PA School Application Tips

by Paul on November 2, 2011

We’ve started a series of articles called PA School Application Tips, and the aim is to collect the best strategies, hints, and practices for increasing your chances of acceptance to PA school.

Here’s an in-progress list of them so you can quickly jump to what interests you the most. New articles will be added as they’re published.

Tip #1: Have a Game Plan

The most important tip of all, along with a list of things to plan for.

Here we teach you how to properly share information about who you are with admissions committees, and how to avoid the most common pitfall of all. Useful when writing your application essay (narrative), and when interviewing.

Tip#3: Protect Your GPA

Strong academic performance is a crucial ingredient in a strong PA school application. This tip tells you why, and how to avoid GPA mishaps.

Tip#3: Think Big

Thinking small never won a baseball game, and there’s plenty to learn from that fact. Here we delve into how you need to think big to have a successful PA school application, and give you some steps to help you start doing it.

Tip #4: Get Great Health Care Experience

Keep checking back for more PA school application tips!

Sarah March 23, 2012, 9:13 am
http://2paschool.blogspot.com/p/admissions-process.html
I will be starting PA school in the Fall of 2012! If you want more information about the application and interview process you can read my application story. I am not a traditional PA school applicant, I had no hands on patient care experience. To all pre-PA students: it is important to focus on getting good grades especially in prerequisite courses.
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Kate May 8, 2012, 3:28 pm
I love this website, thank you for putting all of this information together! I am taking the pre-reqs to apply to PA school next year and have a background in politics, so it’s a big switch for me! My schedule is very intense, and about to get more so when I finish my CNA course and find a job to build my HCE. I was wondering if you might have an opinion about an opportunity I have to be a research assistant on a psychology experiment. Will that experience be a beneficial thing to have as I apply to programs? Just wondering if it’s worth my time! Thanks.
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- Paul May 8, 2012, 6:21 pm
  Do it if it interests you, but I wouldn’t do it to improve your app. If anything, it will show that you are curious and well rounded. The only exception might be if you’re planning to work in psychiatry. Then it could be helpful.
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John July 26, 2012, 12:09 pm
Hey Paul,
I have a question that is about the job experience that in most schools, if not all, it is required to apply. So I have a while before I apply to a PA program, about 2 years, and I want to get job experience. Do you think it means anything if I put that I volunteered let’s say at a hyperbaric chamber as oppossed to working at a hired position?
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- Paul July 26, 2012, 12:38 pm
  I’m not sure if you’re asking what’s better, a volunteer gig or a paid gig in a hyperbaric chamber, for example. All other things being equal, schools would prefer to see paid work. But any volunteering you do should definitely be listed on the CASPA app under Work and Volunteer Experience. But how much weight they give it depends on how many hours you worked, over what period of time, your responsibilities (with patients, without patients, what was your role, etc).
  Here’s a link to the relevant FAQ page on CASPA’s Site.
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Tim August 6, 2012, 1:03 pm
Hi Paul,
I’m filling out my work and patient care experience on CASPA. My question is that would you recommend filling out the “duties” portion via bullet points or complete sentences?? I’ve noticed that writing sentences exceeds the maximum amount of characters.
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- Paul August 6, 2012, 10:21 pm
  I like bullets. Be sure that what each bullet says is complete and comprehensive. That way, they only read the important words. The idea of bullets is just that - to sidestep the fluff and get to the stuff.
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Anthony August 9, 2012, 11:00 pm
Hi,
I understand that CASPA lets you submit applications to your list of programs now.. and then it also lets you apply to other additional programs if you decide to later on. I was wondering if you know whether CASPA will let you modify my application before it is sent to the additional programs I decide to apply to after my first set of applications??
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- Paul August 10, 2012, 7:33 pm
  I’m going to check on this, but I think it’s highly unlikely that they will let you alter it after the fact. Their emphasis has always been on one application for the entire process.
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Karen August 15, 2012, 7:41 pm
Paul,
I am a second time around applicant and was just crushed to hear a rumor that programs frown upon people who apply to a large number of programs. I have applied to all 13 schools who’s admissions requirements I had met. Can these programs see how many I applied to and is that frowned upon?
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- Paul August 15, 2012, 9:04 pm
