Leslie Mean is a 26-year-old single white female who presents to the PA school admissions committee on her first attempt to get into PA school.
She has a 3.58 overall GPA and a 3.47 science GPA. She is holding a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry, had an SAT score in the 1000-1100 range and a GRE score of 300.
She has two years of hands-on clinical experience working as a CNA and a long history of volunteer work which exemplifies her desire to help her fellow man.
She is kind and considerate and has reference letters which demonstrate her maturity and strong interpersonal skills.
She was accepted into PA school on her first attempt.
Who is Leslie and why did she get into PA School?
When asking the question: What do I need to do to get into PA school? You would be smart to talk to Leslie.
Leslie is a hypothetical PA school applicant who went on to become a PA school student, an entirely average PA school student.
She also embodies what PA school's all across the country are looking for at this very moment.
How do I know this?
Because the most recent data from the PAEA semi-annual report, representing responses from over 85% of PA programs detailing characteristics of applicants and students enrolled in PA school, show that they are filling their seats with Leslie.
As much as I like to talk about not being average and differentiating yourself from the pack, it 's nice to know what average is. Average provides a baseline by which you can measure your progress, set goals and develop an application timeline.
Does this mean you have to be just like Leslie to get into PA school?
Absolutely not, first of all, factors such as race, age, ethnicity, etc. are of no importance and you certainly don't have to be female to get into PA school (I am living proof).
But, it is safe to assume that most schools are looking to keep their graduation and certifying exam pass rates high. They have an incentive to take fewer risks, and because of this, anything below average is considered a risk.
Thus, take a good look at Leslie and focus on factors that you can control to differentiate yourself, like your academic standing, your experience, your volunteer activities, your references and your essay.
If you set the bar at Leslie, and end up being a Mother Theresa, I am pretty sure you will be accepted into PA School, although I have no data on religious preference and PA school acceptance rates. 🙂
So what does an average PA school applicant who is admitted to PA school (i.e., student) look like?
Let's take a look:
→ The average PA school students age is 27 years old
- The average age of first-year students ranged between 25 and 28 for all categories
- The median age at application is 26 years old
| First-Year Class: Age | M | SD | Mdn | n(P) |
| Age of first-year PA student | 26.1 | 2.51 | 26.0 | 170 |
| Age of youngest first-year PA student | 21.4 | 1.23 | 21.0 | 168 |
| Age of oldest first-year PA student | 44.1 | 7.57 | 44.0 | 168 |
→ The average PA school student is female
The gender distribution of first-year students has started to stabilize after nearly a 20-year trend of a gradually increasing proportion of women:
- Female: 72.4%
- Male: 27.6% (mean)
→ The Average PA school applicant has a bachelor’s degree
The majority of PA school applicants hold a baccalaureate degree.
- No academic degree: 8.1%
- Certificate: 0.2%
- Associates Degree: 2.6%
- Baccalaureate Degree: 70.5%
- Master’s Degree: 6.6%
- Doctoral Degree: 0.9%
→ The Average PA school applicant graduated with a degree in Natural Sciences
The majority of PA school applicants hold a degree in natural sciences (biology, chemistry, etc.) but this doesn't mean you have to!
- 46.9% Natural Sciences (biology, chemistry, etc)
- 18.4% Applied Sciences (nursing, radiology, etc)
- 13.6% Health Science (pre-med, etc)
- 10.5% Social Science (psychology, political science, etc)
- 3.4% Business
- 2% Humanities
- 1.3% Public Health
- 1.1% Math, engineering, technology
→ Most students had three years of hands-on clinical experience before applying*
PA school applicants come to the table with a variety of medical experience, especially if they are strong applicants. On average 3 years (161 weeks) of healthcare experience in one of the following areas is common:
- Nursing
- Registered Nurse (RN)
- Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
- Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
- Allied Health
- Physical Therapist
- Occupational Therapist
- Registered Radiologic Technologist
- Athletic Trainer
- Emergency Services
- Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
- Paramedic
- Emergency Room Technician
- Miscellaneous
- Phlebotomist (that was me!)
- Medical Researcher
- Medical Volunteer
Medical Experience Statistics for PA School Applicants
79% of successful PA school applicants worked in health care before applying to PA school.
| Worked in health care before applying to PA school | 79% |
| Worked less than one year or not at all in a health care field | 27% |
| Worked more than nine years in a health care field | 10% |
| Worked less than one year or not at all in a health care field with direct patient contact | 35% |
The most common healthcare experience is a nursing assistant (CNA) 30.2% and medical assistant (MA) 21.3%.
