What to do with the year after graduation

[blpham]

I recently graduated from a 4-year university and am highly interested in applying to a PA program within the next year or two. I currently have no experience. I am planning on working as an EMT for the next year to acquire HCE hours, as well as, volunteering at a charitable organization that provides medical and dental care to homeless and low-income families.

 

I also plan on retaking prerequisite courses at a community college to raise my GPA since i graduated with a low cGPA of 2.87. Also I plan on acquiring shadowing hours at a PA office nearby.

 

However, I am scared that this may not be enough to get in. Any advice? Thank you.

[EMEDPA]

Sounds like a solid plan. get all a's and rack up lots of hrs of hce.

good luck.

[rev ronin]

Yes, it may not be enough to get in. Have a plan to get in at the first, second, and third year of application. With your weak cGPA, you need to nail everything else as hard as possible to have a chance competing against kids with 3.5+'s.

[blpham]

Well considering i do well on the GRE and rack up a lot of HCE hours and shadowing hours... what else would you suggest?

[EMEDPA]

Apply to a wide range of programs; those you want to get into but are "stretch" schools, those you think you can get into, and a few that meet your needs but are less competitive and therefore "easier" to get into. Some will argue that there are no easy pa programs to get into and that may be so but a school like duke or gw is certainly harder to get into than a program like western or a brand new program.