Applying to PA school is a project, and projects need checklists.

This episode is me walking through mine. Prereqs first, because everything else waits on them. Then healthcare hours, which take longer to accumulate than anyone plans for. Then the pieces with deadlines attached - transcripts, letters of recommendation, and the personal statement that always takes three times as many drafts as you think.

The applicants who have a smooth cycle aren't smarter. They just started earlier and wrote it all down.

I have a downloadable version of this timeline on the site, so grab that and work backwards from your target submission date.

What I cover:

• Getting prerequisite coursework done and planned out
• Building healthcare and patient care hours
• When to ask for letters of recommendation
• Requesting transcripts before you need them
• Timing your personal statement drafts
• Working backwards from your submission date

Resources:

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Free personal statement worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

CASPA GPA calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to episode 64.

Today we're breaking down the application process for PA school.

Welcome to the pre PA club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hello.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for tuning in to the preview PA Club podcast.

If you're new here, I'm Savannah.

I'm your host, and I'm also a dermatology pa.

I started a website called the PA Platform about three and a half years ago, and that has led me to having this podcast.

So thank you so, so much for joining.

Now today in this episode, I kind of want to get back to the basics.

You know, I feel like sometimes and recently on my website, I kind of sent out an email to everybody on my email list and I just said, I want to know what you want to know more about.

You know, I feel like it's easy for me to focus on interviews because that's something that I really like.

But there's a lot that happens before, before you get to the interview.

So I sent out this email just saying, you know, how can I help you more?

And one of the things I heard back about a lot of things, but one of the things I heard back about was just wanting to know more about the basics about the application process, about what to do if you're at certain stages, if you're in high school versus in college versus going back as a second career.

So I'm going to try to add some more variety when it comes to those things, and we're going to talk specifics for each of those areas in upcoming episodes.

Now, today, I just wanted to go over kind of a timeline, a checklist of what you need to think about for the PA school application process and kind of when those things need to happen.

It's going to be different for everyone depending on where you're at.

But this is just to give you a little bit of a basis to go from and then you can tweak it as you need to for your own process.

I am going to have a free download of this in checklist form on the website.

So if you go today to the paplatform.com downloads you can, you'll be able to find that there's some other things there as far as personal statement worksheets and interview worksheets, a resume template.

But I'm going to add that today so that you'll just have this in list form if you want it.

And I'm working on something that should hopefully make the process a lot easier in the near future.

So be on the lookout for that.

This episode is sponsored by PA School Prep.

Now if you are this is kind of towards the end of your application cycle after you've been accepted, but if you're looking for something to help refresh yourself on anatomy, medical terminology, physiology, those types of things that are really, really important once you get to PA school, check out paschoolprep.com this is an online course that helps to prepare you for those particular courses.

Once you get to PA school, it's just most people struggle.

I struggled in anatomy.

I really struggled in anatomy.

It's completely different on a graduate level.

So by having something to review before you get to school will help you to be less stressed out, which is invaluable, and also to do well and impress your faculty members, which you want to do.

And so if you are interested in that, you can use the code future pa for $35 off and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about it.

And I want to put that same disclaimer out here where if there's something you want to hear about, please let me know.

I'm here for you.

I mean, I enjoy doing this, but I really want it to be something that is beneficial and something that you enjoy too.

It's a lot of work, honestly, but hearing people say how much it has helped them is why we do it.

So if there's something you want to hear about, I've got some interviews planned, but with the holiday season it's a little bit hard to schedule those and so probably more of those coming more in the new year.

So I want to do a review of the week.

This is something new that I was thinking about starting.

So here we go.

The review of the week for this week comes from future PA and PhD.

Thank you wholeheartedly, Savannah for all of your dedication, efforts and support.

I had so many questions about the PA profession and how to be a competitive applicant and your consistent and forthcoming podcast saved me.

