Part two of live personal statement editing, and this time I'm also going to nag you about your timeline.

Rolling admissions means your application gets reviewed whenever it's complete. Not on a deadline. Whenever. That means people who submitted in May are already interviewing while you're still tinkering with paragraph three.

So here's the order of operations: figure out what's actually blocking your submission - a transcript, a recommendation letter, one essay - and go fix that today. A finished application beats a perfect one that's three weeks late.

Then we get into the essays. Same drill as part one. I read them, I mark what's working, and I show you where the writing goes vague.

Once you submit, start prepping for interviews. They come faster than you expect.

What I cover:

• More live essay edits with specific feedback
• Why rolling admissions punishes late submissions
• Identifying the one thing holding up your application
• Getting recommendation letters and transcripts moving
• Common fixes that tighten an essay fast
• What to start working on the day after you submit

Resources:

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

PA School Personal Statement Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-personal-statement-guide

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

Mentioned in this episode:

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Last week we jumped into some live editing, and this week we'll finish it up.

Remember that these episodes are on YouTube if you'd like to follow along.

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.

All right.

Hey, guys.

Welcome back to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

I haven't done an intro in a while, but I'm Savannah Perry.

I'm a dermatology PA and creator of thepaplatform.com which is a website to help you become a PA if that's your goal, or at least to figure out if it's what you want to do.

We are right in the middle of application season and it is June, so if you are still working on some stuff, if there's anything that you.

How do I say this nicely?

That you are putting off, that is keeping you from submitting your application, such as your personal statement, now is the time.

We posted on Instagram this week about rolling admissions, which just means that as soon as your application is complete, the schools look at your application, see if you fit what they're looking for, offer interviews and start start offering spots.

We have people getting interviews.

We have people getting acceptances already for this cycle.

And that is not to scare you, but just to let you know that we gotta get on it.

If you're waiting on meeting an experience minimum or a class that's a little different, that's out of your control, you can do everything else.

But if you are the reason that you have not submitted, now's the time.

So hopefully, if personal statements are what is holding you back, this will help you with that as we go through some more live edits together.

And then if you are prepping for interviews next week, we have our first interview webinar on June 8th at 8pm we'll be talking about WAIS interview prep and then also doing a little bit of live mock interview.

And that'll be our last webinar for a little while, probably until later in July or early August where we'll get into some some more interview stuff.

But y' all know the resources are out there.

Make sure you're using the website, the PA platform, the blog, old podcast episodes, YouTube.

This is on YouTube and what else?

I said podcast our books.

So we have the Pre PA workbook, which has so many answers to so many questions that you guys have all the time.

We have the PA School Interview Guide, the PA School Personal Statement guide.

Lots and lots of resources to help you out.

So all the books are on Amazon.

And then if you do need help with actually editing your personal statement, experience details, supplementals, Covid essay, that kind of stuff, that information is on our website and in the description, and you can use the code future PA for a discount on any of those services, as well as mock interviews.

If you are getting into interviews, we're here to help.

So happy to help you guys along the way.

And I love hearing from you guys on Instagram and social media and kind of, you know, I know this process is stressful, but it's really exciting to hear about acceptances and hear about people getting off wait list and getting into school.

So I appreciate when y' all share with me about all of those things.

But let's jump into today's episode and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Now, next week, make sure you come back.

We're gonna do some Q and A that we've had on the webinars before.

And then we have a lot of interviews coming up that I think will be really beneficial.

We're gonna kind of mix things up a little bit.

And if there's ever anything that you'd like to hear about on the podcast, please let me know.

So this Character count is 4,000, 960.

This is a reapplicant.

We have an overall GPA of 3.2.

Science, 3.3.

PCE hours, about 7, 500, 350 volunteer hours.

Okay, let's go.

Okay, class, today we are going to dive into the nervous system.

Literally.

So who wants to hold the brain?

Ask Dr.

Call.

Before I could think twice, I immediately raised my hand.

While receiving odd looks from my classmates, Dr.

Call smiled and handed over the cadaver's brain.

All I could think about was holding someone's entire life in the palm of my hands.

Their memories, thoughts, and existence nested in an organ the size of two fists.

I knew at that moment I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.

I was fascinated with the human body and wanted to learn how I can help people with their health problems.

In an effort to get experience in the medical field, I accepted an offer to be a medical assistant.

