The college application and decision process can be a stressful time for many young adults. After choosing a college to attend, there is another decision to be made: What should you major in? While it seems like a huge deal, it really isn’t, because you can always change your major within your first year or two at school. However, when you decide that your goal is to go to PA school, it can be difficult to choose what major you think will best prepare you for that next step.
In reality, you can get into PA school with any major, as long as you earn a bachelor's degree. In my opinion, the most important part is that you choose a major in which you will enjoy the coursework. In order to make it through college, get good grades, and maintain your sanity, it’s essential to be interested in what you’re learning about. The bottom line for pre PA students is that along with your major coursework, you will need to take the courses that fulfill the prerequisite requirements for the PA schools you are interested in attending. For this reason, I would recommend choosing a major in science (biology, chemistry, health sciences, etc), because this coursework will likely already include many of the prerequisites you’ll need. If you majored in history, you would have to take a lot of science courses on top of your major requirements, which may be overwhelming. Overall, it will definitely save you time and money to pursue a major that overlaps with the courses required for PA school.
All PA schools set their own prerequisite requirements for their programs. Many overlap with their required core science courses, but they aren’t all exactly the same. Therefore, when you are choosing classes to take and building your schedule, you have to make sure you are fulfilling the prerequisites for the specific PA schools you are planning on applying to. This means you’ll want to start looking at various PA schools that you think you may be interested in early on. Then, you can make sure you fulfill all of their requirements during your college career, and give yourself the option to apply there after school. I would say to cast a wide net; try to fulfill the prerequisites for a lot of schools, giving yourself plenty of options when it comes time to apply.
Now that you have some more information and advice on choosing a major, I’ll share how I ended up in microbiology. I chose to come to Clemson for many reasons; they have great science programs, tons of undergraduate research opportunities, and beautiful weather. I knew I wanted to go to PA school before college, and I also knew that science was what I loved to learn about. Initially, I chose to major in biological sciences. I thought it would cover a lot of the PA school requirements, and it would be a broad range of biology coursework. I stayed in that program for my first semester. That’s when I started looking into the curriculum for the following three years, and didn’t love what I saw. There were multiple biology courses that I would have to take that I knew I wouldn’t be interested in (insects, plants, invertebrates, etc). Then, I looked at the coursework for microbiology, and knew that it was a better fit. Every course sounded like something I would genuinely enjoy. Now, I am going into my junior year, and I absolutely love my major. Microbiology is fascinating to me, and I love learning about it every day. Almost all of the requirements for the PA schools I am considering are covered by my major classes, and I was able to fit any extra ones into my schedule with no problem. I am so happy to be in a major I am passionate about, and I think it will prepare me well for my future in PA school. I hope that all of you will choose a major that you are passionate about. It’s all about finding the right fit for you!