"In the area" interviews - PA school

[dudechiefboss]

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, but here goes:

My girlfriend is applying to PA schools this year, and I was wondering if PA schools do "in the area" interviews? Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

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[deleted6669]

nope. pa admissions are very competitive with > 1000 applications for 30 seats at many programs. IF one gets an interview they tell you(often with very little notice) when it will be. I was told my interview would be 5 days away from the time of my notification and had to plan a cross country trip and lodging with that much notice.

 

[J1515]

nope. pa admissions are very competitive with > 1000 applications for 30 seats at many programs. .

lol you're exaggerating just a tad my friend. Almost all PA programs I know have more than 30 seats and receive way less than 1000 applications. I understand you want your job title to sound competitive and important, but let's call a spade a spade. I'm a DO and I have no problem admitting our schools have a lower average GPA and MCAT than MD schools. A quick search on the goog revealed the facts below. And to the OP, call and ask the schools - that's the only way to find out. My guess is you have a 50/50 chance at them accomodating you.

Stony brook:

"Approximately 150 candidates are invited to interview for 40 seats from among a pool of between 600-1000 applicants."

Yale:

"For the Class of 2010, 307 applications were reviewed and 83 applicants were interviewed for the class of 36 students."

Duke:

For the PA class entering in 2009, 684 CASPA applications were received. 190 applicants interviewed. 70 accepted the offer of admission for the Fall 2009 entering class.

UMDNJ:

"Between 1000-1060 2008-2009 academic year" (less than 300 in each of previous years)
"How many students do you seat in a class per year?
40-50 per year "

OHSU:

726 applicants, 38 selected

ISU:

"In 2007, the program received 341 applications, 406 were received in 2008, and 443 were received in 2009."
"Between 50 and 60 seats "

Cornell:

We currently average 600-700 applications per year. This provides a very competitive applicant pool as there are only 32 available seats each year to fill.

Utah:

The application process is very competitive. For the 2009 entering class, there were 757 applications and 92 interviews were scheduled for our 40 seats

Jefferson:

# Number of new students: 40 (out of 496 completed applications)

Methodist:

The MUPAP averages over 300 applications each year for 34 seats and a select number for our Waiting List.

Chatham:

We had about 800 applicants last year for 60 seats for the incoming class.

Iowa:

510 applicants competed for 25 seats in the UI’s current first-year class.

Wisconsin:

230 applications for 34 seats

Quinnipiac:

810 applications for 54 seats

Baylor:

Approximately 700 applications are received each year of which 100 are interviewed on campus before offering positions to 35 individuals

Wake Forrest:

We are interviewing approximately 140 applicants this year and will be choosing 56 for the next class.

Univ Wash:

564 applications for 92 positions

Pacific Univ:

"600+" applications for 42 positions

 

[deleted6669]

congrats- you have just surveyed 18 out of 150 programs some of which by your own stats get close to 1000 applications.
most pa programs have less than 45 seats and have a range of 20-40 total seats. I went to the largest pa program in the nation which had 70 seats/yr. a few programs are a bit larger now.
to the OP : In comparing j1515 and I one of us has been involved with the pa profession for over 20 years and has served on several pa admissions committees and one has not.
you decide who to believe.
if you find a single program willing to accomodate your request for an "in the area interview" please let us know and I will retract my opinion. until then let me restate my INFORMED opinion: I doubt it.

 

[J1515]

nope. pa admissions are very competitive with > 1000 applications for 30 seats at many programs. .

most pa programs have less than 45 seats and have a range of 20-40 total seats.

UMDNJ was the only school that says they had 1000+ applications, and before this year they had 300-400. You are clearly biased from your posts here in trying to make the PA profession seem more competitive than it really is. To the OP, i suggest you do your own research.

 

[deleted6669]

http://prospective.westernu.edu/physician-assistant/competitive

WESTERN UNIVERSITY
1279 APPLICATIONS

http://www.atsu.edu/ashs/programs/physician_assistant/faqs.htm
ATSU PA PROGRAM
>1500 APPLICATIONS/YR

http://www.nova.edu/pa/faqs.html
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN
>900 APPLICATIONS/YR

http://shrp.umdnj.edu/programs/paweb/about/faq.html

umdnj/RUTGERS
1060 APPLICATIONS

Drexel 1100 applications

"Believe what you wish. "

 

[bradt9881]

UMDNJ was the only school that says they had 1000+ applications, and before this year they had 300-400. You are clearly biased from your posts here in trying to make the PA profession seem more competitive than it really is. To the OP, i suggest you do your own research.

