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What really happens during the CASPA application cycle? Insights from a PA parent and health professions (not PA) admissions committee member.


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On this eve of the 2021 CASPA application cycle opening, I wanted to share some insights with those who are applying this year. You see, I spent most of the 2020 CASPA cycle as a lurker on this forum, meaning I mostly was here to observe and gain info. My son was applying last year, and I knew there was a lot of valuable information on this forum regarding when programs were making decisions, how and when interviews would take place, etc., and he was simply too busy with his job and finishing up with prerequisites to spend time checking this forum each day. He also wasn’t that interested in adding any more stress to his life by hearing about what was going on with other applicants, so I gathered that info and occasionally passed on to him what I thought was most relevant.

Through my countless hours of reading through posts, I realized there are many applicants who don’t really understand how the CASPA process works. In addition to being the parent of a future PA, I am also a professor in a health professions program that uses a system identical to CASPA. (The Centralized Application Service is used for PA, nursing, medical school, occupational therapy, physical therapy, anesthesiology assistant, optometry, etc.) I learned a lot on this forum last year as my son went through the CASPA process, and I want to pay that forward by sharing with future applicants my perspectives as someone on an admissions committee for a similar type of program. Some of this might be common sense to many of you, but for others it may be the first time you are hearing it. If this post helps one person, then it was worth my time to write it.

1. Rolling admissions vs non-rolling admissions – You should be able to determine on the websites of the programs you are applying to if a program does rolling admissions, which means they review applications as they come in, or if they wait to review all applications after a particular deadline. The truth is, most programs that claim to be non-rolling admissions actually do some form of rolling review. Think about it. These programs are getting anywhere from several hundred to nearly 2000 applications. It’s not feasible to review all of those applications at one time. Most of the time non-rolling admissions means that they just aren’t notifying applicants of their status until after a specific deadline. The #1 thing you can do to improve your chances of getting an interview is APPLY EARLY. Get your stuff together as soon as possible, take a couple days and get it all entered, gently hound your rec letter writers to get their stuff in, and get your CASPA submitted as soon as you can. At the beginning of a CASPA cycle, a program has, say, 50 spots to offer. At the end of the application cycle, when they only have a couple spots left, they are going to be way more selective in who gets offered an interview or acceptance.

2. What happens after you hit Submit? – It depends on what information is still missing on your application. You have to have all sections completed and all documents received so CASPA can “Verify” your application. This can take days to weeks. It also depends on the programs you have applied to and how they have their CASPA notifications set up. Some programs will auto-generate an email that your application has been received and is under review as soon as they receive the “Verified” application through CASPA. Others may have their own supplemental review process that they do before you receive a notification. For example, my son received these email notification anywhere from 24 hours to 4 months after CASPA submission.

3. Who is reviewing your application? – It depends on the program. Again, you have to understand that programs are literally getting 1000+ applications. There is not some 3-5 person committee whose only job it is to review applications. Most programs have one person designated as an Admissions Coordinator, Director of Admissions, etc. That person may be a faculty member who is actually a PA, or it may be a staff member. There may be some kind of screening process that this individual does as applications come through, perhaps based on GPA, or clinical hours, or whatever tends to be the main thing that a particular program is focused on. (Many programs will list their admission stats on their websites, so you can start to get a sense of which programs are more focused on GPA vs clinical hours vs other aspects of your application.) Your application may then be passed on to one or more faculty members to be scored or categorized. These faculty are very busy people and reviewing applications is only one of many, many other responsibilities like teaching, research, service on campus committees, etc. Hopefully your application gets assigned to a faculty member who takes the responsibility of reviewing applications and selecting future members of their profession seriously.

4. What happens when your application gets reviewed? It depends on the program. Some programs have a very specific scoring system, like a 0-10 scale for GPA, clinical experience, leadership/extracurricular, community service, essay, resume/CV, etc. Others have a more holistic review process where they really consider the entire application. I have experience with both systems. If it is a very specific scoring system, keep in mind that the same person may not be reviewing and scoring all pieces of your application. For example, one person might be scoring your academic performance and resume while another person reads and scores your essays. The scores get entered into some kind of spreadsheet and individuals who overall scored above a certain threshold get an interview. If a program does a more holistic review, the same person or persons are likely reviewing your entire application and making a recommendation. The recommendations might include: Interview, Keep in Consideration, or Decline.

