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When you submit your PA school application, you’ll need to include a great personal statement inside your CASPA (The Central Application Service for Physician Assistants) application. Writing the perfect PA personal statement to get an interview for your dream PA program is not an easy task and it might be the toughest part of the application process for many students. We’ll go over a specific PA school personal statement example both before and after we offered our expert insights to demonstrate what makes a good personal statement for PA schools. A key component in writing your personal statement is going over certain experiences you had that qualifies you to get into a great school. Reading other PA school personal statement examples written by other physician assistants helps you better understand what you should be writing and become a physician assistant.
Provided is an example PA personal statement submitted to us by one of our clients who wanted to work in the medical field as a primary care provider. This client is applying to physician assistant school for the first time and ordered our Advanced Revision package. The first PA personal statement essay is what he initially submitted to us. The final draft of the PA personal statement essay is what he has submitted to CASPA. Identifying information has been removed from the PA school essay (with permission from the applicant) to respect their anonymity.
His experience with us was fantastic. He ended up getting into his dream program by writing a stellar essay explaining his college career and experiences in his own words, even though his high school grades and college grades weren’t the greatest. In this article, we go over an excellent example of a PA personal statement that got our client into PA school.
In order to write the best PA personal statement, you should understand the purpose of writing a personal statement in the first place. The purpose of writing a physician assistant personal statement is show to admissions committees why you chose to pursue medicine, why you want to become a physician assistant and why you’re qualified to work in a doctor’s office.
These admissions committee members want to understand why you became interested in becoming a physician assistant, and what work/healthcare experience and personal experiences you’ve had that have prepared you to become a PA. This allows the admission committee members to see what kind of student you are and your academic background. By answering these important questions, you make your application much more likely to get accepted to your dream PA program.
Before you begin writing your PA personal statement, remember, you have a 5,000 character limit, which works out to be around 800 words. Keep your audience in mind as you research, outline, and write the rough drafts and final draft of your application essay. Read as many PA school application essays written by other applicants as you can to get a better understanding of the structure and make sure to review it for potential grammatical errors or spelling errors before submission.
You want impress the committee members with your strong personal statement? When writing your PA personal statement, you must understand how you should structure the content of your entire essay. Any good PA school personal essay includes an opening statement, a body, and a compelling summary or strong conclusion of your personal essay. You should also make sure your essay has no grammatical mistakes as well as no awkward phrasing and everything is correct. As a future PA student determined to offer quality care to your own patients, you must prove that you are concise, detail oriented and well organized.
Something to think about when writing your PA personal statement is how you’re going to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to continue reading. It essentially sets the tone for the remainder of your essay. Some PA colleges would rather have you write a more straightforward essay, while others in the academic community would rather have you write a personal anecdote or work experience in the healthcare field, that sets you apart from the rest of the personal statements admissions boards are reviewing.
You should include a personal experience for the admissions committee, making the case that you possess desired personality traits and are a good match for the school. These can include your volunteer experiences i.e. in a nursing home or shelter, anything you learned during your medical experiences, or if you were ever taken care of by a physician assistant, nurse practitioners or other medical professionals.
When writing this section of your PA application essay, you go over why you make the decision to apply to their PA school, as well as why you want to be a professional physician assistant.
You should also include in the PA personal statement how you accumulated knowledge on medicine, whether by going over your experience with shadowing healthcare professionals and patient interactions, educating yourself by reading, a related class that you took at the graduate school, or personal experience and learnings from a friend or family member. (for instance, for a few weeks you’ve had the opportunity to shadow a nurse practitioner in a medically underserved area, and even though you’ve been directly involved in stressful situations, you’ve had positive patient outcomes).
Be sure to articulate what skills you have that would prove that you’d be a great PA, such as your passion for working as a healthcare provider, compassion, or teamwork.
It would also be wise to bring up any obstacles during your prior schooling. Conveying these experiences and your story makes your PA personal statement more relatable.
This last paragraph may be the most memorable aspect of your PA personal statement. In your final thoughts, drive the point home on why you want to become a physician assistant, and why you want to be an alumni of that specific PA program.
Imagine a person can live healthy from the day he/she born until they die. How great it would be if they can go after the passion they have and help the world with their unique abilities. For instance, Late Mr. Steve Jobs, who doesn’t know him, a cofounder and CEO of Apple,Inc, who gave the technology a new direction that we all use it now in the form of smartphone and many more. He diagnosed of pancreas neuroendocrine tumor in 2003 and died in 2011. Now, it is a fact that we all will die when time comes but until that experience, we have a choice to be healthy so that we can help the world by our unique abilities and follow our passion. My passion is that I want to increase all of my patient’s healthy years in their lives and that is why I would like to get into a physician Assistant school.
I was born and raised in _______, located in west coast of India. I came to the United States with my family in 2001. My uncle was a respected physician in Indian which influenced me and I decided to fulfill my career in the field of medicine. I spend my four years at _______ University in biology major. As I was about to start my last semester, I got admission into ________ Medical University, ________ where I earned my medical degree.
