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 3.5 overall GPA and a 3.47 science GPA. She is holding a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry, had a 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
→ 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%
→ Most students had four 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, four years of prior 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
* 2017 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 acceptance
- 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 (67.7%), though just over a quarter were married (26.4%). A little over two percent were divorced, and over one percent 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.
→ 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.
→ 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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I am sorry for some of the capitalized words, i have no idea why it is showing like that.
Hello Stephen,
I am 37yrs old, and i am a RRT-ACCS (REGISTERED respiratory therapist-Adult critical care specialist)for over 2 years, mainly working at trauma and neuro ICUs, with a overall gpa 3.67 and so far my science gpa is 4.0 (STILL more classes to take) i
am currently starting my bachelor’s in Cardiopulmonary science, but my CONCERN is the gre exam, do you have tips regarding the GRE?
I have found a bunch that don’t require GRE, if you are afraid to take it. Search PAEA’s program tool.
Hi Stephen,
I currently work for a very big medical group in the state of California as a certified medical assistant. I have been looking into pa schools now for awhile. a lot of the physicians I work for are telling me I really need to apply to pa school. so here I am, late twenties setting out on this “adventure”.
So….my question is… they are saying that it does not matter where I get my bachelors degree from that what is more looked at is the gpa of the sciences and so on. Would getting a bachelors degree from say one of the online schools in health care management be a waste of my time? (example: University of phoenix) and doing my sciences at the junior college here (which is a very highly rated one). I have been taking pre recs at this college to transfer to a state school to get my bachelors degree, but it is taking forever, so I was looking at other options.
I don’t want to waste my time if my application to pa school with a bachelors degree from one of the online schools would be totally disregarded. what is your take on this? have you heard of people doing this? a pa I work with now suggested I do this and I have been looking into it, but a little confused if this would work or not.
hopefully you have some insight.
thanks!
Megan
I am almost 33 y.o. and SPeNt the last two years doing preRequisites while wOrking as a sCribe in the ED. I transferred to a 4 year University from a community college Two QUARTERS ago to earn upper diviSioN hard science credits which some schools state they Prefer. I gOt a B in my first term of gen chem and just Got A C in the second 🙁 My GPA was a 3.7 before these two chem courses. i worked my tail feather off and Even Hired a private tutor. General chem is not a strength of mine.
I Earned a masters degree in COUNSELING Psychology And worked A licensed PROFESSIONAL counselor for 8 Years beFore several events lead to my decision to choose hands on medicine as a pa. i have a ton of HCE (not to mention some very RicH lIfe experience and people skills) From that work as well as profCiency with medical terminokogy and Thorough Peek into EMERGENCY medicine from scribing.
I am Owning that im broke and exhausted after two years of working and putting myseLf through school. My question is: should I apply To start in 2018?
Hello,
I am a college senior with a crappy gPa. Im in my last two semesters trying to get my GPA to a 3.0 or 3.1. My plan is to finish my prerequsites in a community college and continue to get My gpa up. I really want to go to pa school but it seems like all the odds are against me after readIng this post. Im taking a clinical assistAnt class in the summer to start hours. What can you suggest to me? HOnestly. I want ti apply by age 24-25 i am curreNtly 22.
Im 24/25 myself tring to get my gpa to 3.5. I was told not to rush. Get iT as high as you can. Good luck- mm
My overall gpa so far is 3.4. I haven’t started my science classes yet. I’m worried about my few Fs,d, and c, I received when I was at my previous school. Will I be turned down because of those grades? I started over and I now have a gpa of 3.4 hopefully a 3.5 in Jr. year. I also started off a little rough with a 3.1 between freshman and sophomore year. I had decided to take things slow. Now and to graduate in 5.5 years instead of 4.
Hi stephen~
I was a science student when I was in high school. But I went to law school in my country and now BL degree. But I REALLY , Also my GPA is 4.0,. But I really want to go to PA program . Is there any chance for applicants as law background like me ? I heard something called premed study for 1 year , than I would be able to get in. But I’m not sure…….
