Ask a PA-S: What do you wish you knew before applying to PA school? -

Hi all! Two new blogposts for you with answers from Western U PA students! Thank you Lili for helping gather these responses. Enjoy! -AS

What do you wish you knew before applying to PA school?

Interviews can be intense and brutal, but seriously be yourself. They’ve heard a million canned answers and whatever you can do that shows them you can talk to someone when you’re stressed, makes a world of difference. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get in the first time; I didn’t and I learned more about medicine and patient care than jumping right in and am thankful for it. Make sure your application has every piece complete! Take the time to write a good personal statement and ask yourself who you really are because schools aren’t looking for robots to accept into their program. Apply to as many schools as you can because it doesn’t matter as much as where you go, but the quality of the program (ie. don’t shoot just for big name schools. Everyone gets their -C and practices medicine).

• Brandon Johnson, PA-S

• Instagram- @bsjohnson23, Email- brandon.johnson@westernu.edu

You can sit in on classes!

I wish the CASPA process would have been clearer. I have schooling that is not traditional education, so it was difficult to put that information in CASPA. I am also an older student with a family, so there are things I expected, but planning is tough when you don’t know what to expect from school.

• Roger Braun, PA-S

• roger.braun16@gmail

I wish I was able to shadow more PA’s in different specialties because it really helps with choosing rotations or connecting your learning (didactic year) with real-world applications. Something I’m glad I did when applying was START EARLY. I started my application process way before CASPA was open and made sure to submit everything as early as possible. I wish I knew that a lot of schools require supplemental applications so you have to write your personal statement but also a couple small paragraphs about other things (this took the longest time for me). I also was glad that I only applied to 6 schools and didn’t take the GRE since I wasn’t particularly invested in going into those programs. I would highly recommend that before applying to a school you really look at the curriculum, what they offer in terms of skills labs/practice, and rotations. A lot of times people go off name recognition and get screwed over because they realized too late that they would have rather gone to a different school. Also, a lot of my classmates that I feel like excel the most are the ones with the most clinical experience. I think it helps a lot to have worked in multiple fields or have jobs with a lot of hands on experience with patients (some MA jobs, EMT’s, medics in the military, etc.). I worked as an MA and first assisted in a lot of skin cancer surgeries which I felt gave me a good foundation for how to get a history, do an exam, and provide post-operative care.

• Lydia Lau, PA-S

• lydia.lau@westernu.edu

I wish I got clinical experience sooner! I had good grades and was volunteering a lot for different organizations, but I didn’t get paid clinical experience or any certificates until later on in college. Some adult education programs will let you take MA or phlebotomy courses for FREE in high school! I wish I did that so that when I got to college I could have started working sooner. Also, I wish I did a mock interview the first time I applied. I didn’t know how nervous I would be and how that would affect my answers until I got in the interview! The second time around, I did a mock interview with one of my mentors and it was SO helpful!

• Katie Parkinson, PA-S

• IG is katie_parkie- I’m on private but you can shoot me a DM or a follow and I’ll answer any questions you have:)

Before applying to PA school, I wish I had paid more attention to the start dates (I personally didn’t have this issu, but SO many of my friends did this year leaving them with some really tough decisions). CASPA is pretty easy to navigate and user friendly – be sure to pay attention to which schools require supplementals for submission! At WesternU, you can sit in on classes to audit them! It allows you to get a feel of what it may be like as a PA student. I wish I would have shadowed in a Pediatrics office – that is sometime I see myself working in, so I wish I had the chance to network with someone in Peds prior to starting school. Be sure to start gathering all your info and organizing it in a manner that will be easy to write about (for your PS) and submit in your app. Organize your volunteering, PCE, shadowing experiences. Also, make sure you have all the appropriate pre-reqs before applying, don’t waste money applying to a school you are not qualified for – they may filter you out and that’s just money down the drain. Ask for your LOR’s early and start working on your PS early!

• Lili Tran, PA-S

• Instagram: @lilpalife (preferred – I’m faster at replying here) Email: lilpalife@gmail.com