I sat down with Kelsi, a 1st year PA Student at PA Consortium about what advice she would give to incoming PA students who recently got accepted.
Here’s what she had to say:
Enjoy your summer. I’ve heard that there’s a lot of opinions about this, whether to study or whether to brush up on some anatomy or travel somewhere.
Because of my Undergrad, I did not have the opportunity to take any anatomy classes or physiology classes, that related to human anatomy specifically unlike a lot of my classmates who took, kinesiology undergrads or health sciences.
And I came in blind to this profession – into first year PA school and got thrown into anatomy labs and cadaver labs and learning all this material that I had never touched before in my undergrad.
So at that time it was a bit overwhelming but I knew I had the ability to learn quickly and study efficiently in order to get through that first semester.
“So at that time it was a bit overwhelming but I knew I had the ability to learn quickly and study efficiently in order to get through that first semester.”
— KELSI, 1ST YEAR PA STUDENT
I took the opportunity to just to travel and hang out with friends and family and I worked a little bit, we had our medical terminology course during the summer and I didn’t really know any better cause I didn’t know anyone in the PA program to tell me anything else that, your first semester is going to be really hard, you should probably brush up on this subject.
I didn’t have anyone to tell me that and I’m sort of glad I didn’t have anyone to tell me that because I’m very grateful for those months that I had during the summer.
Once September started, it STARTED.
“ You basically are running for the next two years through PA school, and it’s like you’re drinking out of a fire hydrant with the amount of information that’s coming at you. ”
— KELSI, 1ST YEAR PA STUDENT @ PA CONSORTIUM
I think for most people you just have to relax and take the time to enjoy the freedom that you have now because your next two years are going to be so busy and you’re going to have to sacrifice them your personal time when you’re in PA School
Kelsi, 1st year PA Student at PA Consortium
Kelsi is originally from rural Manitoba, attending University of Calgary and majoring in Psychology. She decided to apply to PA school after 5 years of working in a position in Endocrinology, and applying to medical school.
