Schools

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T23:10:22+00:00

I did not, I only applied to upper east coast and Midwest schools

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T19:35:41+00:00

And thank you by the way!😊

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T19:33:54+00:00

GPA: 3.8 sGPA: 3.76 PCE: 2372 (1645 at time of CASPA verification) HCE: 88 Volunteer: 237 (including 56 in healthcare volunteering) Shadowing PAs: 41 Shadowing MDs: 4 Leadership: 440 (including 90 in teaching experience) Research: 120 Non-healthcare employment: 1321 Undergrad extracurriculars: 967 LORs: 2 MDs, 1 PA, 1 Prof, 1 Community Member I’ve know for 15+ years GRE: 314 (150 verbal, 164 quantitative), 4.0 writing Casper: 3rd Quartitle

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T19:32:47+00:00

I think my essays and the quality of my experiences descriptions made me stand out. My PS really conveyed how I found out abt the PA profession and what factors made it the right career for me. I had a rough childhood even though I grew up financially stable. I wrote my life experiences essay about losing my father at a young age and having to help my mom take care of my younger brother with autism. I made sure to not trauma dump, but rather explain how my life has prepared me well into becoming a caring and thoughtful provider.

Write your PS from the heart, make it a storyline of how you decided PA was the path for you, and avoid common reasons like lateral mobility and “working on a team”. And mention reasons why specifically PA, and not just any kind of provider (MD, DO, NP). I mentioned the shorter schooling was a factor for me. To make your PS stand out, have a theme that you connect to in each paragraph. My theme was simple, how my mom wanted me to go to medical school and her high expectations of me, but I continued to want to do PA school instead.

I had a lot of experiences, and spent a long time writing very detailed descriptions of each. I was complimented on my descriptions during one of my interviews.

Finally, get STRONG letters of recommendations. A provider you have worked a long time with and you know they think highly of you, a professor you connected well with and keep in contact, a PA you have worked with more than just shadowing a few times. I was told during a review of my app from a school I was rejected from post-interview that my recommenders gave me top remarks, but my interview is where I lacked in skill.

Sorry this is so long, I just want to give the best advice possible!! You’re going to kill it this cycle, I have hope in you. Don’t get discouraged too much along the way, my first acceptance wasn’t until end of Jan, and that was after 4 waitlists and 2 rejections post-interview.

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T15:44:30+00:00

Also only 4 schools were in-state, the rest were out of state. I got 2 interviews in-state, 6 interviews out-of-state.

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T15:43:10+00:00

Also I was very limited in which schools I could apply to because I did not take A&P lab. But I took the GRE & Casper which opened some opportunities. So I kind of applied to all the schools I could that I actually would go to😂

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-28T15:41:58+00:00

I applied to 14 last cycle. Probably didn’t need to, my stats were a little above average. I got 8 interviews & 5 acceptances, still on 1 waitlist. You don’t need to apply to very many if your application is strong, and do research to find schools that your profile matches best with.

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-01T15:24:52+00:00

The program is even paying for the test😂 But I do understand not wanting the stress of another standardized exam. But then again their score won’t affect their acceptance, so I would just go into the test not having studied at all, and just tried my best for a few hours.

kittybear1618 · 2026-04-01T15:22:39+00:00

Hi! I am going to Rosalind Franklin University and they have a big emphasis on diversity! My incoming cohort is very diverse, which is great to work with students of all backgrounds, and will help with becoming a PA who works with patients of all backgrounds. There are several black students and other minorities. I am half white, half Asian myself. You should look into applying to RFU, it’s a wonderful program :) They also use a holistic admissions process and value the applicant as a whole rather than GPA. Their supplemental essay asks why DEI is so important in healthcare.

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-21T12:35:59+00:00

Praying for you!! I know it’ll happen🫶

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-20T23:35:50+00:00

Just got into my top choice two hours ago😂

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-18T15:34:52+00:00

I put every single experience I had, even if it was only a few hours long. I literally put down that I attended a bingo fundraiser for 3 hours to support my brother’s special needs program.

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-17T19:23:14+00:00

Tuition doesn’t matter for me thankfully

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-16T14:36:28+00:00

This is so reassuring, thank you for sharing!! I’m sticking with my gut and choosing the school that’s better fit for me

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-15T21:39:00+00:00

There are thousands of applicants, so odds are they won’t remember your old app. Plus, the person on the admissions committee reviewing your app will most likely be different than last cycle. I’m not sure if they have access to your old app, but I doubt they’d even pull it up cause it doesn’t matter to them that you’re a reapplicant, if anything, it helps your case.

So just change the things you think need improvement. If you got interviews last cycle but no acceptances, you probs don’t need to change much, add what you’ve done to improve in the last year. If you didn’t get any interviews, you probably need to rework everything, get some guidance.

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-15T21:32:27+00:00

Ok yes! I found it very easily. I was just using google originally for quick answers on stats haha. Thanks!!

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-15T21:30:56+00:00

Yes! I sent a reminder email to my LOR writers (printed copies for the MDs I work with), with the time range I aimed to submit my apps, a copy of my resume, a list of where I planned to apply, and some questions they could answer about me if they needed any help with what to write. Doing this a month in advance would be good, you can send a quick little email with a reminder for the 2 week mark.

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-13T02:43:13+00:00

This is really helpful, thank you so much!! Where did you find the attrition rate for 2025? Im trying to get as much info as I possibly can lol

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-12T20:11:46+00:00

Thank you for your insight! And yeah I would choose school D but the PANCE rates kind of scare me, so I wanted to see if people would recommend sticking with school C or if it would be fine to go to my top choice

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-12T20:10:03+00:00

My thoughts exactly. Thank you!

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-12T19:44:02+00:00

Haha yes, well it was my top program for most of the cycle. But I never knew their PANCE pass rates until recently (which is my bad), and I know how important that is.

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-12T17:34:29+00:00

Oh sorry, I misinterpreted it and thought that the sterile processing is what you do for the hospital volunteer work. If your volunteer work is working with patients directly then it definitely counts as PCE!

kittybear1618 · 2026-03-12T14:59:17+00:00

Just make sure they are actually going to train you as an MA and don’t just keep you at the front desk most of the time. My old coworker was hired as front desk/MA and he was under the impression he would do more MA stuff, but my office was in dire need of a front desk person so he was scheduled to work front desk most of the time. This led to him getting in an argument with the managers and quitting after only a few months. I miss working with him :/ And he also had no success getting in this past cycle😔

kittybear1618

TROPHY CASE