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How to Get into PA School: An Admissions Committee Insider Perspective – Interview with Jay Geary, MSPAS, PA-C 

In an exclusive interview with Jay Geary PA-C from MCPHS Worcester, we delved into the many aspects of navigating the path to successful admission into PA school.

We first share key takeaways from the interview followed by a transcript of the interview.

1. Importance of GPA: Jay Geary PA-C emphasizes that GPA is a crucial factor in PA school admissions, advising applicants to aim for a GPA well above the minimum requirement, ideally around 3.5.
2. Significance of Direct Patient Care Experience: Geary underscores the importance of meaningful hands-on patient care experience, suggesting that roles requiring a license or certificate carry more weight. He recommends at least a thousand hours, ideally started during undergraduate years.
3. PA Shadowing: According to Jay Geary, PA shadowing is deemed valuable by PA schools and he suggests a minimum of 20 hours. He emphasizes that quality matters, encouraging applicants to diversify their experiences across different specialties to better understand the PA role.
4. Leadership and Volunteer Experience: Volunteer and leadership experiences, particularly in clubs or organizations, are viewed favorably by admissions committees. Geary notes that being a leader in a fraternity, sorority, or pre-PA club can strengthen an applicant’s profile.
5. Resilience and Determination: Jay Geary highlights resilience and determination as distinguishing factors. He shares an anecdote of a successful applicant who demonstrated a strong desire for the PA profession despite facing initial setbacks.
6. Prerequisites and Hands-On Experience: Jay Geary cautions against applying with outstanding prerequisites and limited hands-on direct patient care experience, considering these among the common mistakes applicants make. He emphasizes the need for applicants to be well-prepared for interviews.
7. Non-Traditional Applicants: According to Jay Geary, applications from non-traditional PA school applicants are welcome. Geary acknowledges that life circumstances may lead individuals to pursue a PA career later in life. However, he advises non-traditional applicants to gain healthcare experience before applying.
8. Letters of Recommendation: Geary stresses the importance of a balanced set of letters of recommendation for PA school, with at least one from a PA. He discourages biased or generic letters and recommends seeking recommendations from individuals who can provide meaningful insights into an applicant’s abilities.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Jay Geary PA-C is an Associate Professor at the School of Physician Assistant Studies at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Worcester, MA

Admissions Helpers: First off, thank you for being here with us today. I want to start by having you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.

Jay Geary PA-C: My name’s Jay Geary. I’ve been a PA for almost 30 years now. I’ve worked in emergency medicine and orthopedics. I have been on the faculty at the MCPHS Worcester’s PA program for 11 years and I really enjoy teaching students.

Admissions Helpers: What’s the MCPHS Worcester Program like?

Jay Geary PA-C: MCPHS Worcester is a combined program with MCPHS Manchester. We’re called a synchronized distance education program. So, if I lecture in Worcester, there are students up in Manchester who are watching live and they can ask questions in real time.

Admissions Helpers: What is your role in the admissions process at MCPHS?

Jay Geary PA-C: I am on the admissions committee for the PA program and I review applications for our program. We use a rubric system where we rank applicants based on their GPA, their patient care experience, their interview, and other factors in their application. Those with the highest scores get accepted to our PA program.

Admissions Helpers: As someone with insider knowledge of the PA school admissions process, in your view, what are the main things that PA programs look for in PA school applicants?

Jay Geary PA-C: The GPA is probably number one. Your GPA can’t be at the bare minimum. Make sure your GPA is well above the minimum, which is usually a 3.0. If you just have the minimum GPA, chances are you’re not going to get in. The average GPA for somebody getting accepted to PA school is about a 3.5 give or take.

Admissions Helpers: After the GPA, what would you rate as most important for PA school admission?

Jay Geary PA-C: The second thing would be direct patient care experience.

Admissions Helpers: In your opinion, what is considered good direct patient care experience for PA school?