Whether or not the exact numbers are correct is irrelevant. From my own personal experience applying and gaining acceptance, these facts are true:

1) PA programs are competititve. 3 of the 4 programs I applied to had under a 10% acceptance rate. The one I was accepted to had a 12% acceptance rate.
2) No program I applied to or researched had anything other than an at the school interview.

Besides being good at google, what is your personal experience applying to PA school?

 

[faith2]

Whats up with the attitude

lol you're exaggerating just a tad my friend. Almost all PA programs I know have more than 30 seats and receive way less than 1000 applications. I understand you want your job title to sound competitive and important, but let's call a spade a spade. I'm a DO and I have no problem admitting our schools have a lower average GPA and MCAT than MD schools. A quick search on the goog revealed the facts below. And to the OP, call and ask the schools - that's the only way to find out. My guess is you have a 50/50 chance at them accomodating you.

 

[dudechiefboss]

Well, I have an interview coming up at PCOM, and my girlfriend is applying to the physician assistant program at PCOM. I guess I will have her call and try to see if they do an "in the area" interview.

 

[J1515]

http://prospective.westernu.edu/physician-assistant/competitive

WESTERN UNIVERSITY
1279 APPLICATIONS

http://www.atsu.edu/ashs/programs/physician_assistant/faqs.htm
ATSU PA PROGRAM
>1500 APPLICATIONS/YR

http://www.nova.edu/pa/faqs.html
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN
>900 APPLICATIONS/YR

http://shrp.umdnj.edu/programs/paweb/about/faq.html

umdnj/RUTGERS
1060 APPLICATIONS

"Believe what you wish. "

So that = "many"? And each of those programs offer only 30 seats, right? You keep shooting yourself in the foot.

Stop trying to pretend that PA programs are ultra competitive and only the best of the best students get in. There are plenty of more competitive fields and no one is buying your self-serving promotion of the field. We get it, you want to feel important about your degree. But if you are going to give advice then state it truthfully.

 

[BruceBanner]

They don't man. I have never even heard of a stateside medical program---MD, DO, PA---doing an "in the area" interview. Remember, the applicant is at their mercy; he/she is the one competing for a seat in the program. So if they say jump you must say how high!!!

 

[J1515]

Whether or not the exact numbers are correct is irrelevant. From my own personal experience applying and gaining acceptance, these facts are true:

1) PA programs are competititve. 3 of the 4 programs I applied to had under a 10% acceptance rate. The one I was accepted to had a 12% acceptance rate.
2) No program I applied to or researched had anything other than an at the school interview.

Besides being good at google, what is your personal experience applying to PA school?

Family members. I don't claim to be a guru. Just correcting false information that was stated as truth.

 

[J1515]

They don't man. I have never even heard of a stateside medical program---MD, DO, PA---doing an "in the area" interview. Remember, the applicant is at their mercy; he/she is the one competing for a seat in the program. So if they say jump you must say how high!!!

Medical schools certainly do. I suggest you check out the pre-med forums.

 

[BruceBanner]

Medical schools certainly do. I suggest you check out the pre-med forums.

Tempting suggestion but I'll take your word for it. I applied two consecutive years and never even saw a mention of that. I thought the only schools to do that were offshore.

 

[J1515]

Tempting suggestion but I'll take your word for it. I applied two consecutive years and never even saw a mention of that. I thought the only schools to do that were offshore.

Nope. US schools do it. Residency programs have done it as well, especially for applicants who are couples matching. Of course this assumes you are competitive and would've most likely received an IV anyway at some point.

And a brief sidenote: if you used PA school as a backup to medical school, I think emedpa disapproves

 

[bnp07]

PCOM...was told at my interview there that there are 1700 applicants for 50 spots this year.

At my interview at Kentucky, they said that it had been verified that admission to the PA school was way more competitive than their med school.

Also, my first interview gave me a three day notice. Second was 3 weeks, third gave me 3 weeks as well. Two of them I didn't have a choice for dates, I got what I was assigned.

 

[core0]

There are 151 programs in the current list with an average of around 41 seats. The data is found here:
http://paeaonline.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/58730

I say around because of the way that the programs are listed. Saint Francis for example has two programs listed one with 55 seats and one with 60 seats. The sixty seats are for the undergraduate program. What the program does is take the survivors from the undergraduate program (25-30) and merge them with the people going directly into the Masters program so the actual number of seats is 55. There are a couple of programs counted this way so the actual average as of 12/08 was around 41. The range is 14-105 not counting the military school that takes in 3x80 person classes per year.

