Applied this year, looks really bleak. Helpful advice

[GOINGBALD42]

I applied to 11 PA schools this year and got rejected on 7 of them so far. I am waiting on western, touro, and scu, but it is so late in the cycle and people have been getting interviews and acceptances already. I graduated with a biology degree from a UC school. The PA schools that I have not been rejected to are my instate schools. My gpa is pretty weak which is at 3.1 cumulative gpa and 3.0 science gpa. I have HCE hours as a chiropractic assistant about 3 years worth. This is my first time applying. I don't think I will get into any programs this year. The only positive so far was that I received an invite only supplemental application at Touro University, but I don't think that means anything. Probably just a way for them to get more money. Preparing for the worst, what should I do to make myself a stronger applicant? Should I try to work as a MA/emt or take a masters?

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[pamac]

You'll probably get an interview invite from Touro, but its not a program I would go to... expensive, long, worthless added on mph. Western is less interested in experience (they proudly state that they require none!) and are more interested in grades because they get a lot of applicants (2400) for the 98 seats they have. Competitive applicants there have GPA's above 3.5, but they will take your application money if you have a 2.7 or above.

SCU mentioned how their students study alongside future chiropractors and acupuncturists, so they may like your health care experience. They have a list of careers they like to see that includes some of the more "heavy hitting" health care experience, but the fact that you are a chiropractic aid might strike their fancy. But that program has 36 seats, and the average GPA of their applicants is 3.3, and prereq gpa of 3.4. My guess is that they probably have a fair amount of applicants, but with 36 seats, anything over 300 would be both reasonable to believe, and daunting for an applicant that didn't have great stats.

I think that a path to get into PA school is going to involve a full court press on your part. Improve your grades, obtain health care experience that is more significant than CNA or what you currently have. I think with your GPA, you are going to need to have pretty good HCE to compensate, and that kind of HCE takes time to obtain. It used to be that a good rule of thumb was that 3.0 was the minimum cutoff to even have your application be looked at.

Have you looked into anything else besides PA?

 

[GOINGBALD42]

You'll probably get an interview invite from Touro, but its not a program I would go to... expensive, long, worthless added on mph. Western is less interested in experience (they proudly state that they require none!) and are more interested in grades because they get a lot of applicants (2400) for the 98 seats they have. Competitive applicants there have GPA's above 3.5, but they will take your application money if you have a 2.7 or above.

SCU mentioned how their students study alongside future chiropractors and acupuncturists, so they may like your health care experience. They have a list of careers they like to see that includes some of the more "heavy hitting" health care experience, but the fact that you are a chiropractic aid might strike their fancy. But that program has 36 seats, and the average GPA of their applicants is 3.3, and prereq gpa of 3.4. My guess is that they probably have a fair amount of applicants, but with 36 seats, anything over 300 would be both reasonable to believe, and daunting for an applicant that didn't have great stats.

I think that a path to get into PA school is going to involve a full court press on your part. Improve your grades, obtain health care experience that is more significant than CNA or what you currently have. I think with your GPA, you are going to need to have pretty good HCE to compensate, and that kind of HCE takes time to obtain. It used to be that a good rule of thumb was that 3.0 was the minimum cutoff to even have your application be looked at.

Have you looked into anything else besides PA?

That's what I thought with Touro as well, but I will still do it. Honestly whatever program I get into I will go.

 

[hmism]

Ideally, you could get a position as an MA, CNA, CTA, etc. at a health system that offers tuition reimbursement. Utilize that money wisely and take higher level (science) courses at a CC that you can succeed in. That will give you quality HCE while offering you the opportunity to boost your GPA! Also the smaller things like shadowing, adding in a LOR from a PA, etc would help.

 

[MaybeIt'sTime]

Have you considered applying to some of the newer programs, such as Boston University. They had a 100% PANCE pass rate for their first cohort of classes, they currently have no HCE requirement, no posted minimum cGPA, but do require a minimum of a 3.0 for sGPA. The down side is that their tuition is outrageous and COL in Boston is astronomical.