General Low GPA Undergrad-any chances for PA school?

[Mr.Smile12]

I am currently a Medical Laboratory Scientist. I have been working in the medical field for 3 years now. I am interested in applying for PA school. I am little discouraged to try due to a low GPA (2.9). I have about 200 credit hours on my transcript. I have an upward trend the last 2 years of college. Dean's list twice. I have taken several challenging courses like Pharmacology, Medical Physiology, Hematology, Microbiology and so on. My current career has limited patient contact. I was a CNA for 1 and a half (started on 2015). I am trying to find a PA to shadow currently. Do I have a chance to apply for schools with minimum 3.0?
Any advice? Thank you.

If you are working in a hospital setting, finding a PA isn't that hard (approaching one to shadow of course is a networking skill you have to develop). I think you have to do your homework on schools where you want to apply and see if your experience meets their clinical hours requirements. You also probably have to take the GRE. Reach out to PA program directors and admissions folks and maybe they know of some alumni you can talk to.

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[Mr.Smile12]

UTHSC is the college I want to apply to has a minimum of 500, so I fit the requirement. Besides the GRE and PA Shadowing, any advice on grades? Do I need to do a post-bacc?

Have you networked with the school? Attended any information sessions (online or in person)?

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[Mr.Smile12]

I did the PAEA Virtual Fair with a lot of schools you can chat with. I am scheduled for UTHSC this coming March for a start. I had asked about my situation, but the sheer number of people asking at the same time made it difficult to communicate.

That's a good place to start. Anything to at least get to a point where you can talk directly to someone, even in a small group when you do the in-person visit, is helpful. Keep working on establishing a relationship with them and with current students.

 

[MusicDOc124]

I am currently a Medical Laboratory Scientist. I have been working in the medical field for 3 years now. I am interested in applying for PA school. I am little discouraged to try due to a low GPA (2.9). I have about 200 credit hours on my transcript. I have an upward trend the last 2 years of college. Dean's list twice. I have taken several challenging courses like Pharmacology, Medical Physiology, Hematology, Microbiology and so on. My current career has limited patient contact. I was a CNA for 1 and a half (started on 2015). I am trying to find a PA to shadow currently. Do I have a chance to apply for schools with minimum 3.0?
Any advice? Thank you.

In your current state, based on what's provided, you don't have enough going for you for an app at this time. Most PA schools require a 3.0 to even apply, and that is not to be competitive. And while you may have enough patient care experience from being a CNA if that was full time (would equate to about 3000 hours for period stated), but it's very dated 4+ years. You'd have to try to document what aspects (and how much) of your current position does involved direct patient contact.

Do you have all of the pre-reqs covered? Most commonly (with some variability), they are: bio 1/2, chem 1/2, +/- 1 semester of orgo (or biochem or bio-organic chem), microbio, genetics, medical terminology, anatomy/physiology (either 1/2 or ea as a separate 1 semester course), psych/social science, statistics, and a minimum of 300 or 500 patient contact hours (again minimum, not competitive).

 

[MusicDOc124]

I didn’t realize that patient contact hours have to be recent...

This is school dependent. It's less about how recent, more about the gap. For instance, someone who has 20,000 hours because they worked as a nurse prior for 10 years, well all those hours are great. But someone with 2,000 from 5 years ago - the number itself is fine, but I'd question why there was a gap if someone is interested in PA school, and what that experience is worth if it's so dated that it's been years since they talked to a patient. Despite (in the example) that 20k hours goes back 10 years versus 5 years. The 10 years would have been consistent and longitudinal. Does that make sense?

You'll have to ask schools about that and see if there it a timeframe they expect.