  • Interview - Strong applicant, definitely want to consider admission for this candidate.
  • Decline - Either the applicant does not meet the program’s criteria (don’t waste your time and money applying to a program if this is the case) or there are simply too many red flags (low GPA, low clinical hours, poor writing skills, limited leadership and volunteer experience, etc.).
  • Keep in Consideration – This is the category that most applicants don’t even know exists. This category is where students who have “OK” applications often end up. From a faculty perspective, these students would probably do fine if admitted to the program, but there just wasn’t enough outstanding information in the application to offer an interview after the first review. In other words, the admissions committee is waiting to see if stronger applications come in after yours. The frustrating thing is, you likely won’t have any idea that you have landed in this category. You simply won’t hear anything from the program for a really long time. I saw so many comments last year where applicants were confused that people who applied to a particular program weeks or months after them had heard a response from the program but they had not. It’s very likely because their applications were in that Keep in Consideration category. A few programs do notify students that their application is “Still Under Review” or “In Consideration” but for many programs, students are left wondering if their application got lost. It did not. There were simply stronger applicants who received notifications sooner.

In terms of what happens to those Keep In Consideration applications, the program likely goes back and reviews them periodically. For example, maybe there is an admissions committee that meets on a monthly basis, and each month they look back through the Keep In Consideration applications and invite the next best 10 for an interview. You may be kept in that Keep In Consideration or Under Review category all the way to the end of the CASPA cycle. Again, every program is different in terms of how they handle this.

5.  Should you reach out to the program for an update if you haven’t heard anything? My recommendation is no. Your application is simply still under review as described above. Reaching out to the program does not give you an advantage because you seem super interested. The standard response you are going to get is that your application is still under review. The only time this MIGHT possibly be beneficial is if it is toward the very end of an application cycle, you are already on a Wait List, and you want to express your continued interest in admission.

6. What if I get an interview? The excitement of getting that first interview notification is likely to immediately be replaced with the anxiety of realizing you have an interview. Look back through previous forums for each particular program and see if you can find any information about interview format. Previous applicants are not going to tell you specific questions that were asked. They morally should not be doing that and you should not be asking. But, it is acceptable to find out the format of the interview process. Is it a 1:1 interview, multiple 1:1 interviews, a 2:1 interview, group interview, or multiple mini interview (MMI) format? Most interview days are going to involve anywhere from a few hours to most of a day of presentations / general info about the program, information regarding financial aid, meetings or panel discussions with current or former students, campus tours (or virtual tours), and the official interview/s. Make sure you CAREFULLY read any email communications from the program, have the schedule printed out for reference, have all technology things figured out well in advance if it is a virtual interview, and have your own questions for reviewers written down so you don’t go blank during the interview.

Interviews may be with faculty members, other admissions staff, current students, or alumni. If you know in advance who you will be interviewing with, find out everything about that person. Look for their profile on the department website, read through their CV, be familiar with their research / teaching interests, and be prepared to ask some questions specific to that individual.

Another way to prepare for an interview is to review the website of the national professional association (AAPA) and the state professional association for the program you are interviewing with. Find out what are some of the current issues facing the profession and be prepared to ask questions and discuss those issues.

You absolutely need to further research the program. Review every detail of the program’s website. Interviewers will be impressed with applicants who actually know some specifics about the program. A very common question for both supplemental applications and interviews is “Why this program?” Admissions committees know that almost every applicant has applied to multiple schools, as they should. Your job is to convince them that THEIR program is 100% where you want to be. They don’t want to “waste” an admissions offer on someone who they don’t think is likely to come to their program.

There are also dozens of websites, books, and Youtube videos on how to prepare for PA school interviews. You don’t need to read or watch them all, but you should review several of those resources. When you get to the point that the information seems redundant, you’ve probably done enough preparation.

7. Applying to a school that is far from your current location – As mentioned above, programs don’t want to waste an admissions offer or even an interview on someone they don’t think is likely to come to their program. If you are applying to programs mostly in your home state or region, it’s not really an issue. If, however, you are applying to programs all across the country, you need to convince your application reviewers or interviewers that you are really serious about attending their program. How do you do that? Use your essays and supplemental questions. If you are from a rural background and specifically are applying to programs in urban areas, or vice versa, describe your interest in gaining experience in a different setting. If you have family or a significant other in the area of that program, try to mention somewhere that in addition to the program-specific attributes that attract you to that program, you also have personal reasons for exploring programs in that area.