  I haven’t heard any such rumor. Don’t give it a second thought. If you have applied to multiple programs, 1) your wise, and 2) you’re in good company.
  To my knowledge, the schools only see that you have applied to them. I will double check this for you, though.
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Erica September 8, 2012, 4:49 pm
Hi Paul,
Have you seen many nurses change careers to become a PA?
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- Paul September 9, 2012, 11:29 am
  Yes. It happens all the time. There are nurses who decide that they prefer the medical model to the nursing model, and decide to switch. This is particularly appropriate when you have an RN with a bachelor’s degree in another area (not a BSN).
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Erica September 9, 2012, 3:37 pm
Hey Paul,
I have my BSN and I have been practicing for almost 2 years. Now I don’t have a bachelor’s degree in another area. Will that go against my favor of being accepted into a PA program? If so why?
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Julie November 23, 2012, 1:51 pm
Hi Paul,
I have worked for years in radiology, nuclear medicine and MRI to be exact. I have plenty of hours in patient care. I wondered if it would hurt me for not having many hours of shadowing experience with a DO, MD, or PA?
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- Paul November 23, 2012, 10:42 pm
  I would say that you need at least some (a day) so you can say convincingly that you understand the role and life of a PA. More is better, of course. I did about 100 hours.
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Jaime December 13, 2012, 9:00 am
Hi,
I have recently graduated from college with my BS in biology, but my GPA was not good (like a 2.95 overall). I have been working as a medical assistant/ front office assistant to get some experience with patients. What else should I do to look better / if I retake classes how would that help my gpa since I have already graduated?
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- Paul December 13, 2012, 12:17 pm
  Your GPA isn’t the reason to retake classes. The reason to retake them is to prove that you have mastered the material on which PA school will be building. ER experience can be helpful - could you volunteer a couple hours per week?
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Marc January 15, 2013, 10:01 pm
I’ve recently applied to PA school (two programs) for the first time after just managing to complete their particular prerequisites (excellent grades but cutting it close with the application deadlines). I’m hoping for the best but also preparing for the possibility that I may not be admitted on my first try. As such, I’m continuing to take classes and do more job shadowing in the meantime. I’ve already taken upper-level courses in Genetics, General Virology and Microbiology. I’m now in a position to take either Cell Biology or Medical Microbiology & Immunology this spring 2013 semester. Do you have any suggestions which of those two would have the broadest appeal among PA programs across the country? If I need to reapply later this year, my goal is to have as many programs as possible for which my course history matches their required/recommended course lists. Thanks for any advice you all can offer.
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- Paul January 18, 2013, 5:21 pm
  I say medical micro/immuno - this is a topic you will see a lot in PA school. The cellular level is important, but less so.
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Marc January 20, 2013, 12:28 pm
Thanks very much for the reply, Paul. Unfortunately, I had to go ahead and make a decision in the interim, and I went with the Cell Biology course. From my unscientific survey of programs, I had the impression that slightly more mentioned Cell Biology than Medical Micro/Immuno as a prerequisite or recommended course.
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Shaun January 25, 2013, 6:17 pm
Would working with an NP in a retail clinic setting count as experience or anything for that matter? Thanks for any help you can provide.
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- Paul January 29, 2013, 11:06 pm
  If by retail clinic setting you mean something like a Rite Aid in-store clinic, I would think so. Rather than focusing on the setting, though, focus on your responsibilities. What do you see? What do you help with that is medical (assessment and/or treatment)? You will sell your HCE by describing it, not by naming it, if you know what I mean.
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Meg January 30, 2013, 12:48 am
Hi Paul! I’m graduating in may with a BS in radiation sciences in radiography. It’s not the best route to PA school but I’m doing my best to make it work. Ill be applying in the 2013-2014 cycle and the one concern is that my patient experience is all unpaid student clinical hours (quite a lot of them). In your experience does this really set an applicant back? Most schools state “paid or volunteer” direct hands on patient care but I can’t find much info on student hours.
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- Paul January 30, 2013, 5:03 pm
  I think the type of experience actually matters more than paid or unpaid. How much interaction the student, what types of patients, etc. You might consider branching out to other types of HCE, though. Broaden your application. It’s a way to “split the difference” between two types of experience.
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