| Worked as a nursing assistant | 30.2% |
| Previously worked as a medical assistant | 21.3% |
| Previously worked as an EMT/Paramedic | 19.8% |
| Worked as a scribe | 14% |
| Worked as a phlebotomist | 7.7% |
| Worked as a home health aid | 8.8% |
| Worked as a pharmacy technician | 3.6% |
| Worked as an emergency room technician | 8% |
| Worked in medical reception/records | 7% |
| Worked as a nurse | 8% |
| Worked as an athletic trainer | 4.6% |
| Worked as a physical therapist/physical therapist assistant | 3.6 |
| Reported "other" as health care experience | 45% |
Note: Respondents were permitted to indicate multiple health care fields; thus, the sum of all fields exceeds 100%
Average Health Care Experience Hours of Matriculating Students
| Health Care Experience | M | SD | Mdn | n(P) |
| Patient contact experience | 3,100 | 3,006 | 2,325 | 89 |
| Other health care experience | 1,014 | 943 | 713 | 30 |
| Other work experience | 2,001 | 1,771 | 1,500 | 21 |
| Community service | 425 | 480 | 270 | 32 |
| Shadowing | 144 | 204 | 88 | 45 |
* 2018 Update: Some recent data suggests HCE hours are significantly declining with a new average of 1.88 years of healthcare experience among matriculating (accepted) students.
→ SAT/GRE scores of those accepted tend to be in the above-average range
Competitive GRE scores average around a composite score of 300 and scores above a 310 have been considered to be very competitive. This averages to about a 150 and 150 on the math and verbal sections, respectively. Please note that these scores are averages of past GRE examinations and you should consider your score competitive if they are above the 50th percentile. Percentiles are more important than actual GRE scores. Every GRE differs in difficulty, which is why none of them can be considered equivalent, thus, necessitating the need to use a standardized ranking method.
- GRE Percentile Math: 50%
- GRE Percentile Verbal: 42%
- GRE Percentile Analytical: 48%
- SAT scores are in the 1000-1100 range.
→ The average PA school student has between a 3.36 and 3.47 overall GPA and an undergraduate science GPA between 3.36 and 3.47
- The average undergraduate overall GPA for PA school applicants who WERE ACCEPTED into PA school was 3.49, undergraduate science GPA was 3.36, and non-science GPA was 3.56.
- The average GPA for students who WERE NOT ACCEPTED into PA school was 3.16
Interesting factoid: As the age of applicants increases, GPA tends to be lower.
→ Most PA school students are white
Skin color has nothing to do with acceptance rates, but it is interesting (and maybe a bit sad) to know that the vast majority of first-year students were White (86.5%) followed by Asian (11.1%) and Black or African American 4.1%.
→ What are your chances of being accepted into PA school?
- If you apply to one PA program - you have a 25% chance of getting in
- If you apply to 12 programs (or more) - you have a 49% chance of getting in
- Average number of PA programs applied to is 8
Interesting factoid: There is no additional benefit for applying to 12 programs or more!
→ Pucker up baby, most PA students are single!
Most students are single (72.2%), though just about a quarter are married (23.9%). A little under two percent were divorced, and 0.7% were in a domestic partnership/civil union. Most students (85.1%) have no legal dependents. For the nearly 15% of students that reported having legal dependents other than themselves, the average number of dependents was 2.02, with a range of 1 to 7 dependents. Over 30% of respondents said they were considered a dependent of their parents.
- 72.2% single
- 23.9% married
- 1.7% divorced
- 0.7% domestic partnership/civil union
- 0.4% separated, but still legally married
- 0.6% other
→ Most PA students are from "The Burbs."
Half of the students reported spending most of their time in a suburban setting. One-quarter of respondents reported spending most of their time in a rural environment, followed by 15% in an inner-city setting.
→ Most PA students don't come from riches
Over a half of PA students report a family gross income of less than $50,000.
- 37.4% Less than $25,000
- 21.8% $25,000 to $49,999
- 14.7% $50,000 to $74,999
- 6.8% $75,000 to $99,999
- 6.0% $100,000 to $149,999
- 2.4% $150,000 to $199,999
- 1.5% $200,000 or greater
- 9.6% other
→ PA school students don't smoke pot and are not drug dealers or part of the Italian Mafia
Over three-quarters (82.8%) of programs reported that students were required to have a background check upon matriculation to the program, while 78.7% of responding programs now mandate drug testing.
Some Important Points
It's not Rocket Science: It is important that a candidate demonstrates reasonable aptitude in the hard sciences such as anatomy and physiology, chemistry and biology. It is more likely that the committee may overlook a grade of C in U.S History or Spanish I. They will be less tolerant of a marginal grade in the sciences.
Show compassion: Your GPA is stellar, and you've amassed an impressive amount of medical work experience in the little spare time you have while keeping your grades pristine, but you still get that dreaded rejection letter. Why? You didn't do enough volunteer work. Volunteering exemplifies your desire to help your fellow man—the attribute identified by schools as one of the most integral to becoming a successful PA. "Students who have had experience in working with underserved populations, rural or diverse populations, performing volunteer service or disaster relief, or other experiences that illustrate a drive and compassion for others often stand out to the admissions committee."
