Easier to get into PA school if male?

[Melomare17]

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Is it easier to get into PA school if you are a male vs a female?

 

[pamac]

Is it easier to get into PA school if you are a male vs a female?

No. A better way of looking at PA school is that it's hard to get into PA school at all. Most of the programs I'm familiar with get well over 500 applicants for 40 seats or so. Some of the schools like Midwestern in AZ get close to 2000 applicants for 90 seats, I think. It wouldn't give me any comfort to have to rely on any potential slight advantage based on gender. More women than men attend PA school, and I think the profession was something like 60 percent female. It could be that many more women apply than men, but then again, more women seem to get accepted. In any event, the best angles to work to get into a program wouldn't lay in relying on gender.... Grades above 3.5, good gre scores, HCE... Those are like the holy trinity of being competetive (emphasis on the gre's role may vary according to the school, so substitute "community involvement/service in for that in certain scenarios). Way down the line when you are hoping to squeeze out a few more points, maybe gender will somehow glean you some points.

When I was a nursing student, I got into my competetive program because I was a good applicant, not because I was a male applicant. The reason I don't feel like gender made a big difference was because plenty of males I know got rejected along with the girls. I could have easily joined them if I hadn't had the marks that set me apart.

 

[Melomare17]

No. A better way of looking at PA school is that it's hard to get into PA school at all. Most of the programs I'm familiar with get well over 500 applicants for 40 seats or so. Some of the schools like Midwestern in AZ get close to 2000 applicants for 90 seats, I think. It wouldn't give me any comfort to have to rely on any potential slight advantage based on gender. More women than men attend PA school, and I think the profession was something like 60 percent female. It could be that many more women apply than men, but then again, more women seem to get accepted. In any event, the best angles to work to get into a program wouldn't lay in relying on gender.... Grades above 3.5, good gre scores, HCE... Those are like the holy trinity of being competetive (emphasis on the gre's role may vary according to the school, so substitute "community involvement/service in for that in certain scenarios). Way down the line when you are hoping to squeeze out a few more points, maybe gender will somehow glean you some points.

When I was a nursing student, I got into my competetive program because I was a good applicant, not because I was a male applicant. The reason I don't feel like gender made a big difference was because plenty of males I know got rejected along with the girls. I could have easily joined them if I hadn't had the marks that set me apart.

Hmm I see..thanks for your input!

 

[Boatswain2PA]

I am going to be politically incorrect here and say that being male is probably a slightly negative influence.

PA schools are run by academia, an incredibly "progressive" institution that devalues masculinity in general.

 

[pamac]

I am going to be politically incorrect here and say that being male is probably a slightly negative influence.

PA schools are run by academia, an incredibly "progressive" institution that devalues masculinity in general.

I think there is a lot of truth to that. I visited a PA school where by FAR the dominant demographic represented was cute, young, white, fit, females with little to no HCE...and a handful of beta males scattered throughout the room speaking in soft tones. I actually found nursing school to be fairly male friendly, in that the faculty seemed to be just as rude to males as they were to females. Similar to what FEZ on "that 70s show" said about the DMV... "they treated me like crap, but they treated everyone like crap and all of us were equally crap!"

Heres a good example of a PA school keeping it real with no HCE requirement, and a heavy dose of institutionalized gender bias. University of Colorado finds it best to religiously keep males at about the 13 percent mark year, after year, after year, with the exception of one year where males almost broke 30 percent, (but that was an anomoly).

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/c...ectivestudent/Pages/AdmissionsStatistics.aspx

So one might imagine that with so few males on board, a guy would have a decent crack at getting in, but only if the deck weren't stacked. Granted, that program has a stated Peds emphasis, but they state prominently that they prepare students for all areas of practice ("The Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant (CHA/PA) Program has a long history of educational excellence, preparing physician assistants for practice in all areas of medicine."- UC website).... should dispel any notion that its mostly women applying there (87% to 13%?.... sure). There can be multiple ways of looking at statists, but I think UC's quota speaks volumes. Male shouldn't look at the dearth of males in that program as an indicator that they will have a better shot at getting in, at least how I see it.

 

[primadonna22274]

I will also be politically incorrect and state that I often gave a male applicant a closer look compared to the scores of female applicants at hand...I never liked having an "unbalanced" class. It's nice to have some testosterone to round out all that estrogen...so comparatively I think men did have a bit of an advantage when I was the one reviewing apps and interviewing--but I fully recognize that I am an anomaly among the heavily female-dominated faculty pool.