Your GPA isn't the whole story. But you do have to deal with it.

This one's from my webinar series, and it's for anyone who has looked at their transcript and assumed the door was closed. It isn't. It just means you need a plan instead of a hope.

What I cover:

• How CASPA calculates GPA, and why your number might not be what you think
• Science GPA versus overall GPA and which one programs weigh
• Raising your GPA with retakes and post-bacc coursework
• Using healthcare experience to offset a weaker transcript
• Addressing it in your application without making excuses
• Picking programs where your numbers actually have a shot

Resources:

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

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

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

One-on-one pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to episode 41 of the Pre Pa Club podcast.

Today we're talking about how to get into PA school with a low GPA as part of our webinar series.

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.

Hey, guys, my name is Savannah.

I am the host of the Prepa Club Podcast.

Thank you so much for joining me on episode 40.

So we made it this far.

And if you aren't already subscribed to the podcast, if you want to get episodes downloaded straight to your phone, you can subscribe on itunes.

They also upload each week to the.

PA platform,.

So make sure you don't miss that.

And if you've enjoyed the podcast, go ahead, give us a review on itunes.

It helps more people find it, but I'm really excited for what we have coming up for the next few weeks.

If you're just tuning in, then I should inform you that I am very pregnant.

If you've been following me on Instagram, you have probably seen that.

But in the next few weeks, I.

I will be having a baby girl.

And going on maternity leave.

But I don't want to leave you guys hanging because you guys need information.

And luckily, I have some really cool stuff for you.

So for the next few weeks, as I am preparing for this baby, I am going to share some content with you that I've actually created over the last year.

I did some webinars on YouTube and they're still there.

The links will be in the descriptions for each of these, but.

And if you've listened to other ones, you can probably jump ahead a little bit.

But I've done different topics ranging from pre PA stuff, talking about PA school, talking about being a dermatology pa, and there's some really good Q and A's at the end and just great information.

So I wanted to integrate that into the podcast.

So for these next few weeks, you're going to hear those webinars, and if you'd rather watch them on YouTube, you can do that.

Like I said, it's in the description.

But they're a little bit long.

They're longer than normal episodes.

They're about an hour.

I say that, but a lot of my interviews are an hour or two.

But anyway, I try to keep it at 30 minutes.

I know that doesn't really happen.

If y' all need me to do.

Better, let me know.

But if you need to break it.

Up, Just know they are a little bit longer and yeah.

So I just wanted to share these.

With you and I felt like it.

Was a good time to introduce them since I'm going to be a little preoccupied.

But I hope you enjoy and we'll just jump right in and then I'll still hopefully be around on social media and reachable by email and those types of things.

So if you need me, I'm there.

And I hope that y' all get a lot out of these webinar episodes and then we'll be back with interviews and all kinds of stuff.

Really actually fun stuff this summer.

So I'm excited.

But let's jump in.

Thanks for tuning in.

I know that this is a subject that a lot of people have questions about.

There's a lot of different opinions about it, so I'm here to offer you mine.

So if we've never met before, I'm Savannah.

I am a dermatology PA.

I've been practicing for three years and I run a website called the PA Platform and there I help pre PA students and PA students and PAs and just offer my opinions about all things having to do with the PA profession.

I'm getting over a little bit of a cold right now, so sorry if my voice sounds a little scratchy.

For tonight, we are going to do a traditional presentation with.

I've got some slides to go through, some questions that were sent to me, kind of debunking the myths about gpa, what to do if you have a low GPA and what that means for you as far as getting into PA school.

So just a disclaimer.

These are my own personal opinions, not rules.

And there's probably somebody out there who thinks differently than me or can prove me wrong and that's fine.

These are just things that I wanted to let you know and the answers that I give for a lot of common questions.

So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with you guys and get this PowerPoint going.

Give me just a second and it's going to maybe look kind of funny for a minute.

All right, here we go.

So when people are talking about GPA and PA school, the main question that comes up is it possible for me to get in?

I get emails all day long.

This is my gpa.

I got a C in this class.

I failed this class.

Can I get into PA school?

So I. I want to help make that a little bit more clear.

And if you have questions throughout this PowerPoint, I want to leave enough time to answer everyone's questions.

So if you have questions, just go ahead and put them in the chat throughout the presentation and we'll go back through and answer everybody's questions.

Let's start with some facts about GPA and PA school.

So GPA is a very important factor when it comes to getting into PA school.

PA schools have to set up requirements because otherwise it would be impossible to weed through all of the applications.

So most programs out there have a minimum requirement for both overall GPA, including all of your grades, and the science GPA which includes most sciences.