The issue for selectivity can be gamed (and is in most academic programs). In the last CASPA cycle there were 12,000 applicants for 4200 seats or around 2.9 applicants per seat. However these 12,000 applicants put in 71,000 applications or roughly 16 applications per seat. In reality 1/3 of the applicants that applied go in. From here:
http://www.paeaonline.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/96023

For Med students there were 42,000 applicants for 17,800 slots or 2.3 applicants per slot. Those applicants put out 547,000 applications or 30 applications per slot. So the chance of a given application being successful was less but the chance of a given applicant was higher for medical school than PA school. From here:
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/charts1982to2007.pdf

Caveats to this data, the data for PAs is 2009 cycle, for MDs its 2008. Hard to say if things are different. Also the PA data is missing the almost 1/3 of the programs that do not use CASPA. Finally the data on members shows that there are differences between PA applicants and Medical school applicants. On the average the PA applicants will be 6 years older, more likely to be female and have a GPA around .3 less than the medical school applicants. The profile for DO applicants and PA applicants is very similar except for gender.

Bottom line is that you can't say that one or the other is tougher to get into. PA and medical schools look for different things in applicants. Many qualified medical students would be shut out of top PA schools due to lack of HCE. Many students at top PA schools wouldn't have competitive GPAs. Either way less than 1/2 of those that apply to either program get in which can't be said of a lot of other professions.

David Carpenter, PA-C

 

[deleted6669]

And a brief sidenote: if you used PA school as a backup to medical school, I think emedpa disapproves

what if you used md/do as a backup to pa? people do....

 

[deleted6669]

There are 151 programs in the current list with an average of around 41 seats. The data is found here:
http://paeaonline.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/58730

The issue for selectivity can be gamed (and is in most academic programs). In the last CASPA cycle there were 12,000 applicants for 4200 seats or around 2.9 applicants per seat. However these 12,000 applicants put in 71,000 applications or roughly 16 applications per seat. In reality 1/3 of the applicants that applied go in. From here:
http://www.paeaonline.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/96023

For Med students there were 42,000 applicants for 17,800 slots or 2.3 applicants per slot. Those applicants put out 547,000 applications or 30 applications per slot. So the chance of a given application being successful was less but the chance of a given applicant was higher for medical school than PA school. From here:
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/charts1982to2007.pdf
Many qualified medical students would be shut out of top PA schools due to lack of HCE. Many students at top PA schools wouldn't have competitive GPAs. Either way less than 1/2 of those that apply to either program get in which can't be said of a lot of other professions.

David Carpenter, PA-C

so, in summary an pa avg program has around 41 seats ( I said less than 45) and is fairly competitive, certainly comprable to an md program, perhaps more so in some circumstances and definitely more competitive than a DO program.
wow, it almost seems like I knew what I was talking about earlier in the thread......

 

[deleted6669]

PCOM...was told at my interview there that there are 1700 applicants for 50 spots this year.

wait, wouldn't 1700 be over 1000? 50 applicants you say? wouldn't that be 34 applicants/seat? isn't that about a 3% chance of getting in?
no, couldn't be because pa schools are easy to get into.....

 

[J1515]

Bottom line is that you can't say that one or the other is tougher to get into. PA and medical schools look for different things in applicants. Many qualified medical students would be shut out of top PA schools due to lack of HCE. Many students at top PA schools wouldn't have competitive GPAs. Either way less than 1/2 of those that apply to either program get in which can't be said of a lot of other professions.

It's nice reading comments from a PA who states the truth rather than exaggerations and falsifications to boost public opinion of their field. I think the biggest factor clouding the issue is the range in number of applicants to PA programs across the country. You have 230 applicants to one in wisconsin, and 1000 to another (ie PCOM). Medical students on the other hand tend to apply to schools all over the country in a single application cycle. I'm not sure of exact numbers, but I don't think there's a single medical school that gets less than 1000 applications.

More importantly, the majority of people who start undergrad as "pre-med" never actually end up applying (with the MCAT being the number one weedout factor I'd imagine). A good number do actually end up applying PA. Yes emedpa - it is used as a backup, as much as it pains you to hear that (DO has been used as a backup to MD for years, so what?). Nobody wants to hear that their field was used as a backup, but the truth is the truth.

 

[J1515]

nope. pa admissions are very competitive with > 1000 applications for 30 seats at many programs. .

This was a false statement, period. Your bias is getting in the way of giving out accurate and useful information. You have lost credibility and there's no point in responding to you anymore.

