Applying to PA School: Staying Organized

Staying organized while applying to PA school is really important. Well, it was to me at least. The advice I give to every Pre-PA I encounter is to make a spreadsheet. Whether its on paper or on Excel,  just do it. Trust me, the last you want to be doing is figuring out what schools you want to apply to. That is how applicants miss deadlines.

Over a year ago I began researching different schools and made a potential school spreadsheet. As application time came closer, I began narrowing down my schools to 8 and then eventually to the 6 that I actually ended up applying to. This method can save you time and money. You can prevent applying to a school that you actually don't meet the minimum requirements for.

From personal experience, I had my excel sheet filled out with my preliminary school choices. When it came closer to application time I found that one of my prerequisite courses had to be completed before my application was sent in. I saved myself time and money by not applying to this school. I could only assume that the school would've taken one look at my application and then throw it into the fiery pit where rejected applications go to die.

Below is a sample of my spreadsheet, I have sectioned it off because the spreadsheet was just too long. So this is purely a sample. If you are still exploring and researching schools you can make the preliminary schools spreadsheet. As you begin submitting applications, you can then begin filling out the final choice schools spreadsheet. These will be the schools you are applying to and this will help you keep track of how each app is going. These categories can vary and you can add as you see fit.

The Preliminary Schools Spreadsheet

• School name
• Location of school
• Prerequisite courses still pending (if any)
• No. of letters of recommendation needed
• Minimum patient-care hours
• Application deadline
• GRE? and code
• Minimum shadowing hours required
• Minimum GPA required
• Minimum Science GPA required

The Final Choice Schools Spreadsheet

• School name
• CASPA submitted 
• How much money spent on CASPA
• GRE required?
• How much money spent sending GRE scores
• Supplemental Application?
• How much for supplemental application
• Under review - school will usually send an email stating the application is under review
• Email for the main contact for program
• Phone no. (totally optional)
• Total $ spent per school
• Interview (Y/N)
• Acceptance Offer 
• Deposit for seat
• Attending? 
• Cost of PA program

You can add or subtract any of these categories according to your specifications. That's it for now!

Applying to PA School: Prerequisite Courses for PA School

So, this semester marks my last semester as an undergraduate student (hooray). I sat in micro lab today thinking about all of the many classes I have taken over the last few years. I couldn't help but think, you know what if this and that. What if I had taken more classes and completed my undergrad sooner? What if I had better arranged my schedule and taken prerequisite classes so I could have applied to more schools? Which brings me to today's topic of choice: prerequisite courses as a pre-PA student. If you take anything away from this post it should be,

The importance of consistently checking the prerequisite course requirements for your dream school.

Unlike Medical School, PA schools differ in their prerequisite requirements. What I recommend for pre-PA students to do is to look at the courses required by their first choice school. From there you can research the schools that line-up with those same requirements.

The reason I have chosen to write a post on the topic of prerequisite courses is due to a recent conversation I had with a fellow classmate of mine.

After discovering that we both were going into the PA profession, I asked him what schools he was looking to apply to. He began listing some great schools, schools whose prerequisite courses I had become familiar with. I asked him whether he had taken certain classes or was planning on taking them before submitting his application. He replied by saying that he didn't have to take those classes because they weren't required.


However, without those classes, I knew he did not meet the majority of his school's prerequisites.

I hated to be the one that burst his bubble.

He didn't believe me. He said I was wrong so I told him to research it himself. The evidence was quite damming. Right there, on the school's website, was a list of prerequisites to be completed before application submission. I am sorry to say that he will not be applying to some of his top choice schools.

Something I will touch on later is an excel spreadsheet and the magical powers it possesses.

In the meantime, here is a list of highly suggested prerequisites for PA School. Again, check the school's website for specific prerequisite requirements!

Normally required:

• Anatomy and Physiology with the Labs (most schools require this to be taken before applying)
• Biology I & II with Labs (some schools require only Bio I)
• Chemistry I & II with Labs (some schools require only Chem I)
• Organic Chemistry I & II (the majority of schools only require O. Chem I)
• Statistics (make sure it is taken in the correct department Bio, Math, Business)
• Microbiology with Lab (check with your schools if this is a requirement)
• Biochemistry (some schools will take O. Chem I & II in Lieu of Biochem) 

Not usually required:

• Psychology (general, developmental, abnormal)
• Sociology (not many schools require, but more and more are)
• Pathophysiology (helps you look good to adcoms) 
• Spanish (highly recommended, will definitely help you stand out)

I will continue to update this as I learn more about changing requirements.