We'll talk more about that in a minute.

These requirements tend to range from 2.75 to 3.2, with a 3.0 being the most common.

So there are a few programs out there that don't require a specific GPA and we'll talk about those a little bit more later too.

Because just because there's not a specific requirement doesn't mean that you should apply with a 2.0.

So these minimums are non negotiable.

If you let's say you have a 2.7, they let's say you have a 2 point.

Let's.

How do I want to do this?

I lost My example.

2.998 And the requirement is a 3.0.

They don't round up.

That's what I'm trying to say.

So, so there's no rounding.

And if you have a 2.74, that's not going to meet the cutoff.

And you have to.

When you're looking at programs, websites look to see whether they say that they have a requirement or a preferred gpa.

The word preferred is a little different because that leaves some room for hope that if let's say you have tons of hours and your GPA is right outside their minimum preferred requirement, that's different than just something that's set in place that they aren't going to budge on at all.

Like I know for my program that I went to they had a 3.0 minimum.

And I would be in the front office and hear people call all day long saying I have a 2.9, can I still apply?

Can I still get in?

And the receptionist would just say, Miss Peggy.

She would say no, I'm sorry, you have to have a 3.0.

No, I'm sorry, a 2.9 does not count.

You have to have a 3.0.

Basically they had a checklist that if you didn't meet all of these minimum requirements, they weren't ever going to even read your personal statement because you didn't meet their minimum requirements.

So the paea, which is the Educators Society for PA Schools, they have a survey that comes out occasionally.

And what they came up with is that GPA is the best predictor of how a student will do in PA school.

And because that's what they have said and stated, PA schools have to look at GPA if they want students who are going to be able to do well.

And I know that that doesn't take into account people who didn't know what they were doing at the beginning of their undergraduate career or people doing this as a second career.

That's where upward trends come in.

But at the end of the day, GPA is important.

Same for the undergraduate science degree.

The biology, chemistry, physics degree was a little bit lower at 3.4 and then the undergraduate non science was around 3.5.

So if you're someone who is just starting college or a high school student who's interested in becoming a pa, take this into consideration.

Realize how important GPA is because it's a lot easier to bring your GPA down with one bad grade than to bring it up once you've brought it down.

So even if that means having to put some healthcare experience off for a little bit to keep your GPA high and working on your priorities, that may be important for you to do.

And this is something I always stress in my pre PMA assessments is don't try to move too fast or overcompensate or commit yourself to too many things.

If it puts your GPA in jeopardy, let's move on.

Let's talk about the Caspa GPAs specifically.

So another issue that a lot of people have is they will tell me, oh, I have a 3.4.

I'm like, oh, that's awesome.

Sounds good, we're good with that.

But a lot of times people aren't calculating their GPAs correctly.

I've linked a post in the description of this video called what is my CASPA gpa?

And in that post I've tried to Kind of walk you through the steps of figuring out how CASPA will calculate your gpa.

And there's a link to a calculator that you can plug everything in that calculates it the same way as caspa.

So caspa, if you're familiar with that, it's the kind of universal application website for PA schools.

Most PA schools use this.

So on caspa, you put in all of your grades and in that, all grades count.

And this is where people mess up.

Your initial attempts, if you take chemistry five times, all five times, as long as you get a letter grade, are going into your gpa.

So the initial attempt and the repeated course, if it has a letter grade, it counts.

If you withdraw from a class, that does not count.

If you get a pass or fail, that does not count.

But typically for a prerequisite or science course, you're going to have a grade and all grades count.

And so a lot of times on a transcript gpa, they will take out that initial attempt and only include the repeated course grade.

So that can skew your GPA and make it look higher than the way it will actually be calculated.

And then it turns out that their GPA is a lot lower than they thought.

So just be cautious, take that into consideration and make sure you're calculating that accurately before you apply, because you don't want to waste your time, you don't want to waste your money to apply to a program that you don't meet the minimum requirements for.

So caspa, on their faq, which is really thorough and really good, has a course subjects area and that has a very extensive list of what counts as science courses.

So when you're trying to differentiate science, things like psychology don't count, physics does not count, but.

And math courses don't count.

But there are a lot of courses like nutrition that do.

So if you're working on bringing up your science gpa, make sure you're going by this course subjects list to make sure the courses that you're taking for that purpose are actually going to count.

This is an example of all of the GPAs that Caspa calculates.

It's a little ridiculous.

So it breaks down subjects, it breaks down the year that you're in school, while you're in undergrad, post BAC classes, freshman science, just so many different GPAs.

So do the schools really look at all of these?

