Eleven applications. Ten interview invites. Three acceptances.

That's Nelson's second cycle. His first cycle looked nothing like that.

So what changed? He added patient care experience. He knocked out more prereqs. He applied early to rolling admissions programs, which matters more than almost anything else people obsess over. And he rewrote his personal statement to actually sound like him instead of what he thought they wanted to hear.

That last one is the piece I see most often. Applicants write a personal statement performing a version of themselves, and it reads flat. Nelson figured out that being honest was the stronger move.

If you're staring down a second cycle right now, listen to this one and then go make a list. Reapplying without changing anything is just paying CASPA twice.

What we cover:

• What his first cycle looked like and where it fell apart
• Adding patient care hours and prereqs between cycles
• Rewriting a personal statement to sound like an actual person
• Applying early to rolling admissions programs
• Reaching out to current students and faculty before you apply
• Going from almost no interviews to ten

Resources:

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

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

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

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

In today's episode you're going to hear from a reapplicant on how he improved his application between cycles and feels like the changes he made in experience and his essays are what got him many interviews and many many acceptances to 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 Per Lets get to it.

Hey guys, welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

Savannah here your host and founder of the PA platform.

Thank you so much for listening.

Today's episode is a good one because this is someone who just reached out and said I want to share my story and tell people about what I did.

And he's awesome.

So you're going to hear from Nelson.

He's from North Carolina.

He has an interesting background.

He did some traveling, worked some different jobs before he ended up as an EMT and then decided to move forward into PA school.

But his first application cycle was not as successful as he would have liked and he made some significant changes to help him the next cycle and he got a ton of interviews and acceptances which was awesome.

But I hope you enjoy these insights.

Now I did want to mention one thing we have that you may not have seen if you're not on social media, but we are doing bi monthly webinars and we have one coming up next week.

It will be on Thursday, 3-3-10th.

We're going to do an experience overload where we go through the different types of experiences you should be looking for, including patient care experience, health care, volunteer shadowing, teaching, leadership, etc.

And how to find those things.

And we'll go through some different ways that I'll show you to look for experience.

We'll talk about certification applications when you need to do that, how to figure out if you need to do that.

So if you're kind of stuck in that spot where you feel like you need hours and that's what's lacking on your application, this would be really great for you to join us on Thursday.

So that'll be fun.

And if you've missed our other webinars from the year, which we did live personal statement editing, live experience details and supplemental editing, we've talked about caspa.

We did a Caspa Walkthrough.

So we will put a link to all of that in the description if that is something that you feel like you need help with and you're someone who likes to watch videos and interact in that way.

And yeah.

So hopefully you enjoy this episode and we'll get into our chat with Nelson.

So my name's Nelson and I actually grew up in North Carolina, attended North Carolina State University and a little less traditional major.

Kind of after graduation, I worked in Alaska for a few summers working with an outdoor industry and doing some guiding.

And then my now wife and I traveled to Thailand and taught English there for a bit.

And then after that I kind of moved back to North Carolina and moved out to Colorado to kind of pursue whitewater kayaking and work in retail sales within the kind of outdoor industry.

And then I've kind of just been living in a small town in Colorado since then and discovered kind of healthcare through becoming an EMT and working on our county ambulance service for the last four and a half or five years.

I love being outside, love whitewater kayaking, trail running, mountain biking.

So that's super important to me too.

Interesting.

Okay, so I would definitely say that's a non traditional route.

Yeah, totally.

Because I mean, the majority of people, they don't know they want to be PAs going into, you know, college, but they maybe have, you know, thoughts in healthcare.

What were your original plans with an economics?

Well, I was kind of planning on potentially going back to grad school and getting a, you know, advanced degree in economics or working within finance.

But you know, after undergrad I just kind of wanted a little time off and you know, a year turned into two to three and then next thing you know, I'm working in retail sales for kind of a small niche whitewater kayaking paddle sports company and kind of figuring out what to do next.

And I realized, you know, I liked math and I liked, I liked economics, but I didn't necessarily want to make like finance a career.