Jay Geary PA-C: It depends a lot on the nature of the work. We get people that have worked as a PT aid but all they are doing is bringing the patient into the room and maybe taking vital signs, but there’s little actual hands-on patient care experience. We prefer something that’s a bit more involved.

We really like people who have had a patient care role that requires a license or certificate. We’ve had some nutritionists who’ve done very well in PA school. My personal opinion is that working in an emergency department as an ER tech is good experience for PA school because in the ED you see just about everything. Medical missions overseas can also be a nice way to add to your direct patient care experience before applying to PA school.

Admissions Helpers: What do you think is a good number of hours an applicant should have?

Jay Geary PA-C: I like to see at least a thousand hours. While you’re an undergraduate student, if you work 250 hours in a year, you will get to 1000 hours over the four years. I also see a lot of people who do a gap year and get work experience then. I’m okay with that, but you should try to start getting patient care hours while you are in undergrad. That gives me an indication that you’ve thought about a career in medicine from before.

But I also understand if people decide to become a PA a bit later in their undergrad career. After all, I was a non-traditional student. When I was in college, I was focused on hockey!

Admissions Helpers: Great, so we have said that the GPA is most important followed by patient care experience. What else do you consider in a PA school applicant?

Jay Geary PA-C: We really like to see PA shadowing. Not all PA programs require this. I like to see at least 20 hours of PA shadowing. This shows me that you have an idea of what PAs do. Also, if you can shadow multiple PAs across different specialties, you get a better idea of what each specialty is looking for. When we interview PA school applicants, we want to know whether they understand what a PA is. Shadowing is a good way to learn about the role of a PA.

Admissions Helpers: What’s a good way for students to show that they understand the role of a PA in an interview?

Jay Geary PA-C: When I interview students and ask them about the role of the PA, some will give me the definition that’s on the AAPA website. I don’t really want to hear that. I want you to have worked with a PA and know what a PA does so that I know that you know what you’re getting yourself into.

A lot of PA school applicants come in and they just see the salary and the fact that they can be done in two years and out working. I understand that’s part of the draw to the profession. But you have to know what you’re getting yourself into.

 

Admissions Helpers: What role do you think leadership and volunteer experience play in the admissions process to PA school?

Jay Geary PA-C: Volunteer and leadership experience go a long way at most programs. If you have somebody who’s been a leader in a fraternity or sorority or some type of club, that looks nice.

Another example is someone who has been the officer for the pre-PA club at their campus putting in the time and effort to organize events like bringing in admissions committee members. That kind of thing goes a long way, in my opinion.

 

Admissions Helpers: What can PA school applicants do to distinguish themselves from other applicants beyond the GPA and patient care experience?

Jay Geary PA-C: Resilience and determination are a great way to distinguish yourself. I interviewed one student for our PA school a few years ago. His GPA was a bit lower, maybe between 3.3 and 3.4. He was a paramedic in his late 20s. I saw that he had applied to our program twice before and gotten waitlisted both times.

So, I asked him, what are you going to do if you don’t get in again? And he said I will just keep working on improving myself and you’ll see me here again next year. That sold him to me because it was clear that he really wanted to be a PA. You could tell he was confident in himself. He knew he could do it. He ended up getting accepted that year and came into our program and did well.

Admissions Helpers: What’s your advice to PA school applicants who didn’t do well in college, say they have a 2.9 GPA, but they really want to be PAs and they’re very serious about it. How should students with lower GPAs make up for their low grades to get into PA school?

Jay Geary PA-C: If they didn’t do well in their prerequisites, I like to see them go back and retake those prerequisites. To me, the most important prerequisites are organic chemistry and biochemistry. There was a study I read that two of the best indicators for success in PA school are how well you do in organic chemistry and biochemistry.

I don’t necessarily think you need to redo the lab because the lecture is more important. But I’d also want to see applicants with lower grades take more advanced science courses along with retaking courses they did poorly in. It’s also better if they retake the courses at a four-year university, not at a community college.

 

Admissions Helpers: If someone has a lower overall GPA but they have an upward trend, do you take that into consideration?

