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Registered Dietitian's Chances!!


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Hey everyone, what do you think my chances of getting in to PA school are!?

 

I am a registered and licensed Dietitian.

Overall GPA: 3.6 (Bachelor in Nutrition , Masters in Nutrition)

Science GPA: 2.86 ~ I know low :( 

GRE: Verbal 144, Quant 148, writing 4.5

>4000 hours of clinical/healthcare experience as a Registered Dietitian

~300 volunteer hours

Letters of recommendation from Nutrition Clinical Manager @ hospital, dietetic internship director, and masters professor

 

What do you all think? I really want to apply this year but do not know if I should wait one more year and retake some of my prereq to get my science GPA up? Do you all know what is more important.. GPA or experience? All thoughts welcomed. THANKS

 

 

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Well first problem that you pointed out already is your science gpa...why is it so low?? Most of the PA program courses are difficult science courses so this is a big red flag. My program doesn't explicitly have a requirement on gpa but in the program you must maintain at least a 3.0

 

GRE is also pretty low. Not saying that it's a huge indicator or anything but I would shoot for a 300 minimum. How many times have you taken it?

 

Don't know how programs will weigh dietitian health care experience hours so won't touch on that right now.

 

You should have at minimum one, but preferably more of your LORs from a PA or physician. Again my program requires at least one from on of those but the more the better.

 

Overall I would say your chances with these stats are not that competitive but it depends a lot on where your applying. Spend some time fixing the above things and it will increase your chances .

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There are two RD's in my class. It seems like their work experience is very applicable to PA school and are both doing very strongly in the program.

 

I would suggest raising your science GPA above 3.0 if you can

 

^^what she said...i am in school with an RD as well, seems to be a common thread a definitely great healthcare experience.

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I'm an RD and one month into my PA program - I would try to get the GPA up for science but your experience (if you find the right schools) should be considered above average considering all we went through to get there! I am in a class with lots of students with less than 500 hours of CNA/EMT/research etc - I think my 3000+ hrs of RD experience will serve me well but we shall see! You'll get there.

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I'm an RD and one month into my PA program - I would try to get the GPA up for science but your experience (if you find the right schools) should be considered above average considering all we went through to get there! I am in a class with lots of students with less than 500 hours of CNA/EMT/research etc - I think my 3000+ hrs of RD experience will serve me well but we shall see! You'll get there.

 

I am in virtually the same boat as MainerRD12. I was an RD for 5 yrs and most of my class has the same experience as described above. I think my experience helps me greatly but most PA schools will not even look at you with a science GPA <3.0... I would get that up and I would also try to get a PA or physician write one of your recommendations. I had 1 of our surgical PAs, my RD director, and the medical director at my hospital (an MD) write mine and I got in first round. My science GPA was 3.9 and I can tell you I am working my butt off just to get a B in PA school Anatomy right now...  

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