General How much experience is enough for PA?

[MusicDOc124]

I graduated with a Bachelor in Exercise Science with an overall GPA of 3.2 in December 2019. I was required to complete 1,000 hours of observation and about 600 of them were hands-on. With my education and my internship hours, I am now eligible to become a registered Kinesiotherapist this July.
Outside of school and interning, I worked in a hospital and a psychiatrist's office as a medical scribe for a little over 2 years where I had obtained a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge.
With all of this being said, I am now preparing myself for PA school. Next semester, I will take some pre-reqs and retake a class or so to enhance my GPA. However, I am at a stand still. I am unsure if my experiences are more than enough or not enough. I am seeking any advice that could possibly help me make myself a better candidate

To add to my internship experience, I worked in a clinic with stroke and cardiac patients. I had my own patients where I would take vitals, monitor and guide them through exercises, progress and digress them appropriately, and write at-home exercise prescriptions.

How many hours do you have in total of direct patient contact. NOT including observation only (i.e. you mention 1000 with 600 hands on, so for that, you'd have 600 hours). Then, how many hours do you have in observation only (i.e. the 400 from previous, any shadowing of PAs, NPs, or physicians, etc)?

Both GPA and experience are very important. And both are looked at critically.

Most, if not all PA schools have a MINIMUM of 3.0 to apply, with average GPA somewhere around 3.4-3.6, so while you meet the minimum requirement, you're still on the lower side.

Keep in mind that the whole PA profession was build on experience. It started out as Navy Corpsman who had field experience but it didnt translate to the civilian world.

The more experience, at higher levels, doing more matters a lot, as does the amount. Many schools put a minimum of 300 or 500 hours to even apply. The average number of hours is somewhere between 1500-2000. To be competitive at a few specific places, you need upwards of 3000 hours (at least this was the case when I was going through the process yearsssss ago, which was stated on their pages).

Your aim to be as competitive as possible should be nothing less than a B in all pre-reqs, preferably As, with a GPA of at least 3.5 and 1500-2000 hours of direct patient contact, which I'm not including shadowing or observing, which still counts some and plays a role. If you can do more than that great! If you approach it, you'll still have a shot, just not as strong compared to many others applying.

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[Mr.Smile12]

I'd also recommend reaching out to current students in PA programs and the PA's you've shadowed for what they did to gain acceptance to a PA program.