No, these are the ones.

They look at your overall GPA and your overall science GPA.

These are the most important GPAs on this entire list.

So those are the ones that you need to focus on and they are looking for trends.

You want to see the GPA is going up and you want to, when you see those grades in caspa, see them improving over time.

But at the end of the day, these scores are the ones that are the absolute most important.

So let's get into some specific questions and then if I don't answer your question here, you can ask it afterwards or ask it now and I'll get to it later.

So can I still get in if I don't meet the minimum gpa?

And I feel like I touched on this a little bit, but the answer is probably not.

If you do not meet the minimums, like I said, your application probably won't be reviewed completely.

And I know that's unfortunate, I know it's discouraging.

But I don't want you to again waste your time and money with applying to 20 programs thinking maybe they'll overlook it when that's really not the case.

So the issue with this is that there are, there are enough people who are applying who do meet the minimums.

There are hundreds of them.

And so why would a program, I don't want to sound harsh, but why would a program put their faith in someone who hasn't met the minimums that they require and is going to bring down their average stats and may not be able to do as well, or there hasn't in their eyes shown that they can do as well yet than somebody who has met their requirements.

So if you're in this situation, you really need to take the time.

I know it's probably going to take longer than you want it to and take the effort.

And I know it's expensive to take classes, but you need to be able to show that you are capable and dedicated to what these programs are requiring and what they want.

So you probably are going to have to take some more classes and we'll talk about how to do that.

What classes should I retake?

So this is also a very common question.

The classes that I think you should retake are any prerequisites with a C or lower.

So your biologies, your chemistries, your organic chemistries, even though a lot of programs will say that they are okay, they'll accept a C or a greater in a prerequisite, that's not what they want to see.

They want to see A B or higher.

These are the most important classes that you really need to show proficiency in to be able to show that you'll be able to handle PA school.

And in PA school it's a little different than medical school.

In medical school you go over a lot of the same subjects.

You do a lot of the biology, again, the biochemistry.

In PA school you don't, you jump right in.

And so they expect you to have a very good understanding of these subjects before you get to PA school.

So any prerequisites with a C or lower, I strongly recommend retaking next.

Any old prerequisites and the expiration date on these is going to depend.

So I had someone specifically ask take prerequisites that are five years or older.

The main one that schools want to be recent a lot of times is anatomy and physiology because that's one that usually you start right with that one.

You need to be able to have a good understanding of that material because a lot of times what you learn at the undergraduate level is the basics of what you learn in PA school.

So it's so much more intense in PA school.

So they want to make sure that you're ready for that.

But look at each program specifically, see if they have an expiration date that they require.

So some will have a 5 year, 7 year, 10 year expiration date on any prerequisites or on specific ones or on just like I said, anatomy and physiology.

So just double check with the programs.

You don't necessarily have to retake a prerequisite if they don't require it, but it does show that you're dedicated to becoming a PA and that you want that refresher and it'll always give your GPA a little boost.

Other sciences with a C or lower.

So if you did take an upper level science course and you got a C, you may want to consider retaking that again to just show your proficiency in it.

A question I got asked was should I retake courses I got a B in?

And in my opinion not really.

I think a B shows adequate proficiency and that you understand that subject.

I would consider in place of retaking courses that you've already taken and got a B in, I would consider retaking or not retaking but taking more upper level science courses.

So see if you can take courses that are more advanced and more challenging and ones that will prepare you for PA school and will also show that you're able to handle an upper level course load and do well in it.

Does it matter if I have an upward Grade trend.

So this is something that a lot of people look at.

And yes, having an upward trend in grades will absolutely help your application.

It shows that you've improved.

It shows that you've worked on your study skills and that you've learned how to multitask and manage your time well.

Will it counteract a GPA that does not meet the minimums?

No, probably not.

So if you.

Let's say that you've gotten A's in your junior and senior year of undergrad, all A's, but sophomore and freshman year, you did pretty rough, maybe weren't committed, didn't really know what you were doing, and your GPA is still at a 2.73.

You just because you have those great classes afterwards, again, they probably aren't even going to look at your application if they have a specific required minimum.

There are some programs that look at more recent grades.

They'll specify that they look at your last 30, 45, 60 hours.

And so these may be an option to apply to, but you have to take into consideration that some of these programs still have a minimum gpa.

So they'll say that they have a minimum required gpa, but that they'll look more favorably on your last few hours or that you may have to contact them sometimes to actually calculate the GPA from your most recent hours, because that's not necessarily something that CASPA does specifically.

So that's something to look at so specifically per program.

And a lot of people ask for a list of these.

