Getting into PA school

Thankfully, my path to PA school included a ton of patient care and healthcare experience since PA is a second career for me. This is actually how it used to be and how PA education was designed: for people exiting the military or had a high level of hands-on patient care experience and training.

This blog is more for non-traditional PA students, since the undergraduates going straight to PA school are barely getting 2,000 patient care hours and usually have higher GPAs and other extracurriculars. A non-traditional applicant like myself usually has a lower GPA, lower standardized testing scores, and higher PCE and leadership hours. This is a huge selling point in your essay and interview to hype up.

There are a billion blogs about getting into PA school. There are standard requirements, like all schools require a bachelors degree and require certain science classes. Some require the GRE. Some require the PA-CAT. You really need to do your own research to figure out perquisites for the programs that you're interested in.

There are active FB groups like The Pre-PA forum and the Physician Assistant Forum to get information from.

Unfortunately, getting into PA school is just really competitive and at some level it's a numbers game.

Once you get invited to an interview, that's when your chances of being accepted are the highest. Practice answers out loud so you're not uncomfortable saying them. Read about the program, look at the bios on their staff and faculty.

I fully admit that i felt like a unicorn when I got into MEDEX the first year I applied.

Comment any questions below!