The work truly never ends does it? Most of us in this program have goals of eventually entering medical school, PA school, DO school, optometry school, etc. Unfortunately, rocking this program academically does not guarantee automatic acceptance into any of these schools (although it should…we work hard!). I, too, am currently in the process of beginning to apply to PA school. Even though PA school applications do not open up until April 27, I am doing my best to make a head start on gathering up the necessary information that I will need for my application. If any of you are applying to professional school this year, my biggest piece of advice for you is to START EARLY. The earlier you start, the less stressed out you will be and the last thing we need on top of our schoolwork is MORE stress.
Having a hard time knowing where to start? No worries, below I have listed some tip to help you get started and begin making headway.
1. Figure out your current academic profile. Sometimes this can be difficult, because personally, I would like to absolutely forget about the mistakes I made as an undergraduate student. Unfortunately, the past cannot be erased, so if your grades as an undergraduate student were not that great, try not to dwell on it too much. Dwell on the things that you actually can change, which is your GPA in this program. When you write your personal statement, make sure to discuss why your GPA wasn’t so great as an undergraduate and how you have grown from your mistakes since then. Also, reach out to the schools that you are interested in and ask them if they suggest that you retake breadth science courses (i.e. organic chemistry, general biology, etc) or take higher level science courses instead.
2. Make a list of the schools that fit your academic profile. Keep it real with yourself on this one. I am currently in this stage right now and I must say, while there are a significant amount of PA programs out there, many of them do not fit my academic profile. Sometimes I feel discouraged about this, but like I mentioned above, it’s best to concentrate on the things that you can still change. Make a list of schools that you believe you have a chance of being interviewed/accepted, because as we all know, applying to these schools is not cheap. Specifically, I am looking at schools that will actually look at my master’s/post bac GPA and/or will look at the last 60-90 hours of my course work. Once I am done with this process, I will reach out to the schools and make sure they know my name, so that when my application slides smoothly across their desks, they’ll say “oh yes! Nkem! We remember that name, because she has reached out to us already expressing her interest in entering our program”.
Sidenote: Milan and Ben are actually in the process of reaching out to the DO schools and asking them a list of questions pertaining to the recent grade replacement change. I will also begin making a list of PA schools that will look at postbac/master program students.
3. Keep your options open, if possible. Some people have strict requirements in terms of where they want to go to professional school. I personally cannot afford to be picky, so I am open to going literally ANYWHERE. Seriously. If I got into PA school in a submarine, I would go. (I know that sounds desperate, but I’m honestly so ready to start a rewarding career as PA school. I’m also tired of taking out student loans). Ultimately, the more open-minded you are about the location of the school, the more options you may have.
4. Make sure you go to the MA in Biomedicine…to fill out the necessary forms that will help you prepare for the application process. Make sure that this is done ahead of time, so that you are not scrambling at the last minute. Also, talk to Cheryl, Julia or Carolyn if you need help/guidance.
5. Start asking about letter of recommendations early on. This way, you can put the idea in the professor/faculty member’s mind early and then you can periodically give them polite reminders as your deadline approaches.
6. Start writing your personal statement. As many times as I have applied to schools, I now know that writing a personal statement is not that easy. Writing a personal statement requires deep introspection, because this is where you are discussing why you should be accepted into their program over everyone else. The earlier you start writing it, the more time you have to ask yourself the hard questions and decide what your best qualities are (in case you do not know what those are yet). Also make sure you talk about your growth academically and as an individual, as well as brief explanations for low grades in the past.
7. Study for those standardized tests. Give yourself enough time to study and prepare yourself before the test. As we all know, these tests are expensive, so you want to make sure you do your absolute best the first time.
8. EARLY, EARLY, EARLY. That is basically the main theme here my friends. The earlier you start gathering everything, the better off you will be. As an incentive, many programs operate by doing rolling admissions. Therefore, the earlier you submit your application, the more likely that they will really look at it with fresh and open-minded eyes (as opposed to submitting it a few weeks before the deadline when they’re mentally over it and likely to be more harsh).
Cake walk right? No but seriously, take it one day a time and do not lose the faith! You did not make it this far just to fail. Everyday you wake up is positive reinforcement that you’re suppose to be here and that you have purpose. Just continue to do well in this program, surround yourself with positivity and have a bit of courage. We’re going to make it!
-Nk
P.S. Congratulations to our friend Shanae Scott, who has been accepted to University of Pikeville-Kentucky College of Optometry! You worked hard and we’re proud of you!