Without knowing what I was getting into.

Little did I know that becoming an MA was going to push me out of my comfort zone and lead me to pursue a career as a PA Physician assistant.

So I love that PA is mentioned in the intro.

Like, I just.

I love it when people just, like, jump in and this kind of, you know, told us what brought them to Medicine.

I wouldn't say that this is a like, shock value crazy story like we have been reading previously.

I don't often like starting with a quote.

Like most of the time I don't really like that.

But I feel like here it actually works really well.

And this is intriguing and, like engaging and makes me want to keep reading.

So I actually really like this intro.

Some context here would be helpful.

So, like, is this high school?

Is this college?

Where are we at?

And kind of what stage, I guess is this happening?

But overall, pretty good.

Yeah.

So it seems like you guys like it too.

Like the hook, strong instructions.

It's always the fourth.

And this is unnecessary.

Yeah, there are some places that could be cut if needed, but I wouldn't do any of that right now until we kind of have a more full draft.

I was just Taylor's this year essay.

We don't have names or email, like, when people submit their essay either, so.

Whoops.

But email me after if you want me to like, send you my notes.

All right, so let's keep moving down here.

Okay, so my first experience as a.

Okay, so this is interesting.

So here we said an ma and here we say ama.

I always say Anne ma.

And a medical assistant.

I guess that's just how that goes.

I would just keep it consistent.

So, like, whatever you go with, just use it throughout.

Oh, no, you can say.

You can say who you are.

It's totally fine.

I just don't know.

I was hoping that the people's essays we did were here and we could connect with them.

So, yeah, just shoot me an email.

Okay, so I work directly with a dermatology pa. Doug Starley, Pacific.

We know I love derm, so that's great.

He played a big part in sparking my interest for the PA profession.

Prior to this job, I had minimal knowledge of the roles of PAs in healthcare.

While working with Doug, I discovered his responsibilities included diagnosing, treating, performing biopsies and procedures, interpreting labs, and giving medical advice to his patients.

I also witnessed situations when he didn't know all the answers and needed to refer to his supervising physician in order to give his patients proper care.

This clinic really focused on the collaborating aspects of medical.

Doctors and pas patients would have doctor to staff appointments, which allowed for both the PA and MD to work together to accurately diagnose and discuss treatment plans.

I noticed patients really appreciated the communal relationship and quality of care between both providers.

I find this relationship important in healthcare because it leads to overall efficiency and patient satisfaction.

Okay, so working directly with a PA clearly we have lots of experience and understanding of the PA profession.

And for people who aren't in dermatology, like, a medical assistant working in dermatology works very closely with the provider.

They see a lot.

They're with them pretty much all day, all the time.

And it's just, you know, a really, really good experience.

So let's kind of dive in here a little bit because it does show, like, an introduction to the PA profession and knowledge of the PA profession.

So this first sentence is not really, like, a full statement to me.

My first experience as an ma I work directly with a dermatology pa, so I'd probably say my first experience as an ma I would just say was working directly with the dermatology pa. And this is an example of using somebody's name, which is great.

So coming down here, like, this is a pretty long list.

Like, you can put this in your experience details.

But here I would try to use a specific example.

So maybe like, even pulling it into this part, like, so this is pretty niche.

Like, I don't really know what that means.

That must be something that's, like, very clinic specific.

So I think what would help there would be to, like, take this out.

Let me see if I can strike through.

I don't know how to do it on here.

Anyway, I would take this out, and I would take this out, and I would use that space to instead talk about one of these situations that occurred with a patient and give an example of what that looks like and what you saw in your role as an ma.

And then in general, the accepted term right now, instead of supervising position is collaborating physician.

Just in general, like, I don't mind.

Thank you, Emily.

That's very helpful.

Let's try that.

I don't mind.

It's gonna work.

Oh, yes, you should.

I should have known that the last, I don't know, eight years I've been editing essays.

I should also try to Google that, but it's okay.

Anyway, collaborating in general is accepted more than supervising.

So we want to try to use that.

And then same thing down here.

Like, you don't have seen medical doctors.

I would just say doctors ready so much of this now.

Doctors or physicians.

And I would not refer to them as MDs.

Like, we do use some abbreviations in essays a lot, but for doctors and physicians, we usually stick to just that, so that's fine.

