My chances?

[ParaScribeaMedic]

Here's my hail mary, folks.

 

Hey, guys, I'm Lauren. I'm 26, hailing from Rhode Island. I went to the University of RI for undergrad, BS in Kinesiology, Exercise science and through a series of unfortunate events including a few family deaths, a sexual assault, and the uncontrolled depression that went along with it, I did not do that great undergrad. Cum overall was 2.8/2.9. Being fair, I didn't know I want to try for PA school until senior year essentially and by then my life had exploded.

 

So I took some time off. I went to India for a month, shadowing doctors and being in hospitals there and loved it. Previously I was an EMT Basic on my school's rescue with about 2600 hours. 

Because I had the degree in Kin, I got a job for a year as a Physical therapy aide, all hands on time.

During that time, I enrolled in paramedic school and got my license. Because I tend to stay busy, I then took a job as an ED scribe which is what I have been doing for the last two years, full time scribe, per diem paramedic.

 

I finally got the courage up to go back to school last summer and since then have been going through pre reqs, taking a few of them again.

 

Bio 101- Not retaking C+

Bio 102- B

 

Chem 1- D then B (retook recently)

Chem 2- in process

Anatomy, D then B (not so recently)

Micro- B

Exercise Phys (not a prereq)- B

Statistics- A-

Medical Terminology-A

Biochem- need to take

Organic- C+, so close to a B-, will retake

 

I've had 400 hours of time shadowing PA's in various departments in a local hospital. i have a lot of PA contacts through my hospitals and am starting to accumulate letters from PA's and docs

 

I'm going to go through and beast through my prereqs but I need advice. i'm trying to raise my GPA but I don't think the CASPA will be as forgiving.

 

I've had a 3.7 since I've gotten out of college. If you took out the grades I have a few thousand hours of HCE from various sources, a lot of shadowing, good background with EMS and advanced licensure. 

 

Advice?

 

Thanks,

Lauren

 

 

 

 

[rev ronin]

You've got the HCE, GPA will be the issue.  For a lot of places, you will need to raise cGPA to 3.0 to even be considered, and while raising cGPA after finishing a bachelor's degree is painful, it's both possible and occasionally necessary.

 

Specifically, your core prerequisite sGPA seems to be on the low side.  You don't have a single A in what I would term a core science prerequisite--medical terminology and stats don't count.  I'd look for opportunities, retakes as necessary, to get those prerequisites or relevant upper division science courses showing A's.  Right now, even if you got your cGPA high enough, a lot of B's, C's, and D's in undergrad sciences don't send a clear signal to an Adcom that you can do the work.

 

Since HCE accumulates but GPA averages, would it be reasonable for you to cut back on your hours to concentrate on GPA?

[Glorious_Ignoramus]

What is your CASPA c/sGPA?

 

Rev may or may not be onto something with the grades, but I've interviewed at a couple of very selective schools so far where average GPAs are around 3.4-3.5.  So, you may be within a reasonable range of that but you need to know your CASPA scores in order to determine that.  HCE looks great.  Have you started working on your PS yet?