General What are my chances of PA school? My uGPA is haunting me.

[MusicDOc124]

Hi all, I want some realistic opinions of my chances at PA school acceptance. I’m a 30 yo female and feel that I don’t want to apply more than twice to schools when I’m also trying to plan the rest of my life. My undergrad GPA killed me. A lousy 3.2ish in psychology. Fast forward to now and I’ve been taking all my prerequisites at a CC and doing really well. I have a 4.0 post bacc and a 3.85 sGPA. The credits I have taken since have raised my cumulative to around a 3.5. I currently work as a MA in derm and have about 600 hours. Hopefully over 1,000 by next cycle. I want to take the GRE this winter. I volunteer at a local clinic and have been thinking about doing some medical mission trips as well.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m feeling pretty depressed about my chances and am unsure at this point if I should keep slogging along for something that I may have no shot at. :/ I had my heart set on Western Uni in Pomona and recently found that they do a tier system of interviews with your lowest GPA (cum, prerequisite, or science) deciding the order of interview. Last year they didn’t interview below a 3.5.

Hoping for some positive advice and feedback.

Many schools have variations in pre-reqs (i.e. some require genetics, but others don't, etc). I'd apply as broadly as you can and attempt to get your GPA to a 3.6+ along with more hours, but more diverse hours. You allude to the last part mentioning medical trips, but something more clinical as in the hospital as a tech or something may be more beneficial than being an MA in derm - also consider EMT or something. A 3.5 isn't bad for PA school overall, but it depends on where you're applying.

- get the GPA up slightly higher - would recommend scrubbing through pre-req lists on various schools sites and see if there are any for any school you have not yet completed and take those to increase your GPA and being able to add more schools to your app.
- get more diverse hours with a total of 1000+.
- applying broadly (also see first bullet).

Good luck.

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