jhop08 Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I am starting to lose hope before even applying to pa school. There are so many people with so many great qualities. So here is my student profile and could you give me an honest opinion about my chances of getting into pa school. Profile: Graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with 3.0 GPA Currently getting a Masters in anatomy with a 3.5 GPA Volunteered abroad in a medical brigade in Panama (close to 80 hours) Emergency department volunteer ( close to 100 hours) IS internship at hospital teaching medical professionals software (close to 150 hours) Shadowed a PA for 10 hours I was planning to apply this year and try to volunteer even more just to get more hours. Thx for the feedback in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktheshark89 Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I am starting to lose hope before even applying to pa school. There are so many people with so many great qualities. So here is my student profile and could you give me an honest opinion about my chances of getting into pa school. Profile: Graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with 3.0 GPA Currently getting a Masters in anatomy with a 3.5 GPA Volunteered abroad in a medical brigade in Panama (close to 80 hours) Emergency department volunteer ( close to 100 hours) IS internship at hospital teaching medical professionals software (close to 150 hours) Shadowed a PA for 10 hours I was planning to apply this year and try to volunteer even more just to get more hours. Thx for the feedback in advance! I definitely think you have a decent shot at getting into PA school. I'm thinking that when you say apply this year, you mean next cycle starting in April. If that's the case, I think you should look for programs that do not require a lot of patient contact experience (I'm guessing that you won't have much time to gain any between now and then given that you are in school). Also, I would shadow a PA a few more times before applying this cycle. If you aren't successful this cycle, I would say that the only thing really hindering you would be patient contact experience, so I would do something (EMT-B, CNA, or otherwise) that would give you the opportunity to get that experience. Experience requiring a certification looks better, but I was able to gain acceptance without a prior certification (but with around 1500 hours of other patient contact experience, and about 100 hours of shadowing). You definitely seem to be on the right path. Another thing that you might want to look at is your undergraduate science GPA, as this is something that committees look at, and most would like it to be a 3.0 or above as well. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhop08 Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 Thank you so much for your feedback. Yea I plan to contact some hospitals now so I can shadow more physician assistants because I would like more exposure to the field. I just hope that with my personal statement and eveything else they can see something in me. Thank again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaBombera Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Apply. If you want it, become it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingersHuman Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I agree with the others. Just improve your HCE (by a lot, depending on what schools you are thinking of - but you have the time!) and definitely apply this cycle. My biggest advice though - apply early! I applied in October (for various justifiable reasons lol) and added a LOT more stress than necessary!! Put together a great personal statement and keep an open mind when choosing schools to apply to, and you should be totally fine. There are a ton of schools that put more emphasis on academic record than health care experience. However, there are also plenty of schools that take the opposite approach, so just choose wisely and sell yourself! Good luck, you got this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just_me Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Unless the programs you are looking at require a certain number of shadowing hours, I think the extra time shadowing would be better spent getting more HCE. Even schools that do not require it take it into consideration if its there so definitely get what you can. Its a bonus if you can get in somewhere that has PAs....two birds, one stone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amelia Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I'm not an expert on this- but my suggestion based on applying is that if you can overcome the $$ for the applications and the possible $ to get to interviews, it is probably worth applying. The application round is pretty informative and even if you don't get in anywhere, it will familiarize you with the application process. Especially if you get an interview- I know my first interview was considerably harder than the following ones because I had gotten into the groove of it. I'm not sure if this is true everywhere, but a lot of adcoms said they don't look down on applicants that apply, don't get in, rack up more health care hours and apply again. If anything, it shows you are serious about the profession. Although nothing beats HCE on your application, I think I actually learned more in my hours of shadowing about the PA profession than I have working in HCE, so if you have the opportunity for some more shadowing hours take it! I even shadowed after my applications were in just so I could learn more- but it is possible that I just had some amazing PAs to shadow that took the time to explain everything and did a lot of teaching! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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