nixietink Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Hi everyone! I've lurked this forum A LOT, and figured it was time to start posting. It has been an amazing source of information. Sorry in advance for the long post! Originally I decided that I was absolutely going to apply to schools this year. However, after reading these forums, I'm not even sure I'm even a competitive applicant. Last June I graduated from UC Davis with a liberal arts degree and minor, as I had no real goals of pursuing anything medical at the time of transferring from a community college. My mind changed during my first quarter and I became really interested in PT or PA school. I did 2 different internships that would be considered hands-on patient experience, only 80 hours or so. When I graduated I received a part time job offer as a physical therapy aide. 90% of the time I am interacting hands-on with patients. After a few months, I absolutely decided on PA school. I've shadowed 3 different PAs: Cardiology, Internal medicine, and Family Practice. I'm in the process of trying to set up a time to shadow a PA in Ortho. By August I am sure I can muster up about 100-200 PA shadowing hours and approximately 1,500-1,700 hours PT aide experience. I'm also currently trying to find some sort of patient contact volunteer/community service for the weekends (I've sent in some applications). I have some other non-medical community service (raising Guide Dogs for the blind and other disabilities, etc.). I have a great upward trend and went from A LOT of W's, a few C's/D's/F's, etc. to strictly A's and B's at UCD. I took a year of general bio at UCD along with all Statistics/Psych courses. I'm currently taking Anatomy and Micro both with an A (actually an A+ in Anatomy). During the summer I'm planning on Physiology, Chem I, and an online Genetics course. I will have Chem II in progress when CASPA is due. This is another area I am concerned about. How bad do pre-requisites in progress look? I school I'm applying to requires 1 semester of Ochem, and allow 1 or 2 in progress courses. I plan on Ochem in the Spring. I also plan on taking medical terminology, Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, etc. as fillers during Fall and Spring. I have no doubt in my abilities to do well in the courses I plan on taking...I WANT THIS. I haven't calculated my GPA currently because I'm not 100% sure how to do it for CASPA, though I know it is absolutely above a 3.2. A link to help out here would be great. So...am I competitive at all or should I wait out another year? Any tips or advice on how to make myself more competitive are greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixietink Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Hi everyone! I've lurked this forum A LOT, and figured it was time to start posting. It has been an amazing source of information. Sorry in advance for the long post! Originally I decided that I was absolutely going to apply to schools this year. However, after reading these forums, I'm not even sure I'm even a competitive applicant. Last June I graduated from UC Davis with a liberal arts degree and minor, as I had no real goals of pursuing anything medical at the time of transferring from a community college. My mind changed during my first quarter and I became really interested in PT or PA school. I did 2 different internships that would be considered hands-on patient experience, only 80 hours or so. When I graduated I received a part time job offer as a physical therapy aide. 90% of the time I am interacting hands-on with patients. After a few months, I absolutely decided on PA school. I've shadowed 3 different PAs: Cardiology, Internal medicine, and Family Practice. I'm in the process of trying to set up a time to shadow a PA in Ortho. By August I am sure I can muster up about 100-200 PA shadowing hours and approximately 1,500-1,700 hours PT aide experience. I'm also currently trying to find some sort of patient contact volunteer/community service for the weekends (I've sent in some applications). I have some other non-medical community service (raising Guide Dogs for the blind and other disabilities, etc.). I have a great upward trend and went from A LOT of W's, a few C's/D's/F's, etc. to strictly A's and B's at UCD. I took a year of general bio at UCD along with all Statistics/Psych courses. I'm currently taking Anatomy and Micro both with an A (actually an A+ in Anatomy). During the summer I'm planning on Physiology, Chem I, and an online Genetics course. I will have Chem II in progress when CASPA is due. This is another area I am concerned about. How bad do pre-requisites in progress look? I school I'm applying to requires 1 semester of Ochem, and allow 1 or 2 in progress courses. I plan on Ochem in the Spring. I also plan on taking medical terminology, Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, etc. as fillers during Fall and Spring. I have no doubt in my abilities to do well in the courses I plan on taking...I WANT THIS. I haven't calculated my GPA currently because I'm not 100% sure how to do it for CASPA, though I know it is absolutely above a 3.2. A link to help out here would be great. So...am I competitive at all or should I wait out another year? Any tips or advice on how to make myself more competitive are greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToppDog Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I