Weeding Out Poll

[whoRyou]

What weeds Pre-PAs out the most?  

[cop to pa]

HCE and GPA

[EMEDPA]

agree with above. it's one or the other (or both...)

[Hawkeyes]

I would say HCE, many pre-PAs weed themselves out by not having any significant HCE, they don't realize how important it is not only to gain admission but to your development as a provider. 

[DiggySRNA]

HCE...without it nothing else matters. I don't think your application will even make it pass auto reject.

[Torshi]

There's many reasons - HCE being the biggest weed out for PA school. Also, I've had the opportunity to sit and grade interviewees at my school a few times, I would say many are not prepared at all. Very easy to weed out. 

[camha92]

As someone who applied for this application cycle, it's definitely the gpa. There are schools that do not have a HCE requirements and others that only require a couple hundred hours. That being said, it's also pretty easy accumulating hours as a CNA or medical assistant. Half a year of full time work will get you the 1000 hours that most programs require.

 

However, gpa requirements of pa matriculants has gotten up to over 3.5 for essentially all schools, with some as high as 3.7. For those with gpa in the lower 3.0's, it's difficult for them to increase, especially if they had already finished their undergrad. There are limited financial aid options for students who already have bachelors and taking classes even in community colleges can be costly.

 

Maybe this was not the case a decade ago, but it certainly is the case now in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

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[EMEDPA]

As someone who applied for this application cycle, it's definitely the gpa. There are schools that do not have a HCE requirements and others that only require a couple hundred hours. That being said, it's also pretty easy accumulating hours as a CNA or medical assistant. Half a year of full time work will get you the 1000 hours that most programs require. However, gpa requirements of pa matriculants has gotten up to over 3.5 for essentially all schools, with some as high as 3.7. For those with gpa in the lower 3.0's, it's difficult for them to increase, especially if they had already finished their undergrad. There are limited financial aid options for students who already have bachelors and taking classes even in community colleges can be costly. Maybe this was not the case a decade ago, but it certainly is the case now in my opinion. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would not attend any of those schools....

[camha92]

I would not attend any of those schools....

Haha, I would agree with you. But there some established and average-reputable programs such as NYIT that req. a min. of only 100 hours.

[MaxPower]

Most of the schools in the northeast require up to 250 hours or less of HCE...SBU is an exception. Nevertheless, GPA or HCE as a determining factor, varies from school to school, so overall both are important for a competitive application. 

[OneDayAPA_Maybe]

I would not attend any of those schools....

 

I do not one hundred percent agree with that statement. Baylor College of Medicine and UT Southwester are both phenomenal PA schools that do not require HCE. 

[MT2PA]

Just because they don't require HCE doesn't mean they don't use it as a measure to evaluate applicants.  2 applicants with similar apps and one has 2000 hrs HCE vs someone who has none?  I'd bet money the one with HCE moves forward to the interview phase.

[Z PA-C]

I would say HCE and course pre-reqs. Some programs are so strict about their pre-reqs and since so many schools have different course requirements there were schools I wanted to apply to but just didn't want to take XYZ class.

[SungSam]

Not applying early in a cycle is the number one reason your application won't be seen by 50% of the programs