Enhancing your application to PA programs extends beyond just showcasing your academic and technical proficiency. While a strong GPA and substantial healthcare experience are undeniably valuable, admissions committees are increasingly recognizing the importance of soft skills.  You can frequently highlight them in your application through the essays or by demonstrating them with your choices of patient care work, volunteering, or extracurriculars. 

You’ve finished (or are finishing) your prerequisites. You have the required number of patient care hours. You have written your own mission statement and figured out where you want to apply. And the moment you have waited for is here!

It’s that time of year again; the CASPA application opens at the end of this month! Last week was the annual North Carolina Health Professions Fair Week. We visited seven schools across the state, from Wilmington to Boone, and many places in between. One thing we heard from quite a few students was how helpful our school comparison spreadsheet is in their planning. Every PA program has slightly different requirements, as well as different costs, locations, and amenities. It’s hard to keep up!

We talk a lot about considering each program’s mission statement, philosophies, and values when choosing where you want to submit applications. However, we have only touched on writing your personal mission statement to guide you as you apply to Physician Assistant (PA) programs. The new year, when you are already thinking about your goals, is a great time to put that idea into practice.

‘Tis the time of year for buying gifts. Whether you are shopping for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or just out of a vague need to participate in the holiday season, you might find yourself wondering what to give the PA student in your life. We asked our students to tell us what gifts they would like and what would have been great before matriculating into PA school.

We are taking a break this month from the more instructional blog posts to touch base with the foundation of the PA profession: Veterans.

One step along the path to PA school is to choose who you will ask to be a reference for your application. For some, this is one of the more daunting parts of the process, as you select the people you think will give you the most powerful recommendations and then actually ask them!

We ended our last blog post by saying you are interviewing schools almost as much as they are interviewing you.   What do we mean by that?  

You’ve submitted your CASPA. You’ve submitted your supplemental application. Now you wait. After the go, go, go it took to get to this point, waiting to hear about interviews can feel painfully slow. Once those invitations start rolling in, you will have a new goal: Acing your interviews.

CASPA is open, which means it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and start applying. Before you do, take a breath and make sure all your ducks are in a row to avoid making some common application mistakes.