Acceptance to PA School..

[Guest VillarazaM]

I'm currently an undergrad interested in PA. I graduate in December so I'm preparing to apply to PA school.. So I know they look at GPA, interview,letters, etc.. how important is the experience part? What did you all do for experience (shadow, volunteer, etc...) any help would be appreciated! I am wanting to shadow this summer but have yet to find a PA!

[MCHAD]

experience is VERY, VERY, VERY important. Many programs won't look at you without a minimum of 1000 hours PAID experience. Some even have requirements as high as 3000 (that i have seen). I worked as a home health aid and PT aid. Shadowing is good but DOES NOT count as HCE.

[jschmitz47]

The relative importance of experience, grades, LORs, and personal statement varies tremendously school to school. More is better on everything but some schools weight HCE a lot more than others.

 

But anyway, get as much HCE as you can no matter where you are applying. I was light (1500 hours professional; 500 volunteer / shadowing) and every experience I had as a CNA and EMT comes back to me as I am taking classes. I know a lot more about nomenclature, drugs, diseases, and dealing with patients than my classmates who had less experience. Studying lungs in Clinical Medicine - I know what an asthma attack looks like. Studying hearts or kidneys, I've seen (and dealt with) patients with those issues. Don't think "How little can I get away with" but rather "How can I get more". Working, volunteering in an ER, and shadowing all teach you a lot about the practice of medicine.

[MC99]

Experience is very important from what I have been told. I am going to do CNA which is a quick cert (so is EMT but it can be hard to find an EMT job in my area). I also volunteer at a first responder fire station that is in a small town (I am 18, I have been doing it since I was 16). Volunteering at a hospital or something medically related looks good but you should get HANDS ON experience. Also, if you can get a job as an ER scribe you will learn alot and it will look good (even though you will still need direct hands on experienc). Lastly, MCHAD said that the hands on experience has to be paid which is not true for all colleges (such as UF which is a top pa school in FL) so I would check with the schools you want to go to about that. For instance, I may volunteer as a CNA at a doctors office until I have the experience to get hired by the hospital since UF prefers experience to not be at a nursing home.