Do I apply this round or take a year off?

[Jacprepa]

This is my first post on here so not too sure exactly how this all works, but I REALLY could use some advice, so please help! 

 

I am currently a Senior in my undergrad as an Exercise Science Major. I have a minor in both Spanish and Biology. I did not apply to PA school last April, so as of right now I am already taking a year off. I am still deciding whether or not I should even apply this round or wait another cycle and apply in 2017 (so I would be taking 2 years off). Any advice would be much appreciated. I live in Florida and UF is my #1 school, but I would probably go pretty much anywhere if I applied and got accepted...

 

My overall GPA: 3.5
Science GPA (I don't know how CASPA calculates it so I don't know exactly what it is) but I have gotten 3 C+'s in Science Courses (my sophmore year, Organic Chemistry 1, Gen Chem 2, and Anatomy and Phys 2). Since then however, my grades have been on an upward trend and are all A's and B's. 

 

GRE: not yet taken but am starting a Kaplan course next week and hoping to take it in January for the 1st time

 

My experience: 

900+ hours as a Medical Scribe in the ER (I still am confused if UF counts this as on their website it states, "The School recommends that all applicants complete the equivalent of at least one year (2000 hours) of direct (“hands-on” actually TOUCHING patients) patient care experience before entering the school*. Examples of such care may include drawing blood, taking vitals, providing personal hygiene care, serving as technician in Radiography, serving as a medical scribe in an Emergency Department, etc.") Even though I am not allowed to touch patients

 

I am also starting a job as a CNA in the Cancer Unit on Monday (which will be direct experience)

I have ~60 hours shadowing a PA

~80 hours volunteering at a camp for kids with cancer and hemophilia

I have 70 hours from a Medical Missions Trip to Ecuador

 

Any advice/opinions on whether I should apply to a few schools (mainly FL) this round or just wait and take another year off and take some more science classes to boost my GPA, focus studying on the GRE, and continue working.

 

Also, does anyone know if they look badly upon applying and you dont get in the 1st time but then you reapply? Or do they like to see that you are persistent and determined?

[UGoLong]

Assuming you have your prerequisites and your science GPA is reasonable (got questions about that from your note above), and you can afford the fees, I see no reason not to apply and just see what happens. The worst thing would be that you won't get in, which is pretty much where you are now anyway and you will learn along the way.

 

Go to the CASPA site and figure out what "science" means (i.e, which of your classes count) and then figure out your science GPA. I suspect that it needs to be at least a 3.0. If it's not, you could use some of your time away from school to take some classes to try to pull up your grades.

 

Good luck!

[EMEDPA]

I think you would be a much stronger applicant with another 2000 hrs of HCE from a full time year working.

lots of folks will barely have the min and you want to stand out as someone who exceeded the min requirements.

[Timon]

If you're applying to UF only and their HCE criteria is to have "paid hands on direct patient care," then I would say you don't meet their admission criteria as a scribe and I would save my money.

 

If you're going to cast a wider net and apply to schools that DO ACCEPT SCRIBE hours as HCE then I would say you should apply.

 

I think taking the extra year off to get hands on patient care experience is good. But I think taking the 2nd year off may be excessive, especially if you make a job role change in the next few months and get hands on patient care experience. See if there is a way for you to become a tech at the place where you are a scribe. 

[woodsters]

UF does count scribe hours, but only at 50%. One thing they do that other schools might not is "extrapolate" your hours. So, if you are working a 40 hour a week CNA job (or however many hours per week) at the time of your CASPA app, they will extrapolate forward how many hours that would be if you kept doing that until the first day of school. It takes one year to get 2000 hours. You will have a head start with your partial credit for scribing plus any hours you put in between now and going full time when you graduate.

[EMEDPA]

other places that appreciate high level hce rank experience into tiers :

tier 1(top) paramedic/nurse/Resp therapist, etc requiring > 1 yr of school

tier 2 emt, cna, other techs requiring short cert courses

tier 3 everything else (research, scribe, etc).

 

they give points both for duration and tier level so 2 yrs of paramedic might = 6 points in their formula while 2 yrs of scribe might = 2 points.