would apply to any schools you meet the minimum qualifications for that you might wish to attend. Some schools will accept your app with pre-req's in progress, & some won't. Make sure to do as well as you can on the pre-req's, so don't bite off more than you can chew to accomplish this. If you're worried about GPA from your degree, then being able to point to a much higher average on your most recently taken pre-req's will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToppDog Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I would apply to any schools you meet the minimum qualifications for that you might wish to attend. Some schools will accept your app with pre-req's in progress, & some won't. Make sure to do as well as you can on the pre-req's, so don't bite off more than you can chew to accomplish this. If you're worried about GPA from your degree, then being able to point to a much higher average on your most recently taken pre-req's will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corpsman2PA Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 It seems like you have a good plan set up. Getting HCE while doing pre-reqs sounds pretty good. You graduated UCD, are you taking courses there still or at SCC or Yuba CC or something more west? From the area myself, just curious. A pre-req in progress isn't as good as a completed pre-req, but still it shows that the effort is there as long as you follow through with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corpsman2PA Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 It seems like you have a good plan set up. Getting HCE while doing pre-reqs sounds pretty good. You graduated UCD, are you taking courses there still or at SCC or Yuba CC or something more west? From the area myself, just curious. A pre-req in progress isn't as good as a completed pre-req, but still it shows that the effort is there as long as you follow through with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixietink Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 I would apply to any schools you meet the minimum qualifications for that you might wish to attend. Some schools will accept your app with pre-req's in progress, & some won't. Make sure to do as well as you can on the pre-req's, so don't bite off more than you can chew to accomplish this. If you're worried about GPA from your degree, then being able to point to a much higher average on your most recently taken pre-req's will help. My GPA at Davis was great. It was more the messing around I did at community college when I was young and not so motivated. :eek: It seems like you have a good plan set up. Getting HCE while doing pre-reqs sounds pretty good. You graduated UCD, are you taking courses there still or at SCC or Yuba CC or something more west? From the area myself, just curious. A pre-req in progress isn't as good as a completed pre-req, but still it shows that the effort is there as long as you follow through with it. I don't live in the Davis area anymore so am taking pre-reqs wherever I can! I'm taking one at Solano CC and one at Napa Valley currently. Solano cancelled their summer session, so I'm scrambling figuring out where to take classes. Summer will probably be SCC or DVC. Really, I'll go wherever I need to. How detrimental is it to have 1 (maybe 2) in progress courses? I've just been wondering if I'm wasting my time by even applying this year. I swear it is all I think about, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixietink Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 I would apply to any schools you meet the minimum qualifications for that you might wish to attend. Some schools will accept your app with pre-req's in progress, & some won't. Make sure to do as well as you can on the pre-req's, so don't bite off more than you can chew to accomplish this. If you're worried about GPA from your degree, then being able to point to a much higher average on your most recently taken pre-req's will help. My GPA at Davis was great. It was more the messing around I did at community college when I was young and not so motivated. :eek: It seems like you have a good plan set up. Getting HCE while doing pre-reqs sounds pretty good. You graduated UCD, are you taking courses there still or at SCC or Yuba CC or something more west? From the area myself, just curious. A pre-req in progress isn't as good as a completed pre-req, but still it shows that the effort is there as long as you follow through with it. I don't live in the Davis area anymore so am taking pre-reqs wherever I can! I'm taking one at Solano CC and one at Napa Valley currently. Solano cancelled their summer session, so I'm scrambling figuring out where to take classes. Summer will probably be SCC or DVC. Really, I'll go wherever I need to. How detrimental is it to have 1 (maybe 2) in progress courses? I've just been wondering if I'm wasting my time by even applying this year. I swear it is all I think about, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisemakl Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 I think you sound like you have a good enough chance. Your HCE is pretty good also. I would applY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisemakl Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 I think you sound like you have a good enough chance. Your HCE is pretty good also. I would