Earning credits in HS towards degree for P.A. school

amother

OP ↓

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 1:45 pm

Dd is currently a senior in HS and wants to get a head start towards her degree. She wants to be a physician assistant. How can she start earning credits? Her school doesn't provide any AP courses. Are there schools that allow outside students to come and take AP exams by them? How do we know which courses will be accepted and transferable. Which PA school is best for a frum girl? Is there someone who can guide us through so that she doesn't waste time and money on unnecessary courses? I called Touro and Sarah Schenirer but I want to hear from women who recently got their degree and have experience with what worked out best

amother

Salmon

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 10:07 pm

My DH went to PA school. It was close to 10 years ago, so may not be the most up to date info
I don't think there's really much she can do now. Prerequisites for PA school are extremely specific and many of them are in person classes that need to be take with a lab
Also, each school will have different requirements. DH applied to 10 schools and there were some classes he took because only 1 out of those 10 required it
I would suggest she try and start immersing herself in a medical setting. Either volunteering in a hospital or getting an actual job in a doctor's office. You may need 100s to 1000s of hours in a medical setting in order to apply to many PA schools, so that would probably be the best use of her time right now

Others can correct me if any of this info is outdated

amother

DarkRed

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 11:00 pm

amother Salmon wrote:

Agree with this. Dh only just finished prerequisites and had to take so many to meet the requirements of all the schools. Once she finishes high school, she can go on to complete her prerequisites. She should definitely start volunteer work.

amother

Lemonlime

Thu, Sep 12 2024, 10:31 am

amother Salmon wrote:

This is exactly what I would advise. I finished PA school 1.5 years ago.
she’s going to need a lot of science classes with labs. CLEP tests or AP classes won’t help. Technically English and math may help, but I did those as filler classes while in touro because you anyway can’t cram sciences.
Let her work as an MA for hours. Hours are extremely important for PA school.

amother

Floralwhite

Thu, Sep 12 2024, 9:46 pm

amother OP wrote:

Thanks for your replies. Would the same apply if she wanted to pursue a degree in nursing?

Does her school offer classes thru Touro? They aren't AP classes. They definitely help with English, literature, math, psychology, computers, etc classes needed along nursing prerequisites.
There's a Touro program and Rebbetzin Bulka (The New Seminary, thru Adelphi) in Brooklyn.
TTI was supposed to start, but only in NJ. Rebbetzin Bulka also has a Lakewood nursing program.

amother

Snowdrop

Thu, Sep 12 2024, 9:56 pm

PA here, graduated a little over 2 years ago. I would be careful about taking AP classes for sciences, although I had a friend who did it. I think it doesn't look as good. I don't think it would matter much for an English class.