So I would change that.

And then, like, really is not needed here, so you can take that out.

So words like that make it a little more casual when we're Doing more formal.

So that's why I would take that out.

Another relay down here, like it's just not necessary.

So here I'd like.

Okay, so I like that you've shown me how you found out about the PA profession.

We've talked about it early.

You've shown me you know what PAs do because you're working with one.

This last sentence kind of helps to show me, like, why that's important to you, but I think it could be even more personalized to you, like bringing it back to you being a PA and why that's something that you want to do as a provider.

And that's what's going to help to specify, like, why you're choosing pa.

So being able to say I want this relationship in my role as a PA because it leads to overall efficiency and patient satisfaction.

So I would make that more centered on you.

Just so that's more clear.

That's something that you want.

Okay, Read through some of these.

Yes.

I would never use supervising physician.

I would always use collaborating or collaborating collaborative relationship.

You cannot.

You can subtract your hours, but you can't double dip your hours.

So you can't put working and shadowing hours, but you can subtract them out.

No, you can definitely still working.

Talk about.

So if you're an MA working for a doctor, you can definitely still talk about that even if you don't work with a page.

Okay.

Do we need to use the term physician associate or is it physician assistant?

Until every program you're applying to or your state has adopted physician associate, which is not expected to happen for five to 10 years, we're going to stick with physician assistant.

Okay, cool.

So we're liking this so far.

Since Taylor's here, I'd be interested to know if this was like the exact same essay that was submitted last time or if stuff has changed since then.

Just curious if you want to share, but you don't have to share.

Okay, so I've worked with several providers, including pas medical doctors.

So again, I would just leave this doctors and stick with that.

And you don't need to abbreviate again and nurse practitioners during my time as an ma.

So again, like either pick one.

The PA profession is most appealing to me for various reasons.

One is being able to enter the workforce and making an immediate impact on my community because of the length of schooling.

Another is having the ability to change specialties throughout the course of my career.

This flexibility will allow me to increase my knowledge and experience by changing specialties as needed based on the community's needs.

I also genuinely like the team aspect of being a pa. Knowing you are not alone and there is someone to help advise you or bounce ideas off if needed.

That's kind of wordy.

I'll take that out.

After a few years of patient care experience and learning about different roles on medical teams, I was committed to pursuing the PA profession.

Okay, so I think that is.

That gives us some good specific reasons for why pa.

I would probably rearrange a little bit here.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

Brainstorm.

Instead of bounce ideas off, we could say that wording change.

I would probably change like not start with the length of schooling as the first point.

I would probably focus more on like what you're going to do for the community first and then move that down to, you know, later on.

We want to talk about the actual job itself and the roles and responsibilities before we get into the perks of being a pa.

Which one of those is less schooling.

Which I get that you've like made it a positive for being able to get out there and impact your community, but it's still kind of like a, you know, a good, a perk of the career.

Okay, let's see.

Okay, so Taylor said this is the exact essay.

So yes, that's what I was wondering if it.

Because I don't think it had anything so far about like what you've changed.

So yes, I would want to know like what has changed between cycles in this essay and what is different comparatively.

I think that would be important to add.

So you can talk about working with NPS in your personal statement.

You still need to show understanding of the PA profession since it is a little bit different.

So it's not.

It's going to depend on, you know, how it's done, whether that's going to be important to include in your essay or not.

I would not address a withdrawal on in your personal statement.

What were the stats?

Let's go back up.

So overall GPA 3.2, science 3.3, patient care a lot.

And then volunteer around 350.

So.

Okay, Wait, let me see.

Okay, there we go.

After countless hours of research on what I needed to do to succeed in applying to PA school, I hit the ground running.

I took the prerequisites.

You should make that one word required.

And volunteered weekly in my community, all while working a full time job as a medical assistant.

Great, great demonstration of time management.

There were two semesters in college, however, that had a negative impact on my overall GPA in this case.

You really can probably just say GPA like I went.

I'd probably just put gpa.

As much as I regret not doing my best during those courses and wishing I could go back and make changes, I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't mature from overcoming those mistakes.

I have learned over the years what is important, what to prioritize and how to manage my time in order to succeed.

Good confidence.

I like it.

Since then, my GPA has improved along with my study habits.

Through these abilities, I know I can and will succeed not only in PA school, but as a practicing PA as well.