So it's kind of thinking of what to do next and that's kind of how EMS came came about.

There was an EMT course at our local community college.

So that's kind of how I got into it, I guess.

Interesting.

Okay, so when, how long were you in EMS before you kind of started thinking like, maybe I want to do something else too in healthcare.

Yeah.

You know, like, being an emt, you're kind of always like, okay, this is a stepping stone to something different.

But I kind of got into it and I was just loving it.

It was fun.

I was learning a lot.

I worked with paramedic partners, and after about a year of being an emt, I was kind of thinking about next steps.

The logical progression for a lot of people is to become a paramedic.

Um, and I was really thinking about that.

But as someone, like, in their late 20s, my.

I had some EMS mentors and paramedic partners that kind of steered me away from it.

You know, they were a little bit burned out.

And EMS is a tough industry in general and, you know, not sleeping a lot.

I worked a 48, 96 schedule, so having four days off a week was great.

But after a few years of getting up at nights kind of wears on you.

And so having a bachelor's degree, I was like.

Had worked with some PAs in the ER, just dropping patients off and stuff, and had kind of met a PA mentor that was a friend, like a mutual acquaintance.

And I started doing some research, and that's kind of where it kind of piqued my interest, and I decided to do more research.

And then I kind of went head on into it and had to take a ton of prerequisites, too.

Oh, yeah, you probably didn't have many sciences.

No, so I had.

I had basically zero science.

Like, I had taken Chemistry 101 in college and that was it.

And so I had a way completely,.

Like, wreck your science gpa probably.

Yeah.

So some like.

And like that.

That's another thing, you know, as a.

As kind of a lower GPA applicant, I initially almost didn't even try for PA because I was a little concerned that it was just not even going to be worth it, you know, and so I did have a really good science gpa because.

Taking all the prereqs now, but I had to really work hard to bump up my.

My, you know, cumulative one.

Interesting.

Okay, can you explain Just because I don't think we've had an EMT on in a while.

The difference in an EMT and a paramedic.

Yeah.

So involved, if you know about that.

Yeah, definitely.

So EMT is kind of that technician role.

We're there to be like a supporting, you know, cast and, you know, I.

We don't really diagnose things as an EMT in the field.

Paramedics have a good bit more experience A ton of clinical experience.

And they're like, you know, they can do pretty advanced interventions in the field depending on the state you work in and the county and your, your regulations.

But a paramedic, you know, can intubate people.

They can do, you know, start like EJ's, they can do, really give complex like cardiac meds.

They can do, you know, RSIs, like their, their scope of practice is pretty big and it's like you can deal with anything or nothing on any shift.

And as an EMT, I had like an IV certification.

So I would start IVs, hook people up to the monitor, help, you know, assess my patient while my partner's getting information, just kind of draw up meds for them if they wanted it.

So I was kind of a supporting cast member for those more critical calls.

Okay, cool.

Okay.

So, you know, obviously you had lots of great high quality patient care experience whenever it was time to apply, worked on your prereqs, your courses, what was your pa School school application process like?

Yeah, it, you know, just getting to be, getting to apply.

It took about two years of classes.

You know, postgraduate, I took about including an EMT course.

I took about 60 credit hours of, of prereq.

So I almost, you know, kind of got an associate's in biology pretty much from our local community college, commuting about 30 minutes.

So just figuring out what classes I needed to take and, and how to even get the process started was, was kind of tough.

But then once I got around to applying, you know, I'd taken the GRE, I'd gotten sweaters of recommendation.

I applied in 20.

20 Was my first cycle.

I had two application cycles and I think I applied to about 14 schools and it was radio silence from like July until September.

And I got my first interview invite and then I got two more into, into January.

So, you know, you could get interview invites right now pretty if people are, haven't heard anything, you know.

And I kind of assumed once you get three interview invites that you're going to get in.

And I had been preparing a little bit just on the chance I get an interview invite and I got three wait lists and even on one of the waitlists I even moved up from like 20 something to number four.

