Chances of Acceptance

[McDPAC]

Hello everyone!
 

As of right now, I am a 2nd-semester college junior; however, I am only 19 since I took 2 years of Post-Secondary Enrollment Option courses through my high school at a nearby four-year university.  That being said, I was wondering if any adcoms might possibly be impressed by the fact that I managed to complete 60 undergraduate credits while in high school and that I will graduate 1.5/2 years earlier than the majority of my high school graduating class, or if at least they will see that as a sign that I am self-motivated and eager to learn/adept at learning things quickly?  I ask this because at the end of my senior year of high school when I was taking Inorganic Chemistry 1, that was the semester when my grandfather was diagnosed with stage IV prostate and bone cancer; thus, as you could imagine, my family needed to shift focus on supporting him throughout his treatments, which meant that my parents would need the family car in order to look after him and whatnot (my family only really could afford to own one vehicle at this time) which, in turn, meant that I didn't really have any mode of transportation to/from the university for lecture or lab sessions for said chemistry class.  Alas, seeing no way around this unwelcome obstacle, I submitted my request to withdraw from that class section and to end up with a "WP" (Withdrawal Passing) for the time being (as well as receiving bad marks of BCs in my general biology 1 class and cancer biology class I had also taken that semester (online, however, so I was still fortunately able to complete these courses.  My grades suffered though, due to the familial challenges we were facing and the added stress that situation was causing for everyone -- myself included.  

I have since then passed Inorganic Chemistry 1 & 2, and Organic chemistry 1 & 2 with all either "A"s or "AB"s and have filled my schedule with upper-division biology and chemistry courses.   Will this "WP" become deleterious to any chance of an interview/acceptance into any program, or do you think they will be lenient on this if I explain the situation to them well enough in any essays/personal statements/interviews?

 

Forward to right now, I have been doing for the most part pretty well with my academic progress and everything.  So far, with my 101 credits I have a cGPA of 3.50 and sGPA of 3.47.  Below I will list my stats and such and if any/all of you could please tell me what to focus on/what my overall chances are of getting accepted in the 2018-2019 cycle that would be very much appreciated!  Also, depending on what you think, if you know of any PA programs with similar statistics and whatnot that would also be much obliged!  So far, I've been scouring through the list of programs but hey, who knows, I may have missed a couple worth looking into!  

 

Profile: Caucasian male, 19, graduating 2019 with a BA in Biology

cGPA: 3.50

sGPA: 3.47

GRE score: Q: 159 - V: 159 - A: 4.5 (combined: 318). 

Volunteering experience: 503 hours (105 coming from 4 summers of coaching U10/U12 co-ed soccer teams; 384 hours coming from two 8-day camp sessions from 2016-current at a summer camp in Minnesota called Celebrate ME! Week, where 7th grade girls and boys (the majority of them being diagnosed with learning disabilities or being diagnosed with some type of ASD) become more well-equipped to handle what middle school and high school and the rest of the world will throw at them by helping them to boost their self-esteem and become more confident in themselves and learn that no matter what people say or do they're still worthwhile people (side note: there are plenty more camp quotes that I could jot down for you all to use if you'd like; they may be cheesy, but they're still fun to say, no less!); and the other 14 hours coming from a medical missions trip I took from May 8-May 13 this past spring over to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where I spent a few hours each day of that week assisting the head nurse of the Missionvale Medical Center in the impoverished Missionvale township.  There I helped to administer vaccinations to the local community, set up IVs, recorded basic vitals, helped with administrative work, and administered medications (whether that be topical, intravenous, PO, etc.).  

HCE/PCE: 1,505 hours (1,155 hours coming from being a CNA, and the other 336 as a medical scribe + 14 from my missions trip).

Shadowing experience (both MD and PA): ~80 hours (shadowed 60 hours with different PAs in multiple specialties, 20 with an MD in psychiatry).  

Extracurriculars: member of our university's LGBTA+ alliance, officer of our chapter's Active Minds organization

Extraneous accomplishments:  Published my first full-length novel (300+ pages) by the time I turned 19. 

Background: MN resident, coming from a underserved area in behavioral medicine (which is why I would like to become a PA-C to be able to go into either psychiatry/behavior medicine or general surgery).

Underrepresented minority in medicine (I know that most PA programs don't consider this to be a URM, but I know that Northwestern Feinberg's PA program in IL, in fact, does): LGBTA+ community member.

 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this, and I will welcome any and all advice that you guys have!  

 

[PACrankset]

In reading your post I would say you are generally on the right track. It seems as though you GPA is pretty solid, your GRE is above average, your shadowing and volunteer hours look good. Your HCE is on the average side of things but if you are still working will be around 2000 by the time you apply. In terms of schools it depends on where you want to be geographically. I know Midwestern and Rush both have stats that are generally similar to that, Rush does require a minimum of 2000 hours though. Honestly the best way to figure out a list of schools is to use the PAEA site and filter it by GRE, GPA and that kind of thing, that gives you a short list of programs to look further into. Below is the link.

http://directory.paeaonline.org/

[McDPAC]

On 10/18/2017 at 6:19 PM, milesHenson1 said:

In reading your post I would say you are generally on the right track. It seems as though you GPA is pretty solid, your GRE is above average, your shadowing and volunteer hours look good. Your HCE is on the average side of things but if you are still working will be around 2000 by the time you apply. In terms of schools it depends on where you want to be geographically. I know Midwestern and Rush both have stats that are generally similar to that, Rush does require a minimum of 2000 hours though. Honestly the best way to figure out a list of schools is to use the PAEA site and filter it by GRE, GPA and that kind of thing, that gives you a short list of programs to look further into. Below is the link.

http://directory.paeaonline.org/

Thank you for your advice and suggestions!  I'll be sure to look further into those programs, as well as the directory from your link.  Thank you again!