Back to School with Student Report 3

At this time of year, most PA programs are sending out their latest group of ready-to-practice PAs and welcoming a new cohort of bright-eyed PA students. That makes it the perfect time to dive into the latest information on the PA student experience! The new Student Report 3 has been carefully crafted to deliver insights from both the Matriculating Student Survey (MSS) and the End of Program Survey (EOPS) in the most useful way possible.

The third installment in the By the Numbers: Student Report series picks up right where the second installment left off: paired presentation of MSS and EOPS data wherever possible, careful attention to student demographics, and a comprehensive look at student finances are just a few of the topics covered. In addition to retaining much of the content and presentation form of Student Report 2, this year’s report debuts new content, including:

• Student sexual orientation (p. 8)
• Matriculating and graduating students’ perceived stress (p. 16)
• Factors influencing matriculating and graduating students’ decision-making about their career paths after PA school by: (pp. 20-22)
  • Gender
  • Underrepresented minority status
  • Underrepresented minority in medicine status
• Influences on matriculating students’ choices of where to attend PA school (pp. 51-55)
  • Gender
  • Underrepresented minority status
  • Underrepresented minority in medicine status

If you would like to get even more out of the rich data we collect every year, PAEA Research offers two services to help programs gain access to important student data for their evaluation, accreditation, and faculty research. Programs that would like access to their own matriculating students’ data, for example, to build a student database, should check out the Data on Demand: Matriculating Students page. We will be accepting applications from programs interested in participating in the 2020 cycle later this year. Programs wishing to receive a customized report summarizing their own graduating students’ responses to select questions relevant to ARC-PA Standards should visit the Custom Reports: End of Program page.

As always, MSS and EOPS data are available to researchers interested in gaining access to raw data for their own research. Custom reports are also available to PA faculty members who would like a more focused research report on certain items. Our data request and sharing policies are detailed here.

For questions, comments, and suggestions, please contact the Research Team at research@PAEAonline.org or 703-651-8536.