Planned Experiences in CASPA

[sothames]

Hello, 

I noticed that in the CASPA FAQ about the experiences section, it says to include the number of hours you have completed or expect to complete. I found this very surprising because I thought you could only include the number of hours complete at the time you submit your application. My question is, are you able to add hundreds of hours of additional planned experiences (say you submit in May but plan on working a job until August) or just include the hours you have completed at the time of submission?

 

Thanks!

[p_tud]

i've been wondering the same exact thing

[Anachronist]

I entered the hours completed at the time of application and included a "till" date, implying more. I don't think PCE is an electronically filtered metric, so if you clear the electronic filters (GPA, GRE, Prereqs) then a person will read the PCE and will see "full time," "part time," etc and can interpolate. Some programs PCE experience requirements are listed as at the time of application, or to be completed at a certain date, so it just depends. Every 6 months is approximately 1,000 hours full time, so it is pretty easy for them to ballpark. If they want clarification, they will ask for it (happened to me). 

CASPA is just the beginning, after you clear the initial reviews, you deal with each program independently. 

Edit: (I didn't mean like "there is a lot more after CASPA," just that if they want more info, they have you send it to their program directly and no one ever asked me to update CASPA, my CASPA application from last cycle (now closed) for instance doesn't include transcripts for a post bacc class I completed after I had already been invited for interviews and doesn't reflect my PCE hours after application submission even though I worked for another 7 months)

[sothames]

18 hours ago, Anachronist said:

I entered the hours completed at the time of application and included a "till" date, implying more. I don't think PCE is an electronically filtered metric, so if you clear the electronic filters (GPA, GRE, Prereqs) then a person will read the PCE and will see "full time," "part time," etc and can interpolate. Some programs PCE experience requirements are listed as at the time of application, or to be completed at a certain date, so it just depends. Every 6 months is approximately 1,000 hours full time, so it is pretty easy for them to ballpark. If they want clarification, they will ask for it (happened to me). 

CASPA is just the beginning, after you clear the initial reviews, you deal with each program independently. 

Edit: (I didn't mean like "there is a lot more after CASPA," just that if they want more info, they have you send it to their program directly and no one ever asked me to update CASPA, my CASPA application from last cycle (now closed) for instance doesn't include transcripts for a post bacc class I completed after I had already been invited for interviews and doesn't reflect my PCE hours after application submission even though I worked for another 7 months)

Thanks for your feedback. I think I'm going to do the same. I feel like it can be very misleading to just add hundreds of expected hours. 

[aceface]

On a group interview for this cycle, one applicant was asked if he had completed his hours. He didn't have all of his hours completed when he applied in June, but they were completed by the Feb interview. He said he would have even more completed by the Aug matriculation. It was his only interview of the cycle though, so you can interpret it as you want.