Hello,
I hope I am posting this in the right section. I am about to finish up with my bachelor’s degree in health science and I am beginning to fill out applications for physician assistant programs. A couple of years ago I thought I wanted to be in medical imaging and was in a nuclear medicine technologist program. I quickly realized it was not for me and that I aspired to have a career that would go one step further and help to diagnose and treat patients. I withdrew from the program in the first couple of months and went on to a 4 year college to finish my undergraduate studies. My question is, how do I explain this to grad schools without it looking bad? I am worried they will see that and think I am unable to follow through. Thank you in advance.
You have followed through on your bachelor degree, so you have nothing to worry about along that line! If anyone would ask, you’ve already written your answer here in your post. It would go something like this:
“After beginning the tech program, I realized that what I wanted to do in healthcare would require a PA, not just a tech training. So I withdrew from that program in order to complete the bachelor degree that I needed to earn in order to apply to PA programs.”
^This. Contrary to popular imaging, quitting isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is sometimes the best option! If you realize that you no longer want to do thing X and instead want to do thing Y, it makes total sense to quit training for thing X.
The only addition I’d make to happymomof1’s advice is adding why you changed your mind, and making it clear that it’s interest for the PA field and scope of work that’s driving you/