Highly recommend this resource and associated Facebook group and book to prepare for applying and interviewing with PA programs.

Best interviews and insights into different specialties and settings for PAs to work in.

Please spread the word.

Thank you for the sweet review.

So the Facebook book group that he or she is talking about is the Pre PA Club on Facebook.

There's a link in the description, but if you're on Facebook, make sure you're in that group because there's a ton of really great questions I pop in there to answer questions.

If you ever need me in there, just tag me in a question in case I don't see it.

But great place with people who are just like you and either trying to get into PA school or just got in.

Everyone is super helpful and I just, I love it.

Everyone's really quick to respond.

It's great.

And then the book is the PA School Interview Guide which came out in March and that has been so cool to get so much feedback from people doing the mock interviews.

I would always hear back from those people personally once they got accepted and I love those emails.

But now with the book I hear from people, people who I've never even spoken with and it's really, really neat to get all those acceptance emails and messages constantly.

And I hope that more people keep getting those because it's really, really exciting.

Alright, let's jump in to the timeline again.

This is going to look different depending on what stage you're at, but there are some things that you have to decide and work on prior to when you're actually planning on applying.

So number one is your coursework and prerequisites.

Choosing a major for PA school does not really matter.

They don't care what your major is as long as you have the required prerequisite courses completed with good grades.

I believe I've talked about this before, but I was a biology major.

I chose that out of what I thought was convenience to get all my coursework.

I went to UGA and so come to find out when I was there, anatomy and physiology were not considered courses necessary for a biology major.

When I went to sign up for those, number one, I couldn't sign up because the courses were in such high demand at such a big university that people who needed it for their major got first dibs and then second of all, those courses only counted as electives for me.

They didn't even count as science courses, which I thought was ridiculous.

I kept going to my advisor, my advisors did not like me and telling them how this should count as a science and all this stuff and they could care less.

But I ended up having to take those courses elsewhere at a community college at home over the summer because I couldn't get into them at uga, they literally would not let me schedule them.

That was frustrating.

And choosing a different major I would have run into the same issues, most likely because I may not have been able to take organic chemistry or something like that.

But being a biology major, I did have to take extra courses that I likely wouldn't have had to if I was just focusing on prereqs.

So I ended up having to take Organic chemistry too to graduate and that was the worst class of my life.

I got a C that I worked really hard on and cried a lot for.

It was awful and I don't think anyone could pay me money to go take that class again, even though I do wonder if I could do better if I was less stressed out.

But that's a side note.

But yeah, so I ended up having to take these extra classes that negatively impacted my science GPA and did not give me any knowledge necessary for PA school.

Now if I could go back I probably would choose a different major.

I am loving doing this website and podcasting so I would maybe do something like business or marketing or pr.

I just think those would have been really fun majors and I could still take my classes necessary for PA school.

In my class we had tons of different majors.

We had a math major, accounting, history, all kinds of stuff, people who had worked in insurance, different things.

And so it really doesn't matter what your major is.

So if you don't have a bachelor's degree yet, you've got to get a bachelor's degree and you've got to choose a major and so choose something that you're actually going to be interested in so that you do well in the classes once you choose your major.

Once you complete your bachelor's degree while you're doing that, that's when you've got to get your prerequisite classes.

You need to start by making a list of the programs that you're interested in and we have some blog posts about this on the PA platform with what to consider in a program and I believe I've done a podcast episode on it in the past, but with that that's episode five.

If you are interested with that, you want to look at those schools and look at what their requirements are.

Now keep in mind that schools can change their requirements for frequently.

So you need to stay on this and kind of look at it every once in a while, but look at what prerequisites they require.

I know that it is frustrating that every single school has different requirements.

I get emails about this all the time and it is frustrating.

Every school wants a little bit something a little bit different, but you've just got to make a list and feel figure out what schools you want to go to, what their requirements are and just slowly work towards those.

So you want to ideally have your prerequisites completed before your application before you apply.

