The Bachelorette’s Jenn Tran Details Plans to Go Back to School to Become a Physician’s Assistant (Exclusive)

Jenn Tran is going back to school!

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the 27-year-old reality star shared her plans to complete her master’s degree and pursue a career as a physician’s assistant. Tran, who made history as the first Asian-American Bachelor in season 21 Bachelorshe says she’s excited, but also feeling a little nervous as she prepares to return to school early next year.

“Honestly, I’ll say it’s really scary to come back,” says Tran, who previously put her master’s degree on hold when she was selected as a contestant on the show’s 28th season. Bachelorwhich she then followed Bachelor role and stall on Dancing with the stars‘ 33rd season.

“Until now, I didn’t realize how much time I wasted,” she adds. “I’m starting the process of collecting paperwork and re-applying for courses, because I’m going back in March.”

Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber are competing together on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ in October 2024.

Disney/Christopher Willard

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Tran said she is preparing because she knows it won’t be an easy road.

“I have a lot of work to do before going back to school, just refresher courses and things like that to get back to the level I was at,” she explains.

She will complete the second of two years of study to obtain her degree. In her final year, she will have additional pressure because she will be supervised by experts in the field.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to interesting human interest stories. “The second year you start working in clinics with doctors and assistants and nurses and everything, and getting a feel for what it’s like,” explains Tran. “I’ve already done two rotations so I’ve only got six more and then I’m free and then I’m a PA, which is also really scary.”

“I’m coming back and it’s going to take time and a lot of hard work, but it’s something I’m very passionate about,” she adds. “All my life I wanted to study medicine and I think I would regret not finishing.”

She says she intentionally took some time off to “let things settle down” before returning to the clinical setting. Her time Bachelor ended in drama after it was revealed that she and contestant Devin Strader — who got engaged in the finale — broke up shortly after, and Tran said on the Final Rose special that Strader’s feelings for her changed almost immediately after filming ended.

“I didn’t want to give someone a physical and have them say, ‘Oh my God, you’re Jenn Tran. I know everything about you,’ explains his newfound fame.

Although she admitted that it will probably “be a strange experience” for her patients, she maintained a positive attitude about it all. “I don’t know, I’ve never done this before. I don’t know if anyone has ever done this trajectory before, so we’re just going to take it one day at a time and see what happens,” she tells PEOPLE.

Jenn Trann in the finale of ‘The Bachelorette’.

Disney/John Fleenor

One of the benefits of her appearances on reality TV is that her social media following has grown significantly — and she’s excited about the opportunity to use her platform to share information about her return to school and her medical career.

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“I think people in medicine also have platforms and it’s been done before, so it’s not a completely new area,” she notes. “So I’m excited to explore it and see what happens.”

“I was already on TikTok sharing my daily life at a medical assistant school and an acting producer [from The Bachelor] came across my TikTok and reached out to me,” she continues. “But it was something I used to enjoy doing, and it’s something I’m really looking forward to getting back into now, because I know a lot of my fan base is medical-based and a lot of are very excited to see me back.”

As for a future return to television or other opportunities outside of her healthcare career, Tran says she’s open-minded.

“I’m going to be very, very busy with school, but I also want to continue to be immersed in this whole new world that LA has opened up to me, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far,” she explains. “So we’ll see if it’s a guest appearance or if it’s a start of something – I don’t know yet.”

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Source: HIS Education