You remind me of the chief PA at a certain hospital I rotated at during 3rd year. He'd constantly rip on doctors' decisions on management, pimp the residents and make fun of them if they didn't know a fact that he previously just looked up, made the students call him "Mr. _____", and made the PA students stand around doing nothing past their post call time for no good reason. Needless to say, when a topic came up that he wasn't knowledgeable about (ie - chairman of surgery pimping residents about enzyme deficiencies of the urea cycle) he would stand there silently listening and eventually walk away mid-discussion without saying anything. Meanwhile this guy worked 8-5 five days a week and never took call. Don't be that guy.

 

[deleted6669]

which part of my statement was wrong?
pa admissions ARE very competitive as noted by david and others above.
an avg pa program has 41 students. some have 20, some have 70 or more(this actually did surprise me- when I went the largest program of the 52 in existence was 70 students, now apparently the largest of 151 programs is 98)..
there are some with 30 seats that get 1000 or more applications.
let's just drop the bickering about this issue and agree that we each had positive points to contribute..

as far as your constant DO references I think you should know that I am very pro-DO.
many of the best docs I have worked with and learned from have been DO's. on the avg they are more mellow than their md counterparts, likely due to a more varied applicant pool including older folks and those with prior careers and life experiences outside of medicine. on occasion I have considered going back to medschool and always only considered DO. at one point I even went so far as to take an extra yr of needed prereqs( with all A's aside from a single b+) in anticipation of applying but other life issues took on greater importance to me than medschool so I let it go(although I would still consider the right bridge program if this ever came along).
peace-
emedpa

 

[faith2]

You can call me stupid it does not matter because I am starting med school.....But if there are less schools offering a program wouldn't it be more competive to get in? I am not a data checker obviously you'll know all the facts (men and their testosterone LOL) aren't there less PA schools then med schools, and less class seats in a typical PA program? Med school seats are on average at least 100 seats. Most med schools only have small classes when they have not received permanent accredidation...


There are people that get into med school or could have gotten into med school, but choose PA due to time and finances...I know when I become a dr. I will be looking to the dr's, nurses, and PA's for guidance because we are suppose to be a team and one person does not know it all...

 

[deleted6669]

I believe there are now more pa programs than md( 151 vs 135 or so)but if you include DO then I think there are more medschools. and you are right,the typical md/do program is over 100 students and the avg pa program is 41.

 

[BruceBanner]

And a brief sidenote: if you used PA school as a backup to medical school, I think emedpa disapproves

what if you used md/do as a backup to pa? people do....

OR---what if I was successful my second cycle but decided I want to be a PA?? People also do.

 

[lapelirroja]

during my PA application year at the school I now attend there were over 1200 applicants for 35 seats...

EMED was not exaggerating. There are a few outliers, but most schools fit that pattern. Get over yourself.

 

[faith2]

I am including DO as medical schools because eventhough ego says there is a differnce in this country there is not

I believe there are now more pa programs than md( 151 vs 135 or so)but if you include DO then I think there are more medschools. and you are right,the typical md/do program is over 100 students and the avg pa program is 41.

 

[FireCloud9]

Sounds like the time to apply for PA or BSN programs was 4-5yrs ago.

The GPAs were much lower and candidate pool wasn't as competitive. At least according to the stats by the schools near me.

 

[deleted6669]

Sounds like the time to apply for PA or BSN programs was 4-5yrs ago.

The GPAs were much lower and candidate pool wasn't as competitive. At least according to the stats by the schools near me.

depends how you define competitive.
lower overall gpa? sure it was easier then.
health care experience requirement? a lot harder then if you had to be a medic or rn before you could even consider applying. back in the day I had been an er tech for 5 yrs when I started considering pa and was told by many practicing pa's that my experience at the time would not have even gotten me an interview so I became a medic and worked as a medic for 5 yrs before becoming a pa. I was on the low side of avg in my class for age and prior experience.
avg age in my class was 35 with 5+ yrs of experience. we had a lot of guys who had been medics or nurses forever.

 

[FireCloud9]

depends how you define competitive.
lower overall gpa? sure it was easier then.
health care experience requirement? a lot harder then if you had to be a medic or rn before you could even consider applying. back in the day I had been an er tech for 5 yrs when I started considering pa and was told by many practicing pa's that my experience at the time would not have even gotten me an interview so I became a medic and worked as a medic for 5 yrs before becoming a pa. I was on the low side of avg in my class for age and prior experience.
avg age in my class was 35 with 5+ yrs of experience. we had a lot of guys who had been medics or nurses forever.

Yes, lower GPA, but not just that. The school my wife is looking at for her ABSN requirements 4-5yrs ago were quite different than today. Back then, a 3.0 and a little exposure to healthcare (volunteer xp) was enough and the number of applicants were but a few hundred.