And I thought I was going to get in and it didn't happen.

Yeah, so that was really kind of crushing that, that first cycle having to, you know, I knew this is what I wanted to do and it was good to at least have three interview invites.

I knew if I really double down and Reapply myself that I can, I can do it even better the next cycle.

So what'd you do in between cycles to improve or change your application?

And then did you change the schools you applied to also?

Yeah, I kind of did a lot.

Like, I reflected a lot.

I knew I was going to need a more like just a better approach to the application cycle, like even once I.

Once I get there.

So I did more research on schools.

I took a couple more prerequisites.

Like, I hadn't done biochemistry yet.

So I took biochemistry and actually just took like a general English because I wanted to apply to a couple schools that I just needed that requirement.

But I think the biggest thing was just reflecting on like, I thought I wrote a good personal statement, but I realized it wasn't, you know, it wasn't as good as I thought it was, you know, and I totally tore it down, redid it.

I would think I was trying to write too much of like an autobiography and get every little thing in there, but I realized like things 10 years ago.

I didn't even know what a PA was.

So how did that, you know, really drive my journey to pa?

So I wrote more about my patient care experience about, you know, why I think this is the perfect job for me and career for me and why I'd be a good student, that sort of stuff.

And I think I really hit home with my personal statement this year.

So that was a really big one.

And I retook the GRE for some schools.

You know, I had like a decent score, but I thought I could bump it up and just make it look a little bit better.

Um, and.

And that was, I think that was helpful.

And other than that, I think I got a slightly different.

I got one more letter of recommendation from a paramedic, another paramedic I'd worked with.

So I think I had pretty strong letters of recommendation.

Um, but just I think re evaluating yourself and, and really changing that personal statement a good bit.

It's so much work.

But I think it goes a long way than just like kind of tweaking it.

Like you want to show that, you know, you, you really tried and put yourself out there.

Yeah, I think that's really great that you were.

Had the self awareness to really like, look at things and be critical of them.

I think that can be hard for some people because you feel like you've put in so much work.

You're like, no, this has to be good.

I work so hard on it.

But, you know, I kind of describe it sometimes as like baking a cake.

Like it can take me three hours to bake a cake and it can be mediocre.

And if that happens the next time I'm not going to use that same recipe or I'm going to change some things to try to make it better the next time.

So it's like if it's not working, you got to figure out what part is not and really try to make it better.

So I think the other thing I would say too is like, it's like you can't.

You want to get feedback from friends or family or people you know that are good writers, that have good syntax and.

But also people that know the pa.

But you don't want to get too many cooks in the kitchen with your personal statement.

So I tried to like send it to someone in medicine that would kind of review it once I thought it was good.

And then once you have a solid statement, you know, either do an editing service or like have a good friend that doesn't even know about pa. Just copy edit it, you know, and make sure it sounds good and that.

I did that a few times and that was helpful.

Yeah, and that's what I mean.

It's also too like hard when you are working on it so much and you can like keep working on it and keep editing it and you can do that forever.

So at some point you do have to like step away and let somebody else give their opinion, whether you take it or not.

Like you have that option.

But it's, it's very difficult.

I feel like you can just keep editing forever and ever.

Yeah, totally.

It just keeps going.

Well, I know you were very successful with your second application cycle.

Can you tell us a little bit about how that went with kind of number of applications, interviews, acceptances, all that stuff?

Yeah, totally.

And like I guess you mentioned earlier, the second application cycle, I. I applied to some same schools, but I kind of made it more focused where I really wanted to apply super early and my Casper was already pretty much filled out.

I just had to tweak some, some things in it and then put my personal statement in.

But I made a big list of all the schools I'm going to apply to.

First are just rolling schools and then I can work on other supplementals that are non rolling later in the summer and those weren't as like.

So basically all the schools I actually applied to first were.

I think I applied to 11 rolling admission schools within like the second or third week of April or of May.

So only two to three weeks in, I had Submitted and compared to the first cycle, I didn't even submit to like mid to late July and I thought that was decent.