Hello,
I graduated with a BSA in Biology in December with a 3.2 GPA at UT Austin. I got a 4.0 GPA my first year and then started to focus more on organizations and volunteering work. For two semester, I dropped 4 classes total due to a personal reason but not because the courses were difficult. Two of those classes were retaken the next semester and made As and Bs on those. My grades have dropped since freshman year but only after graduating I truly feel more motivated to become a PA, which in hindsight wish that I worked harder during the later years of college. I have been working as a traveling medical assistant/scribe for 10 months now (full time for 3 months during summer, and part time (20 – 29 hours a week during school)) at a geriatric psychiatry office. I go to different nursing homes working side by side with a CNS/APRN. I do not have much PCE but have learned a lot from interviewing patients myself in the subjective section of the SOAP notes (from constitutional questions and down i.e. dysuria, pain, energy lvl, etc) as well as giving mental state exams. I would like to apply this April but I feel like I am not prepared. I would like to work in a different field to obtain those PCE hours as a medical assistant in derm (which actually gives more PCE as a MA than other fields) or take classes to become an EMT-B. I am planning on working full time here until I find a better job and my manager will allow me to work side by side with a PA as well. I will be getting rec letters from a PA, a CNS/APRN who tried so hard to convince me to become a NP/APRN/CNS but have failed, and an MD.
As someone with a lower GPA and definite red flags with dropped classes, I am naturally keeping my options open on other careers. My questions are:
1) Would someone in my case with 4 dropped classes and a lower GPA eventually become a PA if I work on getting medical volunteer hours, more PCE, and etc?
2) Is there a job that you can recommend for me to become before PA school to get those PCE hours? I always hear about EMTs but most private companies in Texas don’t allow 911 calls, and if you do work for a private company, I hear that I would mostly do patient transports and a lot of waiting.
3) As someone who does not like desk jobs (I’m very interested in surgery and will be shadowing a neurosurgery PA soon), is there any certain specialty you can recommend to me? If I decide to change my career plan but would like to stay in the medical field, are there any medical professions you can recommend to me?
Thank you so much for your time and any input will be appreciated
Hello Sir. I have a quick question for you. I am a 23 year old junior at the University of Texas majoring in exercise science. my current resume would like like this
-4.0 GPA “i have taken ALL of the current prerequisites except for Genetics as now Texas PA schools added it in for 2018.
-Member of the Golden Key International Honors Society
-Student instructor employed by the University for Anatomy and Physiology II. [ I excel at A&P and love teaching it]
-Elite Medical Scribe at a major hospital in Dallas Texas. [currently have only 300hrs but by the time i apply to PA school next year i will have over 1600]
-Former National Bodybuilder and personal trainer [Back when i didn’t go to college but took 2 year off]
– I have some amazing personal relationships with about 3 of the ER docs i scribe for who are going to write recommendations for me when its time. They all already joke with me saying “i will write recommendations for you to go to medical school and not PA school because you are to smart and ambitious to be a PA. You need to be a Dr.” NO offense to PA’s, they are only kidding.
My concern is that VOLUNTEER hours are lacking. I have almost none. I still have the next 1.5 years to get some, but it is hard. I am grinding through Ochem trying to keep a 4.0 “as well as other undergrad classes’, tutoring kids on campus and trying to find time to work my scribe hours which is already hard as i work the night shifts 9pm-7am. I was booked for a medical missions trips this summer because i truly wanted to go, but i cant now due to a summer class i have to take. any advice?
Am i looking like a good candidate for PA school ?
I am 23 year old white male.
Hi Stephen,
I don’t even know where to begin. I’m a 30 year old single white female with a crappy cGPA from my early twenties when I first attended a 4-year university (2.02, to be exact). Long story short, I wasn’t focused at that age and went to school for all the wrong reasons but I didn’t graduate. I am going back to college after basically a 7 year hiatus (I went to community college for approximately a year and a half between 2014-2016 where I earned a 4.0 gpa, but besides that…) to pursue a Bachelor of Applied Health Science. The good news is, my school offers an Academic Forgiveness program which wipes any previous grades clean from your transcript (aka resets your gpa) while retaining all credits earned from classes wherein a grade of C- or higher was achieved. That being said, I have a chance to essentially “start over,” and with that chance, I am hoping to kick @$$ and get into PA school (I’m actually a pretty good student when I apply myself). My father had relatively uncontrolled diabetes all my life and my mother suffered from Münchausen’s Syndrome so, needless to say, I’ve been hearing medical terminology since I was in diapers. I’ve taken my father to medical appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, I was administering insulin injections when I was a teenager, my mother had a colostomy bag, etc. I have a leg-up in the health care department.
