Advice On PA Application Technicalities

[aa134673]

Hello all,

I am applying to PA school this cycle and I'm trying to decide how to best optimize my application. I have around 1800 hrs of clinical experience currently (medical scribe) and around 100 hrs of medical related volunteering (hospice). I was originally planning on sending in my application this month after finishing my last pre-req courses. I've already written all my short answer questions for the school specific supplemental apps and they are all written based on the experience I currently have. However, now I'm faced with a dilemma. 

I'm going to be starting a new position soon as a medical scribe/MA with another physician in a different specialty. This position will be more hands on and the patient care will be more involved. My question is this: Should I go ahead with submitting my application this month, and add the new experience later (they let you add additional experiences after submitting). Or should I wait to submit until September and include the new experience as a part of the original application. If I choose the second option, I will probably need to re-write all of my carefully constructed free response answers to incorporate this experience.

Does this matter at all? Is one option better than the other? Let me know what you think. Thanks! 

[er2018]

I would submit as soon as you can. If you wait until September, a lot of schools with rolling deadlines will already be a couple months into applications which can harm your chances of getting an interview at those schools. Also, the experience you gain in those few months most likely won't make a big enough impact on your application to be worth submitting late. That being said, are you applying to schools that will accept only the medical scribe hours?

[UCPA2018]

Do not wait until September to submit if your application is done now. The sooner you submit the better. You can always add extra info on later.