It's very difficult to come up with a list of these because schools are constantly changing their requirements.

So it's not as simple as, oh, there's a list out there.

So I always say just google PA programs looking at last 30 hours and see what comes up.

Because usually like the PA forum will have the most recent information and then the applicant's manual of PA programs has information about that as well.

And I'll show you all that afterwards.

Does it matter how I get my extra credit?

So let's say that you've decided, okay, I need to take some extra classes to boost my gpa.

How am I going to get them?

This is where people start asking about, should I do a post baccalaureate program?

Should I go to a master's program?

Should I just go take classes at my community college?

And it really doesn't matter.

All that matters is that schools want to see you hit those GPA requirements.

So I called, I took some courses at a community college because they weren't.

So for me, I was a Biology major and anatomy didn't count towards that.

So I had to take that just on my own time.

And it counted as an elective, not even as a science elective, it was so strange.

But I had to take that.

So I took it at a community college over the summer.

And before I did that, I called my first choice program and I said, hey, just asking, does it matter if I take these classes at the local college?

And they said, it does not matter.

We just want you to have them.

So you may want to check with your program specifically.

There are some programs now that are saying that they will not take community college courses for prerequisites or they won't accept online courses.

So double check.

But for the most part, a lot of people are taking community college courses because they offer more flexible hours and it's easier for people who are also trying to get their healthcare experience to fit it in with their schedule.

Currently my medical assistant is taking classes, so she works all day and then goes and takes classes at night and is taking some online classes.

So you just gotta make it work for you.

Taking upper level courses will again show your academic capabilities and show that you are ready to.

For the rigorous nature of a PA program.

If you want to do a formal postbac or master's program, that's fine, but it's not mandatory.

They aren't going to substitute your GPA from this program for your undergraduate gpa.

It's just going to add to it because it's just that overall gpa.

So it's not going to replace anything.

All grades count.

You can't, you can't leave any, any groups out.

Tonight's asking questions on Instagram.

That's cool.

Y' all can do that.

Just message me.

But yeah, so you don't have to do that.

And again, check on community courses versus university courses.

Okay, how can I increase my chances with a low gpa?

So what else can you do?

Let's say that you've hit that 3.0 and I've done mock interviews with people who have a 3.01.

So you really just have to have the minimums and a great personal statement to get an interview.

But if you want to increase your chances, what can you do?

So keep taking classes.

You want to identify the weak areas of your application and show that you're continuing to work on them.

So if that's your gpa, just keep working on it.

Keep taking classes to show that you're.

You realize that and you're continuing to want to improve on it.

Keep gaining experience.

So you think of your application as like a balance.

And so if you're kind of on the low GPA side, beef up your application with tons of experience, tons of shadowing, tons of volunteering.

Make that count for you.

And again, it's not going to cancel a low gpa, but it just helps to give your application something unique and special that will make them want to interview you.

Take the gre.

That will increase the amount of programs that you can apply to and apply widely to many programs.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket if you know that your GPA is low and that that's a limiting factor for you.

Broaden your scope.

Find programs you qualify for and apply to them as long as you actually want to go there.

Also, have an amazing personal statement and be able to explain your academic struggles.

We'll get into this with personal statement interview, but have have a reason for why you struggled at some point and then look at the program's averages of their accepted students.

So this is again where the applicant's manual of PA programs comes in handy.

And I always use it during pre PA assessments because it basically for the programs that offer it, it has the average GPAs.

So let's say there's a program that has an average GPA.

Well, their minimum GPA is 3.0 that they require, and then their average GPA though of students accepted is a 3.7.

That means that they put a ton of weight on GPA and that they're looking for students who have a really high GPA.

Let's say that the program has a requirement of 3.0, but their average GPA of accepted students is a 3.3.

That shows that they look at applicants more holistically and that they are taking into account other factors and not weighing as much or putting as much weight on the gpa.

So that's kind of what you want to look for in your ratios is programs that maybe have that lower average because that means they may look more favorably on your application.

Should I address my bad grade or low GPA in my personal statement or interview?

Yes, this is something that is important to address, especially if you feel like it would impact your acceptance.

Because a lot of people do want to address this in their personal statement, but you have to be careful about it.

You don't want to do it at the beginning because that puts a bad taste in your reader's mouth and you don't want to start with the negative, but you do want to address it in a way that Shows that regardless of this bad grade or low gpa, you are absolutely prepared for PA school and give them confidence that you're going to be a great PA school student.

And the same thing goes for the interview.

You never want to make an excuse.

Don't blame the teacher, don't blame something.

