Here we go with Part 2! 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. Also I am a myPAbox associate and I receive a small commission when you use my promo code. (Click HERE if you want to read the full disclaimer page)
What schools should I apply to?
The next thing I did was add my schools. I used myPAbox.com to figure out what schools would be a good fit and wow, this saved me! I’m not sponsored (10/14/21 EDIT: I got a promo code for you all now 😊 –> the code is pompee2pa for 15% off! I’ll show you a full breakdown on how to use it in Part 3) so that’s how you know they were clutch. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if you haven’t, they are the best! It’s basically a PA school search engine with every PA school in the nation, organized ever so perfectly lol. You can look up any school based on your stats. You can search by state, accreditation status, GPA, prerequisites, and more. Tuition was a huge factor for me since I knew I’d be applying out of state. It all depends on preference.
Although myPAbox is da bomb, bebi *Haitian accent* is not free. It’s $66 including tax. For my broke people, I totally understand if you are trying to stretch out the pennies you don’t have. I was in that space last year. Shoot I am right now lol. However, I highly recommend it. To maximize your profile, I suggest you fill out all your prereqs, grades, recommenders, GRE/MCAT/PA-CAT, PCE/HCE hours, and shadowing to have. This. Took. Time lol. But it’s worth it! This helped me create a REALISTIC list of schools that would at least look at my application. When I applied, my overall GPA was 3.01. Here I was feeling confident about my grades, not thinking anything of it, until I heard about CASPA’s special way of calculating your GPA 🥴.
CASPA’s “Special” GPA Formula
I thought I would be at 3.4, but at the time I didn’t realize the way that they calculated GPAs was so weird. Here’s the breakdown from CASPA right here: Calculating Your GPA
Thankfully, I learned about this early on, because myPAbox calculates your science GPA (sGPA) and cumulative GPA (cGPA) for you. As you can see, I was riiiiiiiiiight there on the line 🤏🏾 lol, so I wasn’t trying to waste my money or time and I don’t want that for you either.
Is myPAbox.com my only option?
Not at all! For those that want a free option, I would focus on your non-negotiable factors like location, tuition price, your budget, etc. first. Then from there, you can curate a list that way. This is a much more tedious process since you have go to each school’s individual website to get their information, but it’s not impossible. When I first got started, I based my choices solely on my budget. The fee waiver did cut down the cost of a few applications, and supplements which was nice (we’ll talk more about that in Part 3).
