Jenn Tran is headed 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 bachelorette on season 21 of The Bachelorette, says she is excited but also feeling a little trepidation as she prepares to return to school early next year.
“Honestly, I will say it’s really intimidating to go back,” says Tran, who previously put her master’s degree studies on pause when she was selected as a contestant for season 28 of The Bachelor, which was then followed by her Bachelorette role and a stint on Dancing with the Stars‘ 33rd season.
“I didn’t realize how much time I had taken off until now,” she adds. “I’m starting the process of getting my paperwork in and registering for my courses again, because I’m going to go back in March.”
Tran said she is preparing herself since she knows it will not be an easy road ahead.
“I have a lot of work before going back to school, just refresher courses and things like that to get back to the level that I was at,” she explains.
She will complete the second of two years of coursework to earn her degree. In her final year, she will have the added pressure of being supervised by professionals in the field.
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“The second year, you start working in the clinics with doctors and PAs and nurses and everything, and getting a feel for what it’s like,” Tran explains. “I finished two rotations already, so I only have six more to go and then I’m free, and then I’m a PA, which is also really scary.”
“I am going back, and it’s just going to take time and a lot of hard work, but it’s something that I’m so passionate about,” she adds. “I’ve been wanting to study medicine my whole life, and it’s just something that feels like I would regret if I didn’t finish.”
She says she intentionally took some time off to “let things die down” before she returns to a clinical setting. Her time on The Bachelorette ended with drama after it was revealed that she and contestant Devin Strader — who got engaged in the finale — broke up soon after, with Tran sharing on the Final Rose special that Strader’s feelings toward her changed almost immediately after filming ended.
“I didn’t want to be giving someone a physical exam and them being like, ‘Oh my God, you’re Jenn Tran. I know everything about you,’ ” she explains of her newfound fame.
While she acknowledged that it’s likely “going to be a weird experience” for her patients, she is keeping 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.
One perk of her reality TV gigs is that her social media following has grown substantially — and she is excited about the opportunity to use her platform to share about her return to school and medical career.
“I think people in medicine also do have platforms and that’s been done before, so it’s not completely new territory,” she notes. “So, I’m excited to explore it and see what happens.”
“I was already on TikTok sharing my day-to-day life in physician assistant school, and a casting producer [from The Bachelor] came across my TikToks and reached out to me,” she continues. “But it was something that I enjoyed doing before, and it’s something that I’m also really excited to get back to now, because I know a lot of my fan base is based in medicine and a lot of them are really excited to see me go back.”
As for a future return to TV or other opportunities outside of her career in healthcare, Tran says she is keeping an open mind.
“I am going to be very, very busy with school, but I want to also still have my toe dipped into this whole new world that L.A. has opened me up to, and I’ve really been enjoying it so far,” she explains. “So, we’ll see whether that’s a hosting gig or whether that’s launching something — I don’t know yet.”
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