Just explain what happened, explain why the course or whatever was hard for you, and discuss what you learned from it.

So for a personal example, I received a C in Organic Chemistry 2.

That class was awful.

You could not make me retake it if you paid me money.

It was so hard and it made me cry a lot.

So basically I brought this up in my interview myself because I feel like in an interview if you do bring up a grade, it shows maturity and then you're able to put a personal spin on it.

Then just sitting there hoping they don't ask you about it.

So they asked me something about how I study and so I brought up the fact that I gotten a C in Organic Chemistry too.

And I explained how I had structured struggled in Organic Chemistry one.

So going into Organic Chemistry two, I was very nervous and I did have a good amount of anxiety about the testing, but it was just very difficult for me.

It was hard for me to grasp the concepts and I was taking a very difficult heavy load at the time at school.

So I had to put in tons of time studying.

I went to office hours for hours at a time.

I worked extremely hard in that class and at the end of it I was happy with my cuz to be honest, I didn't think I was going to pass.

But what I learned from that is just that if I'm struggling in an area, first of all I need to seek help soon and quickly to make sure that I understand the concepts and that I also need to be able.

I think for ocam I tried too much to memorize and it's so much about actually learning and understanding.

I mean there's some memorization there, but I was trying to do that instead of just understanding.

And so those are the things I learned.

All right, we're about to jump into questions, but for more information I put some links in the description on this video, but you can always visit my website.

The Pre PA section has a lot of information about gpa.

It's a very popular topic.

And then the pre PA assessment, if you want specific feedback for yourself, you may want to look into that.

That's a service I offer where I evaluate everything about where you're at, your transcripts and then we talk about it and Try to come up with a plan to improve your application.

We do have a pre PA Club Facebook group.

Everyone in there is super supportive and they like to comment and give feedback and a lot of people have been in your place.

We have people who are just in undergrad and people who are applying and then people are in PA school.

So it's a lot of variety there.

As always, you can contact me.

So savannahepa platform is my email or dot com, and then Instagram is where I answer questions probably the most quickly.

So make sure you're following me there at the PA platform.

And somebody actually asked me a question on there.

So I will get to that in a second.

All right, let's get out of here.

I'm gonna go back to video.

There we go.

Okay, so let me answer this Instagram question first.

If anyone else is having trouble asking questions, feel free to ask me on Instagram.

So when Caspa says they calculate your science gpa, does that mean it takes into account every science course you've ever taken or only the specific science prerequisites that each individual school requires?

Yeah, so it's pretty confusing.

But it.

They don't do a separate GPA for each program.

It's every science course you've taken that they consider a science course.

So again, go to that course specific courses section and it has a list and you can determine whether or not each course is basically by whatever the subject was.

And so you can determine what goes into that science gpa.

All right.

Okay.

So for Caspas, some say if you retake the course, it'll take the average, but others say it's just added on, which is.

Right, it is not the average of the courses.

They are both counted in your CASPA gpa.

So they both go in equally and Casper breaks it down based on the grade you got and the amount of hours that the course counted for.

So a course that counts was five hours with the lab or something is going to count for more than a one hour course.

So an A in a one hour course is basically going to be canceled out by a C in a five hour course.

Even more so, actually.

So yeah, you have to take into account how long the courses were as well.

Let's see.

Okay.

For someone who has a good gpa, and I'm thinking this is a Master's of science in Biomedical sciences.

But poor undergrad gpa.

Will you suggest to retake undergrad classes again?

So I would suggest to retake any prerequisites.

So if you have a prerequisite course from undergrad and it wasn't repeated in your biomedical sciences masters, then you would need to retake it for PA school to show them that even though you have a master's, you're able to do that course and to go into your average.

My overall science is 3.15 overall, cumulative is 2.96.

Oh, you're so close.

Do I have any chance?

So these are the questions I get a lot like these little summaries and then what are my chances?

So and if you A good place to go for this, by the way, is Reddit, the pre physician assistant subreddit.

They have a what are my chances Thread that you can put your stuff on and then people will answer.

But anyway, so look at this.

If you were to apply to a program and again make sure you're doing CASPA calculations, but if you were to apply to a program that has a 2.75 overall requirement and they want 2,000 plus hours, you'd be fine.

I mean that's not guaranteeing that you get an interview, but you meet the minimum.

So at least they're going to look at your application as a whole.

If I were you, I would try to take some more courses to at least get your overall to a 3.0 because that's going to increase the amount of programs that you can apply to.

Okay, what are some strategies you can recommend for someone who may be able to get their GPA up by 0.1 or 0.2 after the prerequisites?

