PA Applicant (Entry for Spring/Fall 2017)

[kiranina225]

For all current PA students and PAs on this forum, based on my stats, what are my chances of getting into PA school? If the school listed below is your alma mater or you have applied/been accepted to them, I would love your input. Please and thank you!

Cumulative GPA: ~ 3.35-3.40

Science GPA: ~ 3.17

Direct Patient Experience:
MA for a Pulmonary and Endocrinology practice (1 year & more than 1,000 hours)
MA for a Pediatrics office (8 months & about 500 hours)
Next 18 months: Clinical Intern for a non-profit cervical cancer organization (medical missions in various countries in Asia, South America, and Africa)

GRE:TBA

Programs Interested (no particular order & so far)
- Rutgers

- Quinnipac
- Duke

- Rosalind Franklin
- UC Davis
- GWU
- U. Colorado

- Marshall B. Ketchum

- Stony Brook

- U. Washington

- Arcadia U.

- St. Francis

- St. Johns

- Samuel Merrit

- Kings College

 

 

**I have one more semester left of undergrad**

 

[Glorious_Ignoramus]

sGPA is too low.  HCE and awesome LORs will not make up for that, you need to get that GPA up before you apply, bottom line.

 

Remember that your academic scores are the only metric that your prospective schools have to determine whether or not you will succeed during the didactic phase.  The classes are voluminous and paced quickly.  Your sGPA does not demonstrate that you can handle such coursework.

 

The options are many, you could even continue as a post-bac student while working.  There are numerous threads started by prospective PA students in your shoes, and a handful of members here who have survived with similar and lower GPAs.

[greenmood]

Write a killer personal statement, get absolutely stellar letters of recommendation (I'm talking glowing "he's the best person ever" letters from PAs and docs), and you might have a chance at an interview with Rosalind. I can't say what chance you have at an actual offer; you might be a weirdo who performs terribly during interview days and that would sink you at any school.

 

I know nothing about the other programs. Plenty of people will remind you that your science GPA is low, but you already know that and will be sure to address your ability to handle science courses in your personal statement.

[kiranina225]

Thank you for your replies!

I figured my sGPA was too low. The highest I could get finishing my undergrad would be a 3.26 sGPA, which I am assuming is still too low. Definitely "retaking" a class at a community college to raise my sGPA. Thanks Glorious_Ignoramus

 

I have shadowed 2 PAs so far, one who went to Rosalind Franklin, and the other who attended Arcadia. Both told me to do extremely well on my GREs and have a lot of direct patient care hours. One said that her sGPA was about a 3.3, and the other said hers was a 3.6. I'm assuming that 3.3.-4.0 is the best range to be "qualified". Thoughts?

 

As for LORS, I have two physicians that I have worked with for years that offered to write me LORs, and one professor, one volunteer program,  and one PA. Hopefully they can write me an LOR that is stellar.

Thank you for your tip on personal statements greenmood.

 

I have a long way to go, but any advice helps.

[Szen]

Thank you for your replies!

 

I figured my sGPA was too low. The highest I could get finishing my undergrad would be a 3.26 sGPA, which I am assuming is still too low. Definitely "retaking" a class at a community college to raise my sGPA. Thanks Glorious_Ignoramus

 

I have shadowed 2 PAs so far, one who went to Rosalind Franklin, and the other who attended Arcadia. Both told me to do extremely well on my GREs and have a lot of direct patient care hours. One said that her sGPA was about a 3.3, and the other said hers was a 3.6. I'm assuming that 3.3.-4.0 is the best range to be "qualified". Thoughts?

 

As for LORS, I have two physicians that I have worked with for years that offered to write me LORs, and one professor, one volunteer program,  and one PA. Hopefully they can write me an LOR that is stellar.

 

Thank you for your tip on personal statements greenmood.

 

I have a long way to go, but any advice helps.

 

I will also advise you on bringing up your GPA as much as possible coming from an applicant that interviewed with Arcadia last cycle and was waitlisted (was not my first choice and I think they saw through that in my interview haha). My science GPA was a 3.5 and they told me my GPA was still below what they typically accept during the interview...they asked me why they should invest in me with that GPA and luckily I had a good track record of having consecutive dean's list quarters for 3 years straight after my abysmal first year of undergrad to show to them. I'm not here to dissuade you from applying, but I will tell you that Arcadia is very critical of all of their applications given their 100% PANCE rate for the past few years.

 

MBKU is also a great program to apply for but I will also warn you that they have yet to have had a graduating class so it's hard to estimate how their PANCE rates will be. My friend is the director of admissions and while she tells me things are going very well (receiving no red flags for their program for accreditation), it is still a very new program in a very competitive state that is only growing more difficult to obtain clinical rotations

 

Stony Brook U and UC Davis are very competitive programs and I did not obtain interviews with them last cycle. I'm likely assuming it was due to my GPA and late application (I applied in August), but I did get an interview with Duke. I did not attend their interview but Duke might be worth applying for if you can create a stellar personal statement.

 

Last but not least, MEDEX Northwest (University of Washington) is a very competitive program based on the listed pre-reqs alone:

 

-"MEDEX Northwest prerequisites must be completed with a B- or better (per course) prior to the October 1st application deadline to qualify."

 

-"Competitive MEDEX candidates have more than the minimum 2,000 hours – averaging a total of 6.5 years – of paid experience, usually in primary care or emergency medicine."

 

All in all I highly recommend looking into other programs that are more suitable for your application thus far. Have you not considered other programs in CA such as Western, Touro U, or USC?

[Glorious_Ignoramus]

Western might be worth looking into.  I attended a forum with an adcom member, and she stressed that they look for applicants who they can mold into PAs from scratch.  This included some discussion about not having any HCE and lower grades.

[ilovelost]

My stats and grades were actually very similar... :p. 

 

You could get into a PA program with those GPA's as long as everything else is great. 

 

However, your list of programs is very ambitious. If those are your dream schools, then you will probably need higher GPA's. If you're open to other programs and do a little more research, I bet you could get in with what you've got now. 

[SoCalPA]

Research and focus on getting into "a" program, not necessarily a "top" program. Plus it's what you put into it that counts.

[kiranina225]

I am still looking at a lot of PA programs.

 

USC and Touro U are in that category. My friend, who was recently accepted at Touro, encouraged me to apply. She got in with a sGPA of a 3.0. As for  USC, I don't think Ill get into their program, but I'll take a second look. I am not applying to Western. I went to their "PA day" and was not a big fan of their curriculum. PAs that act as preceptors for the school advised me not to apply as well.

 

THANKS SZEN, SoCalPA, and ilovelost