Given the above information, do you think I stand a chance of getting accepted into PA school if I am able to earn above a 3.5 gpa in the rest of my undergraduate classes? I don’t know how CASPA would calculate my cumulative grade point average with the Academic Forgiveness policy on my transcript.
Secondly, I currently work as a Residential Assistant for adults with developmental disabilities and one of my job duties is administering medications. Does this count as PCE/HCE/either/both?
To be honest, any and all information to help me out is greatly appreciated. I’m a first generation college student from a poor, very uneducated family and even though I still have another 2+ years until I receive my Bachelors degree, if I stand even the slightest chance at a possible PA program acceptance, I want to work toward it. Thank you in advance and I’m very grateful you’ve created this website. I just stumbled upon it this evening so I have yet to read your blog posts and biography but I will. 🙂
I also want to mention that the University of Washington in Seattle is my dream school! <3 😀
Hello! I am thinking about getting certified as a medical assistant – would that count towards medical experience?
Thanks!
Hi Noelle,
The certification won’t but the work you do as a certified medical assistant definately will 🙂
Stephen
Hello Stephen,
My name is Rachelle. I am hoping to apply to programs this semester. Do you think I will get into programs with my stats? My worry is in my PCE hrs. I just don’t think I have enough. I want to add more but with 2 jobs, and 3 classes, I don’t think I can fit any more in. I would really like your opinion. Thank you!
Stats
DeAnza JC cGPA 3.21
SJSU cGPA 3.34 BS in Athletic Training, Minor in Nutrition.
Mission JC cGPA 4.0- Post bac
Pre -reqs= All done
Shadowing =
-8 hrs MD
-18 hrs PA
Volunteer=
-80 hrs Thailand (non medical)
-6 hrs Dr.’s office
-5 hrs rock and roll marathon
PCE =
-100 sport clinic
-365 Arthritis & ortho clinic
-740 (currently) Physical Therapy trainer
HCE=
-7,000+ At Residential Care home (duties include: assisting in ADL, administering medication, transportation, etc. )
Hi Rachelle,
Looks great to me! Of course there is never a “maximum” value to healthcare experience so the more the merrier. On paper everyone starts to look the same so look for ways to differentiate yourself and make your application stand out… This requires some creativity (especially now in the days of CASPA) but focus on the places where you can say hay look at me – i.e letter of reference and your personal statement. Look at the PA school mission statement and know it by heart, find the ones that resonate with your personal goals.
Stephen
Hello Stephen,
My name is Rachelle. I am hoping to apply to programs this semester. Do you think I will get into programs with my stats? My worry is in my PCE hrs. I just don’t think I have enough. I want to add more but with 2 jobs, and 3 classes, I don’t think I can fit any more in. I would really like your opinion. Thank you!
Stats
DeAnza JC cGPA 3.21
SJSU cGPA 3.34 BS in Athletic Training, Minor in Nutrition.
Mission JC cGPA 4.0- Post bac
Pre -reqs= All done
Shadowing =
-8 hrs MD
-18 hrs PA
Volunteer=
-80 hrs Thailand (non medical)
-6 hrs Dr.’s office
-5 hrs rock and roll marathon
PCE =
-100 sport clinic
-365 Arthritis & ortho clinic
-740 (currently) Physical Therapy trainer
HCE=
-7,000+ At Residential Care home (duties include: assisting in ADL, administering medication, transportation, etc. )
hi Stephen
I want to study in PA school but my age makes me worried
I will graduate at age 45 . do you think I have any chances to find a job at 45?
Hi Yasi,
I attended PA school with two students in their 50’s, three in their 40’s and several in their 30’s and now they are very happily employed… So the answer is yes 🙂
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Do PA schools ever look at conduct records from undergrad? And how heavily is that taken into account?