3.0 To 3.2 I think.

Are you trying to raise it?

The only thing to do to raise it is to take more courses that are a lot of hours and get A's.

So if you are retaking courses, you want to make sure that you are able to do well in them so that your GPA doesn't suffer more and that it just goes up.

But it's very difficult.

So sometimes what I'll have people do is use that GPA calculator and plug in their all their courses and then do some hypothetical stuff like put in if you were to take three more three hour courses and get A's, what would your GPA do?

So you can determine how many courses, how many hours you need to bring up your GPA to where you want it to be.

Is your undergraduate GPA set in stone after you graduate.

So as far as what Castell is specifically as your undergraduate gpa, yes, but any additional courses you take will contribute to your overall gpa.

So and that's not.

They don't necessarily look at that one specifically.

So yeah, you can always take more courses that are going to contribute to your overall.

Okay.

There are some schools that require only one semester of a certain science, like chemistry or biology.

If I take one and two, does that better help my chances?

I've taken both courses.

I would say yes, because if anything it just increases the amount of programs you can apply to because a lot of programs will want multiple courses, they'll want you to take both halves or they'll say eight hours, which is basically meaning they want you to take the first and second one.

And so I would.

As long as you're able to do well, that's just going to boost your science gpa again, show that you are able to handle these courses.

And so I think it's a great idea to do that.

For courses that expired 10 years ago, will CASPA still count those courses towards the gpa?

Specifically Prereq Sciences.

So yes, according to caspa, no courses expire ever.

And I've had people who have done interviews and have gotten asked about a C they got in 20 years ago.

It's crazy.

So all of your transcripts, all of your grades go into caspa.

Whether or not the C school considers those or that looks at your more recent grades, that's up to them.

But ultimately, yes, even courses and grades 10 years ago count into that GPA.

I know, it stinks.

Sorry.

Does it matter where one goes to school?

Community versus private schools.

When taking prerequisites, do higher ranked schools take or prefer someone who has gone to a better ranked school?

Not really, to be honest.

Unfortunately, PA school is a lot about the numbers game because schools want their stats to look good.

And so it doesn't matter what school you went to, it doesn't matter if it was an Ivy League school, it doesn't matter if it was more difficult.

They may take that into consideration a little bit, but that's not going to negate the fact that you still have to meet the minimums, still have to do all the requirements, because if you don't meet the requirements, they're never even going to know where you went to school.

So I would say the majority of people, I don't think I've ever seen one application where everyone got all their courses at the Same program.

A lot of times there's classes at community colleges during summer or at different programs, or people end up taking their classes elsewhere.

So, yeah, but ultimately, yeah, it really does not matter at all.

Unfortunately.

I do want to show you all this.

No one, I don't have any questions right now, so if you have questions, get them in.

This is what I was talking about as far as the applicant's manual of Physician Assistant programs.

This was written by two PAs, and it breaks down each program.

They did a lot of research.

This saves me a lot of time, but basically, let's see if I have a good example.

Not all programs say their averages, which is the problem.

Okay, so here's a good example.

So Rutgers, this is a really popular one.

You probably won't be able to say that.

See this?

I'm just showing you what it looks like.

So Rutgers, according to this, they want an overall GPA of 3.2 and a science GPA of 3.2.

And the average science GPA was a 3.61.

So just something to look at.

And then as far as healthcare experience, it's required, but no minimum numbers of hours.

So that's just an example of anybody else.

There's a school you want me to look up, let me know how important is a good personal statement compared to everything else.

So a personal statement is what is going to get you an interview.

So if you meet the requirements, at that point, all that matters is the type of experience you've had and how well you explain it.

And you don't want to lose the opportunity to use that experience details part on CASPA to explain what you learned from that experience and then your personal statement, and that is what you want, your personal statement to convince them that you are going to be the best PA student for their program and that they just have to meet you to see if you're really as great as your personal statement makes it seem.

So a personal statement absolutely will help you with getting into PA school.

What advice would you give to foreign medical graduates looking to do a PA program?

So for foreign medical graduates, what you have to look at, CASPA requires you to go through, gosh, I don't remember the name right now, but go through basically a system that converts your courses into what they would translate into as far as American courses.

And some programs will want you to have taken your prerequisites at an American university.

And so that's something you have to look at.

You don't necessarily have to have an American degree.

Sometimes you do, you have to look at that.

But you do have to make sure that your courses translate and then you still have to meet all the requirements as well.

Let's see.

I lost my spot.

Assuming you meet GPA minimums but are on the low end, what are the best ways to supplement your application?

Good letters of recommendation, personal statement, more health care hours.

