What are my chances?

[BrittanyJ95]

I understand that there is no cookie cutter set of stats that will get me accepted, however, I've been working towards this my entire undergrad and I would like to know where I stand in comparison to other applicants.

 

I am a 20 year old African American female with a biological sciences major and psychology minor. I have one more year left of my undergrad and I plan to apply in April. Currently, my cGPA is a 3.55 and sGPA is a 3.54. All of my pre-reqs are complete, and I am currently just finishing up my major classes. I have 500+ hours working as a CNA in a nursing home dedicated to caring for residents with Alzheimer's and dementia. At this facility I assisted with daily activities, collected vitals, and assisted the nurse with wound care. I also have 600+ hours working at Advocate Hospital as a Patient Care Tech on an orthopedic trauma med/surg unit. This position has helped me grow tremendously in terms of being a professional, however, I will stick to the skills. I was responsible for taking vitals, applying telemetry, performing bladder scans, removing IVs, monitoring JP, hemovac, and foley drains, and providing quality patient care.

Throughout my undergrad I've been involved in several extracurricular clubs. I am currently the president for an honorary service fraternity, phi alpha eta, and previously held the position of treasurer. I also held the position of public relations for alpha epsilon delta, the pre-health honors society, and I am currently the treasurer. I was also apart of our very own Pre-PA club and I held the position of the public relations officer. I have taken part in 100+ hours of volunteer work, and I have 50 hours of shadowing. 8 hours with a nurse practitioner, 8 hours with 2 PAs from the emergency department, 8 hours with a Neurosurgeon PA (had the chance to observe a cranioplasty and a lumbar fusion), 4 hours with a chiropractor, 1 hour with a physician (observed him remove fluid from the left lung), and the remaining hours consisted of shadowing ER techs, X-ray techs, ultra sound techs, and CT techs.

I am currently involved in research, and will have a years worth of experience by the end of this school year. I was also awarded the top black student leader of 2015. I have one letter of reccomendation from an RN supervisor. I am going to get a letter from the professor I am doing research with, and I am clueless on the last letter. Maybe someone can give me so advice. I feel I don't know the PAs I have shadowed well enough to ask for a letter.

 

oh yea, I also have 50 hours of volunteering at the local hospital in the emergency department, as well as diagnostic imaging.

 

What do you guys think?

[PACrankset]

Here are my two cents, as a disclaimer I am an aspiring PA student myself but have applied a couple times and have done a lot of research on various programs. Your academic status looks good, provided your GRE is above 300 or 50% in each category you should be fine there. Your hours of experience are average to below average (keep in mind some candidates have 4,000+ hours of experience), keep trying to gain more hours. Your volunteering looks good and I would continue to collect those volunteer hours over the next year. Be careful with what you list as "shadowing", only the stuff with the MD, PA, NP and perhaps DC will actually qualify. Do not list any of the stuff with the ER tech etc. as this will not count and is not relevant. The research is good experience. The LOR are important and while your supervisors letter is great, many programs require or prefer one from a PA. It speaks volumes about you as a candidate especially if the PA can see you as a potential colleague.

My suggestions is focus on your HCE and getting a couple more good LOR's, also apply broadly and focus on schools where your stats match or exceed the class profiles from past years. This was my strategy when applying this year and have received interviews from all schools I have heard back from so far.

Hope that helps. 

[MT2PA]

Get A's and get HCE.  Apply smartly.

[MyNameWasUsed]

I think you'll gain an acceptance. Don't apply to schools requiring 1500 hours+ and I would be hesitant to apply to schools requiring 1000 hours. Target schools with lower HCE requirements

[tuxedosheep]

Take my opinion as a grain of salt, as I have just applied this cycle:

 

I think you have a good shot, probably even above average, but here are things to keep in mind. If you can raise your GPA to 3.6 or 3.7, you'll be moreso ahead of the pack for grades so keep making A's! I think most applicants have your GPA, so you'll need to stand out.

You're going to need more direct patient healthcare experience, which you are getting through being a CNA or patient care tech. Most applicants need 2000+ hours to be considered competitive for this aspect. The interesting thing about this profession is that most applicants are around 25-26 years old, from what I've gathered, so it is not unheard of to graduate and then work full time getting direct patient healthcare experience until accepted. Admissions will think you're very young, and you will have to prove you're mature enough, unless you apply to a school that is known for taking applicants right out of college. But I think your extracurriculars will be helpful in showing how mature and well-rounded you are, in my opinion. Keep in mind that your age will likely be an issue with adcoms, though.

Shadowing hours are fine, volunteer hours are fine. Research experience doesn't seem to pull as much weight in the PA world, but it won't hurt you.

 

So to wrap up my advice:

-Get your GPA up as high as you can for this last year, you're middle of the pack

-Get more direct patient healthcare experience, you're below what's considered competitive

-Extracurriculars, excellent

-Shadowing, good

-Volunteering, good

-Find a PA that will write you a good letter of recommendation

 

I think you'll be in decent shape regardless if you can get your healthcare experience up.

Hope this helps!