Hey lovely people! I’m so excited, because this marks the first of my Pre-PA to PA-S series! Quick disclaimer, this is in no way a foolproof plan to get into PA school. This is just what worked for me so please keep that in mind. Alright, let’s get to business.
How Do I Get Started?
First, I set up my CASPA account. I’m happy that my coworkers put me onto this because this saved me so much time. You have to do this while the previous application is still up. Make sure that you have all of your transcripts available so it’ll be easier to input all of your grades. When you get onto CASPA, fill out all of the information that you can, excluding letters of recommendation, exam score reports, and transcripts (those don’t get transferred over). This part is such a headache, and is tedious so the sooner you can get it out of the way, the better.
I made a fake account to see if there were any significant changes from last year, and the only thing I noticed was that they ask you what date you are trying to start school. For that, I chose undecided, and I moved on to the next page which was adding your schools. You have to add at least one in order to fill out the rest of your profile so for this, I would choose any one. It doesn’t matter at this point, because when you “reapply” (you’ll know what I mean in a sec), the supplementary applications, if the schools have them, will have new questions. So really just focus on filling out the miscellaneous info, like high school info, pre reqs, etc.
New Application Is OPEN
You’ve been waiting patiently for the new application to drop and it’s finally here! Remember when I said you were going to “reapply”? Here’s what I mean. Technically since you opened an application during the previous cycle, you are now considered a re-applicant. Does this worsen your chances of getting into school? Not at all. It’s just a title. It holds no weight. Now that you are applying for real, the first thing you need to do is when you log onto CASPA, it’s going to ask you, “Do you want to start a fresh application or copy application data?”. This part is CRUCIAL! If you click, fresh application, all of the info, and the time you spent inputting your pre-reqs will be wasted. Guys, please. Click COPY APPLICATION DATA.
I promise you, you will thank me later.
For me, it took about a day for all of my information to carry over successfully. But that isn’t guaranteed for everyone. I know for a couple of my friends, it took days and even up to 2 weeks, so keep that in mind. They emailed me when the processing was complete. Once it was available, the first few things I did was request my transcripts, create evaluation requests, and send my GRE score reports. These take the longest time so you might as well get them out of the way.
Jo, I think you forgot something.
Now that you know how to set up the foundation of your application, you need to find the right schools that will give you a chance! We’ll talk about that in part 2.
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