Thanks for reading,

  

It's Ok: Things to do when the PA School Interview Goes Wrong

Since my last post was on the topic of the PA school interview I wanted to talk about an interview that doesn't yield the outcome you were expecting i.e. you get waitlisted or rejected. After paying for my CASPA application and submitting to my first set of schools, I checked my email/mail for any sign of an interview offer. A long time seemed to have gone by before I opened my email and the subject line read, "PA Program - Status of Application". "We appreciate your interest..." I didn't have to read the rest to know that I had not received an interview offer. That entire day I went through the motions. My loving husband reminded me that this was only one school out fo the six that I had applied to, there was still hope.

A few weeks later I received my first interview offer! I read and re-read the email over and over again. I couldn't help but share my excitement with someone else. I called my husband to give him the good news. He was in a meeting and whispered his excitement and congratulations to me.

The husband and I boarded a plane and headed east to my first interview. I'll fast forward to the results of my interview. I bombed it. I was unprepared and caught off guard by the questions that they shot at me. Even the one about my favorite Disney character. The night after my interview I kept replaying the entire thing over and over in my head. I watched myself crashing and failing. As a result, a month later I received an email stating that I was put on the waitlist. The truth was that I wasn't at all surprised.

However, I had very little time to mourn my waitlisted email. On that very same day, I received an invitation to interview for another school. I felt like this was a God-given opportunity to redeem myself.

The best part of this all was that I wasn't the one to open these emails. My husband had secretly been monitoring my emails from schools, so he called telling me he had some not so bad news and some great news.

Here are some of the things I worked on to better myself as an interviewee after my first attempt.

1. Mock interview with a Physician Assistant - The PA Platform is a website run by Savanah Perry. She provides services to Pre-PA students. One of her services is her mock interview. The truth is, without the mock interview I would not have been prepared for my second interview. Savannah is thorough and even provides with a document evaluating your answers and advice on how to better answer questions. This put all of my doubts to bed. I knew what I wanted to say but I did not know what the interviewer wanted to hear. Savannah is not only a recent PA school graduate, but she also participates on the Admissions Committee panel for her alma mater PA program.

2. Research on the PA profession - Know your stuff! I cannot stress this enough. Understand what a PA does and it also would not hurt to know the history of the profession. They will most likely ask you Why do you want to be a Physician Assistant? Incorporating some of the practices of a PA into your answer could help you shine a little brighter than the rest of the bunch.

3. Practice, practice, practice! - Practice interviewing. Start from scratch, put on the suit/outfit that you will be wearing on the interview day. Do your hair and make-up if it will help you feel like this is the real deal. Sit in front of a mirror or video camera and answer some commonly asked questions. Take note on how you respond. Practice your "pausing face". This is the face that you make while formulating the answer to the question in your head. It shows that you think through problems. Another thing practicing helps with is getting your smile down. A nervous smile can be spotted a hundred miles away. Okay, that might be an exaggeration. Just remember to smile naturally.

4. Prepare to answer a question 1,000 different ways - The number of questions you can be asked in an interview is infinite. There are simply too many for you to remember specific answers to  specific questions. This limits your ability to answer anything that the interviewer might throw at you. Which is why it is so important to make a list of things that you want the interviewer to know about you. This makes it easier to answer a variety of questions and also allows you to consistently remind them of why you are a great candidate for their program.

5. Be prepared for an open or closed format - When you walk into the interview room, the interviewer may or may have read your application prior to the conducting the interview. You must be prepared for either scenario. This is why I was so ill-prepared for my first interview. I had no idea it would be a closed format interview and panicked when they informed me that they knew nothing about me. It threw me for a loop. My second interview was a series of three mini-interviews. Two of the interviewers did not know anything about me and the last one had read through my application. Be prepared!

In a future post, I will talk about commonly asked interview questions!

Applying to PA School: The Interview

The selfie featured at the bottom of this post was taken 2 hours after my second interview on the plane ride home. Fun story, the day of my interview I woke up with really really red irritated eyes. I'm talking true blood red. I was already so stressed out and feeling rushed that I took all of that anger out on my poor husband. I apologized after my interview, he was very understanding.

At first, the red eyes really got to me. As I sat there with the other interviewees, I felt like everyone could just see my big red eyes. One of my fellow interviewees suggested that I talk about it in my interview... this is terrible advice. At my first interview, I took some last minute advice and I just didn't feel like myself. Which is where my first piece of advice comes from.