But Sometimes that's not always possible.

If you're still in progress with courses, that's something else you need to look at with your programs is whether they are okay with you having coursework or hours in progress.

Now with when to apply.

Let's talk about that for a minute.

It gets a little bit confusing.

Essentially, you apply to PA school almost a year before you want to start.

But there are schools that have closed their applications because their deadlines have passed.

But there are some that will stay open.

So a year and a half ahead of time, there are some January schools that you can apply for in April for that January start.

That's actually what happened with the school that I was applying to.

I applied in April and it started in January and I was accepted for that next class.

So I did not start there.

I went somewhere else.

But it gets really confusing because sometimes people assume if you're applying in March, it's for that August start, and it's not.

So if you're in college and you are not wanting to take a gap year, that means you'll be applying to school in between your junior and senior year.

So just keep that in mind when you're planning this out.

And when I'm doing pre PA assessments, this is something that comes up a lot because people don't necessarily understand when they're applying and when they'll start.

So they're thinking they're going to start a lot sooner based on when they're planning on applying.

So just something to look at.

But anyway, so you've done your prerequisites.

Next most important thing is getting healthcare experience.

Now, I've stressed this before and I will stress it from here on out.

Do not sacrifice your GPA or your grades in a rush to get experience that can be detrimental to your application.

Because schools look at grades and GPA so so much.

And I know that is frustrating, and I know that a lot of people feel like the PA school process is unfair, but that's the way it is so you really have to make sure that you're balancing everything when it comes to healthcare experience, patient care experience where you have more responsibility is going to be the most valuable.

This may mean that you have to take a certification course.

Personally, I applied to some jobs, wasn't getting anywhere, decided I needed to get my CNA license, certified nursing assistant.

So I had to do that while I was in college.

And I went every single Saturday for three months, drove an hour to this course for spring break.

I went and did my clinicals at a nursing home and then I got certified and was able to work that summer and finally get a job.

So sometimes it does take getting a certification.

If you're unable to find a job that will just hire you.

Other options would be emt, medical assistant.

There's a ton of options out there, but you've got to start slowly building those patient care hours.

Those are the two big things.

So getting your coursework done, getting your hours, and then there are all these little things.

So there's the GRE.

Typically I recommend taking the GRE about 6 to 12 months before you're planning to apply because that gives you time to retake it if needed.

And the score is good for five years.

So you can submit your application sometimes without a GRE score, but it's going to be in your best interest to have as complete of an application as you can when you push submit.

So that's one thing that you can just mark off the list, just check it off, be done with it and move on.

And then shadowing is also important and you want to give yourself enough time to find PAs, which I know is difficult.

Check out episode two and three for how to find shadowing hours and shadowing etiquette if that's something that you're struggling with of the podcast.

But you've got to find some shadowing hours and keep a good record of all of these things.

We have healthcare and shadowing experience logs on the PA platform download site, so the PA platform.com downloads.

And with shadowing it can just take time.

So from the time you make the contact with someone to actually getting in, sometimes you have to do paperwork or HIPAA training.

It can be a slow process, so you want to make sure that you are looking for that ahead of time because those hours come into play with writing your personal statement and doing interviews.

Beyond shadowing, schools are also looking for volunteer hours and even I think more now they want to see a commitment to your community, to the underserved.

This is more than just going to the soup kitchen for four hours every once in a while.

This is something trying to get involved with something that you're doing weekly or monthly for a long period of time to show that you're really passionate about it.

It's hard to say, oh yeah, I love helping people if you have no experience of that on your application.

So you gotta show it and not just say it.

By getting involved with something, it doesn't necessarily have to be medical.

It just needs to be something that you're actually passionate about and you can share again in a personal statement and interview to really show your willingness to help people, willingness to give your time, because that is expected of many PA students and many PAs.

And if you look at a lot of these mission statements of schools, they are talking about wanting to give back to the underserved, wanting to help people, and so you want to do that as well.