8. Other things to improve your CASPA application – Include as much information about yourself in every possibly location. Remember, there may be different reviewers who review your general application, your resume/CV, and your essays. Don’t assume that just because something is on your resume that you don’t need to explain it in the Experiences section under Supporting Information. Make sure you clearly understand the different categories of Shadowing, Patient Care Experience, Healthcare Experience, Volunteer, Leadership Experience, Non-healthcare Employment, Teaching Experience, Research, and Extracurricular Activities. CASPA has detailed descriptions of each category. It’s fine if you don’t have something to put in every category, but what you do put should be well explained. CASPA allows up to 600 characters for each “Experience Details” section. Use them! Don’t assume the reviewer knows what the organization is. Explain it. Explain how that experience relates to your future as a PA. It’s easier to have all this info typed out in a Word document and then copy/paste into CASPA. (Same recommendation for all your essays and supplemental questions. You can re-use or modify many of your responses for different programs.) People who have a lot of details and experiences will have CASPA PDFs that are 40-50+ pages long. People who have fewer experiences or provide fewer details may have CASPA PDFs that are only 15-20 pages long. Quantity isn’t everything, but it is always really obvious to me when I review an application that doesn’t have as much detail.

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. I estimate that more than 50% of applications I review have one or more typos. That tells me that the applicant is not detail-oriented and/or did not take the time to have someone review perhaps the most important document of their life. Again, this is the benefit to having everything typed out in a Word document. Have a family member, friend, academic advisor, or anyone else review the information for typos and for suggestions about content. They will catch things that you won’t.

If you have weaker parts to your application, whether it be academic background or limited clinical experience, use your personal statement or other supplemental questions to help explain your situation. What other life stressors were you dealing with that led to lower grades? What have you done to improve your chances of academic success in a rigorous graduate program? Programs want to admit students who are going to be successful academically and who have the potential to pass the PANCE exam. Their accreditation status depends in part on things like student retention, PANCE pass rates, etc.

9. Remember to update your CASPA application if relevant – If you complete any additional prerequisites after your initial CASPA submission, be sure to update that information. If you complete any additional patient care hours or other relevant experiences, be sure to update that information. Reviewers see a PDF of your info in CASPA that is current as of the date they download it.

10. Can I find out why I wasn’t offered an interview or not accepted to a particular program? No. It’s simply not feasible to answer that question for every applicant who was not admitted. Other applicants were simply overall stronger, OR maybe you just didn’t fit the typical profile for students admitted to that program. My son had multiple interviews and admission offers to some highly ranked programs while other programs that had much lower admission requirements and stats flat out declined him. There is not always a rhyme or reason to it. It depends on who reviewed your application, what that program or that specific reviewer values in an applicant, etc.

11. Wait Lists – Another painful update to receive. Wait List means exactly that. It means the reviewers / interviewers think you are qualified for the program, but there is simply not a spot available for you at this time. However, some programs use the Wait List similar to the “Keep In Consideration” or “Still Under Review” status after they have interviewed you. In other words, they may place applicants on the Wait List even though they still have open spots. They’ll go back and review the Wait List periodically and pull students from that list to offer admission.

In nearly all cases, Wait Lists are not ranked. In other words, most programs are not going to tell you that you are #2 on the Wait List or #10 on the Wait List. When a spot becomes available, the admissions committee goes back to the Wait List and makes an offer to the next best applicant from that pool. And that applicant pool / Wait List is a very fluid process.

Spots open up in programs for a number of reasons. First, like mentioned above, the program may have been holding out a few spots to see if they got any outstanding candidates late in the application cycle. More likely is that a student who previously was offered admission and accepted that offer ended up later declining because they got accepted to another program and decided to go there instead.

You might be on a Wait List for a few days, a few weeks, or several months. Many programs do not give a final notification of “Declined” for applicants on their Wait List until the very end of their application cycle when they are fairly certain that all accepted students are actually coming to their program. In my own program, every year we have admitted students who wait until just a few weeks before the start of our program to notify us that they are going somewhere else, and then we are scrambling to review the Wait List and find a student who still wants to come to our program. If you do accept an offer somewhere else, PLEASE be a good person and notify the other schools as soon as possible so another student’s dream can come true.

12. Final Thoughts – Good luck to everyone applying this cycle! I hope this post was helpful to some and did not come across as pompous. May the upcoming months be filled with interview offers and notifications of acceptance. If you do not get in this year, DO NOT GIVE UP! If being a PA is your destiny, use the next several months to make next year’s application even better.