But if you apply really early and have a solid application, even though you might have some weak spots here and there, you can get interview invites in early June.

And I think I applied to 11 schools the second cycle.

I ended up getting 10 interview invites, but I did four of them and I got three acceptances.

So it was super special.

And it's kind of crazy when you finally, when you're just turning down interview invites, you're like, I think I'm just gonna, I've made a decision out of school, you know.

And then another thing I would say is apply to schools.

If you're casting kind of a far and wide net, you know, you might just want to keep applying, keep applying, but you're going to waste money and you might not even want to go to that school.

And that was something I kind of dealt with.

Like there's a ton of cool programs out there, but sometimes you don't necessarily want to move across the country or uproot your entire life.

And so schools you could actually see yourself going to, I would only apply to those.

Was there anything in your application or anything that came up during interviews that you felt like made you stand out?

That, because I mean that, that is a very successful cycle.

That is not the norm, you know, but clearly like you put in a lot of work between first and second cycle and that showed.

But what.

Was there anything that you're like, yeah, I think that was like a big reason they wanted to interview me.

I would say, I think the first thing would be the personal statement, um, because I had a few different people read it and stuff and they said it was really solid.

And so I think, you know, lower ish GPA aside, that really got my foot in the door.

And then just having, you know, I didn't get into EMS being like, I'm going to get patient care experience.

I just started working.

And so after, you know, four and a half, five years of full time work, I had, you know, a little over 10,000 hours of patient care experience, which I think definitely helped kind of balance out my, my, my GPA on kind of the scale.

And then I think one thing I was going to say about interviews is the first cycle I, I think I way over prepared and I felt so scripted and stressed, you know, and like if a question's asked slightly differently, it's hard to like change your answer around.

And so the second cycle I just knew I had to change.

I knew I got three interview invites, three wait lists.

So the interview is where I struggled.

So I really doubled down on that too.

Trying to get.

Get prepared and just making sure.

I just.

I didn't want to sound scripted.

I wanted to be more genuine.

I just had bullet point things I wanted to say.

I didn't have any, like, rehearsed answers, any of that.

And I wanted to come off as way more authentic.

And that's what I was.

I was just trying to be my authentic self.

And I think that helped a ton of.

Yeah.

And I think that actually is an advantage to going through it a second time or, like, having multiple interviews, because it's like those first couple, like, you're just kind of testing the waters and, like, I don't know, figuring it out, and there's more nerves and, like, more stuff.

And then I think on the flip side, you can also get kind of jaded by the process, and that's a whole nother issue.

But now I think, you know, and especially in your case, you're like, all right, I'm ready.

Like, I had this year to reflect.

Like, let's go.

I can do this.

Which is awesome.

And honestly, it was like a blessing in disguise, you know, having to wait another year.

Like, I felt way more ready for the application for just school in general.

I just.

It just felt like the right time.

And at the time when you get rejected, it doesn't feel like the right time, but you could just keep going for it.

It.

It kind of works itself out.

That's a very common theme and sentiment that I hear from a lot of people is that they are glad they have that extra year to really prepare.

So I do want to know, you had some choices, clearly, of programs to attend.

How did you make that decision?

That is a question that I've gotten this year more than ever is, you know, I'm trying to decide between these two schools or three schools, and I don't know what to do.

Did you feel drawn to one in particular or what was your decision making process like?

Yeah, that was another one.

It's hard.

You're making a huge decision.

And I had actually put down two deposits, and then I'm coming up on a third one, and I'm like, I'm not putting a third down unless I'm going.

If I'm going to this school.

And so I had already looked at all their websites.

One thing I would say is reach out to either faculty or if they have a student, run Instagram or something like that for the program.

I messaged some of the programs that way and just chatted with students and that was super helpful and just picking their brain.

And a lot of them were super honest with me, it seemed, and they're really excited to kind of give their view on the program.

But I think one thing I realized is I did want a smaller program that kind of felt more tight knit.

And our cohort now I think is like 28 students or something like that, maybe a little less.