So those are the basics of what goes into an application.

Let's kind of break down what you should be looking at and expecting.

So if you haven't started on your personal statement, I would at the latest start on that, the January before you apply.

That gives you time for when you get hit a roadblock, that gives you time to get it edited.

Whether you have someone you know edit it or you use a service like MyPA resource, you're just kind of giving yourself time so that you're not scrambling.

The personal statement is so, so important.

This is what gets you an interview.

If your personal statement is not where it needs to be, you're, you're doing yourself a disservice.

So make sure you put in the time and allow for the time to work on that.

All right?

Beyond that, in February, I would recommend giving your letter of recommendation writers a heads up.

The because that is the number one thing that I've seen hold up applications is people not able to get their letters of recommendation in.

And so you want to let them know, hey, I'm going to be applying to PA school in April.

I'm going to send you an email to get your letter.

If you could just go ahead and have that ready, it would really help me out.

These letter writers don't understand rolling admissions and that it's so, so important for, for your application to get in asap.

So see if you can just kind of Let them know if there are any information programs around your school.

So if they have like tours or days where you can go visit, try to do that just to get, get your foot in the door.

Kind of make sure you want to apply there so you're not wasting your money and learn what they're about a little bit more.

In March, you want to start kind of getting your information together for what you're going to want to enter into caspa.

Use your worksheets, use your, any list you've made.

Make sure you're saving stuff.

You can make an account on CASPA and enter stuff before April, so before the application cycle.

But just keep in mind that it's going to reset in April and that information should pull over, but it does not always pull over, so you should be saving it elsewhere as well.

So in April, usually it's mid April, around the 20th to 27th, Caspa opens.

You do not have to submit your application that day that CASPA opens.

You want to submit it early, but you need to give yourself time to look over it.

You don't want to rush.

So CASPA opens.

You do want to apply early.

Go ahead and start entering stuff in.

It's a tedious process.

There's a lot you have to enter.

You've got to get your transcripts sent in.

You probably want to go ahead and order for yourself an unofficial transcript ahead of time so that you can be entering the official one, the appropriate information into caspa.

You do not want to use like a degree audit or anything like that.

You want an official transcript to do that.

Starting in June even, you're going to start seeing deadlines for programs.

So make sure you're getting all of your information in.

Make sure you're checking to see if they have a supplemental required and you're completing those as well.

And then after your applications are submitted, that's when the waiting game starts, which we talked about last week in episode 62 or two weeks ago.

But in the waiting game, you can be sending updates to programs on additional hours, additional coursework, and you need to start preparing for interviews.

And that's where you can use the PA School Interview Guide.

You can start doing some mock interviews.

Schools usually will interview from June to March.

After the interview, that's when you have to start thinking about thank you notes and you enter that waiting phase again to hear back from schools.

And then you're accepted, hopefully.

And you can do PA school prep.

You can relax, enjoy your friends and family.

And then you start school and you become a PA I made that sound super easy.

But there are a lot of steps.

The hardest ones and the ones that take the most time are the ones leading up to PA school.

And it is going to feel like a grind.

It's going to feel like you're just constantly working towards this.

But I promise you it will pay off if you just put your nose down, stick to it, and just slow and steady.

Don't feel like you have to rush this.

It may take a little bit longer than you want to get to your goals, but that's better than rushing and sacrificing a part of your application that leads to more disappointment.

So that is my CASPA Timeline checklist info all that Jazz I hope you found this episode helpful.

If so, please leave a review on itunes for the Pre PA Club and your review may be featured in an upcoming episode.

And any questions, anything that you feel like we can do better, please reach out.

Send me an email Savannah no H S A V A N N a@the paplatform.com or if you just go to our website, there's a contact form there as well.

But thank you so so much for listening and I hope everyone is having a great, great Friday and I look forward to talking with you next week.

Have a good week.