Questions to Ask Current PA Students
Questions for prospective physician assistant applicants talking to students already inside a program, covering the pace of the didactic year, how rotations get assigned, real costs, what happens when someone falls behind, and what they wish they had asked on interview day.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What made you pick this program over the other places you got in?
Many students got exactly one acceptance, and the honest ones will say so. If they had a real choice, the reason they name is usually the thing they value most now, which tells you what the program is genuinely good at rather than what the website claims.
- 2
What does a normal week look like right now?
Ask for the current week, not an average one, so you get lecture hours, lab days, and quiz days as they actually fall. Students describe their own schedule accurately and describe the program in general terms, so keep them on their own calendar.
- 3
How many hours a day do you study outside of class?
The number matters less than whether they hesitate before giving it. Compare answers from two or three students in the same cohort, because a wide spread usually means the exams reward memorization volume rather than understanding.
- 4
What was the hardest part of the first semester, and was it the material or something else?
The answer splits into two very different problems. Content difficulty is expected and survivable, while answers about disorganized scheduling, unclear expectations, or a course that changes lecturers weekly point at the program rather than the subject.
- 5
How are exams structured, and how often do they come?
Weekly cumulative exams and block exams produce completely different lives. Ask whether questions are written by faculty or pulled from a bank, since students can usually tell you which courses have questions that do not match what was taught.
- 6
What happens to someone who fails an exam or a course?
You are asking about remediation, deceleration, and dismissal policy, but a student will describe it more plainly than a handbook. Listen for whether the process is known and used or whether nobody seems sure, which usually means it is applied inconsistently.
- 7
How does rotation placement work: assigned, lottery, or do you find your own sites?
Programs that ask students to secure their own preceptors are handing you a second job during your hardest year. If it is a lottery, ask what happens to the people who lose it every time, because that is the outcome you should plan around.
- 8
How far do people travel for rotations, and do you pay for housing at those sites?
Away rotations are one of the largest hidden costs of a program and rarely appear in the published cost of attendance. Ask for the longest commute anyone in the cohort has had, not the typical one.
- 9
Which rotation sites do people ask for, and which ones do people dread?
Every program has both, and current students know the list by name. A dreaded site is not automatically bad, so follow up on why: heavy volume is a different complaint from a preceptor who leaves students in a corner.
- 10
On rotations, how much are you doing versus watching?
This is the difference between graduating confident and graduating cautious. Ask for a specific example from their last rotation, such as whether they wrote notes, presented patients, or performed procedures with supervision.
- 11
When a student is struggling, how do faculty actually respond?
Every program says its faculty are supportive, so ask for a story instead of a characterization. The useful detail is whether help arrives before a failing grade or only after one, and whether students go to faculty voluntarily.
- 12
Is there anyone whose job is mental health support, and do students use them?
The second half of the question is the real one. Counseling services that exist on paper but are booked six weeks out, or that students avoid because they fear it reaching faculty, function as if they were not there.
- 13
What has this program cost you beyond tuition?
Expect answers about board prep resources, equipment, immunizations, background checks, travel, licensing exam fees, and moving. Students who are a year ahead of you can total this up in a way admissions offices generally do not.
- 14
Does anyone in your cohort work during the program?
If the answer is a flat no, that is a scheduling fact, not an attitude, and it changes how you finance two years. If a few people do, ask what kind of work and how many hours, since a weekend shift is not the same as a weekday job.
- 15
How does the program prepare you for the certification exam?
Ask what is built into the curriculum rather than what is recommended: end of rotation exams, a summative course, practice exams, and whether any of it gates graduation. Programs that require a score before they let you sit the exam are protecting a statistic, which is worth knowing before you enroll.
- 16
How many people started with you, and how many are still in your cohort?
Students know this number precisely because they notice the empty seats. Attrition is not automatically a red flag, but the reasons are informative, and one departure from an academic dismissal reads differently from three.
- 17
Is your cohort competitive with each other, or do people share notes?
Culture is set partly by grading structure, so follow up on whether anything is curved or ranked. A class that shares study material freely usually has faculty who are not pitting students against each other for rotation slots.
- 18
What do you wish you had asked on your interview day?
This is the highest yield question on the list because it asks them to name the gap between the pitch and the reality. Whatever they say, ask it of the next student you talk to.
- 19
If you could redo your application year, what would you change?
The answer is usually about hours, timing, or where they applied rather than essays, and it comes from someone who has just been through the cycle you are in. Ask specifically what they think mattered and what they now think was wasted effort.
- 20
Knowing what you know now, would you pick this program again?
Ask it last and then stay quiet. The pause before the answer, and any qualifier attached to a yes, is more informative than the word itself.
Talking to students who are already in a program
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Finding students who will speak freely
Finding students who will speak freely
- Students assigned to you on interview day are usually chosen, briefed, and within earshot of faculty. Treat their answers as accurate but incomplete.
- Second-year students on rotations are the most candid group. They have seen the whole curriculum and are no longer worried about being labeled a complainer.
- Ask the same question of two students in different cohorts. Where the answers diverge is usually where the program recently changed something.
- Program social media accounts and student-run groups are useful for names, not for opinions. A direct message asking for ten minutes gets a better answer than a public post.
- If a program will not connect you with any current student, that is itself an answer.
Reading the answers
Reading the answers
- Ask for last week rather than a typical week. People describe their own recent experience accurately and describe programs in brochure language.
- Complaints about workload are normal and tell you little. Complaints about disorganization, changing requirements, or unreachable faculty tell you a lot.
- When a student praises something specific and unprompted, such as one course or one clinical coordinator, that is usually real.
- Pay attention to what they will not answer. Hedging on attrition, remediation, or exam pass rates is more informative than the numbers would have been.
- Cost answers vary by student because of housing and travel. Collect two or three before you build a budget.
Questions that waste the conversation
Questions that waste the conversation
- Anything published on the program website, such as class size, prerequisite list, or accreditation status. Read it first.
- Asking a student to evaluate your chances of admission. They do not sit on the committee and the guess will not be useful.
- Asking whether the program is hard. Every answer is yes and you learn nothing.
- Asking a student to compare their program to a rival they have never attended.
- Asking for exam questions or specific test content, which puts them in a difficult position and ends the conversation.