Learn how real students navigate their way through the graduate school admissions process and grad school itself with our What is Graduate School Really Like? series. Meet Sarah, a new PA Sarah, thank you for sharing your story with us! Congratulations on recently becoming a PA! Where did you go to PA school, and when…
Is an Online Ivy League PA Program Too Good to Be True? [Episode 298]
Interview with James van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online [Show Summary] Have you always wanted to be a PA, but did circumstances in your life just not allow for it? Yale might have just the right program for you – a PA program delivered primarily online, with clinical experience in or near your hometown….
Why Should I Consider Allied Health Careers?
If the road to medical school seems too long, or you have financial constraints that prevent you from applying, you might want to consider a career that offers many of the same experiences a physician can have, but without the extensive schooling. Weighing Your Options: Pros & Cons of Allied Health Careers While length of…
How to Prepare for a PA School Interview
Physician Assistant program interviews are similar to medical school interviews. There are three possible interview formats: traditional, MMI (multiple mini interview) or a hybrid of these two. Traditional interviews involve anywhere from one to three people interviewing one to three students. It can be one-on-one or any other combination of these numbers. If a school…
Writing Your Physician Assistant (PA) Personal Statement
While there are many different ways to approach writing a personal statement (PS) for your PA application, I am including a successful example here. The character limit for the CASPA application PS is 5,000 characters with spaces. In this essay, you are responding to the question, “Why PA?” To write a compelling essay, take some…
Which One is Right for Me? PA vs. NP vs. Medical School
Why do you want to become a Physician Assistant (PA)? Why not a nurse practitioner or physician? To help you answer this question in more depth, I’m providing a direct comparison of these three educational and professional options by focusing on three specific programs. Using information from the top ranked programs from U.S. News and…
Why Should You Consider Becoming a PA?
Most of the clients I work with are dead set on becoming doctors. I believe this mindset exists because doctors have such a visible role in patient care historically, and in the media, are represented as being at the very top of the healthcare hierarchy. Physician assistants (PAs) are a relatively new member of the…
What to Look for When Selecting a Physician Assistant (PA) Program
One of the key requirements for choosing physician assistant (PA) programs is having information about the programs, including data on the programs’ matriculants. Unfortunately that’s more difficult to come by for PA applicants since the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants, (“CASPA”) simply does not provide data on applicants or matriculants for individual PA…
5 Qualities to Highlight in Your Physician Assistant Program Application
In addition to identifying students with academic promise, physician assistant programs are looking for students who have a wide range of specific personal characteristics. Based on the criteria for the most competitive PA programs, there are five general areas in which students are evaluated: 1. Academic potential This area includes the strength of your foundation…
How to Get Accepted to Physician Assistant (PA) Programs
Physician Assistants (PAs) are similar to doctors in many ways and serve as an important member of the healthcare team. They improve the ease and speed with which patients are able to see a healthcare provider. They take on about 80% of the same activities as doctors in patient care. They see patients to diagnose,…
The Inside Scoop on Life as a PA
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Andrea… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as…
A PA’s Positive Outlook: If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Jazmine Kwong… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study…
A PA with a Platform – Helping PA Students Push Toward Their Goals
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Savanna… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as…
How Patients Inspired This Future PA
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Jourdyn… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as…
Working as a Medical Scribe Led This Student to Her PA Dream
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Lorae… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as…
Andrea Benedict: Life as a Physician Assistant [Episode 234]
Our guest today is Andrea Benedict, Physician Assistant, creator of the YouTube channel, Life as a PA, and founder of MEDTakeovers. This very busy professional earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Delaware in neuroscience, and went straight to the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania’s Physician Assistant program. She has wide ranging experience as…
5 More Tips to Help You Become a Physician Assistant
If you missed the first 5 tips for acceptance to a Physician Assistant program, check them out here. 1. Double check deadlines and track your progress in a spreadsheet. Create an excel spreadsheet to give yourself a big picture of the application timeline. List each school and its individual deadline, as well as the dates…
5 Tips for Acceptance to a Physician Assistant Program
Over the years, I’ve helped many students get accepted into Physician Assistant (PA) Programs across the country. To apply to PA programs, you will use the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA). To help you send in an application that effectively presents your qualifications, I’m including five tips below to ensure that you, too,…
That PA Girl with Can’t-Miss Advice for Aspiring Physician Assistants
This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with medical school applicants and students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top medical schools and the med school application process. And now, introducing Lindsay El-Awadi… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as…
10 Reasons to Become a PA
I have worked as a Physician Assistant for about two years now, and I absolutely LOVE what I do. I do not have a shadow of doubt in my mind that this is exactly the right career choice for me. Prior to pursuing this career, I spent years researching exactly what PAs did in the…