So this is really like one of the first ones we've done that has addressed academics fully and GPA and stuff.

And so I think yeah, with around like under that average of like 353 4, you probably do want to maybe mention it if there was something like a semester that was rough.

I think this does a good job of keeping a positive spin on it, which is what we want.

You might could add a little bit more explanation of like, what happened.

You can also only have one space in between sentences if needed.

That saves on characters.

But like, why did you not do your best?

Was it, you know, time management?

Not knowing how to study, A little context there might be helpful, but that is also something that you can possibly use in supplementals as well.

Let's see.

Should you include the things you have done since your last application?

Yes, I would include what you've done.

Should we avoid contractions?

Contractions don't always bother me that much.

Like this one I actually didn't really catch.

We could change it.

I don't think that's going to be like a huge deal breaker unless you have a ton of them in your essay.

But I do think this shows time management with what, what she's been able to do now and then.

Yeah.

So I think that's a good, good start to that.

Could probably polish it up a little bit.

Okay.

As an ma, again, like we should have to pick one.

I like that one.

As an ma, I'm restricted in the ability to make direct decisions reg patient care.

I want to have more responsibility and accountability to make judgment calls, perform procedures and provide exceptional care.

I enjoy the time I spend with patients while rooming, assisting procedures and doing suture removals, but feel limited in my role as an MA because I do not have full autonomy.

I want to further my education and experience in order to be involved in the overall care for patients by having the ability to diagnose, manage and treat and this is where I would add something specifically about like as a pa. Like that's what's taking that next step and becoming a PA is what is going to solve that for you and make it so that you can do that is is kind of where that's going.

So I would make sure that that's just very clear.

This, I think could be shortened if needed.

It's a little repetitive, but right now I think we're okay on characters and there's not a ton of major content points we need to add.

So I think it's all right for now.

All right.

Okay.

I value my role as an MA and a healthcare member team.

However, I want to broaden my scope of practice to help answer patient question patients questions with educational backup and contribute to making healthcare more accessible in my community.

I am thankful for the opportunity Doug gave me four years ago because it led me here applying to PA school.

My path was not linear by any means, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I've broken out of my shell while working in healthcare and enjoy the rapport I've built with patients.

I know once I'm a PA and have more responsibility, I will enjoy it even more.

I believe my patient care experience, volunteer experience, education, and my passion to serve others will lead me to be successful in PA school and ultimately have a fulfilling career as a pa.

So overall I thought this essay is very personable, very easy to read, very passionate.

Like all those things are there, which I like.

This is interesting because we haven't.

Nothing else in this essay mentions or talks about volunteer experience.

So if that's something you're going to mention, like throw out here, I would expect there to be some type of mention of it somewhere else in your essay if it's something that's important to you.

I'd also wonder, like, do you have any exposure to PAs outside of your specialty through shadowing or working?

So that would be kind of a way you could do that.

This, you know, all kind of says like what the previous paragraph says.

So you could either take that out or take this out so that you're not repeating that and taking up extra space to say all of that.

Overall, I think this essay is very good.

I think it's on the right track.

I would want to see like what you've done since previous cycles.

That's different as a reapplicant and I think that would be helpful to add in.

But overall, yeah, on the right track there.

So.

So let's take questions for a few minutes.

How Are you feeling.

Was that helpful?

Not helpful, maybe Helpful?

Yeah.

Let's take some questions and then go from there.

I'm gonna go back in the chat for a little bit.

So here's the rule of thumb for.

The rule of thumb for whether you should mention any grades or GPAs or red flags in your personal statement is if you is something that would prevent you from getting an interview, then you want to address it.

If they've seen your application and they get to your personal statement and there's a possible red flag, you want to use that space to explain what it was, what happened, and then expand on it, make sure it's not an issue.

And you can use supplementals to expand further.

So one withdrawal, not a big deal.

1C not a big deal.

A semester that you failed.

Every class need to talk about it.

An overall low GPA that you've improved.

We can talk about it.

But that is kind of the parameters for deciding if there's something that you should or should not include in your essay.

Okay.

Would you recommend not going below a certain word count?

There's not really a minimum or max.

Wait, there's a max?

There's not a minimum to your essay?

I would say most people use most of the characters to get their story across.

