jtien143 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Hello all, I'm thinking about going for PA. I'm currently about 5-6 prerequisites short because my degree was in Psychology, so I'll be applying during the 2017 cycle. I'm located in the Houston, TX area so I want to try to stay in-state if possible. I have a few questions about HCE, GPA, and how to approach the application process in general. I have been working as an administrative assistant at a freestanding ER for 7 months now, but I'm not sure if that counts as experience. My duties include checking in patients, verifying insurance, letting them know about their charges if they have any, etc. I am not given the opportunity to give any "care" to the patient other than offering them snacks and drinks but I do communicate with each and every one of them. If anyone could provide any suggestions on what exactly I could do to gain any extra experience I would appreciate that so much! uGPA: 3.6 Science GPA currently: ~3.4 (I still have to take Chem 2, A&P 2, Micro, Orgo 1, Genetics and maybe Immunology so this gpa is not accurate at all). GRE: currently studying for it, my practice exams are averaging out to be 160 Quant and 144 Verbal... I'm sure the quant will lower when I take the real test and I'm slowly working on my verbal. The two schools I am aiming for are Baylor and UTMB but like I said I'd like to stay in the Texas area for the most part. Since I still have quite the journey with my prerequisites, could anyone give me some tips or pointers for me to work on as I'm finishing these classes up? I can probably retake my bio 2 to make my science GPA higher because I wasn't ecstatic about that professor and made a C. Feel free to PM me as well. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lola Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Hello all, I'm thinking about going for PA. I'm currently about 5-6 prerequisites short because my degree was in Psychology, so I'll be applying during the 2017 cycle. I'm located in the Houston, TX area so I want to try to stay in-state if possible. I have a few questions about HCE, GPA, and how to approach the application process in general. I have been working as an administrative assistant at a freestanding ER for 7 months now, but I'm not sure if that counts as experience. My duties include checking in patients, verifying insurance, letting them know about their charges if they have any, etc. I am not given the opportunity to give any "care" to the patient other than offering them snacks and drinks but I do communicate with each and every one of them. If anyone could provide any suggestions on what exactly I could do to gain any extra experience I would appreciate that so much! uGPA: 3.6 Science GPA currently: ~3.4 (I still have to take Chem 2, A&P 2, Micro, Orgo 1, Genetics and maybe Immunology so this gpa is not accurate at all). GRE: currently studying for it, my practice exams are averaging out to be 160 Quant and 144 Verbal... I'm sure the quant will lower when I take the real test and I'm slowly working on my verbal. The two schools I am aiming for are Baylor and UTMB but like I said I'd like to stay in the Texas area for the most part. Since I still have quite the journey with my prerequisites, could anyone give me some tips or pointers for me to work on as I'm finishing these classes up? I can probably retake my bio 2 to make my science GPA higher because I wasn't ecstatic about that professor and made a C. Feel free to PM me as well. :) Considering this information I think you still have quite a bit of work to do before having a strong application but you are definitely on the right track. Complete your pre-requisites and keep you grades up. Also, you will need direct HCE. I would suggest you get some sort of certification (CNA, MA, EMT) Many if not all programs will not consider your administrative position as quality experience. If you could score on the GRE similarly to what you are scoring on your practice tests you should be okay there. I do not foresee you being competitive by the 2017 cycle, due to lack of experience. Maybe 2018 will be a better goal for you. Also, do you have any shadowing hours? Or any type of experience with patient care or being around PAs? You will need this, as you will need to convince schools that you know what you're getting into. Also, it doesn't hurt to know for yourself if it's truly what you want to do, really. Another thing, it is always great to have top choices of schools that you would like to attend, but be aware that it is very likely that you could end up having to change those plans as you move forward with this career. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cbrutts Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 What are you using to study for the GRE? Do you like it/think it's helping? Hello all, I'm thinking about going for PA. I'm currently about 5-6 prerequisites short because my degree was in Psychology, so I'll be applying during the 2017 cycle. I'm located in the Houston, TX area so I want to try to stay in-state if possible. I have a few questions about HCE, GPA, and how to approach the application process in general. I have been working as an administrative assistant at a freestanding ER for 7 months now, but I'm not sure if that counts as experience. My duties include checking in patients, verifying insurance, letting them know about their charges if they have any, etc. I am not given the opportunity to give any "care" to the patient other than offering them snacks and drinks but I do communicate with each and every one of them. If anyone could provide any suggestions on what exactly I could do to gain any extra experience I would appreciate that so much! uGPA: 3.6 Science GPA currently: ~3.4 (I still have to take Chem 2, A&P 2, Micro, Orgo 1, Genetics and maybe Immunology so this gpa is not accurate at all). GRE: currently studying for it, my practice exams are averaging out to be 160 Quant and 144 Verbal... I'm sure the quant will lower when I take the real test and I'm slowly working on my verbal. The two schools I am aiming for are Baylor and UTMB but like I said I'd like to stay in the Texas area for the most part. Since I still have quite the journey with my prerequisites, could anyone give me some tips or pointers for me to work on as I'm finishing these classes up? I can probably retake my bio 2 to make my science GPA higher because I wasn't ecstatic about that professor and made a C. Feel free to PM me as well. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.