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Advice for an Undergrad


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Hello all,

 

I am currently an Undergrad at a well known state school. I jumped into my EMS program right after high school (no gap year) and was not entirely focused. Financial reasons also got in the way and resulted in me getting two D's in A&P 1 and Med. terminology. I was put on academic probation for the spring 2014 semester but i retook my A&P course and Med. terminology course, got B's in both, and was promptly taken off probation the following semester (I know these are still not good enough grades to have for these courses). I finished my EMT-A program back in May (2015) with a 2.75 GPA. Since then I worked full time/part time and now have approx. 1000 patient contact hours. I began working towards my Bachelors in Biology back in January (2016) and brought my GPA up to a 3.4. I am probably doing this wrong but I tried to calculate my caspa GPA with my A&P courses (factored in the D's) and EMS courses to try and see where i somewhat stand and it resulted in a 2.7 sGPA. I am barely going to start taking any Biology, Chemistry, Physics coursework this coming academic year so I am planning to work my butt off and get that sGPA up.

 

I am more or less seeking some advice on what to improve, which courses would you recommend once i hit those 3000 level, what would you have done differently, any general advice, books, tools, what you would have liked to know during your undergrad about the PA profession, etc etc. 

 

Overall this is where I currently stand:

 

School: Large state school

Major: working for a B.S. in Biology (still have about 2-3 years left)

 

Current Undergrad GPA: 3.40

Guesstimated sGPA: 2.75 

 

Patient contact hours: approx. 1000 (going to keep working part time so will increase significantly by the time I apply, also thinking about scribing or ER tech)

 

Shadowing: none yet, so hard to find PA or MD to shadow in my area but currently cold calling 

 

Volunteer :

 

-Mentor for underprivileged children in my area

-Planning a medical trip to Nicaragua 

 

 

Cert/awards:  

 

-EMT-B

-EMT-A

-CPR

-CARES award (you get this for bringing someone back)

 

Other qualifications:

 

-Fluent in both English and Spanish, working on learning French now.

-First generation college student (not really a qualification but just thought id mention it)  

 

 

 

I've known this is the career path I've wanted to work towards since I finished my EMT program so any useful advice you can provide would be great, thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

- Your undergrad school doesn't matter.

- Your certs and awards don't matter.

- You need to start cranking out As like it's the cool thing to do.

- Keep racking up HCE.

 

The PA school applicant pool is so competitive, it is jaw dropping.  I applied and interviewed with a cohort which could have easily applied to corresponding medical schools if they had only taken and scored decent on the MCAT.  For the average schools to which I applied, the rates of accpentance for the previous year was 3-4%.  Three to four per-cent.  That's Mayo and Harvard competitive.

 

You have the burden of a low GPA to overcome...forgive the blunt frankness but for every 100 posts on this and other forums about overcoming a low GPA, maybe 1 poster actually gets serious and accomplishes the goal of admission.  I don't mean to be dissuasive but I find it better to know what I'm up against so I can make a better informed life decision like this due to the constraints it puts on the wallet and on the amount of time one has in a day.

 

If you want it, you'll find a way to make it happen.  Best of luck to you.

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