Um, and so, you know, that, that was a big thing for me.

And then I talked to a friend, like we were considering moving out of state for another program.

And I, I talked to a, a friend of a friend that was in the program.

They're like, where you go to school, you should really consider that that might be where you live for a few years afterward.

And I realized I wanted to stay in Colorado, live out here, and, you know, possibly get a job through clinicals or at least have connections out here.

And so that was another big one.

I think probably the biggest deciding factor was staying closer to home because this is where we want to live and work.

And then I would say lastly, tuition is a legitimate thing to consider.

And if you have some schools offer in state or out of state, and if you have the option to get an in state tuition, you can save 30 or $40,000.

And so that was another reason too.

Those are all great points, great reasons.

And so you have started PA school now, correct?

Yeah, we're a couple weeks in.

So I'm interested because your program is a January start and that confuses people.

And January start programs do things differently.

But does that mean.

So you applied last April.

2021.

And then you interviewed sometimes between now and then, and then you started in January.

Yeah.

Cause you don't have to wait a whole year.

Yeah, totally.

And honestly, as someone that's, you know, 30 and almost 31, like, I was kind of ready to get started.

I've been on this path for two to three, you know, probably three plus years.

And so I was just kind of, I was, I was a little ready to get started.

And so two of the programs I've gotten into were January starts.

So I was like, let's, let's get going, you know, and, and so it is a little bit faster.

And we had some people pulled off the wait list in our cohort, you know, pretty, pretty early.

But you could also, if you apply early enough in interview, you can still get in in June or July and have five Months to plan everything out and your exit strategy from your job and stuff.

Yeah.

Nice.

Okay, so how, since you are like fresh in it, how's it going?

It's good.

It's awesome.

What's cool about this program is we get kind of eased into it with like a short couple weeks of, of like just one course.

It's kind of almost like orientation about the program, also learning, you know, kind of about the foundations of just PA and kind of professionalism and stuff.

And so the week after next is when we actually start like a, you know, a 20 something credit semester with, you know, huge anatomy class and all that stuff.

So, um, right now it's actually super nice and chill and we're just getting to know each other and stuff, but in two weeks is when it's really going to get insane.

Nice.

Yeah.

Right now.

Yeah.

That's a nice ease and not too bad.

Uh, but it flies by.

How long is your program?

27 Months.

Okay.

Pretty normal.

Awesome.

Well, I'm sure you will do great and have no problems at all.

Maybe.

I'm so excited.

Yeah, yeah, it'll be good.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your insights.

I really appreciate you taking the time and reaching out to kind of give us some, some input into especially.

I mean, I think you have really great insights as a re applicant and clearly you did very well, so great job.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Like I just, you know, the, like the PA platform or the PA podcast and you know, your website and everything was so helpful to me and I always loved hearing like student interviews when I was out on a run and stuff.

So, you know, I just wanted to say, like, if people are, you know, down or need to reapply or whatever, like, you can do it.

You know, you just have to double down and you can.

Like I started this process assuming I had a 50, 50 chance of even getting in, and here I am.

So there you are.

You did it.

Yeah.

Well, I appreciate that and thank you so much.

I also appreciate you reaching out and being willing to kind of share your story and inputs.

I love getting to just connect with colleagues and future colleagues.

It's a fun little community of pas.

We're still pretty small, so.

Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for your time.

Yeah, this is awesome.

Thank you.

I hope you enjoy that episode.

Make sure you're following the PA platform on Instagram and TikTok and you're in our Facebook group, the Pre PA Club, so you can connect with your other Pre PA and PA colleagues.

Stay tuned for next week.

I think it's next week.

It may be the next week, but if I get approval, I have a really great episode about a full tuition scholarship for PA school.

Very excited to share that.

And I have a coach to reintroduce to you that is very well known and love Jordan.

So we're going to talk about her experience, experience with counseling and being an ERPA and how she travels.

So some good stuff coming up and I would love to connect with you outside of the podcast.

Thank you so much and I'll see you guys next week.