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12 hours ago, 2020PA2B said:

On this eve of the 2021 CASPA application cycle opening, I wanted to share some insights with those who are applying this year. You see, I spent most of the 2020 CASPA cycle as a lurker on this forum, meaning I mostly was here to observe and gain info. My son was applying last year, and I knew there was a lot of valuable information on this forum regarding when programs were making decisions, how and when interviews would take place, etc., and he was simply too busy with his job and finishing up with prerequisites to spend time checking this forum each day. He also wasn’t that interested in adding any more stress to his life by hearing about what was going on with other applicants, so I gathered that info and occasionally passed on to him what I thought was most relevant.

Through my countless hours of reading through posts, I realized there are many applicants who don’t really understand how the CASPA process works. In addition to being the parent of a future PA, I am also a professor in a health professions program that uses a system identical to CASPA. (The Centralized Application Service is used for PA, nursing, medical school, occupational therapy, physical therapy, anesthesiology assistant, optometry, etc.) I learned a lot on this forum last year as my son went through the CASPA process, and I want to pay that forward by sharing with future applicants my perspectives as someone on an admissions committee for a similar type of program. Some of this might be common sense to many of you, but for others it may be the first time you are hearing it. If this post helps one person, then it was worth my time to write it.

1. Rolling admissions vs non-rolling admissions – You should be able to determine on the websites of the programs you are applying to if a program does rolling admissions, which means they review applications as they come in, or if they wait to review all applications after a particular deadline. The truth is, most programs that claim to be non-rolling admissions actually do some form of rolling review. Think about it. These programs are getting anywhere from several hundred to nearly 2000 applications. It’s not feasible to review all of those applications at one time. Most of the time non-rolling admissions means that they just aren’t notifying applicants of their status until after a specific deadline. The #1 thing you can do to improve your chances of getting an interview is APPLY EARLY. Get your stuff together as soon as possible, take a couple days and get it all entered, gently hound your rec letter writers to get their stuff in, and get your CASPA submitted as soon as you can. At the beginning of a CASPA cycle, a program has, say, 50 spots to offer. At the end of the application cycle, when they only have a couple spots left, they are going to be way more selective in who gets offered an interview or acceptance.

2. What happens after you hit Submit? – It depends on what information is still missing on your application. You have to have all sections completed and all documents received so CASPA can “Verify” your application. This can take days to weeks. It also depends on the programs you have applied to and how they have their CASPA notifications set up. Some programs will auto-generate an email that your application has been received and is under review as soon as they receive the “Verified” application through CASPA. Others may have their own supplemental review process that they do before you receive a notification. For example, my son received these email notification anywhere from 24 hours to 4 months after CASPA submission.

3. Who is reviewing your application? – It depends on the program. Again, you have to understand that programs are literally getting 1000+ applications. There is not some 3-5 person committee whose only job it is to review applications. Most programs have one person designated as an Admissions Coordinator, Director of Admissions, etc. That person may be a faculty member who is actually a PA, or it may be a staff member. There may be some kind of screening process that this individual does as applications come through, perhaps based on GPA, or clinical hours, or whatever tends to be the main thing that a particular program is focused on. (Many programs will list their admission stats on their websites, so you can start to get a sense of which programs are more focused on GPA vs clinical hours vs other aspects of your application.) Your application may then be passed on to one or more faculty members to be scored or categorized. These faculty are very busy people and reviewing applications is only one of many, many other responsibilities like teaching, research, service on campus committees, etc. Hopefully your application gets assigned to a faculty member who takes the responsibility of reviewing applications and selecting future members of their profession seriously.

4. What happens when your application gets reviewed? It depends on the program. Some programs have a very specific scoring system, like a 0-10 scale for GPA, clinical experience, leadership/extracurricular, community service, essay, resume/CV, etc. Others have a more holistic review process where they really consider the entire application. I have experience with both systems. If it is a very specific scoring system, keep in mind that the same person may not be reviewing and scoring all pieces of your application. For example, one person might be scoring your academic performance and resume while another person reads and scores your essays. The scores get entered into some kind of spreadsheet and individuals who overall scored above a certain threshold get an interview. If a program does a more holistic review, the same person or persons are likely reviewing your entire application and making a recommendation. The recommendations might include: Interview, Keep in Consideration, or Decline.

