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Guide to Applying for PA School

The CASPA Application is the “Common Application” of PA School. This is a centralized application that you must send to every school that you are applying to. The CASPA Application opens in the beginning of April for every cycle. I put this outline together to help you prepare for the long haul that is applying to PA school. Remember, applying to PA school is a marathon, not a sprint!

Please feel free to reach out (madmartinez5@gmail.com) if you have any questions regarding the following information.

BEFORE APPLYING TO PA SCHOOL, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE:

1. Clinical Experience: 

PA schools require clinical experience to apply. This is broken up into PCE (Patient Care Experience) and HCE (Health Care Experience). PA schools are very specific and particular with the jobs that count as PCE – they have to be patient facing and in a clinical/professional setting. When PA schools post an “hour requirement” this is what they’re talking about. HCE looks good on an application but it does not count toward your total hour count. Look into this as soon as possible – you don’t want to accrue hours that don’t count toward your total PCE.

• When schools post hour requirements on their website these are MINIMUMS. 500 PCE hours might be all a school requires; however, it will not be competitive for most schools. Try to aim for at least 1500 hours to be competitive and 2000+ hours to be very competitive. A lot of the schools I interviewed at had an average of 4000-6000 hours of PCE among applicants.
• This being said, do not be afraid to take a gap year (or two or three). I will have taken two gap years between college graduation and the start of PA school. It was the best decision I ever made in my life. I gained valuable, life-changing work experience, saved money, and traveled the world. I have grown so much as a person because I allowed myself to learn outside of an academic setting. Gap years aren’t scary, you’ll never get the time back… trust me!
• For clinical experience I highly recommend getting a job in a hospital. I was an ICU aide for a year and it exposed me to so many specialties, professions, and resources.

2. PA School Prerequisites

Every school requires different prerequisite classes that are unique to each program. There are general classes that most schools require – so Google PA school prerequisites and make sure you check all of the boxes.

Each school is unique: Some schools require a year of a language. Do you have medical terminology? Microbiology? Labs along with your basic sciences?

• If you need to take classes post-grad, don’t break the bank. I took mine at a local community college.
• Make sure that you have taken all your prerequisites within 5-10 years of applying to school. Each school has a different timeline of when they want their classes taken by. Some schools want you to take the classes within 5 years of applying – so if you took a class in high school for dual credit you may have to take the class again.
• You don’t have to take all of your classes before applying. You just have to note that the classes you are missing are “in progress” or “planned”. They must be completed before PA school begins. Every school has a different time that they are due.

3. Shadowing Experience: 

Many programs require a certain number of shadowing hours or a certain number of PAs/Physicians shadowed before applying. They want to see that you know what you’re getting yourself into. Try to shadow multiple specialties in multiple settings to diversify your knowledge of the profession. When you are getting interviews and they are asking you about the profession, admissions committees like to see you have personal experience to speak to.

4. Volunteer Experience: 

Some PA schools require volunteer experience but most just recommend it. I highly recommend volunteer experience as it makes you a more competitive applicant and is an important networking tool. Volunteering allows you to make connections and give back to your community. In addition, lots of essay and interview questions involve social/moral dilemmas.

5. Extracurricular Activities: 

Fill your application with what makes you, YOU! You’ve worked so hard to get to this point. Make sure you show what makes you unique. Are you involved in clubs, have you played sports, are you involved in creative arts, have you conducted research? Share everything and anything to make yourself stand out!

If you feel like any of these aspects of your application are lacking - take immediate action! Get a new job, start taking prerequisites, sign up to volunteer, or join a new club. If you feel like you need another year to refine your application - don't worry. It’s better to feel confident in your application and only have to spend the money and time to apply once.

APPLICATION TIMELINE: 

October-December 

• Go through the list above and make sure you’re ready and have all of the tools necessary to apply to PA School.
• Study and take the GRE/PA-CAT/CASPer exams - whatever standardized exams that are required for the PA schools you are applying to. Give yourself ample time to study for and take these exams/retake if necessary. Only take these exams if you have to.

January-February The winter before applying in April

• Go through the list above and make sure you’re ready and have all of the tools necessary to apply to PA School.
• Start making an outline of schools you’re interested in. Get a feel for what schools are looking for.
• Start thinking about what you want to write about in your personal statement. Write a few rough drafts. You do not want this to be a regurgitation of your resume, that’s what your resume is for. Write a statement about a story that shows your character, personality, and fitness for PA School. You want to convey that you are ready for this big challenge ahead.
• Refine/update your resume.
• Start thinking about who you want to ask for letters of recommendation. Schools require letters from different professionals. Try to diversify your letters. Professors, Teachers, Coaches, Bosses, PAs, Nurses, and Physicians are all great people to ask for letters. You will need a minimum of two and a maximum of five. A committee letter from an institution counts as one letter.