Hi Jake,
Not that I have ever seen, but then again I guess anything is fair game in love, war and PA school admissions.
Stephen
Hey my question is regarding GPA requirements for PA program
My degree is in Liberal Arts recently graduated with 2.70 GPA. I have taken all the required courses to get into a PA program.
Where do I go from here. My GPA is very low for PA programs.
Thanks
Hi Stephen,
I am currently in my undergrad and I am wanting to get a head start on my hours. I do not really know how to go about this, do you have any advice on where to look for a job and how to get it along with what my job options would be?
Thank you!
Hi Ray,
Here is a post I wrote on the topic a while back https://www.thepalife.com/hce-paschool/
There are a lot of options, I worked for 3 years in the campus health clinic in various roles which was wonderful experience. I recommend combining this with volunteer opportunities with also abound.
There is no right or wrong answer here. It is simply about getting your hands “dirty” and finding all (and any) experience you can!
Stephen
Hello all,
I’ve frequented this page fairly often over the last few years and it has been a great for guidance along my journey in preparing for PA school. I am 27 years old I graduated from college 6 years ago with a BS in psychology with a concentration in biological psychology. My undergraduate GPA was 3.38. I wasn’t quite as focused or ambitious as a 20 year old college student. Since graduating I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life by working along several different career paths. I began working as a child mentor for children with behavioral issues right out of college. This work was only part time and it was hard to make a living off of even though I enjoyed it. I later worked full time as a microbiology lab technician for 3 years in a food testing lab. I realized that I missed being able to help people in a direct care setting so I became a CNA an now work full time in a county nursing home. My job is challenging but I love it more than anything I’ve done before. I became interested in becoming a PA after talking to a family friend about the career. I really enjoyed the level of autonomy and ability to switch specialities. I have been taking prerequistues required for most programs for the last 2 years and have earned a 3.7 gpa in those courses. I am finishing up a general chemistry 2 requirement this semester and had planned to begin applying this application cycle. I am discouraged because of my undergraduate GPA. I have about 1,000 hours as a CNA currently and will have about 2,000 by the time I finalize my applications. Part of me wants to wait another year and rack up more HCE before applying to make me stand out as a better candidate without wasting the time and money of applying but part of me also thinks that this is just fear holding me back and that I should apply this cycle. Any input from anyone would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Meghann
Hi Meghann,
There is a saying by Frederick Buchner it goes like this “search for the place where deep gladness and the worlds deep hunger meet”. It sounds to me like you have found that place… and I am pretty sure you are on the right career path.
As far as “when is the right time”, there is a lot of truth in the saying that it is never the right time. It is cliche’ but my wife pointed this out when we were trying to decide when to start a family. I was always making excuses – We need more money, we need more stability, we need a bigger house… etc. etc. but a lot of this was that I was just afraid. 9 months later we had our daughter and I am so glad I didn’t wait any longer. Both of our kids are growing up and and had I kept making excuses I would be a 60 year old with a newborn :-).
There really is never a “perfect” time and there are advantages of just applying. Personal growth happens when we take chances or try new things. If you don’t get in you will have gained valuable insight into the application process. If you do get in… well YEAHHHH!!
As long as you have crossed that 3.0 hurdle you have the GPA necessary to apply to most schools. I didn’t even have that when I applied and look… Like I have said on the blog I was about ready to throw my application in the trash when I decided to rewrite my essay and just send it anyway. Six months later I was in my first PA school lecture.
Life has a plan for you, my advice is to go for it this year and see what happens.
Stephen
I agree, and unnecessary.
Question:
What is your reason for switching? I am working towards going to PA school but I work as a medical assistant/scribe side by side with a CNS, so I was just wondering what your case is. Thank you for any input.
Not trying to be rude at all but do you think the way you spell your name is a factor? I’ve never met a Meghann, this type of spelling would make me question your parents/cousins IQ!
That was incredibly rude and unnecessary.
Truly rude and ignorant. Meghann is a Welsh name…and a character in the classic book “The Thorn Birds.” The minute you think you know everything, that’s all you will ever know.