  • Interview - Strong applicant, definitely want to consider admission for this candidate.
  • Decline - Either the applicant does not meet the program’s criteria (don’t waste your time and money applying to a program if this is the case) or there are simply too many red flags (low GPA, low clinical hours, poor writing skills, limited leadership and volunteer experience, etc.).
  • Keep in Consideration – This is the category that most applicants don’t even know exists. This category is where students who have “OK” applications often end up. From a faculty perspective, these students would probably do fine if admitted to the program, but there just wasn’t enough outstanding information in the application to offer an interview after the first review. In other words, the admissions committee is waiting to see if stronger applications come in after yours. The frustrating thing is, you likely won’t have any idea that you have landed in this category. You simply won’t hear anything from the program for a really long time. I saw so many comments last year where applicants were confused that people who applied to a particular program weeks or months after them had heard a response from the program but they had not. It’s very likely because their applications were in that Keep in Consideration category. A few programs do notify students that their application is “Still Under Review” or “In Consideration” but for many programs, students are left wondering if their application got lost. It did not. There were simply stronger applicants who received notifications sooner.

In terms of what happens to those Keep In Consideration applications, the program likely goes back and reviews them periodically. For example, maybe there is an admissions committee that meets on a monthly basis, and each month they look back through the Keep In Consideration applications and invite the next best 10 for an interview. You may be kept in that Keep In Consideration or Under Review category all the way to the end of the CASPA cycle. Again, every program is different in terms of how they handle this.

5.  Should you reach out to the program for an update if you haven’t heard anything? My recommendation is no. Your application is simply still under review as described above. Reaching out to the program does not give you an advantage because you seem super interested. The standard response you are going to get is that your application is still under review. The only time this MIGHT possibly be beneficial is if it is toward the very end of an application cycle, you are already on a Wait List, and you want to express your continued interest in admission.

6. What if I get an interview? The excitement of getting that first interview notification is likely to immediately be replaced with the anxiety of realizing you have an interview. Look back through previous forums for each particular program and see if you can find any information about interview format. Previous applicants are not going to tell you specific questions that were asked. They morally should not be doing that and you should not be asking. But, it is acceptable to find out the format of the interview process. Is it a 1:1 interview, multiple 1:1 interviews, a 2:1 interview, group interview, or multiple mini interview (MMI) format? Most interview days are going to involve anywhere from a few hours to most of a day of presentations / general info about the program, information regarding financial aid, meetings or panel discussions with current or former students, campus tours (or virtual tours), and the official interview/s. Make sure you CAREFULLY read any email communications from the program, have the schedule printed out for reference, have all technology things figured out well in advance if it is a virtual interview, and have your own questions for reviewers written down so you don’t go blank during the interview.

Interviews may be with faculty members, other admissions staff, current students, or alumni. If you know in advance who you will be interviewing with, find out everything about that person. Look for their profile on the department website, read through their CV, be familiar with their research / teaching interests, and be prepared to ask some questions specific to that individual.

Another way to prepare for an interview is to review the website of the national professional association (AAPA) and the state professional association for the program you are interviewing with. Find out what are some of the current issues facing the profession and be prepared to ask questions and discuss those issues.

You absolutely need to further research the program. Review every detail of the program’s website. Interviewers will be impressed with applicants who actually know some specifics about the program. A very common question for both supplemental applications and interviews is “Why this program?” Admissions committees know that almost every applicant has applied to multiple schools, as they should. Your job is to convince them that THEIR program is 100% where you want to be. They don’t want to “waste” an admissions offer on someone who they don’t think is likely to come to their program.

There are also dozens of websites, books, and Youtube videos on how to prepare for PA school interviews. You don’t need to read or watch them all, but you should review several of those resources. When you get to the point that the information seems redundant, you’ve probably done enough preparation.

7. Applying to a school that is far from your current location – As mentioned above, programs don’t want to waste an admissions offer or even an interview on someone they don’t think is likely to come to their program. If you are applying to programs mostly in your home state or region, it’s not really an issue. If, however, you are applying to programs all across the country, you need to convince your application reviewers or interviewers that you are really serious about attending their program. How do you do that? Use your essays and supplemental questions. If you are from a rural background and specifically are applying to programs in urban areas, or vice versa, describe your interest in gaining experience in a different setting. If you have family or a significant other in the area of that program, try to mention somewhere that in addition to the program-specific attributes that attract you to that program, you also have personal reasons for exploring programs in that area.