March 

• Send out your personal statement to others for review. Get as many eyes on it as possible. Edit, change, and review again and again until you think it’s perfect! It is a very important part of your application.
• Start asking for letters of recommendation. People are busy with their own lives and they may need more information from you. The more time you give them, the better your letter will be.
• Start gathering information on your past jobs/experiences. You will need to provide the hours you worked, the dates you worked there, your supervisor's name and contact information, the address of where you worked, and a short description of the job/experience.
• Gather information on any licences, certifications, achievements, or memberships you have received.
• Have a finalized list of school’s you want to apply to. Find out if the admissions are “rolling” or “regular”. If the admissions are rolling that means they review the applications in the order in which they are received. For the schools with rolling admissions you want to apply as soon as possible, seats fill up quickly!

April - CASPA’S OPEN! Start filling out CASPA as soon as possible.

• Note: once you submit an application to a school you cannot edit your previous submissions. Ex. you cannot add any more hours to a specific PCE experience even if you are still working there accruing hours. This is why it’s important to feel comfortable with your PCE hours before submitting your application. You can always add new experiences, but you cannot edit existing ones.
• Send out official letter of recommendation requests via CASPA.
• Enter your transcripts (you will have to manually enter every single class you took in college - be prepared… this is time consuming.)
• Order official transcripts through CASPA as soon as possible; this can take a couple weeks to process.
• Fill out the “Program Materials” for each program. Each program requires something different. Some require essays and ask additional questions. Every school also makes you match their specific required prerequisites. Be prepared, this is also time consuming because every school is asking for something different. I recommend typing up all of your essay questions in a google doc. Sometimes you can edit or modify an essay to fit the requirements of other programs. This saves a LOT of time.
• Note: EVERY TIME YOU SUBMIT AN APPLICATION ON CASPA IT IS $61. The first application you submit will be $184 dollars and every submission thereafter will be $61.

May-July 

• If you have the time - have an advisor/mentor/professor/parent review your application and essays. I always found it super helpful to get feedback from others before submitting.
• Try to start submitting applications - especially for programs with rolling admissions or programs at the top of your list. The earlier you apply to schools with rolling admissions, the better a chance you will have getting an interview.
• I had all of my applications submitted by July; however, if you are applying during your junior or senior year of college you have a shorter time frame due to waiting for final grades to be posted. Schools only allow a certain number of grades to be outstanding or “planned” for prerequisites.
• If it is taking you a little longer to apply, do not be hard on yourself. Applying to schools and filling out program specific essays takes a long time. You would rather submit a perfect application than a rushed one.
• Start submitting SECONDARY (SUPPLEMENTAL) APPLICATIONS. A secondary application is a second application that is specific to each program. The very tricky part about secondaries is that they are not streamlined to a platform and they cost additional money. Some schools don’t have secondaries, but most do. Some are through CASPA and some are through their personal website/platform. The fees for these applications range from $30-hundreds of dollars. You can submit your secondary/find out if they have a secondary on each program’s website. These take a while, so be prepared to continue applying after you have completed the CASPA application. Note: some schools will email you their secondary applications after they have received your application, reviewed your application, or offered you an interview.
• Start preparing for interviews ! There are a lot of services online that require payment for interview preparation. This is not something I recommend spending money on. Google is an amazing resource for this. I recommend looking up “Common PA school interview questions” and typing your answers in a google/word document. Practice, practice, practice as much as possible. If your university offers interview practice through a pre-health society, take FULL advantage of this. Ask friends/coworkers/anyone to do mock interviews with you. Make sure YOU really know why YOU want to be a PA, that you know what being a PA entails, and that YOU are prepared for the rigor of PA school.

June-the following April (YES, this could be a year+ long process) 

• Make a google/word document of all of the communication updates you have with schools. You will receive a lot of information - you want to make sure nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Furthermore, every school has program specific requirements, you want to make sure you have submitted everything necessary for them to review your application.
• Take the interviews one at a time. Remember - getting an interview is the HARDEST part! Enjoy yourself and be YOU in the interviews. Going into each interview, make sure you take the time to research each school and find out what attracted you to that specific program.
• This time block of applying is the hardest. There will be lots and lots of waiting. Focus on you, and do things for yourself to celebrate the past couple hard months.
• Programs start at all different times. The earliest you can start school in an application cycle is January and the latest is the following January. This often feels unfair (and like you’re in an unknown standstill for a year - that's OK, everyone feels this way). This being said, the interview process is a long haul. The earliest interview I got was in July, and I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple schools (It is almost February now).
• When your acceptances start rolling in, make sure you have physically been on the campus (if you can). Make sure they have a learning style that accommodates your needs. Make sure you feel comfortable with the cohort, staff, and administration. You want to go where you feel like YOU have the best opportunity to succeed in this next chapter of your life.

