Does CASPA ask about previous apps to grad school?

[moy505]

Does CASPA ask about previous apps to grad school? My question is concerning someone who applied and got accepted to medical school but turned down the offer to pursue PA school. I know that dental school applications ask about this but does CASPA also ask? Does it need to be revealed to PA schools that you applied to med school before? Would this look bad? Also the stats for this person were competitve (3.7 gpa and 30 MCAT).

[Febrifuge]

I don't know about CASPA, but it may vary school-by-school.

 

In my second year, I got to be one of the students who helped with interview day. I sat with a faculty member in several interviews, and reviewed the applicants' folders ahead of time. We did have one who had an MCAT score on file. That was in fact a factor in considering them.

 

And I don't think the applicant had volunteered the info, because the faculty member said "let's not bring this up, and see if he mentions it himself. If not, I will."

 

So, for an n=1, I suspect that it may look "bad" in the sense that they want to know you and your story, and having taken the MCAT and applied to 4-yr med school is almost certainly an important part of that story. Leaving it out can only benefit you if you're trying to pretend it never happened, and that is the part that looks suspicious.

 

I knew an EM resident who applied to one med school only, intending to apply to PA school later in the summer. She got in, and decided to go to med school. She never regretted it, but did think it was weird it worked out that way. By the time I knew her, she was a PGY-3, and almost done, so she was getting over a sense of "oh man, if I'd been a PA, I'd be out of school for a few years by now." Point is, stuff happens and plans change. Just face it head-on.