Looking for advice/direction

[Spaniel1287]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello all, this is my first post to these boards and I came here hoping to seek some answers or at least some guidance. To give a breakdown of myself, I just recently turned 26. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in Health Science 3 years ago. I knew I wanted to do something medically related, but I didn't know what. While in my undergrad, here are the relevant courses that I took:

Chem I : C
Chem II : C
Organic Chem I : B-
Organic Chem II : C
Organic Chem Lab : B-
Bio I : C
Bio II : D (retook same class next semester and got a C+)
Physics I : B
Physics II : B+
College Statistics : B
Intro to Psychology : A
Developmental Psychology: A
Abnormal Psychology : A
Human Anatomy and Physiology I : B
Adv Human Anatomy and Physiology II : B+ (both with cadaver labs)
Microbiology: A
Genetics: A
Biochemistry : B+
Medical Terminology: A

Last year I went back to the university and retook Chem I and Bio I and received a B in both classes, which is a step up from the C I got in both classes a few years prior.

I have worked as a Phlebotomist in a hospital for over 2 years now and am over 4,000+ direct patient care hours. I have 40 hours of shadowing with PA's, and I have about over 500 hours in community service and volunteer work.

I am needing some direction as in to where to go from here. I applied to 7 PA schools and have received 6 rejections so far. On CASPA, it calculates my science GPA to around 2.8 and my overall GPA around 3.1. Most schools you research say they want a minimum of 3.0 GPA, my question is what do you? Sitting at a 2.8 science GPA, there is no way to raise that over 3.0. If you were to do the math, it would take over 6-7 classes of getting A's in to get that over a 3.0 due to the established GPA.

I am at a bit of a loss. My early college career, I wasn't as focused as I am now. I went to a local university to do AP 1&2, Microbio, Biochem, Genetics, Med Term and Psych classes. On my transcript, if you add up the last 60 semester hours, I have about a 3.7. However, CASPA unfortunately just throws everything into one big pot and it kind of screws people over who took a little longer to get their head straightened out.

I don't know if I am suppose to just ditch the whole PA dream and maybe try to go the nursing route or what? Thanks for anyone's input.

 

[Makati2008]

Hello all, this is my first post to these boards and I came here hoping to seek some answers or at least some guidance. To give a breakdown of myself, I just recently turned 26. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in Health Science 3 years ago. I knew I wanted to do something medically related, but I didn't know what. While in my undergrad, here are the relevant courses that I took:

Chem I : C
Chem II : C
Organic Chem I : B-
Organic Chem II : C
Organic Chem Lab : B-
Bio I : C
Bio II : D (retook same class next semester and got a C+)
Physics I : B
Physics II : B+
College Statistics : B
Intro to Psychology : A
Developmental Psychology: A
Abnormal Psychology : A
Human Anatomy and Physiology I : B
Adv Human Anatomy and Physiology II : B+ (both with cadaver labs)
Microbiology: A
Genetics: A
Biochemistry : B+
Medical Terminology: A

Last year I went back to the university and retook Chem I and Bio I and received a B in both classes, which is a step up from the C I got in both classes a few years prior.

I have worked as a Phlebotomist in a hospital for over 2 years now and am over 4,000+ direct patient care hours. I have 40 hours of shadowing with PA's, and I have about over 500 hours in community service and volunteer work.

I am needing some direction as in to where to go from here. I applied to 7 PA schools and have received 6 rejections so far. On CASPA, it calculates my science GPA to around 2.8 and my overall GPA around 3.1. Most schools you research say they want a minimum of 3.0 GPA, my question is what do you? Sitting at a 2.8 science GPA, there is no way to raise that over 3.0. If you were to do the math, it would take over 6-7 classes of getting A's in to get that over a 3.0 due to the established GPA.

I am at a bit of a loss. My early college career, I wasn't as focused as I am now. I went to a local university to do AP 1&2, Microbio, Biochem, Genetics, Med Term and Psych classes. On my transcript, if you add up the last 60 semester hours, I have about a 3.7. However, CASPA unfortunately just throws everything into one big pot and it kind of screws people over who took a little longer to get their head straightened out.

I don't know if I am suppose to just ditch the whole PA dream and maybe try to go the nursing route or what? Thanks for anyone's input.

With a 2.8 science GPA few(if any) PA schools will offer you an interview and I doubt any will accept you. The last stat I saw was the overall PA gpa is about 3.5 and science gpa was greater than 3.0(can't remember how much more) as well.

I would recommend trying another field in healthcare that you could get into( I don't know the rn, rt, paramedic cut off gpas) work in that field, continue improving your gpa and reapplying to pa school or if you get into nursing school a NP program down the line.