Stats Help

[mremkes]

Hello all,

I am going to list my stats and hope that there is someone on here that can help me! I feel that I have fairly low stats, and now that I’m working full time as a medical assistant, I'm finding it very hard to find time to get volunteer and shadowing hours. I shadow a PA every day at my job since I work as a medical assistant to a PA. But because it’s paid I feel like schools aren’t going to really look at that. I’ve applied to several different hospice places to volunteer and have yet to hear back from anyone and it’s been a week. I plan on calling some of these places but I’m starting to feel hopeless. I wish so badly I would’ve done more of this while I was working on my undergrad but I was working full time then too. I’ve saved almost 20k so far to help myself get through PA school once I’m accepted so that’s kind of been my focus. Unfortunately I’ve found that this should’ve been the least of my worries. Besides volunteering, what else can I do?? I can’t really afford to retake any classes and every PA I’ve talked to told me not to unless I had a C in one of my science classes, which luckily I don’t. I applied to 8 schools my first cycle this year and got rejected by all but one, I have an interview coming up this month and I’ve stressed myself to the core trying to prepare for that. Now I’m even more worried because I know if I don’t get in that I will need to make major improvements to my application so that I will hopefully get more interview invites next year, in the very least from the same school I’m interviewing at this year. Let me know… here are my stats:

 

age: 23, almost 24

cGPA: 3.4

sGPA: 3.2 (mostly Bs, some As) only C I ever received was in Gen Psych because of attendance points. The professor cussed me out on the first day of my freshman year and I was too terrified to attend class again (please understand I was still new to the college experience at that time and I’m definitely not proud of it). 

shadowing: 40 hrs family practice, 1000+ GI PA (place of work)

volunteering: 0 hrs

extracurriculars: 0

leadership positions: None, I’ve always worked as a CNA, however I am the lead MA on the in house GI procedures that we perform in my office currently. I manage/create the reports, perform probes, etc.
 

no military service

I’m white, and female 

GRE: 154 verbal, 151 quant, 4.5 writing

Casper: 75-100 quartile, which I think is good, still don’t fully understand the scoring on this test but I was told this was a good score. Thank god for that!

plenty of references working at the clinic I work at now but still feel that I’m at such a disadvantage

i see some people on here who have 100+ hours of volunteering and shadowing and I’m shocked, I know that I’m in the younger percentage of applicants and some people have had more time to work on their stats. On top of it all, I’m now seeing that some schools are not accepting pre req course work that was done prior to 2018-2019… I started my degree in 2017 after I graduated high school… so that’s slightly nerve wracking since I took both my A&P freshman year (whyyy? I have no idea why I did that) and it makes me wonder why I paid all that money for those classes now…. Besides that, I’m very proud of my accomplishments this far and am grateful to have even been offered an interview on my first attempt. Im so so stressed about pretty much all of it because of how badly I want this.. I want to have a better shot next year just in case I don’t get in..  please any advice will be appreciated, and I don’t mind how nit picky it is. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by mremkes

[CrystalPA2025]

Hey! 
Looks like most of your stats are pretty good tbh, good GRE and Casper score, you seem to have the PCE.. I think in terms of your application, schools were probably looking at other things like your LORs and personal statement, essay questions.. who were your LORs from? Was one from a PA, MD that really vouched for you and spoke of who you are? Was your personal statement reviewed by several people? Was it engaging enough? 
Your GPA isn’t the worst I seen and several schools look at the last 30/45/60 credit hours so consider looking into those schools as well.. Or if you wanted to take a few classes to help up it some!

 

Try finding time on days you are off to volunteer and do community service for a few hours once a week if you can, those hours will add up. It also depends on the kinds of schools you applied to.. what is their mission statement? I know some of the schools I was looking at was huge about community service so they would seem to want more applicants to be involved in that aspect. 

[CrystalPA2025]

Oh might I add! 
 

shadowing: I’m an MA as well and I was actually able to shadow my PA and the doctor I work with here while they saw patients at work as long as I was still doing my work duties lol so my manager was cool with it.. the other option he gave me was to use some of my PTO if I wanted to take a full days worth of shadowing and work my hours up that way but I was able to manage! 

[ANESMCR]

You’re overthinking everything. You’ll be fine. Not everyone gets in their first round (it took me 3 rounds back in the day). Practice your interview, relax, and be yourself. Next cycle revise your personal statement (be original), as this is usually the culprit. I see little value in going out of your way to obtain significant shadowing hours but it wouldn’t hurt. The course expiry is a non-issue for you especially, stop stressing about it. Most schools require your prereq’s completed within 8 years.