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So, I am not sure what PA programs are looking for anymore. I applied last year, got one interview and was rejected. I applied this year, got five interiews and was also rejected by all, well waitlisted at one (only because apparently everyone gets wailtisted).

 

Biomedical Sciences

CumGPA: 3.34

ScienceGPA: 3.26

 

nearly 1500 hours as a scribe, 100 hours shadowing 3 different PA's and a doctor, 108 hours volunterring as ER Ambassador, volunteered at other smaller events about 25 hours

4 LOR- Previous boss, 2 PA'S, a Doctor

 

 

Just frustrated, as it seems there are many students getting in with degrees like communications, art, and such. Had I known, I would have done the same thing, and just took some pre-reqs. I took hard science classes in undegrad; classes that you didn't really need to take. But I figured better chances, right?

 

I am not sure it's my interivewing skills; but even so, I have met a handful of people with similar stats and personality who have gotten accepted. I am thinking about quitting the PA route. I am quite broke after this whole process. Sometimes, I feel like these PA program committees don't seem to care that there are students graduating with science degrees that lead us virtually no where if not to a professional degree (which seems nearly impposible to get into). I have always wanted to be a PA, I met so many people that do it just for the money. So many that get out of school and think , why not a PA;  I have wanted to do this way longer than that. But again, running out of money after traveling to so many places, and I don't want to be old and not have a life started. Just need some advice. Backup plans? Or continue just one more year? Thank you.

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You sound disillusioned. People get in with your grades (not always, but sometimes). 

 

Could be lots of things. Hopefully your mood here wasn't on display in your interviews. You got interviews, so presumably your LORs and essay were OK. Your experience is OK. 

 

If it were me, I'd contact the schools you interviewed with this year and try to get some feedback, not to second-guess their decisions, but to see how you could improve. Then, take that data and decide what you want to do next. In any event, it's time for a plan B.

 

Best of luck.

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I think he was talking about a different approach to PA school.

 

No applicant should ever have the same (or substantially similar) application from one year to the next. HCE and GPA should always both be improving, as well as should personal statements and LORs.  Other weak areas, like amount of shadowing, should be shored up where they exist, but 100 hours is plenty.

 

Specific ideas for your situation:

- Get some international experience.

- Get some real HCE, where you actually care for patients instead of just writing about them.  Not meaning to be harsh, but scribe experience is not the same as CNA, MA, or EMT experience.  Yes, it's more theoretical, but you usually don't participate in patient care as a scribe, let alone work and interact independently with patients.

- Take some shorter certification classes.  ACLS doesn't require you to have any way to use it--I took mine as an EMT-B pre-PA student.

- Augment your coursework with humanities and social studies, if you don't already have e.g. a bunch of psych classes, to show that it's not just about the science of medicine, but also about the hopes, dreams, and fears of the patients.

 

Four ideas, hopefully at least 1-2 of them will be workable for you.  As a true "plan B", you might consider medical school as opposed to PA school: it's longer, but you get to make a bunch more money and have more responsibility at the end.

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First, I'm sorry that you're having a tough time getting in. I'm familiar with how hard it stings to apply and get rejected from every school with no hope of getting in... the good news for you is that you actually got interviews... actually you got 5 of them... which means you, personally, blew it 5 times.... Sorry to be blunt, but just calling it as I see it..

I'm one of those communication majors that you speak about that got accepted to PA school with a bad GPA... but guess what.. my communication skills (that my degree awarded me) is what got me into PA school because I nailed the 1 interview I did have (instead of blowing the 5 I never got)...

As someone who has a biomedical degree, I'm actually disappointed you haven't done the research yourself to figure out what PA schools are looking for in regards to stats.

In the case of your stats, you are below the national average accepted student stats:

Your Stats
cGPA: 3.34
ScienceGPA: 3.26
Direct Paid HCE: 0 hours
Indirect HCE: 1500 hours
Volunteering: 133 hours
Shadowing: 100 hours

The average accepted student stats (nationally per study in 2011)
GPA: 3.49
sGPA: 3.43
Direct Paid HCE: 3,300
Indirect HCE: 1830
Volunteering: 700+ hours
Shadowing: 140+
http://doseofpa.blogspot.com/2014/03/caspa-and-applying-to-pa-school.html


When you compare these stats to yours, you're close on GPA but fall short on everything else... This means you are also limiting the places that you can apply to as well.. 