Jay Geary PA-C: Yes. I look at the last two years closely. If I see that in your first two years, you got a C in biology or a C in the first semester of general chemistry, but then in the second semester you got an A and you know, you got an A or an A minus in organic and biochemistry, I take that into consideration. 

Admissions Helpers: In the time you have been on the admissions committee, I imagine you have read a lot of personal statements. What is considered a strong PA PA school personal statement?

Jay Geary PA-C: Let me start by saying that I hate flowery language. I would rather they speak directly about their experience and use their experiences to tell me what made it click for them that they wanted to be a PA. I want to see that there’s a connection between them and the PA profession. Either they have shadowed a PA or worked with a PA and they know what the role is.

It may even be in a subspecialty. They may work in orthopedics with a PA who specializes in the upper extremity, but they’re still seeing the role of a PA every day. I want students who understand that being a PA is not a nine-to-five job. You do what you have to do until everything’s done and then you go home. If that includes dictating your notes, making callbacks to patients to tell them about MRI results or calling in medications, you stick around until it’s done.

When I interview someone for PA school or read their personal statement, I want to make sure they know the hard work and sacrifice involved in being a PA.  

 

Admissions Helpers: What are the three top mistakes you see people make when they apply to PA school?

Jay Geary PA-C: The big thing is not having all the prerequisites done. You do see a lot of people who apply without the prerequisite. We will allow a few prerequisites to be outstanding. And sometimes, you know, they’ll either be accepted or put on a waiting list, pending the completion of the outstanding prerequisites. But if they’ve got two or three prerequisites that are still outstanding, I’m a little more leery of them.

The second biggest mistake is coming in with very limited hands-on direct patient care experience for PA school. How do you know what you’re getting yourself into if you’ve never really had to take care of a patient, right? I also see a lot of PA school applicants who are not ready for the interview. We want to make sure that students come in prepared for the role.

 

Admissions Helpers: What’s your view on non-traditional applicants to PA school, people who go back and start working towards getting into PA school after some time in the workforce?

Jay Geary PA-C: I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Some people get married young, have families, and they can’t go to PA school after college. And then, when their significant other or spouse gets established in their career, they go back. I knew someone who was from the same town as me, Worcester, and she was a medical lab technologist.

She decided to go to PA school in her 30s when she had three little kids and she was accepted to our program. When she came in, she blew people away with how quickly she learned and how hard she worked.

For non-traditional students coming from a non-healthcare background, I want to see them start working in healthcare before applying. If you want to be a PA, you can’t keep working as say, an accountant and apply to PA school.

Even if you take a second job working as an EMT or a CNA on weekends, that shows initiative that you are trying to find out more about the profession. I also want to see that they have shadowed a PA so that they know what they are getting themselves into.

 

Admissions Helpers: What about letters of recommendation? At your PA program, who do you like to see letters of recommendation from, typically?

Jay Geary PA-C: We always like to see at least one letter of recommendation from a PA. For me, that’s always a big thing. I see some people that apply with three letters of recommendation, two are from professors and one is from their primary care doctor or from a family friend.

The ones that are from family friends, we don’t even look at. The ones that say, I’ve known John Smith since he was a baby – to me, that’s a biased letter. It’s not telling me anything really truthful. I would much rather see one from a doctor you have worked with or even a nursing supervisor if you were a CNA for example. A letter from a professor is also good.

The other thing is to make sure you’re asking for letters of recommendation from people who are going to say positive things about you. We’ve had some PA school applicants ask professors they didn’t know. The professors sent in letters saying, I didn’t know this student very well, but they did well in my class. As an admissions committee member, that doesn’t tell me anything.

 

Admissions Helpers: How many letters of recommendation do you like to see from PA school applicants?

Jay Geary PA-C: We require three letters. Most places require three letters of reference. If you can get more, get more. But you shouldn’t do more than five.

 

Admissions Helpers: Good to know. I think this is a really good overview about what applicants should know to get into PA school. We really appreciate your time!