GRE and Medical Experience

[YMC20]

Hello Everyone,

Here is a little background: I graduated about a year and a half ago with a BA in Criminal Justice and a minor in Biology. I did go above what my minor required to make sure I got a variety of science classes as well as pre-med pre-requisites. I am a non-traditional student (I didn't complete my degree in 4 years) and I definitely had my ups and downs "grade-wise" throughout my college career. My final GPA was 3.18 and science GPA was 2.70 which I know is not good. After a lot of thought about whether or not to go the med school way, I decided that PA would be a better fit for what I am looking for. I really like the idea of being able to explore a variety of specialties and honestly the shorter school time is very appealing. So to get to the point....

1. Do you think that I would be a candidate to apply to a PA program considering my GPA?

2. I am getting ready to start studying for the GRE. Any recommendations on what book is best to use? I've seen so many and it's kind of overwhelming to choose one. Also, do you think it would be worth to take a pre-course? I know they are pretty expensive and I've gotten mixed opinions about whether it is worth to spend all that money.

3. As far as experience goes: do I need to have working experience or is volunteering and shadowing enough? If so, how many hours do you recommend doing?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide me with.

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[pamac]

I'd have a hard time thinking that your application file would even make it last any initial screening as it stands. Right now you are in the Devil's Triangle of applying to PA programs. I'm not going to lay it on thick so as to dis on you, but to show you where you come up short. You have a lot going against you, and it starts with gpa. You could probably swing having a low cumulative gpa if you had a ton of credits behind you and had a great science gpa. You don't have a great science gpa. Since your gpa's are low, that usually means that to counter that, you need fantastic health care experience (the kind that takes time and requires an education that in itself might be a bit competitive and/or isn't something you just walk into ie paramedic, nursing, or respiratory therapy). Even with that kind of HCE, you'd need better grades than you currently have so as to stand out. If you had pretty awesome grades, you could get by with shadowing and volunteering, or scribe type stuff. I don't know how you will do on the GRE, but you would need to do really well on it, as well as find a school that would place weight on that for you to have a shot. Even if they did, I'm thinking your grades and experience would still be dragging you down like an anchor.

If you applied right now with what you have, you probably wouldn't have a chance, even with an excellent gre score. That's not to say you couldn't get to the point in the distant future where you could land an interview, but that's a separate discussion. For many years now, PA school has been very competitive. You come out of school to a job with a really good wage and a certain amount of prestige. It's not unheard of to have 10 people applying to each seat in a program. The expense and effort that goes into the application process means that usually those 9 other people have put forth a decent amount of effort. Even if only 3 out of 9 applicants are high quality, that still means 2 of them don't make the cut. To reinforce that visual, at a program that has 40 spots, if 1/3 of applicants have decent qualifications, that means 92 of those applicants still get turned away. And in a decent program you may even have closer to 20:1 ratio of applicants to seats.

Time is valuable, so it's important to go through these kinds of mental exercises so you can decide what kind of effort you are undertaking. Is feel safe saying that just to get looked at and not have your file thrown out, you would need a minimum of a 3.0 science gpa and above 3.0 overall. And to have a prayer, you'd need to have some really good health care experience... Like being a paramedic for several years. And that's only at the programs out there that still focus on recruiting health care workers. Most programs recruit applicants that are primarily high gpa students, and if they care about hce at all, they only require a token amount with a low level of responsibility. And the programs that do focus on high quality hce folks still have candidates with good grades.

 

[hughesn2]

2. I am getting ready to start studying for the GRE. Any recommendations on what book is best to use? I've seen so many and it's kind of overwhelming to choose one. Also, do you think it would be worth to take a pre-course? I know they are pretty expensive and I've gotten mixed opinions about whether it is worth to spend all that money.

3. As far as experience goes: do I need to have working experience or is volunteering and shadowing enough? If so, how many hours do you recommend doing?

2) The KAPLAN course book isn't bad. Check Amazon.com.

3) YES, you need experience. Especially when you are applying with a non-science degree and have below a 3.0 science GPA you would need an excessive amount of PAID CLINICAL HOURS. PA schools are competitive. That is a main reason why I have been pre-podiatry for quite some time. I love podiatry and that is my dream, but I do have backup plans like PA schools and other stuff. I know I would have little chance at the moment at most the MI PA schools with exception to EMU or WMU since they have newer programs. At each school's pre-reqs (I am guessing you have taken most of those classes) then look at the patient care hours if you aim just for the basic minimum requirement it will be hard to show a "WOW FACTOR."

For example, here in Michigan the PA schools are very competitive with respect to some states around here (at least from what my professors told me). A big issue with PA schools is that it isn't like MD, DO, or DPM school where there is ONE SET of minimum requirements/pre-reqs. One program has about 45 credits of science pre-reqs, while another program only requires 18 credits of science pre-reqs. Just in case you want to see the discrepancy in the Michigan PA schools between credits and patient care hours here is the URL: http://ns.msu.edu/premed/PrePAGuide.pdf Unfortunately, from when I was researching PA schools outside of Michigan there was no school that had a full set of pre-req requirements for ALL PA schools in their state.