So what can you do to better your application?

  • Improving your stats
    Every time you apply you should always be improving your application. That means more HCE, more certifications, more shadowing, better GPA.. the works... You should never sit stagnant and apply with the same application you had the previous year... never... The adcom will sit and look at your application and ask.. "what did this guy do to improve from last year?" and the answer is going to be you did nothing to improve and the result will then be exactly what it was last year..
  • Mock interviewing.
    • Learn the STAR format response to interviewing questions and work with that. In short, STAR stands for Situation / Task, Actions, and Results. When you're asked a question like "Tell me about a time where you had conflict with a coworker / boss / patient / etc or they phrase it like "how do you handle conflict?" then you use this style of answer to respond.
    • You briefly mention the situation or task that is relevant to the question that's being asked, and then you state all the actions that were taking to resolve that task and then you follow it with that were the results in the end.
    • Like a sandwich you have two slices of bread on top and bottom and in the middle you have the meat. No one cares for the bread, they care for the meat. So spend like 10-15 seconds on the ST part, about 30-45 seconds on the actions (this can be longer but don't bore your interviewers) and then another 10-15 seconds on what the outcome was of the situation and task.
    • There are really like 5 different scenarios you should prep for, 1. Conflict 2. Time management / organization 3. coping with stress 4. Customer service / patient care compassion 5. leadership (influencing change)
  • Obtain direct paid HCE.
    You've been a scribe and I'm sure you enjoy it and learn alot, but its alot different actually touching patients rather than observing and recording. I've had scribes in my own PA school class that have all stated they had good experience as a scribe but during their clinical rotations wish they had actually gotten direct hands on experience.
  • Obtain more community service / volunteering hours
    Pretty self explanatory that your way short on these hours. Easy ways to fix this are by volunteering at a shelter, through church or youth group, or participating in single day events like Donate Life walks. Try to at least double it.
  • Lastly, get that chip off your shoulder
    • Comparing yourself to your friends and thinking your education is superior to someone elses will not get you far in the application cycle, in PA school, in clinical rotations nor in the professional world. Do you think your science brain will work as well as someone elses creative brain? Do you honestly think you would of had a 4.0 in communications if you took it? Do you honestly think it's your GPA that is holding you back from getting interviews? The answer is no, so knock it off..
    • I sold my house just so I could make the career change to get into PA school and moved in with family with my wife and 2 month old daughter depending on me.. You want to talk about being broke? We can have a discussion about that if you'd like.. don't act like life is bad..
    • You need to focus on your task and setup goals and milestones and reach those systematically and eventually you will be successful in whatever it is you want to do.. I get that you're frustrated, learn from the experience and better yourself.. If you're looking at quitting already, then maybe you're not cutout for PA school, because PA school will chew you up and spit you out and guess what.. you have to either adapt quick to survive or drop and chances of you getting back into a program after you drop is pretty much nill.

Anyhow, I leave you with this video and ask you.. how bad do you want it?

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I agree with the above. The fact that you got interviews and were rejected from all of them means it's less about your stats and more about your poor interview skills.

 

Work on improving your app for next year overall but maybe think about hiring an interview coach or doing mock interviews with strangers to further analyze what your flaws are. Sometimes it can be hard to gauge what your performance is like without getting outside feedback.

 

One of the things I did as well is recorded myself answering mock questions. That really helped me see where I could improve in my answers and delivery.

 

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

 

 

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To the OP:

 

My Plan B comment was really just that; what would you like to do if (a) you don't get into a PA program or (b) while you wait. I gather you have been scribing for HCE, but you might want to figure out what else you could do with your degree and maybe make some inroads.

 

While focusing on a goal is important, there is no reason for the rest of your life to be held in suspended animation. You could, for example, start a career in something else and continue getting classes and HCE. That's how many of us older people had to do it, if for no other reason than to better make ends meet.

 

None of us know you, but it does sound like you didn't come across well on your interviews. Good thing about that; it's easier to fix than having to take a ton of classes to pull up a GPA.

 

Good luck, whatever you choose.

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OP, there's some excellent advice from those above: follow it. The application gets you an interview. The interview gets you a seat. So, it's you're interview skills; simple as that.  Address it, and improve it no matter what your path. You will need to interview for grad schools and jobs for the next several decades, so get better now.

