11 W's on my transcript and just received my first acceptance

[Ollivander]

I felt the need to reassure some of you out there that constantly worry about your low GPA or withdrawals on your transcripts.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Ollivander

[LadyNichiavelli]

Congrats! I hope you rock that interview!

[Ollivander]

9 minutes ago, LadyNichiavelli said:

Congrats! I hope you rock that interview!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the well wishes!

[MonkeyShuttle]

What are w’s on your transcript? (May be dumb question) 

[PrePA94]

1 hour ago, MonkeyShuttle said:

What are w’s on your transcript? (May be dumb question) 

W's are withdrawls!

Awesome job! Hopefully you'll kill the interview!

 

[MonkeyShuttle]

3 hours ago, PrePA94 said:

W's are withdrawls!

Awesome job! Hopefully you'll kill the interview!

 

Thanks.  I have one F/FX.  Not sure what the FX is.  Failure to complete maybe? 

[hamkha3]

13 hours ago, Ollivander said:

I felt the need to reassure some of you out there that constantly worry about your low GPA or withdrawals on your transcripts.

Do you mind sharing your stats please?

 

[whitecoatrosegold]

Congrats! You're going to do great! I had 8 W's and a D+ and was just accepted to a program. In my interview they didn't bring any of my negative grades up, but be prepared to explain if they do. 

[Payr2018]

1 hour ago, whitecoatrosegold said:

Congrats! You're going to do great! I had 8 W's and a D+ and was just accepted to a program. In my interview they didn't bring any of my negative grades up, but be prepared to explain if they do. 

would you mind sharing your stats as well?

[Ollivander]

On 8/31/2018 at 10:10 AM, hamkha3 said:

Do you mind sharing your stats please?

Undergrad School: Auburn University, University of North Alabama

Major: Professional Finance

Overall Undergrad GPA: 3.44

Cumulative Undergrad Science GPA: 3.43

Age at application time: 26

GRE: 149 Verbal, 156 Math, 4.0 Analytical Writing

Direct Patient Care: OR Clinical Assistant (2,000 hours)

•    Experience in the operating room including operating a fluoroscopic C-arm, operating an ultrasound, drawing medications, performing blood glucose tests, and prepping patients during vascular surgery and interventional pain management procedures.
•    Experience performing nerve conduction studies (NCS) and assisting with electromyography (EMG) tests.
•    Experience assisting with new patient visits including triaging, collecting urine samples, taking medical history, obtaining a history of a patient’s present illness, scribing for the physician, explaining treatment procedures to patients, making prescriptions, making imaging orders, entering patient medical history and plan of care into EHR, and discharging the patient.
•    Experience in triage including taking a blood pressure and pulse, collecting urine drug screens, collecting oral drug screens, performing pill counts, conducting a comfort assessment, obtaining a pain score, confirming pharmacy and primary care providers, and reviewing current medications.
•    Experience assisting the physician with a CTEV laser during endovenous laser ablations.

Volunteer/Leadership: ~2,000+ hours

Soles4Souls        
• Helped to raise over 500 pairs of shoes for disaster relief.    

Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International   
• Traveled on a medical mission trip to Honduras and assisted two Honduran dentists.

African Library Project        
• Led and organized a book drive to start a children’s library in Ghana.  

Pre-Health Peer Mentor            
• Assisted pre-health students in developing meaningful academic and extra-curricular four-year plans in addition to preparing them to apply to their designated graduate schools.

SOAR Orientation Recruiter            
• Educated high school and transfer students about university services, resources, and involvement opportunities.    

Extracurriculars: 

Alpha Epsilon Delta
Vice President, Historian, Founding Officer            
•    National Health Pre-Professional Honor Society
•    Formerly known as Pre-Health Club
•    Founding member and officer
•    Held officer position of Vice President
•    Held officer position of Historian

Pre-Health Club
Founding Member            
•   Student-led organization founded with the purpose of providing its members with the skills and opportunities to enhance their academic, networking and clinical skills in pursuit of a health-related profession. It has since been transitioned over into what is now Alpha Epsilon Delta, a national health pre-professional honor society.

Pi Sigma Epsilon
Member            
•    National co-ed fraternity for sales, marketing, and management professionals.

LionCom 
Treasurer, Founding Member            
•    Speech and communication club
•    Held officer position of Treasurer
 

Research: None

Shadowing: 21 hours with Pain & Rehabilitation PA and a Trauma/Burn ER PA

Organizations: Alpha Epsilon Delta, Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International, UNA Pre-Health Club, Pi Sigma Epsilon, American Heart Association

Letters of Rec: 4 total (2 MDs, 1 work supervisor, 1 academic advisor/professor)

Schools Applied: 19

Application Verified: July 27th - July 31st (varies per school)

Interview Invites: 7 as of 11/20/18

Denied w/o interview: Duke, Samford, South University Savannah, South University Tampa, Adventist, UAB

Rejected after interview:

Withdrew Application:

Waitlisted: PCOM Atlanta, South College Atlanta, South College Nashville, South University Richmond

Accepted: University of South Alabama

Attending: University of South Alabama

Attempt: 1st

Edited November 21, 2018 by Ollivander

[Ollivander]

6 hours ago, whitecoatrosegold said:

Congrats! You're going to do great! I had 8 W's and a D+ and was just accepted to a program. In my interview they didn't bring any of my negative grades up, but be prepared to explain if they do. 

