Chance Me Please

[0o0O0Oo0]

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker first-time poster looking for some honest feedback as I wait for my last semester's grades to be posted. 

Me: Late 20s male, struggled with ADHD and the all-or-nothing perfectionism that comes with it. I do not think I will mention my diagnosis as I have heard that there is still a lot of stigma attached. In my supps I talk about perfectionism anxiety and how I have learned the importance of setting realistic goals for myself on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.

The bad: I've needed to work full-time throughout my academic career. Unfortunately, rather than take a reduced course load I constantly tried to max out credits and paid the price for my overzealousness. No Fs on my transcript but several Cs and a lot of semesters' worth of Ws. I address this in my PS and admit that putting myself in situations where I only had time to eat once a day was not a mark of strength. I have retaken any prereqs that I got C's in and managed B's or A's.

The good: Fortunately I have been able to step back from work over my last 4 semesters. My last 60 credits are ~3.9x (got an A- in a health psych course), all in upper-division sciences. My current semester consisted of biochem, cell bio, an ADHD research class, microbio, biology of the brain, and my capstone class. I worked my ass off and project that I will get all A's.

current stats  ~140 credits (without most recent semester)

cGPA: 2.95

sGPA: 3.1

PCE: 6k hours between EMT, MA (cards, ortho, FM), and volunteer alpine ski patroller.

Volunteer experience: Several hundred as a clinic assistant at an austere veterinary clinic in Asia. Other than the usual manual labor, I did some cool stuff like designing and building improved water drainage facilities (the whole place would get flooded during the monsoons and spread a lot of disease amongst the animals). I also identified that the corpse disposal methods were a disaster, so I seeded the burial field with lye and covered it with three feet of dirt and built a rudimentary crematorium out of an oil drum and industrial fan.

100 hours as a Western liaison for a well-known project in the Middle East (I don't want to go further out of fear of doxxing myself)

Shadowing: 100 hours cards, I asked a PA I worked with if I could shadow, she said "don't worry about it" and then filled out a verification form and gave me a glowing endorsement and 100 hours.

LOR: Academic advisor for my most recent semesters, Ortho MD I worked with, PD of a medical school that is affiliated with one of my top PA school choices.

I have a shadowing week set up with a PA and plan to ask for a LOR when I finish.

Other pertinent info: Lived and worked overseas for several years, speak passable Arabic. Plan on doing HPSP if I get accepted. PS mostly focuses on the importance of being able to build rapport with patients as well as my experiences with underserved populations.

Plan: Currently applying to 30 schools. Most have a lower minimum GPA requirement as well as an option to weigh the last 60 credits. 

 

I really appreciate any feedback. This site has been a lifesaver as I try to claw my way back from youthful mistakes.

 

 

[UGoLong]

I've read your message a few times and it took a third reading until I got to where you talk about getting a 3.9 in your last 60 credits. Much of the note provides reasons for the poor showing to start with and I hope that ratio doesn't hold true in your essay. PA school is, after all, full of lots of opportunities to go off the rails.

Lots of people have problems; I wouldn't focus so much on those that you bury the lede: you've turned your academic life around. Focus on that story.

I honestly don't know what your chances are. Having a sub-3.0 average might automatically cut you off from some programs but I agree with your decision to focus on programs that value the last 60 credit hours or so. Hopefully you get some great letters of reference.

Best wishes.

 

[0o0O0Oo0]

24 minutes ago, UGoLong said:

I've read your message a few times and it took a third reading until I got to where you talk about getting a 3.9 in your last 60 credits. Much of the note provides reasons for the poor showing to start with and I hope that ratio doesn't hold true in your essay. PA school is, after all, full of lots of opportunities to go off the rails.

Lots of people have problems; I wouldn't focus so much on those that you bury the lede: you've turned your academic life around. Focus on that story.

I honestly don't know what your chances are. Having a sub-3.0 average might automatically cut you off from some programs but I agree with your decision to focus on programs that value the last 60 credit hours or so. Hopefully you get some great letters of reference.

Best wishes.

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply! I know chance posts are mostly thinly veiled cries for reassurance and I am no exception lol.

As for burying the lede; I devote a single paragraph of my PS to academics. I do not make excuses for it or try and elicit pity. I acknowledge that I overextended myself and as a consequence, my grades and health suffered. I focus on what I have learned from this and how the changes I have made (narrowing my focus and just working on academics, daily exercise, improving my diet, and studying at a steady pace vs cramming) have resulted in my massive upward trend.

 

Thank you again for replying! I am praying that submitting my applications in the next few weeks will make a difference. I'm also leaning heavily on my fairly unique overseas experience.

 

[HHPA25]

Hi there! 

I think you have done a lot of good work to really dig yourself out of the hole you were in, but I really think your experience is where you are going to shine! Having 6k hours and overseas experience is going to really set you apart. 

A lot of schools use GPA as a weed out tool but you can really make up for it by bulking up your application in other areas, like experience, where you are golden. I think it is smart to that you found schools that prioritize the latest school grades because by the end of undergrad, most people actually know how to be a successful college student. 

Try to incorporate verbiage found on school's mission statement to align yourself with the goals of that schools and how that is reflected in who you are and what you've accomplished. It only takes one school to say yes, I know personally. 

I found it super helpful to get my PS edited by a company that does this all the time and they provided excellent feed back as to how I could take my PS to the next level. 

Best of luck!