What does is take to become a physician assistant?

Should i take physics in high school to become a physician assistant?

• So i am currently picking my electives for senior year and i am not sure if i should take physics. I Want to be a physician assistant, if not a nurse practitioner or doctor. But some people tell me i don't need to take it but some recommend that i should. Does anyone know for sure if it is recommended for college to take it? Physics is a full year credit, if i don't take it i would probably take genetics and microbiology each being half year courses to replace physics. The school's physics teacher is horrible on top of it being a hard subject, that's why i don't want to take it. Also should i take precalculus or statistics? My current choices are/were: Anatomy honors I, Precalculus I & Precalculus. II, intro to psychology, and maybe physics. So can i have some legitimate suggestions on what classes i should take to become a PA? Thank you!!

• Answer:

  Since you might want to be a doctor, and since that's the field with the most specific set of pre-requisite courses out of the fields you mentioned, I'll focus on that one. You'll need a year of college-level math once you get to college, up to calculus. So you'd probably want to take calc in the first semester of college, and then statistics in the second semester. Thus I'd want you to take pre-calc in high school. Have you taken any AP sciences yet? While normally I'd advise you to take physics in your senior year, I can understand re: the teacher thing your reluctance. If you do not take physics, then I'd like you to take AP biology. Having taken AP bio and pre-calc in high school will allow you to directly enter the nursing major at many colleges (rather than having to take those classes in college before entering the major, setting you back a term or two.) Will the school let you take AP bio? If you do not take AP bio in your senior year, then do take the science you've planned to take. They'll help you out in college. So long as you are not applying to the elite level schools, this will be just fine. But if you are applying to the elite level schools (Harvard, Williams, Wellesley, etc.), then you need physics in your senior year.