All the above.

Correct.

All the above.

So again, you want to look at all the different areas of your application.

Gpa, grades in general, prerequisite grades.

And then there's also.

Yeah, personal statement, healthcare hours, volunteer experience, leadership experience.

You want to look at your application as a whole and see where it's lacking and just build those areas up.

Definitely.

Healthcare experience.

The better quality, the more hands on you are, the better.

The more responsibility you have, the better.

But those are definitely ones that you want to look at.

What are South College's requirements?

Okay, let's see if I can find this.

We will see.

311.

Okay, so they do not report their class statistics.

So that's not in here.

But their requirements are overall GPA, science GPA and prerequisite GPA of a 0.75.

And then they don't again don't report their statistics.

So not helpful.

Do healthcare hours ever expire?

Say something done more than 10 years ago?

No, healthcare hours do not expire for foreign students.

There are schools that only accept bachelor's from the US I don't know if this is a question or not, but I believe there are.

But I could be wrong.

I'm not as familiar with that because again, all the programs have different requirements and different preferences.

But some schools accept the evaluation from Wes if the course is equivalent to a bachelor's in the United States.

Yes.

So I think I agree with what you're saying is that there are some schools that only accept the bachelor's from the U.S. but some schools accept the evaluation and the course equivalency if it adds up.

But then some still want you to take prerequisites in America.

It just depends.

And then some want you to have experience like here.

So if you did all your experience abroad, they want you to have some experience here too.

How much of a negative impact does a withdrawal on a prerequisite letter retaken for an A look?

As long as you can explain it as long as you can say this is why I withdrew, whether it was too heavy of a load or committed to too many things, whatever, as long as you can explain, explain it well without making excuses, you should be fine.

And again, it doesn't contribute to your gpa, which is nice.

Do schools look more favorably on healthcare experience earned from the US Military?

Should I focus on gaining more non military healthcare experience?

Schools love to be honest, PA schools love military backgrounds.

I think just because that's kind of where the PA school was was founded.

It's a lot of them will have scholarships.

I know my school had a specific veteran scholarship which was school and a lot of programs respect military people who have that training and that background.

So no, I think that's great.

I mean it depends on what you're doing and you may want to branch out.

If you've done something for a long time and you've tried to get in, a lot of times they'll want you to try something else or get a different perspective in a different field, different specialty, different area to show that you're well rounded.

But no, a lot of times military experience is great.

Do we have to have PA shadowing hours and PA rec letter and is applying in late September be too late or better wait until the next application cycle?

So as long as so late September is a little bit late, especially if somewhere if a program has rolling admissions.

But I wouldn't say it's too late because there's people who apply and get interviews and as long as they're still interviewing, I think it's fine.

There's a lot of schools that interview up to through February, even March.

So I don't think it's necessarily too late.

But for the next cycle if you did have to apply again, I would try to do it a little bit earlier and then yes, I would absolutely recommend having PA shadowing hours.

If you do not your.

If you were to get an interview, you're probably going to be questioned very heavily on how you know you want to be a PA without shadowing hours.

So that's something that a lot of schools want to see to show that you really know what you're getting into and that you have a good understanding of the PA profession.

So I'll try to get shining hours and then a lot of schools do prefer or require a PA recommendation letter.

So that's something else that I work on getting.

Are there any schools that accept foreign medical grads that you can recommend?

I'm to be honest, I am not very familiar with this.

So.

Okay.

Christina stepped in for me.

Thanks.

I do carry a foreign bachelor's in Methodist in North Carolina.

Accepts.

And since the prerequisites are taken in the us, you will have to take.

How do you say this?

The toefl.

I always say that.

T, O, E, F, L and get an evaluation.

So, yeah, if you are foreign or English is not your first language, you do have to take this test, the TOEFL or whatever.

And then again you have to have those classes evaluated.

So that's, that's not my specialty.

I don't know as much about that just because I haven't been asked about it as much and we didn't have any foreign medical grads in my career program.

Is it worth applying to a program where you hit the minimums but aren't necessarily competitive?

So to be honest, in my opinion, and again, some people disagree with this, but in my mind, if you meet the minimums, go for it.

The worst that can happen is you get denied.

But if you meet the minimums, I think it's worth applying.

And then if you do get rejected or wait listed or whatever, follow up later and say, what can I do better?

And they may tell you those areas that are lacking.

But if you can check all the boxes and you can write a killer personal statement, there's no need to not apply and just see what happens.

Unless you're just wanting to take a gap year, wanting to take a year off.

And if you are, that's fine.

Some people want to.

