From Current Students
A few words from the mouths of our current and former students:
Sarah Sanders
Why did you choose to become a PA?
I always knew I loved medicine, but I did not find out about the PA profession until halfway through college. I love that I’m not spending the next thousand years of my life in school, I love that there’s more flexibility in working part time and such one day, and I love that I can switch around to different specialties throughout my career. I want to work providing healthcare to the urban poor in the inner city somewhere when I finish school, and PAs are definitely needed there!
What attracted you to MUSC?
I applied at one other school that was closer to home and a lot cheaper (since it was in state) and really only applied here and came to my interview to visit Charleston and my best friend for a weekend. I had absolutely no intention of coming to MUSC though. I came to my interview and loved everything about the program here – the faculty and staff really care about us and are here to help us, the facilities are great, the students loved the program, and so much more. I left the interview, called my parents, and told them I wanted to go here!
In what field(s) of medicine are you interested in working?
Primary care of some sort, probably family practice or internal medicine. I love that you can see a little bit of everything there and I’ll get to build relationships with my patients. I’m hoping it will keep everything I’ve learned in PA school pretty fresh in my mind too for when I have to recertify every 6 years.
What would you have done differently to prepare?
I would have actually attempted to learn something in Anatomy in college. It’s so important in understanding the rest of what we learn in PA school (and will use in practice the rest of our lives), and you learn so much information so fast in the first summer, so having learned some of it once before would have helped. Repetition is key, so anything you can learn/get experience in before you come to school will help tremendously.
What’s your favorite thing about Charleston?
It’s so pretty! I love just walking around downtown, to the battery, by beautiful old Charleston houses…anywhere really! It’s also great having the beach right here in the summer to go play, hang out with new friends, and “study” (though who actually gets around to that at the beach?).
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
The ability to just appear places and not have to travel for hours to get there. Oh, and I would like to snap my fingers and have a burrito appear.
When you get away from school, what do you do for fun and/or burn off stress?
Mostly things related to food. I cook and bake whenever I get the chance. After every round of block tests are over I make a big dinner for a ton of friends. Also, there are a lot of different restaurants that have deals on different nights, so that always makes a great study break! Reading is also a great way to take your mind off everything else going on (and get your eyes off a computer screen for a few minutes).
What’s your favorite medical TV show?
I don’t watch many medical TV shows, but I do really love Scrubs.
My favorite class/professor is…
Hmmm, that’s a hard one! I really loved anatomy in the summer with Dr. Thomas. I learned so much, had fun getting to know my classmates in the anatomy lab, and got to spend hours in the lab (which I actually really loved). It’s so cool getting to see how our bodies work!
Any advice to give prospective students?
Try to get a hands-on kind of medical job, like being an ER tech or something (and don’t be afraid to use any connections you can come up with to get the job)! It has helped me immensely in class already, and it was just an all around great experience. And don’t be scared of taking some time off after college before coming to school. That wasn’t my original plan, but it is how things worked out, and it was such a great year. After all those years of grade school then college, your brain needs a break before it has to work so hard again!
