What is PA school like?
PA programs vary in length, generally ranging from 24 to 36 months. They consist of a didactic (classroom) phase followed by clinical rotations. Most programs are very intense, requiring a great commitment.
Can I work during PA school?
Most programs are the equivalent of taking over 20 semester hours of undergrad work - all of them science! Only super-humans or people with extremely flexible, low-hour jobs might be able to pull off working during PA school
How do I apply for PA school?
Most programs use CASPA (Central Application Service for Physician Assistants) https://portal.caspaonline.org. This online service will gather your application materials and submit them to the schools of your choice. Some schools do not participate in CASPA and will provide their own application to you upon request.
How much does PA school cost?
Program tuition varies significantly, check out the list of PA schools to get an idea of tuition differences. Keep in mind to look at additional fees, parking, cost of living, etc. Most schools will provide all of this information.
The following is taken from a fantastic paper titled Physician Assistant Education in the United States You should read the whole thing.
Although the ARC-PA does not prescribe curriculum length, preclinical and clinical content must include supervised clinical practice experiences, instruction in interpersonal and communication skills, and a number of patient-assessment and patient-management topics. Clinical education is required in a variety of settings to reflect breadth and depth of content, and includes outpatient and inpatient settings as well as emergency and long-term care facilities. This is typically accomplished in academic teaching facility settings, and inpatient clinical rotations are usually conducted in an experiential team format consisting of PA students, medical students, and residents, led by a staff attending physician on a clinical rotation assignment basis. The required content areas of the preclinical curriculum are anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics, and genetic and molecular mechanisms of health and disease. In the clinical curriculum, the required areas are emergency medicine, family medicine, general internal medicine, general surgical care (including operative experiences), geriatrics, pediatrics, prenatal care, and women’s health.
PA program preclinical and clinical curriculum content is typically evenly divided in length, and the mean U.S. PA program content is administered to fulltime students during 26.5 continuous months.
In essence, PA education more closely resembles a condensed version of medical school than does any other health professions curriculum.
Physician Assistant Education in the United States,
P. Eugene Jones, PhD, PA-C, Academic Medicine, Vol. 82, No. 9 / September 2007