JD2012

If any of you get an interview let me know so I can take you on the school tour after you're done. It's optional after your interviews but I recommend it. As long as time permits of course.

Don't worry too much, quite a few of our classmates had late interviews.

What are your stats?

I used magoosh and the ETS gre book to get used to their wording. At maximum this is what youll need with a heap of dedication. I did this for a touch over a month month, studying every single day after woking 9 hour shifts at my job. Some nights Id put in 2 hours and those nights where I didnt feel like it at all I would 30 mins, just to get something in. Ended up with a 309 overall and 4.0, Im not the best standardized test taker but I was shooting for a 310+. Cant complain. I only had to take it once and got an acceptance.

Might it hurt you for not having a PA LOR? Possibly. The quality of your LOR's may make up for the lack of a PA LOR, especially if these LOR's speak highly of you within a clinical setting. Some of the schools I researched prefer an LOR from a clinical supervisor who can give the ADCOM an idea about what kind of employee you are in a clinical setting. If you can get a glowing LOR for that type of setting than it MIGHT make up for the lack of a PA LOR. At the end of the day we don't know 100% exactly what ADCOMs are looking for. But, I would check with programs to see how much they weigh having or not having a PA LOR. My personal belief is if you are lacking in one aspect of your app, you need to make up for it in the rest of your app. You are going up against some tough competition that have all the requirement and then some, so keep that in mind.

I applied mid-May and my responses were ALL over the place from as soon as first week of June all the way to January of the following year.

I took my orgo chem labs a couple years after the lectures and at a different school. One school I applied to even said the lab and lecture should be taken at the same time (concurrently) and I still received an interview invite from them. This was FIU.

Relax as much as you can. They know you are nervous so its ok to be a little nervous but not too nervous. You need to show that you can handle stressful situations. Your application got you in through the door. The interview is merely just to make sure you aren't a weirdo. Lastly, you are there to interview them as well so make those questions count when its your turn to ask them!

So far my favorite thing didactic-wise has been that almost every class is on the same topic at about the same time. So physiology, Clinical pathophysiology, physical diagnosis, and anatomy have talked about the same topic at almost the same exact time. So recently it was caridiology. It was almost at the same time in each class, really helped with getting that information sticking in your brain and connecting the dots and applying that information in physical diagnosis. Cadaver labs are a huge help here. Its one thing to learn anatomy on paper but a whole dofferent ball game when its on a cadaver, especially if youre a visual learner like me. The other day we saw a cadaver with uterine/ovarian cancer, and to be able to touch and feel that is huge. Definitely feels like a privilege to do so. Not many programs are able to offer that to their students. Classmates have been great for the most part and its been super refreshing to be amongst like-minded individuals, especially on an intellectual level. PA school is a whole different ball game, everyone is about helping each other, it isnt cutthroat like undergrad. Lastly, the information you learn here has been much more rewarding than undergrad. All of it is useful and doesnt feel like a waste of time.

You will also receive a call as well, if things haven't changed from the last couple years. So if you get a call from Ft. Lauderdale don't get too excited yet. it may be the call just to confirm receipt of your supplemental app.

UpToDate.com is very popular amongst my professors, especially the MD's, in my program. It's also a great read for rare conditions.

You want to have your hours for volunteering and/or patient care hours to be in the thousands. Plan to take a year after your graduate to accrue a good amount of patient care experience. In the meantime, focus on your GPA, and do those volunteer hours when you can without sacrificing the GPA. I don't think programs will care about how fast your get the hours unless it looks suspicious.

In my class a lot of the students interviewed VERY late, such as January and February, while I interviewed the 2nd available day which was October 3rd. So, at my school not a deal breaker.

When I had classes in progress when app submitted and I completed them after the interview invite, I brought in copies of my transcripts to show they were completed along with grades. A lot of people bring leather portfolios. All i brought to my interview was a very small notebook with some bulleted reminders for some of the known interview questions. Usually the schools give you some swag like a bag, pen, and planner/notebook. But anyway, unless the school asks for it, you don't need to bring anything.

Definitely prep for the common questions and throw your personality into the mix, do not sound rehearsed. DO not make it sound like what they want to hear. Also, DO NOT regurgitate Rodican's answers. Lastly, best thing to do is to TAKE YOUR TIME ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS! Don't rush into answering questions as fast as you can. It is okay to say "let me think about that", gather your thoughts and state your reply. It helped me tremendously and scored an acceptance literally 2 days after my interview. PS- for me just having one interview under my belt helped a ton for the 2nd one, but that's how I learn.