Posted by Shel on April 26, 2007, 5:21 pm, in reply to "Re: AA schools"
Hey guys--I am not a graduate, but I did interview at 3 of the 4 schools this semester so I have a few things to say that will hopefully help you.
At Emory, you will definitely get to work with some of the best professors in the country, hands down--their program is the only one that is 24 months long, rather than 27. The difference is that you do not go to school for that first summer semester, and you will start clinicals on your first day of school. At the other schools (I cannot speak for Case, sorry) they use a mock operating room in the summer semester to ease you in. In my opinion, neither way is better or worse, it is just really what you are comfortable with. Also, at Emory there are many more students in your class--which can also be a good or bad thing. This year Emory was taking 40 students, as were Nova takes around 30, South takes around 20, and I have heard Case only takes around 15. My only real drawback for Emory was equipment—they have a much higher student to equipment/computers/space ratio.
As for South, I found the faculty to be very nice and easy to work with—I know not everyone had a pleasant experience with them, but I did. I think the thing about South is that the program coordinator is an engineer, and the program is designed towards people who are more mechanically inclined. South’s program spends time thoroughly teaching you about the equipment and how they work. Dr. Paulson does back this up though, by explaining that the majority of clinical incidents are caused by human error, and he feels that this is something that could be fixed—makes sense to me. The drawbacks I saw here were that the town is small, and the clinical sites that you will be at for semester 2 and 3 were not very advanced, and did not seem like a friendly working environment. Also, South’s program seems to be oriented more toward older people—I could be wrong, but the majority of people who were accepted to South were not fresh out of school—so again, depending on your situation this may be a good or bad thing.
Nova honestly blew me away. This school has a lot of money, and has put millions of dollars into this program. The program director is a great man, and they have both the current president of the American Association of Anesthesiology Assistants and the former president on their staff. They have twice as much equipment as the other schools, and the majority of the staff are young, practicing AAs—not anesthesiologists. The draw backs I see here are that they have not had a graduating class yet, and b/c their program just started, they may still be working out the kinks. As anyone who frequents this board can tell you—they haven’t exactly been timely with their acceptances and at times they seem pretty disorganized about things. Oh, also… they have a stricter dress code while on campus than the other schools—that was a drawback for me b/c I would need a new wardrobe.
I know that was wordy, but I really hope that helps!!! If you have any questions, let me know!