1. Do not get intimidated by tho other interviewees - I mean, yes, make polite conversation but keep it light. Don't start comparing your number of interviews and acceptance offers to theirs. There will always be that one person that seems to take over the conversation and brag about their stats. Good for them! But you have to keep your head in the game and remember that they chose you for a reason!

2. Be honest, be yourself, and smile! - Three simple truths that can apply to your everyday life. Don't get caught up in the hype of trying to be someone your not. There's nothing wrong with being a little excited and showing it through a nice smile. And talk yourself up. After all, that is what you are there for. To tell them about your accomplishments and to remind them of why they chose you to interview!

3. Be early, don't be on time - My advice would be to go to the school/location of your interview the day before and find a good parking spot, hunt down the room where you will interview, and most importantly find the nearest restroom.

4. The portfolio, yes or no? - On my first interview, I came read with a crisp white button-up shirt, and a snappy gray suit. In my hand, I carried a bright blue folder. Inside of it, 3 copies of my CV and a few lined pieces of paper. My bright blue flimsy $1.29 Walmart folder stood out among the leather bound portfolio binders and ball point pens. As I sat there with my little folder, I couldn't help but feel intimidated. I had thought of everything, and I mean everything. Or so I thought. Some interview emails may tell you to "just bring yourself," but you don't want to be the one person that is unprepared when they ask you for a copy of your CV. On an impromptu whim, they might give you a tour or an information session about the program and those college-ruled papers and that ball point pen would sure come in handy. Here is a cute one that bought for my interviews from Target.

5. Thank you notes - Write them. Another good reason to have a portfolio with extra lined pages, to write down and remember your interviewees names. Be sure to include specifics from your interview. What you talked about and discussed. If they suggested a restaurant to check out, thank them for the suggestion. As I always say, "It's all in the details". One of my favorite set of thank you cards come from Rifle Paper Co.

Despite what I thought was the worst thing that could have ever happened that day after the interview was over and I was headed home, the world did not end. My family was in good health. My husband had traveled with me and we had the opportunity to visit a new place.

The very next day I received a phone call notifying me of my acceptance, 12/3/15 @ 2:04PM :)

My Favorite Physician Assistant Blogs

One of the things I like spending my time doing lately is looking up information on how I should be preparing for PA School. I did the same thing when I initially began my research into the PA profession and went at it quite vigorously during the application process. I love doing my research before getting into anything. Over the course of two years, I have followed a few blogs and have learned great information.

These are a few of the blogs that I have become very fond of. 

1. The PA Platform
2. The White Coat Treatment
3. Medicine and Manicures
4. Trust me, I’m a PA Student
5. PA Student Essentials
6. The Physician Assistant Life
7. PA Boards

As I continue to scour the internet for quality PA blogs, I will add them here.

New Year Reflections

We are almost 1/2 way through January and I cannot believe another year has come and gone! As I sit here reflecting on this last year and the many blessings that God has given me, this all feels surreal. Of course, I am watching Gilmore Girls as I do my "reflecting". When I was younger, I would make a list in my journal of all the big events that occurred throughout the year. I will attempt to put them in order but I might get too excited about the recent major stuff that I might throw that out the door. Here goes! 

• Graduating with my Bachelor of Arts from DSU, Class of 2015!
• Traveling to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands right after graduation
• Celebrating one year of marriage!
• Research in Zion National Park with Dr. Walker and my fellow research buddies (Tucker, Kevin, and Kenzie)
• Traveling to Florida with Joey and the company he works for (Orlando and Boca Raton)
• Traveling to Italy with Joey and visiting Venice, Pisa, Rome, Siena, Florence, the Tuscan Countryside… take me back!
• Drank too much coffee and tried new food in different countries
• Applying to Physician Assistant (PA) School
• Getting interviews for PA School (2 of them so far!)
• Getting accepted to PA School!!

I have a feeling that this year is going to fly, but I cannot wait to start school :)

Hola

My name is Erica and I have been aspiring to be a Physician Assistant for the past four years. The long wait is finally over and I am excited to announce that I have been accepted to PA school! I will be attending a PA program located in the midwest. Classes start in May and I cannot wait.

The main purpose for this blog is to help me document my journey through school and onto my career as a PA. I love writing and I also want a place to store my memories and photographs.

Spanish is my first language and I love incorporating the language into my everyday life. In Spanish, the term for a PA is Asociado Médico. I will try to do some posts in Spanish because I want to help promote the PA profession to Spanish speakers.

I hope to someday mentor other PA hopefuls in their dreams to join the #1 job in America, hey, maybe even the world.