1 to 2 Gap years and what to do in between?

[Ebonydreams]

Hello, I am a senior in undergraduate majoring in exercise science. I am also a CNA with 3 years of experience. I will be graduating next summer and am looking at applying for the 2024 or 2025 cycle. 

I have a 3.1 cGPA and a 2.8sGPA as of December 2022 but I will be taking microbiology in the spring and taking/re-taking Chem 2, Bio 2, and Organic chemistry fall 2023/spring 2024. I have 1900 hours of PCE, 24 hours volunteer and 10 hours research. I am also in two clubs at my university. I will be volunteering for a cancer hospital for 12 weeks and plan to beef up my volunteer hours that way. Through my university I will also be taking the national exam to become an exercise physiologist however, I know that not all PA programs consider that as PCE. I would really appreciate it if you all could give me advice regarding job methods to increase skills and experience before I apply for the upcoming cycles. I am considering LPN or an accelerated RN program however, I saw some people state that this was not worth the time or money and that re-taking classes should be the main focus. What would you all suggest? Thanks Again!

[natasha1992]

As someone who got accepted to two programs this year with a 3.1 cGPA and 2.7 sGPA, this is what I did from last application 2 years ago (2 interviews, no acceptances) to this year (4 interviews, went to 3, 2 acceptances):

Was previously working as a medical scribe (had about 9000 hours in this), got medical assistant certificate and worked for an additional 4000 hours in 3 different specialties to include family medicine. I retook the full year of gen chem and o chem. I also took genetics and abnormal psych to be able to apply to more schools. I previously have about 100 shadowing hours with PA/MD/NP and my current job in family medicine I work closely with PAs.

Based on what I did, my advice to you: look at all of the schools in the country and filter out all the schools that require 3.0 sGPA. Then filter out the ones that have pre reqs that you haven't done and don't want to do (like for me it was biochem and spanish). I kept some that had abnormal psych or developmental psych as I was willing to take them but put them in another category. Look intently at these and filter out those that you fit their ideal student (look at mission statement and previous student stats). Obviously put into account where you are willing to live/move to. I was willing to  go anywhere in the US, so mine was very open, but due to my low GPA I focused on which programs I'd be the ideal student for. You didn't list any shadowing hours so if you haven't done that, highly recommend doing that and highlight those experiences in your personal statement and supplemental essays. If you are able to, you can look at the supplemental essays for the programs you want to apply to the previous cycle so you have plenty of time to spend on writing those essays. Depending on how many programs you apply to, the supplemental essays can be a lot and you might not have enough time to spend quality time on all of those essays.

 

Hope this all made sense, feel free to message me directly if you have any specific questions.

[Ebonydreams]

19 hours ago, natasha1992 said:

As someone who got accepted to two programs this year with a 3.1 cGPA and 2.7 sGPA, this is what I did from last application 2 years ago (2 interviews, no acceptances) to this year (4 interviews, went to 3, 2 acceptances):

Was previously working as a medical scribe (had about 9000 hours in this), got medical assistant certificate and worked for an additional 4000 hours in 3 different specialties to include family medicine. I retook the full year of gen chem and o chem. I also took genetics and abnormal psych to be able to apply to more schools. I previously have about 100 shadowing hours with PA/MD/NP and my current job in family medicine I work closely with PAs.

Based on what I did, my advice to you: look at all of the schools in the country and filter out all the schools that require 3.0 sGPA. Then filter out the ones that have pre reqs that you haven't done and don't want to do (like for me it was biochem and spanish). I kept some that had abnormal psych or developmental psych as I was willing to take them but put them in another category. Look intently at these and filter out those that you fit their ideal student (look at mission statement and previous student stats). Obviously put into account where you are willing to live/move to. I was willing to  go anywhere in the US, so mine was very open, but due to my low GPA I focused on which programs I'd be the ideal student for. You didn't list any shadowing hours so if you haven't done that, highly recommend doing that and highlight those experiences in your personal statement and supplemental essays. If you are able to, you can look at the supplemental essays for the programs you want to apply to the previous cycle so you have plenty of time to spend on writing those essays. Depending on how many programs you apply to, the supplemental essays can be a lot and you might not have enough time to spend quality time on all of those essays.

 

Hope this all made sense, feel free to message me directly if you have any specific questions.

Thank you for the advice! I definitely have filtered out the schools who require a GPA higher than 3.0. I will be retaking and taking some of my science classes. I have less than 20 hours of shadowing so I do need to increase that drastically. I wish you good luck in your program!

[Colorado]

Travel. You will never look back and regret it.

Perhaps take 1 year to travel and then go back to work full time in the medical field to boost your hours of experience and "show" your commitment. I would find you a far more interesting candidate (and your likely going to be more worldly, open minded, and even keeled) than someone who only focused on their studies and getting into grad school. Seriously, live on a shoestring budget and go travel across the world and see how others live. You may find that it drives your passion to practice medicine even more and provides you a sense of what direction you want to take when choosing a specialty later down the road.

I took 4 years off between undergrad and PA school. I worked as an EMT, ER Tech, and SAR while travelling the US to climb and ski. It boosted my health care experience and gave me direction in medicine.

[Ebonydreams]

22 minutes ago, Colorado said:

Travel. You will never look back and regret it.

Perhaps take 1 year to travel and then go back to work full time in the medical field to boost your hours of experience and "show" your commitment. I would find you a far more interesting candidate (and your likely going to be more worldly, open minded, and even keeled) than someone who only focused on their studies and getting into grad school. Seriously, live on a shoestring budget and go travel across the world and see how others live. You may find that it drives your passion to practice medicine even more and provides you a sense of what direction you want to take when choosing a specialty later down the road.

I took 4 years off between undergrad and PA school. I worked as an EMT, ER Tech, and SAR while travelling the US to climb and ski. It boosted my health care experience and gave me direction in medicine.

Thank you! I will be moving cross country after undergrad where travelling will be a bit more easier to accomplish. I never thought it from your perspective but I definitely see now how it could not only help in my career but overall mental discourse on what I want to do.