I know that everything you just read was probably extremely overwhelming. That is OK and totally normal to feel overwhelmed. I remember thinking “how am I ever going to get all of this done?!” But I did! It was a long and exhausting process but the most rewarding of my life. I am happy to share that I will be attending Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA this upcoming fall. I achieved my dream and I couldn’t be more excited. Now that I’ve been through this process, I’m here to help you achieve your dreams too. Please reach out with any questions!

PA School Student

What did you do to prepare for PA school?

My preparation for Physician Assistant (PA) school began my freshman year at Ithaca College in the fall of 2015. I was fortunate enough to have had an idea that I wanted to pursue a career as a PA, therefore I was able to focus on completing my prerequisites as early as possible. 

In addition to coursework, PA schools place a heavy emphasis on hands on experience. I was able to achieve this through my internship as well as various shadowing opportunities. I started shadowing after my freshman year and continued every summer until graduation. I shadowed both physicians and PAs which allowed me to see the overlap and differences between the two professions in action. 

Towards the end of my sophomore year I began working with Professor Julie Boles, my internship advisor, who help me secure an internship that would both fulfill my graduation requirements and prerequisites for PA school. I was incredibly lucky to have had found the perfect internship that is still helping me every day in PA school. I spent a year and a half working as a Resident Aide at Longview, the senior living community located across the street from campus. There I cared for over 30 patients with varying medical, and physical needs. I learned how numerous different conditions manifest such as dementia, cancer, heart failure, and multiple sclerosis. 

Outside of the medical field I was also involved in various extracurricular activities. I was a member of IC’s Women’s Gymnastics Team as well as Leadership Academy and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. These experiences helped me grow in leadership and team environments while learning the importance of commitment, hard work, and supporting others. I am surprised every day how my student athlete background has helped me in various aspects of PA school. The medical field is incredibly team orientated and my school, Thomas Jefferson University, offers the unique opportunity to work in these team environments before graduating. Since starting school I have worked with pharmacy, physical therapy, nursing, family counseling, and medical school students. Being able to understand how to approach, organize, and lead a team has proved immensely valuable.  

Throughout my current classes now I find that I am able to connect the new information I am learning back to my previous coursework, shadowing experiences, and my time at Longview. 

Describe your day-to-day life in PA school? 

There is no such thing as a “typical” day in PA school. Unlike Ithaca where there is a set class schedule for each day, our schedule changes week to week. While this took some getting used to, I have found that I enjoy the variety. On an average day I get to school about an hour and a half before our classes start. My friend and I always meet during this time to quiz each other and study. We then spend the day in lecture learning how to diagnosis and treat patients. Many times guest lecturers from Thomas Jefferson University are brought in to teach us their respective fields. These faculty members always bring a unique and insightful look into the ever changing medical field. On Wednesdays, we spend the afternoon in lab applying all the diagnostic techniques we have learned which is always a nice break from the classroom. After class ends I, head back home to study for the rest of the afternoon. Since I live far from campus I don’t typically stay late in the library but I am fortunate enough to have friends that FaceTime me into any study sessions I may be missing. As long as we stay focused we are very productive!

Describe your day-to-day life outside of PA school? (or your job)

As PA school has become more and more demanding, I have found that it is also just as important to take time away from studying. Before my gymnastics career at Ithaca College I competed for TNT Gymnastics. On my way home from school every day I pass TNT where I am fortunate enough to have a close relationship with my previous coach. Any day I have an extra minute I visit my old coach and teammates. It is always nice to help out or distress by jumping on the trampoline. Anytime I need a practice patient I can always stop in to practice my diagnostic techniques on the girls on the team. Everyone got ear exams the other day! 

Is there anything that you wish you would have known before entering PA school? (or your career)

I began PA school at Thomas Jefferson University nine days after graduating Ithaca. I was still in disbelief that I was done undergrad and already missing my second home and best friends. As soon as school started so did the stress, during the first few days my brain made the realization that someone’s life depended on my ability to learn, understand, and remember all the information taught over the next 27 months. Thankfully our medical director reassured us that this feeling is normal and that we all deserve to be here. This was incredibly helpful for myself and my classmates to hear and has continued to stick with us. 

Is there anything that you’d go back and do differently?

Since I decided to enter PA school directly after graduation I did not have as much extra time to gather hands on experience as some of my classmates. While I am extremely glad I decided to go directly to school, and that is what worked for me, if I did have more time I would have gathered more hands on experience in different medical fields. Although I only worked hands on care in one setting I am thankful Longview granted me the opportunity to care for a wide variety of medical conditions which crossed all aspects of medicine.

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