Straight answers about becoming a PA — from a PA who still sees patients.
I'm Stephen Pasquini. I practice family medicine at a county health department clinic in Santa Cruz, and I've spent fifteen years publishing the real numbers behind PA admissions instead of the folklore. Free, and always will be.
Get it in your inbox
Tell me where you are and I'll point you at the right things first.
What actually shows up in your inbox
Not a daily drip. I write when I have something worth your time.
- Real admissions dataEvery accredited program's GPA floors, hour requirements and deadlines — verified against the programs themselves, not scraped from a forum.
- Honest answersIncluding the ones that are hard to hear. If a plan won't work, I'd rather tell you now than let you spend a cycle finding out.
- Free tools as I build themThe CASPA GPA Calculator, the Program Match, the salary and contract tools. You hear about them first.
- The parts nobody writes aboutRejection, debt, burnout, choosing a specialty, and what this work actually feels like at year fifteen.
Who this is for
Pick your stage above and the first email points you at the right place.
Pre-PA & applicants
You're figuring out prerequisites, hours, and whether your GPA is good enough. Start here and stop guessing — the numbers are public, and I publish them.
PA students
You're in it. Rotations, EORs, and the PANCE on the horizon. I'll send what actually helps and skip the rest.
Practicing PAs
Contracts, salary, recertification, and career moves. Fifteen years of clinical practice, shared honestly.
I'm Stephen Pasquini, PA-C. I practice family medicine at the Santa Cruz County Health Department's Emeline Clinic and at our Homeless Persons' Health Project. Most of my patients are uninsured, unhoused, or both.
I started writing here because the information I needed as an applicant didn't exist — just out-of-date lists and confident strangers. So I began publishing the real numbers, and I've kept at it since 2011. That work is also why I care that this profession stays reachable for people who didn't start with every advantage.
You can always just hit reply. I read everything.
