Advice on how to be more competitive

[mly3025]

Hi everyone. I am currently applying this cycle with these stats.

According to my calculations:

cGPA = 3.12

sGPA = 3.23

These grades are the combined total of all my classes, including undergraduate (cGPA 2.88 and sGPA 2.96). I took post-bac classes (53 credits) and received A's in all them, which include major pre reqs required by most PA schools. For one year, I worked full time while taking courses. 

GRE = 309 total. 154 Quant (55th percentile) 155 Verbal (69th percentile) and 5.0 writing (93rd percentile) 

Total PCE ~ 4057 hours for about 2 years of working full time + per diem. I am continuing to work full time so this number will increase.  

Total HCE/Volunteer  ~ 100 hours at a senior center 

Shadowing ~ 585 hours (480 of which was during work hours where I would directly work with a PA throughout my shift) 

Leadership role as a board member of a student association group and extra curricular's involving dance choreographer during my time as an undergraduate student. I may also be TA-ing microbology or anatomy this spring. 

I feel strong in my letters of recommendations and am currently in the process of trimming and editing my personal statement draft. I am continuing to shadow PA's after work now that my school semester is over, but I do not think its a good idea for me to continue taking courses since it would require a bunch of other classes to bump my GPA up even higher. Besides this, what can I do to stand out more and make myself a better applicant to offset my low GPA?

 

[Caligal]

If anything, it is probably your gpa that will hold you back. Your other stats are pretty good. Different school prioritize different aspects of your application, some may focus on your gpa, others, your experience. I would explain in your personal statement about why you got the grades you did. A lot of programs have a minimum gpa of 3.0, and that is just the bare minimum, so explaining it in your application is something you should consider.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Caligal

[Burritobenito]

What PCE do you have specifically?

[Chris14]

My understanding is shadowing can not be done while at work. But you have over 100 hours otherwise which is good!

[mly3025]

On 5/31/2019 at 9:17 PM, Burritobenito said:

What PCE do you have specifically?

Sorry, should have mentioned it in the initial post.

Im a Nuclear Medicine Technologist that works in a cardiology stress lab unit in the hospital. It's similar to Xray imaging via Rad Tech's but we look at the physiology of a patient with an injectable isotope. 

[prepakathyp]

In my opinion, optimism and the comfort of knowing that everything will work out, is your next step. You are a stellar applicant - let yourself believe it and never let your initial failures define you. You'll get in.

[mly3025]

18 hours ago, prepakathyp said:

In my opinion, optimism and the comfort of knowing that everything will work out, is your next step. You are a stellar applicant - let yourself believe it and never let your initial failures define you. You'll get in.

Thank you for believing in me! To be honest, I'm having a lot of anxiety over the application process, mainly because im afraid my low GPA will set me back and makes me less competitive. I was looking at the statistics of a lot of the schools in my area that Im applying to and they have higher averages of accepted GPAs. 

Im hoping that schools will see that my past credits and determine my merit through my upward trend. I only worked for one of the years while attending classes (which was the hardest thing i've done so far imo) so Im also hoping that in that regard the ADCOM can see that I can handle a busy workload. 

Has anyone ever been in a situation similar to mine? What did you do to make yourself stand out and justify yourself throughout the application process?