But for me, I was ready to be in school, so I made sure I met the minimums of at least two programs and I interviewed at those and was accepted.

And yeah, it worked out.

So, yeah, you just have to make sure that you, if you meet the minimums, you can apply.

If you have a great personal statement that'll get you the interview.

And then the interview is what's going to get you accepted into PA school.

In terms of shadowing, a PA would be the best way to go about it.

Maybe it's because I've been stood up too many times.

I have no idea how to approach a PA for shadowing.

Also, can you look at Yale?

So foreshadowing.

It's tough.

I mean, especially it's better if you know people, if you are aware of someone who works in healthcare who can help you out with connections, that's going to be beneficial.

But you just have to keep, keep asking, keep trying.

Call offices, ask to speak to the office manager, ask to speak to the PA if you can, just try to Put feelers out there, look on Facebook, look on LinkedIn.

But really, personal connections are what's going to get you shadowing hours.

Because sometimes people are reluctant to let someone come shadow them and see these really intimate things between them and a patient if they don't know anything about you.

That's kind of a hard thing to do because what if you let somebody crazy in, like, we don't know.

Yeah, definitely.

Just keep trying, keep putting yourself out there, keep asking.

I've even heard people making appointments with PAs and then asking them there.

So I don't know that I would do that.

But hold on, let me see if I can find Yale here in this book.

61.

Okay, let's see what it says about Yale.

So their requirements.

So their GPA requirement is they have a science gpa minimum of 3.0.

And then they do have their statistics.

So their overall GPA average was a 3.72.

And this is kind of nice.

They tell you the ranges of people they accepted.

So they accepted a range from 3.30 to 4.0.

And then for their science GPA, the average was a 3.73.

And their average or the range that they accepted people was 3.15 to 4.0.

So hopefully that helps a little bit.

That's kind of cool that they give you that range there, give you some more information.

University of Washington.

That's kind of fun.

342.

At the end of the book.

Okay, so this is also known as MedX, if anyone didn't know the University of Washington.

So MedX is pretty popular.

There's a lot of talk about it.

And they do tend to look at people very holistically.

A lot of times they want you to have a good bit of experience before you go there.

So their requirement, GPA requirement, overall GPA of a 3.0.

And then they don't have any statistics listed, but just an overall of a 3.0.

Oh, you're welcome jokes.

I don't think that's your real name.

Can a high GRE score compensate for a low gpa?

So it can help, but it's not going to.

Again, if your GPA doesn't meet the minimums.

Having a high GRE score is not going to counteract that.

You still have to meet the minimums for it to.

For you to get your application looked at.

So they may look at that and say, oh, yeah, she's good at test taking.

But ultimately the GRE doesn't really hold that much weight.

It's more of just Something because PA schools are a master's level program that they have to do and have to require so that you can gain entry.

So the GRE is not that significant.

So I wouldn't bank on that.

But I would try to do well and that does increase the amount of perms that you can apply to.

Okay, I'm not seeing any more questions, so I'm gonna do some announcements.

If anybody has some last minute questions, get them in.

Feel free to email me again.

Make sure you join the Facebook group and are following along on Instagram.

And then the next webinar will be on September 24th.

That's also a Sunday night.

And I'm gonna do at 8pm Again, I would do it later, but I get really sleepy.

So we're gonna do that and it's gonna be all about PA school and what is PA school really like?

So I'm going to tell you all a little bit about my experience in school.

What you have to look forward to, what was challenging and yeah, so that'll be fun.

But if anyone has any questions about that, definitely send them to me before September 24th.

So, yeah, I guess that's about a month.

So.

All right.

I'm a second career person.

Awesome.

20,000 Hours healthcare experience as a CNA.

Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

And RDH, that dietitian.

I don't know.

3.01 GPA.

Science 3.03.

60 Hour shadowing.

Can my profile get in or should I go np accelerated BSN route?

So I have interviewed people.

I've done mock interviews with people who have a 3.01 and are getting interviews.

So with your experience, that absolutely balances a lower gpa.

Oh, dental hygiene.

Okay.

Yeah, so that's a great one too.

There's a girl on Instagram, that PA girl, and she did.

She was a dental hygienist before becoming a pa. And so, yeah, I think that's awesome.

So, yeah, I would.

If I were you, I would go for it.

I would apply, I would see what happens and then give it a shot.

I mean, you could always have BSN as a backup, but I think if pa.

Sorry, guys, Losing my voice.

Yeah, if PA is what you want to do, I would go for it.

All right, I'm going to sign off because I'm going to cough and y' all have a good night.

I'll answer questions in the chat.