That's an awesome story! Congrats on the acceptance! I'm honestly not sure what I'll say other than I realize I made poor decisions early on in my undergraduate career, but how I rectified them by raising my GPA dramatically after transferring schools. I thought about talking about how the low student-to-faculty ratio helped improve my learning experience, and how University X's low student-to-faculty ratio is one of the larger reasons I decided to pursue an acceptance to their program.

[CTPAAPPLICANT2018]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 9:56 PM, Ollivander said:

I felt the need to reassure some of you out there that constantly worry about your low GPA or withdrawals on your transcripts.

Which program did you get an interview at?

[karebear12892]

I remember seeing one of your prior threads - looks like that extensive scope of practice as an MA really paid off. Congratulations!! 

[Ollivander]

Just got a second interview. I'm starting to believe the W's don't matter as much as GPA and PCE.

[Ollivander]

On 9/1/2018 at 5:07 PM, karebear12892 said:

I remember seeing one of your prior threads - looks like that extensive scope of practice as an MA really paid off. Congratulations!! 

I appreciate that a lot. It means a ton! 

[NYgirl]

On 8/31/2018 at 3:10 PM, whitecoatrosegold said:

Congrats! You're going to do great! I had 8 W's and a D+ and was just accepted to a program. In my interview they didn't bring any of my negative grades up, but be prepared to explain if they do. 

What Program??

[Ollivander]

On 9/1/2018 at 2:49 AM, CTPAAPPLICANT2018 said:

Which program did you get an interview at?

 

On 9/15/2018 at 4:24 PM, realworldgirlx said:

What Program??

I’ve been avoiding this question prior to my interview dates for personal reasons. I just finished interviewing with South University at the Richmond campus and it went really well from my perspective.

I’ve received a total of 5 interview invitations thus far and 2 rejections without an interview. The two rejections were from Duke and South University’s Savannah Campus. I was rejected from the Savannah Campus due to applying in late July instead of late April or early May. They didn’t tell me that, but I know that’s the reason. They started interviewing very early. Possibly the earliest of all PA programs. I was rejected from Duke because of my stats I assume. They get 2,000+ applications a year for 90 seats so I am in no way surprised.

[pk325]

On 9/21/2018 at 10:56 AM, Ollivander said:

 

I’ve been avoiding this question prior to my interview dates for personal reasons. I just finished interviewing with South University at the Richmond campus and it went really well from my perspective.

I’ve received a total of 5 interview invitations thus far and 2 rejections without an interview. The two rejections were from Duke and South University’s Savannah Campus. I was rejected from the Savannah Campus due to applying in late July instead of late April or early May. They didn’t tell me that, but I know that’s the reason. They started interviewing very early. Possibly the earliest of all PA programs. I was rejected from Duke because of my stats I assume. They get 2,000+ applications a year for 90 seats so I am in no way surprised.

Congrats! Hope you do great on all the interviews! 

[Ollivander]

I figured I should update this thread today.

Thus far I've received 7 interviews and 6 rejections without interview. Of those 7 interviews I have been waitlisted at four of them with two telling me that their reasoning was that my direct patient care experience was "too niche and specialized."

Today I just received my first acceptance from my #1 choice. If this process has taught me anything it's that it doesn't make any sense. I had an in-state program that is in the developing stages with no clinical rotation sites to speak of yet reject me while I've had my #1 choice that's been a program for over 20 years accept me.

[karebear12892]

1 hour ago, Ollivander said:

I figured I should update this thread today.

Thus far I've received 7 interviews and 6 rejections without interview. Of those 7 interviews I have been waitlisted at four of them with two telling me that their reasoning was that my direct patient care experience was "too niche and specialized."

Today I just received my first acceptance from my #1 choice. If this process has taught me anything it's that it doesn't make any sense. I had an in-state program that is in the developing stages with no clinical rotation sites to speak of yet reject me while I've had my #1 choice that's been a program for over 20 years accept me.

OR clinical assistant = "too niche and specialized?" That's just ridiculous. But congratulations on receiving an acceptance to your #1 choice!

[Ollivander]

19 hours ago, karebear12892 said:

OR clinical assistant = "too niche and specialized?" That's just ridiculous. But congratulations on receiving an acceptance to your #1 choice!

Thank you! I really appreciate that! Yeah...their reasoning didn't make much sense to me either. Everything I put in my personal statement was focused around rural under-served areas so maybe that was why. I still think my PCE was more competitive than some of the applicants who only had scribing experience though that ended up being accepted.

[karebear12892]

4 hours ago, Ollivander said:

Thank you! I really appreciate that! Yeah...their reasoning didn't make much sense to me either. Everything I put in my personal statement was focused around rural under-served areas so maybe that was why. I still think my PCE was more competitive than some of the applicants who only had scribing experience though that ended up being accepted.

Scribing isn't bad experience, it just offers something entirely different than working in the OR. Regardless, PCE is only one piece of the puzzle. It's very difficult to make sense of why admissions committees choose who they do. All that matters at the end of the day is that you got accepted!