Very rarely has an essay been submitted that's 3,500, 4,000 characters that I didn't feel like there was room for them to add and that they sufficiently explained ypa.

So usually you are going to use most of that.

Thank you, Taylor, for submitting.

And I know that's, you know, hard to watch in front of a lot of people.

Oh, show you an example of one I've marked up.

Okay, let me, let me pull one real quick.

I have to go to my email.

I don't think I have one on this computer.

Maybe I do, actually.

It won't let me share from there, so have to do it here.

Anyway.

Let's see.

Now.

Sorry, my.

My inbox is a mess.

Okay, so this is like a quick example, this one.

There was a little.

I don't think there was even like that much there, but.

I'm just going to scroll through.

So that's how an essay, like a revision comes back.

So lots of, lots of comments and read and strike through and all that.

So yeah, So we'll talk about experiences you just want to avoid, like repeating your resume listing.

And that's where those examples and stories come in and are a lot more helpful, I do think.

Yeah.

So I think if you were going to talk about A specialty.

Talking about primary care is probably most appropriate because that is what most schools are looking for.

Oh, my email is just info@the PA platform.com if you have any questions or yeah, if you wanted to email.

So do you have to talk about PA versus md, np, whatever?

Not necessarily.

If it's part of your story and part of your journey in a big, you know, decision making thing that you made that you or kind of differentiator that you had to go through, then yeah, talk about it and just explain.

Like this is why I went with pa.

This is why I felt like this other profession wasn't great for me.

We don't want to put any other professions down.

We don't want to throw anybody under the bus.

Just because you had one bad encounter with a certain profession does not mean everyone is like that or that every PA is perfect if you had a great encounter.

But your story is your story.

So if you were on the pre med route, if you were on the nursing route and you made a switch, just be able to explain why you feel PA is a better fit for you than whatever that other profession was.

But you don't necessarily have to do that for every profession if it wasn't something that you really considered.

I was more med school versus PA until I shadowed and that's what helped me go the PA route.

I shot a PA and a doctor who worked together.

I was never really on the nursing route.

So like nurse practitioner nursing was never really on my radar.

And so it wasn't something that I felt I needed to really discuss.

So yes, there will be an email with a replay.

What are some good alternatives to an introduction if you can't think of a story that fits?

So if you're struggling with your introduction, I would say just write your essay and then figure out what your intro is going to be.

You can always move stuff around and that's where sometimes just jumping in and going chronologically and starting with what brought you to an interest in medicine is fine.

Like it doesn't have to be a specific story or that descriptive.

You can just really talk about how you got here.

And some of the best essays I've read do that without anything dramatic, no shock value at all.

They just kind of jump into what brought them here.

And at the end I just feel like this person really wants to be a PA and they really worked hard to get here and I feel, you know, confident in that after reading their essay.

Yeah, I mean this is all about telling your story.

So you can mention gap years if there was something in high school that stands out totally fine.

If you've always wanted to go to medicine and later chose, how do you make that clear?

As long as you are speaking from your experience and from your.

That sounds so dumb.

Speaking from your heart and being genuine, that will show through in your essay.

So, you know, I. I really think you just have to write it out and kind of, like, reflect.

Spend some time going back in your experiences, thinking about all the things that brought you to this point.

In the PA School Interview Guide, I talk about it being, like, pivotal moments or like, forks in the road, like things that push you, like, to or away from other professions or towards pa and making sure that those things are the.

The points that you're highlighting in your essay.

Let's see.

So they shared my personal statement.

All right, so I think we'll wrap up here.

I'm gonna check over here.

But, yeah, so we'll wrap up, but the replay will be sent out, and then we'll do our kind of Q and A session next, which we'll get into more cast minor.

There were a few CASPA questions tonight, but we tried to keep it on track for personal statements.

So we'll kind of do half personal statements, half caspa.

Whatever we need to focus on to make sure you guys feel good about it.

But we'll plan on that later in the month.

And thank y' all for joining me.

I hope this was helpful.

If you need help editing your essay, we are, you know, happy to help.

You can always use the code future PA2 for a discount on either the PA School Interview Guide, personal statement guide, or editing.

Just let us know what you need or if you have any ideas for webinars.

We have some ideas of how to use some of the other essays y' all submitted to help, you know, with seeing more about how to do that.

And then we'll be here if you need us.

All right, bye, guys.

Sam.