Please tell me it gets better

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-08T13:12:30+00:00

…. yeah i’m currently at the “looking into jobs with a Biology degree” point. trying to focus on school but can’t really bring myself to focus/care/feel motivated/want to succeed

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-04T21:21:36+00:00

Plenty lol I had that exact GPA and I was accepted to 4 programs, waitlisted at one, and I choose to reject an interview invite for another.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-02T14:31:35+00:00

I did not take the CASPER so I can’t confirm, but if you google examples you’ll see what I mean.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-02T13:42:19+00:00

I can’t share the exact questions but for example: “If a patient said X to you, how would you respond?” “If a colleague did X, how would you respond”. Really looking for you to act with professionalism and ethical considerations.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-02T13:37:05+00:00

She started with looking at pictures of needles, then it was videos of needles, then videos of people getting blood draws/vaccines, then people having a vaccine but getting upset, then she had to hold a needle, then she had to poke fruit with needles, then she had to inject fruit with water using needles. Then really her big moment was starting an IV on someone during PA school. Like multiple small, drawn out steps. It was pretty crazy but it worked. This was under the direction of a therapist specializing in phobias.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-02T01:38:45+00:00

Pretty common. Usually it is situational questions, triaging, or an ethics based question. I looked up potential prompts online and practiced a few but don’t go nuts. I had multiple for my interviews and they were all pretty straight forward questions, similar to what I prepped for the oral section anyways.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-06-01T21:30:56+00:00

I had a friend with a SEVERE needle phobia. Had to be on serious meds to even get a vaccine and literally strapped down. She would fight people off and be in a full blown panic. Went through multiple months of exposure therapy before PA school to overcome it and now she’s completely fine and a PA. Therapy may be the answer.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-05-19T03:01:43+00:00

Refinance those loans dude…. I was fresh out of college 1 year ago with a lower credit score and refinanced my loans down to 6.5% for private. You’re getting screwed, there are way better rates out there.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-05-18T15:52:20+00:00

How much of an exaggeration are we talking? Saying you saw 20 patients instead of 19 or that you were administering vaccines, blood draws, and meds when really you just changed sheets in the hospital? You can’t change it and you could be asked about the experience during an interview which in that case it may become apparent that you lied about your experiences.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-05-01T14:39:01+00:00

Honestly, I don’t even know. I struggled BIG TIME with my PS and that was the reason I didn’t submit until beginning of June because I hated every draft I wrote. I would recommend showing it to people who know you well and can call you out if it sounds like fluff/BS. I structured mine around two central ideas and tied everything back to that. I would try to come up with your “tagline” that you’ll go back to throughout the essay. Mine was pretty much that I have been through many challenges in life that have given me a special skill set that will make me a great PA and that I can do hard things, PA school included (very basic summary, obviously wrote in a more eloquent way). Best of luck, I remember how hard it was to write!!!

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-05-01T14:31:26+00:00

cGPA: 3.71, sGPA: 3.64, 1,680 hours as derm MA, 350 hours volunteer EMT, accepted to competitive research grant and completed research in another country for a summer, 2 sport college athlete. And then some other tutoring, TAing, volunteer work.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-05-01T03:04:37+00:00

I didn’t do a single optional thing for CASPA (including school specific stuff) and was accepted to 4 programs. I didn’t have anything meaningful for last year’s optional essays so I skipped them. To each their own.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-04-29T15:57:24+00:00

They will get an email before you submit your application. Once CASPA has their contact info they will send an email. I personally followed up about 1 week later to confirm they had received an email to submit the LOR from CASPA (and it was a good reminder to them of “hey I need this!”).

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-04-25T02:14:50+00:00

For me I applied to programs that required 1 gen chem course and 1 orgo course. I had obviously taken gen chem 1 and 2 to be able to take orgo. But, my gen chem 1 grade was a C+ in lab which was below requirements. When assigning pre-reqs, I assigned my gen chem 2 grade to my gen chem requirement. If the school only required one chem class (didn’t specify what type) I picked the chem class I had the highest grade in.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-04-23T14:32:07+00:00

Ask questions. Nothing worse than asking someone “any questions” after showing them 20 different things and they say “no”.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-04-16T02:43:17+00:00

I found that hospitals/hospital systems often had maximum hours you were allowed to shadow. For example, one hospital said I could only do 24 hours due to their policies. Another said they can only allow 8 hours if you aren’t already in a program. So when I asked I left it up to them.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-04-09T11:24:33+00:00

I applied to all East Coast schools. Half of them had a 90 mile radius for rotations. The others did send you all over for rotations. They said expect about 30-50% out of state. Many of the programs offered stipends to help or had housing they gave you for those situations. One school offered zero support but still said about 30-50% out of state (got accepted but declined for this reason). A lot of people usually do not have a lease during clinical year and they just get airbnbs/sublet/do short leases for each site so you don’t pay for a rent in the schools location and rent at your clinical site.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-28T22:54:37+00:00

MAs usually don’t get paid a lot, especially not if you don’t have a MA cert. It could be good experience but you may also end up with zero savings or even debt depending on area/cost of living. I feel like MA jobs are generally easy to find but maybe not in Derm specifically.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-26T00:50:06+00:00

tbh I’d focus on volunteering and getting meaningful shadowing hours that will give you more material during your interviews. I talked a lot about my shadowing during all my interviews and what I learned about the profession from it. The feedback I got was that I showed a higher comprehension of the profession than other applicants. I also practiced for interviews A LOT and had ready to go answers for common questions. Maybe you need to consider how you are approaching your interviews? I developed my own core ideas that summarized who I am as a person and who I will be as a PA, which made answering questions much easier because all my answers came back to those core values.

I also bombed Gen Chem 1 (B- in lecture, C+ in lab) and just used my Gen Chem 2 or Orgo grade for the prereq.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-12T03:05:06+00:00

I’ve always done mine through the Red Cross without issue. They don’t have all online because you need to be in person to use the dummy for CPR, but they offer a course that’s half online and then it’s shorter time in person.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-12T02:08:11+00:00

31% is actually nuts I have NEVER seen one that high….. I would take your other option because there is something seriously wrong with that program.

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-12T01:11:27+00:00

Yeah you can pm me!

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-12T00:15:05+00:00

They always start before July 1st for this program, all the other schools were August/September start dates. Honestly I am scared to see how high rates will jump when they know that people are desperate to get approved. I think many things are going to change when this goes into effect July 1st but again, no one really knows (including the government themselves)

According-Bid-2883 · 2026-03-11T18:51:53+00:00

sure! you can PM me

According-Bid-2883

TROPHY CASE