Today, because of the increased demand, the most recent stats were GPAs of 3.9 and over 1,000 applicants for 30 spots, and the HCE requirements are now more limited to EMT / ER Tech / CNA and other similar backgrounds. Though they don't seem to require much experience. In other words, 6 months as any of those with a good GPA still gets you in.

Just 9 months ago when I first looked into PA, the program didn't require HCE, but preferred it. Now they explicitly call it out on their website:

"A minimum of two years direct (hands-on) patient care experience is highly recommended. Some examples of positions providing this experience are:

• RN
• LVN
• Paramedic
• EMT
• Medical Assistant (back office)
• Respiratory Therapist
• International Medical Graduate (IMG)
• Physical Therapist"

So yes, that's what I mean by competitive, many more candidates today than 4-5yrs ago, much higher GPAs, HCE, etc.

 

[deleted6669]

Just 9 months ago when I first looked into PA, the program didn't require HCE, but preferred it. Now they explicitly call it out on their website:

"A minimum of two years direct (hands-on) patient care experience is highly recommended. Some examples of positions providing this experience are:

• RN
• LVN
• Paramedic
• EMT
• Medical Assistant (back office)
• Respiratory Therapist
• International Medical Graduate (IMG)
• Physical Therapist"

So yes, that's what I mean by competitive, many more candidates today than 4-5yrs ago, much higher GPAs, HCE, etc.

actually historically pa programs have required experience and the trend now is going away from that. the program you are looking at (U.WA, right?) has had those hce prereqs for 40 years.

 

[FireCloud9]

actually historically pa programs have required experience and the trend now is going away from that. the program you are looking at (U.WA, right?) has had those hce prereqs for 40 years.

No, it's a program in Sacramento, CA at UC Davis.
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/fnppa/req-clinical-exper.html

It changed since I checked it out just 9 months back... or at least the website changed (didn't show those requirements before).

 

[deleted6669]

No, it's a program in Sacramento, CA at UC Davis.
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/fnppa/req-clinical-exper.html

It changed since I checked it out just 9 months back...

Davis has always been a high hce program. they may present it differently on their website but it's pretty much always been like that even as far back as 20 yrs ago when I looked at it....in california your best bet for low hce/easy admissions criteria are programs like western(which aren't the same quality as other ca programs in my opinion....)

 

[LadyWolverine]

Oh Dear God Almighty, who really cares which one is "more difficult to get into?" Seriously, why do you all constantly have to fight about statistics and ratios of applications to seats, etc.? Does it make you feel better about yourself that your program had a 3% admit rate, while Joe Schmoe's program admitted 5% of applicants? Yes, it's very hard to get into PA school. Yes, it's very hard to get into medical school. It's also very hard to get into vet school, dental school, i-banking, plastic surgery, dermatology, a pedigree law school, a top business school, astrophysics, the Pentagon, Fort Knox, and a virgin's pants. Why does it matter? You're comparing apples to oranges. Work really hard in undergrad, decide wtf you want in life, and apply to the program that will get you where you want to go. If you want to be a PA, apply to PA school. If you want to be a doctor, go to medical school. Not everyone wants to invest the 7+-year journey/expense/opportunity cost that it takes to be a physician, and for them perhaps the PA route seems like a good compromise - as a matter of fact, I'm sure this is exactly why PA school is so hard to get into. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's program was "hardest to get into" for anything other than silly online forum bragging rights, and it's all speculation anyway. It's not based on any hard facts, since you don't have any information other than some numbers that don't even tell the whole story.

 

[faith2]

preach it Sista!!!!

Oh Dear God Almighty, who really cares which one is "more difficult to get into?" Seriously, why do you all constantly have to fight about statistics and ratios of applications to seats, etc.? Does it make you feel better about yourself that your program had a 3% admit rate, while Joe Schmoe's program admitted 5% of applicants? Yes, it's very hard to get into PA school. Yes, it's very hard to get into medical school. It's also very hard to get into vet school, dental school, i-banking, plastic surgery, dermatology, a pedigree law school, a top business school, astrophysics, the Pentagon, Fort Knox, and a virgin's pants. Why does it matter? You're comparing apples to oranges. Work really hard in undergrad, decide wtf you want in life, and apply to the program that will get you where you want to go. If you want to be a PA, apply to PA school. If you want to be a doctor, go to medical school. Not everyone wants to invest the 7+-year journey/expense/opportunity cost that it takes to be a physician, and for them perhaps the PA route seems like a good compromise - as a matter of fact, I'm sure this is exactly why PA school is so hard to get into. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's program was "hardest to get into" for anything other than silly online forum bragging rights, and it's all speculation anyway. It's not based on any hard facts, since you don't have any information other than some numbers that don't even tell the whole story.