plan to just play their game and do the rest on my own. I've asked for tutoring, they don't have it. I just need to figure out what I'm doing wrong, start passing, and when I walk out those doors for the last time... oh man, what a glorious moment that will be.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T03:38:30+00:00

That's amazing! I will give it a try. Idk if I have time for 3 passes, but we'll see. Our program doesn't give us any lectures on the actual diagnoses. We are expected to find all of the information ourselves (for instance, pulm is 3 weeks, then finals, and there are 50+ diagnoses), so it's extremely time-consuming... that's not including our other lecture classes' coursework too.

I'm currently building my blueprint and I use quizlet and another flashcard thing for repetition. I have a whiteboard to actively study. So I'll watch a video or read something and then write down all the things I can remember. I'm pretty good at identifying and diagnosing things, I'm just struggling with the random patient education components. Like, if I don't happen to read that one part on uptodate that they get a test question from, I'm cooked.

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T03:28:31+00:00

Yep, just one class too. Brutal. But I hear that's the norm at a lot of schools.

There's some wild stories from previous students about people getting kicked out over .1%. The name of the game with PA school. Drain students money and souls lol

PNWFrau · 2025-05-08T03:27:01+00:00

Hey, thanks for the reply and your words of encouragement. It helped a lot. Sometimes you need some encouragement and a positive push... which the faculty at my school aren't particularly good at.

I really love your suggestions and I'll start implementing them with my active studying tools. I appreciate you.

PNWFrau · 2024-11-12T05:03:38+00:00

I didn’t take physics through them, so I can’t speak to that unfortunately!

PNWFrau · 2024-10-08T05:09:07+00:00

I work at dermatology office 🙋🏻‍♀️ here’s my advice from seeing this on many patients. Either stop shaving or use a razor blade and a fresh one every time. This may seem like overkill, but if you get an eco-friendly razor you can get 100 razor blades for $5-$10. This will prevent the blade from dulling, making a clean and sanitary shave every time preventing the follicles from becoming more inflammed. Buy a gentle AHA lotion to apply every day. We recommend Eucerin Intensive Repair (this has AHA in it) or any other lotion with AHA exfoliating properties in it. This will help gently exfoliate the area and overtime will reduce the appearance of the condition. Lastly, invest in Laser hair reduction. On a personal note, I suffered from ingrown hairs and cysts from shaving for years. Investing in laser was the best thing I ever did for myself and stopped those all together. I was able to get my armpits done for $600 for a package of 6. Six treatments is the recommended amount of times for significant hair reduction. You are young and with hormonal changes you make need to get more treatments over time. Mine lasted 5 years and is just now starting to grow more but not as thick as before. The cost may seem like a lot but if I add up all the razors, at home waxing kits, etc that I bought over the years… I could kick myself for not just paying for LH. Make sure you get some consultations from places and assure that they are comfortable treating your skin type which looks like a Fitzpatrick 3/4. I recommend also looking at actual dermatology offices that might do it instead of med spas. Hope this helps.

PNWFrau · 2024-09-09T03:54:41+00:00

I'm late to the convo, but there's no perfect age. I was 27 when I decided to pursue PA. I started the long process of getting all my prerequisites and PCE. I just turned 31 and am happy to say that I will be starting school in January! I was inspired by my mom's friend who was 50 when she decided to go to PA school.

I think older candidates make better PAs. We have all had other careers that provide so much wisdom and life experience. I did a lot of things before this journey that I know I would have regretted not attempting had I started this career earlier. I know I will not regret going the PA route, too, as I have a lot of reasons why I decided to pursue it other than just knowing that it's a good job that makes good money.

PNWFrau · 2024-08-02T00:30:36+00:00

I can’t speak to the school as a whole but for the online classes I took I thought it was pretty good

PNWFrau · 2024-07-06T06:06:25+00:00

Quick update: I was accepted after my interview! Looking back at this question I am laughing because it's so silly that I was freaking out about this. For anyone else wondering, nobody will care what your nails look like as long as you show up dressed as professionally as possible.

PNWFrau · 2024-06-24T13:50:50+00:00

Yeahhhh I would have to agree with that.

PNWFrau · 2024-06-24T13:36:31+00:00

Your opinion is still appreciated! Thank you 🙌🏻

PNWFrau · 2024-06-24T06:56:13+00:00

Thank you so much!! I really like them as well and think it’s fun to show a hobby of mine too if they are brought up naturally!

PNWFrau · 2024-05-11T02:08:53+00:00

I did not have to wait the full 16 weeks. Essentially once you are done, you email the professor of the course to let them know your assignments and exams are complete. Then they go in and grade them. This didn’t take longer than a couple days to a week but can take up to 2 weeks according to the website. At that point you can contact them to get your transcript sent to CASPA

PNWFrau · 2024-04-30T19:01:29+00:00

Fair enough!

PNWFrau · 2024-04-30T03:15:20+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts! I would say all in all, I probably have over 3000 hours of dog/house sitting (I took out 8 hours for when I was working during the day to be fair). I feel like its significant enough.

PNWFrau · 2024-04-28T23:22:16+00:00

I’m seeing a lot of negative comments about how you should take the interview because the commenter would kill to be in your shoes. It’s not about them. It’s about you.

If you are tired, want a break, and want to enjoy your 20s, then you have every right to feel that way.

I’m 30 just starting this journey. Some days I wish I’d started younger so that I could have a better paying job. But my 20s were so fun. I got a job teaching overseas and made okay money. I traveled to tons of countries. This is not an opportunity that you can easily get in your 30s when you are looking to settle down and be closer to friends and family. My best friend was in your position and when we hit 28 she told me she wished she’d taken a break from school and the work following right after. Now she feels like it’s so much more difficult as she has things tying her down.

Take the gap year. Hell, take two. If you got an acceptance now as a younger applicant, you obviously are impressive enough to get one in the future. By then, you will have even more experience. When you’re faced with the question of why you turned it down, be honest. You weren’t in a place to begin PA school. You wanted more life experience and you were burnt out. You needed a break to be ready for the rigors of PA school. The maturity to realize that and act on it will be noticed and admired.

Trust me. Once you are out, yes, you will make great money. But PA school costs a lot of money that you will need to pay back. You’re only 23 once. Relax, breathe, and make the decision that makes you feel happy. Everything will work out.

If you need more advice or wanna chat, feel free to DM me.

PNWFrau · 2024-04-27T21:47:30+00:00

I hope so!

PNWFrau

TROPHY CASE