Accepted! Advice #1 - Lori R.

This is the first post of the “Accepted!” series featuring Lori Ross! We are so excited to share her words of wisdom and to add more posts from accepted alumni! -AS

Hey There! My name is Lori and I was the secretary for PPASO during the 2015-2016 school year. I graduated in 2016 with a B.S. in Biochemistry & Cell Biology and minors in Psychology and Health care-social issues. I’m currently in the interview process for PA school and thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned on my journey to become a PA.

I’m going to keep this post broad and just pass on some tips I think are helpful.

1. Start keeping track of experiences NOW! Keep track of the name of clubs you are in; what month and year you started; who is the point of contact (i.e. the president) their name and email; how many total hours (and if you can-how many hours per week and for how long were you involved) and then write a short description of your responsibilities. It will come in handy when you have to apply for CASPA as they require all of these tid-bits of information. I made an Excel sheet with tabs (volunteer work, research hours, shadowing hours, paid work experience, and leadership hours) and just added to it over the years and it was incredibly helpful when I started applying.

2. Get valuable experiences! There are tons of posts you can read about health care experience, but I want to highlight other experiences that are equally important: Group work, leadership experience, and community service. A lot of schools highly value commitment to the community and want to see that you have a history of giving back to underserved populations and/or the community you live in. They also really want to see that you can work in a group environment, but can also be a leader. And obviously schools want to know why you want to specifically be a PA and want to ensure you know the profession. A lot of the programs asked me questions like “Walk me through your average day as a PA” “Tell me about your shadowing experience – what exactly did you see” “What are the day to day duties of a PA” etc.

3. Apply early! I know everyone says this, but it really makes a difference, lots of the PA programs are on a rolling basis so once the application opens they basically start reviewing and interviewing and filling up their class spots. I would aim to submit by mid-June (if not earlier). Start working on your personal statement early – take breaks from it and go back to it; have multiple people look at it.

4. When you get an interview, make sure you RESEARCH the school. Know their mission (each school is different) and how you personally can fulfill it and what you can bring to the program. Go over your application and secondary you submitted to them. Think of specific examples that you can talk about that help show how you are a student who belongs in their class. Dress professionally, arrive early, be polite to everyone you meet and smile. Just be the best version of yourself and you will do fine. If you get an interview they already like you. My experiences with interviews have been really positive so far; they all want to help you show off the best side of you.

5. And finally; don’t rush it. Enjoy your experiences because it will not only make your life more pleasurable, but you will have more genuine examples to pull from. I was on the younger side (23 years old) for my interviews, so it’s definitely not looked down upon if you take a year off to gain experience.

There is so much more information to share with you guys, but I just thought I’d cast a broad net for now. Feel free to e-mail or fb message me with any questions you have about anything!

Best of luck on your journey! Lori Ross

Lrosshi@gmail.com