8. Other things to improve your CASPA application – Include as much information about yourself in every possibly location. Remember, there may be different reviewers who review your general application, your resume/CV, and your essays. Don’t assume that just because something is on your resume that you don’t need to explain it in the Experiences section under Supporting Information. Make sure you clearly understand the different categories of Shadowing, Patient Care Experience, Healthcare Experience, Volunteer, Leadership Experience, Non-healthcare Employment, Teaching Experience, Research, and Extracurricular Activities. CASPA has detailed descriptions of each category. It’s fine if you don’t have something to put in every category, but what you do put should be well explained. CASPA allows up to 600 characters for each “Experience Details” section. Use them! Don’t assume the reviewer knows what the organization is. Explain it. Explain how that experience relates to your future as a PA. It’s easier to have all this info typed out in a Word document and then copy/paste into CASPA. (Same recommendation for all your essays and supplemental questions. You can re-use or modify many of your responses for different programs.) People who have a lot of details and experiences will have CASPA PDFs that are 40-50+ pages long. People who have fewer experiences or provide fewer details may have CASPA PDFs that are only 15-20 pages long. Quantity isn’t everything, but it is always really obvious to me when I review an application that doesn’t have as much detail.

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. I estimate that more than 50% of applications I review have one or more typos. That tells me that the applicant is not detail-oriented and/or did not take the time to have someone review perhaps the most important document of their life. Again, this is the benefit to having everything typed out in a Word document. Have a family member, friend, academic advisor, or anyone else review the information for typos and for suggestions about content. They will catch things that you won’t.

If you have weaker parts to your application, whether it be academic background or limited clinical experience, use your personal statement or other supplemental questions to help explain your situation. What other life stressors were you dealing with that led to lower grades? What have you done to improve your chances of academic success in a rigorous graduate program? Programs want to admit students who are going to be successful academically and who have the potential to pass the PANCE exam. Their accreditation status depends in part on things like student retention, PANCE pass rates, etc.

9. Remember to update your CASPA application if relevant – If you complete any additional prerequisites after your initial CASPA submission, be sure to update that information. If you complete any additional patient care hours or other relevant experiences, be sure to update that information. Reviewers see a PDF of your info in CASPA that is current as of the date they download it.

10. Can I find out why I wasn’t offered an interview or not accepted to a particular program? No. It’s simply not feasible to answer that question for every applicant who was not admitted. Other applicants were simply overall stronger, OR maybe you just didn’t fit the typical profile for students admitted to that program. My son had multiple interviews and admission offers to some highly ranked programs while other programs that had much lower admission requirements and stats flat out declined him. There is not always a rhyme or reason to it. It depends on who reviewed your application, what that program or that specific reviewer values in an applicant, etc.

11. Wait Lists – Another painful update to receive. Wait List means exactly that. It means the reviewers / interviewers think you are qualified for the program, but there is simply not a spot available for you at this time. However, some programs use the Wait List similar to the “Keep In Consideration” or “Still Under Review” status after they have interviewed you. In other words, they may place applicants on the Wait List even though they still have open spots. They’ll go back and review the Wait List periodically and pull students from that list to offer admission.

In nearly all cases, Wait Lists are not ranked. In other words, most programs are not going to tell you that you are #2 on the Wait List or #10 on the Wait List. When a spot becomes available, the admissions committee goes back to the Wait List and makes an offer to the next best applicant from that pool. And that applicant pool / Wait List is a very fluid process.

Spots open up in programs for a number of reasons. First, like mentioned above, the program may have been holding out a few spots to see if they got any outstanding candidates late in the application cycle. More likely is that a student who previously was offered admission and accepted that offer ended up later declining because they got accepted to another program and decided to go there instead.

You might be on a Wait List for a few days, a few weeks, or several months. Many programs do not give a final notification of “Declined” for applicants on their Wait List until the very end of their application cycle when they are fairly certain that all accepted students are actually coming to their program. In my own program, every year we have admitted students who wait until just a few weeks before the start of our program to notify us that they are going somewhere else, and then we are scrambling to review the Wait List and find a student who still wants to come to our program. If you do accept an offer somewhere else, PLEASE be a good person and notify the other schools as soon as possible so another student’s dream can come true.

12. Final Thoughts – Good luck to everyone applying this cycle! I hope this post was helpful to some and did not come across as pompous. May the upcoming months be filled with interview offers and notifications of acceptance. If you do not get in this year, DO NOT GIVE UP! If being a PA is your destiny, use the next several months to make next year’s application even better.

This is great stuff. Thank you so much

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Thank you so much for this post. This is my second year working on applying into a program and I can help but see everyone's excitement about getting invites while it feels I'm being further and further left behind. I am happy to see others dreams come true but I cant help but feel envious about it. This post definitely makes me feel better. Thank you for the amazing post and wonderful words of wisdom. 

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