The view from the top isn't that crowded
It's an easy race to the bottom, so set your sights at the top: Many people will be set aback when they read that only 25% of applicants will be accepted into PA school in any given year, but this should be good news. Being in the top 25% in any field is not nearly as hard as it sounds, simply because the majority of the competition is in the bottom 75% and has bottom 75% qualifications. For example, you have read this entire post, so you now know what the average PA school applicant who has had some success looks like. You understand what a top 75 percent candidate looks like. Your goal now is to be better than the average 75% and exceed the top 25%. If you aim high, you will be competing with a much smaller minority, and your odds of getting an acceptance letter will increase dramatically. It also helps if you apply to 12 programs. 😉
Tables and data were sourced from:
The 28'th and 29'th PAEA Annual Report
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Wow I just made nd of stubled across this site and am glad I did. This is really helpful. I’m a little older then the average applicant I’m 33 years old and I’ve been a medical assistant for the past 8 years. I am married and have 5 children and I’m Puerto Rican so I am far from the average applicant. I am currently enrolled in a Health Science Assicioctes degree program and wanted to make sure I was on the right path. I’m going to make sure I take all these steps to increase my chances of getting in because I really do have a passion for helping people and medicine. I actually love my job as an CMA but I’m ready to be challenged.
Race has nothing to do with being accepted into medical school. Like others, we too must fulfill every requirement that is needed to gain acceptance and to obtain aid to assist us throughout our matriculation at our desired university.
That makes no sense. Nobody whatever race, is given automatic entry to med school. They had to work for it. Over 70% of med school kids are white. You have to work hard to get in whatever race you are.
Although it is often said – especially by admissions committees – that volunteer work shows a “desire to help your fellow man”, this is probably, realistically (at least in the case of medical professional school applicants) reading too much into why a lot of these people volunteer.
What do I mean here? Well, as you outline, volunteer work is considered pretty much “required” (at least “highly recommended”) by most MD/DO/PA, etc. programs (and is an actual, not just highly recommended, requirement at some places). This means that “desire to help your fellow man” or not (read this as “desire to volunteer during limited free time” if you prefer) or not, most applicants are going to still get in volunteer hours (again, because they know they “need” to in order to get accepted).
This, of course, doesn’t mean that everyone with volunteer hours are disingenuous in their reasons for volunteering, but this “requirement” does open the door for that type of thing to happen.
It would be far better to NOT require this activity of applicants, but still take actual volunteer time into consideration IF it added to the overall impression of the applicant (if we are being honest here, all of us who have worked in the medical field know people who did substantial volunteer hours just because that was what was needed to apply to school, and then hung up the volunteer work as soon as the acceptance letter was in hand). And we can’t fall back on that equally illogical assumption that “reviews from the leaders of these volunteer groups will weed out those who have volunteered for the wrong reason” (and, again, all of us who have worked in the medical field have heard some variation of this as well). For one, this is asking the volunteer coordinator (or the one writing the review at least) to be able to discern a volunteer’s real inner motivation (which is not always possible). For another, many of these people desperately need volunteers, so if they have to give a glowing review to a professional school to attract volunteers (even if only temporarily) then they will do it.
I’m not trying to be cynical here (again, plenty of people volunteer for the right reasons – probably a large percentage of all applicants, I would think), but simply having “volunteer experience” in no way directly proves one has a legitimate “desire for your fellow man”.
Hi hello – I am trying to use the table regarding the average GPA for PA school admission for academic purposes. Is there an original source for this? Thanks!
Hi Sara, you can find some sources for data here:
PAEA program survey and reports: http://paeaonline.org/research/program-report/
PAEA student survey and reports: http://paeaonline.org/research/student-survey-report/
NCCPA Research: https://www.nccpa.net/research
AAPA Reports: https://www.aapa.org/shop/
Why has the author or researcher/s not included data on LBGT? A glaring omission, in my opinion.
Hi Eric, I assure you this was not intentional there is just no published data on this that I could find. Hopefully, the AAPA will include this in their next census. They may need to be nudged a bit!
Stephen
Wow! I just happened upon this site. In 1995, when I started PA school, you had to have a 3.8 GPA to even get a F2F interview! And science gpa was 3.9!
But many in my class were younger…21-25 mostly
I am wondering when this article was originally published with these statistics. I will not conceal that I am a little frustrated, because I am the epitome of average as is defined by this article and on my second (not successful) year of applications to PA school. I am a 25, year old white female with both GPA and GRE slightly above this stated average (except for the writing score) and with 2 years working as a technician at an allergist office. What am I doing wrong??
I love the part where the author states that most PA students are white and that is sad. A minority student with the qualifications to matriculate at a PA school automatically gets a free ride at any medical school of their choice. Why would you be a PA. Do the math!!