applY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixietink Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 I wasn't going to apply last cycle because I was unsure of my chances as well. It was comfortable to have that attitude because it meant less stress, no stretching myself, no tedium of compiling references, forms, transcripts, etc.... I was going to get things perfect. One of my former professors was taking to me about this, and I told them "yeah, Im not sure I'm a great candidate this year, but next year I'll have all my ducks in a row". Their exact words resonated well with me "how will you know unless you try?" and that was true. So I walked out and got to work putting everything together. Just the experience of preparing everything was completely worthwhile for me. It's an eye opener to have that walk through of what you need to have to be competitive, and a good litmus test of how you will fare. I didn't expect much out if it, but I figured if I al least got one interview, I'd know if I was on the right track. I ended up getting interviews, and one to Medex, which honestly floored me. I didn't get in anywhere, and I didn't even attend every interview offer, but I learned where some of my weaknesses were, especially since I was able to interview and see where I came up short (which wouldn't have happened as soon as it did if I hadnt tested the waters and applied). I also discovered some strengths... Like how based on the responses I got from schools, I realized I actually had a shot at some fantastic programs that I didn't even think to apply to. So my experience has been a variation of the quote from some famous baller that said "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". I'd take it a step further and say that you can learn from every bad shot that you do take. So now that I've seen the way, the mystery surrounding the process isn't intimidating. Im much more confident about my chances if I were to decide to apply again. Id also have way more options. There are good, solid reasons not to apply earlier than you are ready, and Yiu might have some presented to you. As for me, I like to know the lay of the land, especially since each year becomes more competetive. Because of that, I don't see a lot of negative a far as applying goes. It's a drain on cash, but I an fortunate to have had enough to blow on applications. I stemmed the tide on that when I decided not to attend interviews in the bay area. Application costs are a Drop in the bucket compared to the full PA school bill. That's my opinion on your situation. Take it as you will. Thank you for this point of view. You are 100% right. I really appreciate your post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixietink Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 I wasn't going to apply last cycle because I was unsure of my chances as well. It was comfortable to have that attitude because it meant less stress, no stretching myself, no tedium of compiling references, forms, transcripts, etc.... I was going to get things perfect. One of my former professors was taking to me about this, and I told them "yeah, Im not sure I'm a great candidate this year, but next year I'll have all my ducks in a row". Their exact words resonated well with me "how will you know unless you try?" and that was true. So I walked out and got to work putting everything together. Just the experience of preparing everything was completely worthwhile for me. It's an eye opener to have that walk through of what you need to have to be competitive, and a good litmus test of how you will fare. I didn't expect much out if it, but I figured if I al least got one interview, I'd know if I was on the right track. I ended up getting interviews, and one to Medex, which honestly floored me. I didn't get in anywhere, and I didn't even attend every interview offer, but I learned where some of my weaknesses were, especially since I was able to interview and see where I came up short (which wouldn't have happened as soon as it did if I hadnt tested the waters and applied). I also discovered some strengths... Like how based on the responses I got from schools, I realized I actually had a shot at some fantastic programs that I didn't even think to apply to. So my experience has been a variation of the quote from some famous baller that said "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". I'd take it a step further and say that you can learn from every bad shot that you do take. So now that I've seen the way, the mystery surrounding the process isn't intimidating. Im much more confident about my chances if I were to decide to apply again. Id also have way more options. There are good, solid reasons not to apply earlier than you are ready, and Yiu might have some presented to you. As for me, I like to know the lay of the land, especially since each year becomes more competetive. Because of that, I don't see a lot of negative a far as applying goes. It's a drain on cash, but I an fortunate to have had enough to blow on applications. I stemmed the tide on that when I decided not to attend interviews in the bay area. Application costs are a Drop in the bucket compared to the full PA school bill. That's my opinion on your situation. Take it as you will. Thank you for this point of view. You are 100% right. I really appreciate your post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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