 

If you choose to try again, have a stronger app to get more interviews.  Then develop stronger interview skills to get your seat.  Follow the advice from the above posters to do both.

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I do have to chime in and stick up a bit for the OP, it can be hard and there is often no rhyme or reason why a school picks someone else over you.  The only thing I've heard over and over is that they are trying to build a class that complements each other, so if you aren't what they're looking for in that regards then it's tough luck.  I would say try putting in more research to schools you would be a likely pick at and practice up on those interview skills.  Apply broadly and early.  It's ridiculously competitive so you have to just keep working at it.

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@Disciple3

 

Three of the last interviews, I felt like I did well. I didn't stutter or stumble, I even felt like I answered the questions thoroughly. Another thing, I am usually nervous at interviews and at those particular times, I wasn't. Like you said, I guess I just wasn't what they were looking for. Thanks for understanding.

 

 

 

To all,

Thanks for the replies.

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@Disciple3

 

Three of the last interviews, I felt like I did well. I didn't stutter or stumble, I even felt like I answered the questions thoroughly. Another thing, I am usually nervous at interviews and at those particular times, I wasn't. Like you said, I guess I just wasn't what they were looking for. Thanks for understanding.

 

 

 

To all,

Thanks for the replies.

It can be nice to settle on this thought because it feels better, but take a hard look at your interview tactics. You got five interviews and no acceptances. You don't need to just interview well, you need to knock it out of the park, so to speak. On top of the other suggestions here, I would recommend some communications classes. It can be far easier on our ego to just say, THEY were the one who had a problem, I did everything right. Sometimes this is the case, and I would agree if maybe it was one or two interviews, but it was five. Your stats are good enough to get you in front of them, now you need to dazzle them once you have them.

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I agree it could've been the case the OP just completely didn't come across right at their interviews, but it could easily be the case as well he just wasn't what they were looking for.  Interviews are pretty inherently biased depending on who you get as well, the only exception I saw being GWU with the MMI format.  I can testify to that firsthand with some of my experiences this year.  The stats are lackluster so even if he did do about as well as the rest of the people around him it probably wouldn't be enough (many schools use point systems to grade and accept you, so you get an interview grade too).  There is definitely "luck" involved here for lack of a better term.

 

At the end of the day, if you want it you will apply again and put the work in that you need to. 

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I think your right about the luck part. I have gotten five jobs over the years with my poor interview skills. And job interviews are quite similar to PA interviews, same questions and such. Its hard, but I'll figure something out. Thanks again everyone.

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I don't think it's luck. Interviewing for jobs vs for a professional graduate school is not necessarily the same thing. Let's say you have a 25% chance of getting accepted from each school you interviewed at ( i think 25% is a fair average for all the programs). The chance of you not getting is accepted to any programs is 0.75^5 = 0.2373. This interview cycle you had around a 77% chance of acceptance. Just gotta really improve on your interview skills 

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I don't think it's luck. Interviewing for jobs vs for a professional graduate school is not necessarily the same thing. Let's say you have a 25% chance of getting accepted from each school you interviewed at ( i think 25% is a fair average for all the programs). The chance of you not getting is accepted to any programs is 0.75^5 = 0.2373. This interview cycle you had around a 77% chance of acceptance. Just gotta really improve on your interview skills 

 

There's a suggested 10% acceptance rate, some PA organization I think.

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Keep your head up.  Many people have to apply year after year.  And by doing so it makes you a stronger applicant.  If you want it bad enough, keep going. 

Get more HCE, retake classes/GRE, and make your personal statement the best it can be!  It has more of an effect than you think it does

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What did you do to prepare for each interview? Your stats are fine, hands down. If you choose to apply next year, definitely keep diversifying your experiences, it will give you more to draw from for those interview questions.

 

Also, do you treat every interview like a brand new, unique experience? Be sure to research what makes that school unique, talk to current students to get their insight, look up the faculty and what they are interested and who they are so that you can steer your time with then into something you know that they like to talk about. It wilk instantly give you common ground and make your stand out. Honestly, interviewing is all about making the person across from the table like you, don't be afraid to let your personality show! And use your position as a reapplicant as the edge over others. You are determined, committed, and refuse to quit. You are willing to grit your teeth and slog your way through years of making yourself the best possible candidate you can be. That is something valuable that only reapplicants can bring to the table. Remember, it only takes one school to say yes! You can do it :) -from a fellow reapplicant

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