Financial situation plays a major role in one’s life so does mine. Everyone knows about lowest economy in 2008 and it hit so many people including me. I stopped getting loan during my fifth semester of my medical school. At same time my parents lost their jobs and situation came down for our survival. Because of financial stress, I just could not work hard which is the reason for my low performance in United States Medical Licensing Examination and I could not get into medical residency. I have cleared USMLE step 1, step 2 and even step 3 which is usually be taken after medical residency but I have cleared it which proves not only that I will excel the physician assistant school but also physician assistant as a career wise.
While at ________ Medical Center in New York, I saw a patient who was suffering from kidney failure due to complications from diabetes. His treatment was successful, but I realized he harbored a deeper and far more dangerous condition: ignorance. Whether he hadn’t listened, hadn’t comprehended, or wasn’t fully informed during his initial diagnosis, he had no clue of the effects of his disease. After informing him his kidneys had just failed, and that next time he could suffer from neurological problems, ulcers, infections, and even the loss of a leg or his life, he agreed to start taking his medication on a regular basis, without fail. The majority of these complications are preventable. Most patients are simply uneducated. They neglect their regular checkups, forget to take their meds, and end up with severe cases of otherwise treatable diseases. I want to offer them proper education; I want to work with them on their overall health; I want to work from the start with my patients. Having a disease is one thing. Understanding and treating its expression is another.
I am working hard to achieve my goals and dreams, but somehow I sense it is not enough. I seek a physician assistant school that will direct me to be the best I can be, push me beyond my perceived limits, expand my knowledge, and help me to become a competent Physician Assistant worthy of his esteemed profession.
As a contributor on a multidisciplinary team of health care providers, I pledge to strengthen my clinical skill set, broaden my knowledge base, and help my patients achieve an optimum state of health. I want to use my abilities to build a better healthy world by increasing healthy years in my patients’ lives and offer my passion, my strong work ethic, my dedication and perseverance, my current skills and knowledge, and my unbending commitment to becoming a PA.
I was born in ______, ______, India. My uncle was a respected physician in India and, following his lead, I decided to fulfill my career in the field of medicine. When I was 17, my family moved to the United States, and I faced the difficulty of learning a new language and immersing myself in a foreign culture. I spent my four years of undergraduate study at _______ University as a biology major. As I was about to start my last semester, I got accepted into ________ Medical University where I later earned my medical degree. During the first semester of medical school, I found that many of my colleagues quit due to the heavy workload but I am not a quitter. I am dedicated, goal oriented, and do not give up until I achieve what I set out to do.
Despite my determination, as a student I realized how big of a role finances play in one’s life. I stopped receiving student loans during my fifth semester of medical school. Next, both of my parents lost their jobs. I saw many of my peers withdraw under the same financial burden. “A task accomplished without challenges was never a task to begin with,” my father would say to me; his constant reminder to never give up. Fueled with these words, my faith, my own determination, and an overwhelming desire to practice medicine, I carried on. Due to the financial stress, I had to take multiple leaves of absence. Despite the circumstances I have completed USMLE step 1, step 2 and even step 3, which is usually taken after medical residency, which I believe shows I have the medical knowledge needed to excel at physician assistant school.
Because of the multiple leaves of absence, I have been unable to get into medical residency and unable to pursue my career as a physician. But my determination and passion won’t allow me to quit. My sister is a Physician Assistant and after she introduced me to the role, I immersed myself in research. During my clinical rotations, I worked with many Physician Assistants and admired their significant level of patient interaction and their ability to work along with physicians and other staff members. One thing I really like is that Physician Assistants can work in a variety of specialties to help facilitate patient care in underserved areas
I know that the PA profession is a growing and demanding career but also know that the future of the profession very secure. PA’s will help bridge the physician shortage gap, particularly in underserved areas, something that appeals to me as someone who wants to practice primary care. As a PA, I will be able to achieve my goal to increase the healthy years in all patients. I have no doubt that I want to pursue my career as a Physician Assistant and am eager to fulfill my dreams and earn respect from my patients as well as my colleagues.
While working as a medical student at ___________ Medical Center in New York, I saw a patient who was suffering from kidney failure due to complications from diabetes. His treatment was successful, but I realized he harbored a deeper and far more dangerous condition: ignorance. I have had a great experience about establishing and maintaining relationship with patients and using that, I was able to educate this patient about his conditions, complications, and how to improve. Having a skill for communication and building a good rapport with not only patients, but also with my colleagues is just one tool I hope to utilize in my practice as a future PA.
My passion toward medicine has been growing since my clinical rotations in medical school. I was fascinated learning about patient interaction, diagnosing patients and how to come up with treatment plans. Whenever a colleague was sick, I always was ready to cover for them, because I knew the more time I spent in training, the better practitioner I would become. Therefore, I worked very hard for my patients, my residents, and my attending physicians to make the whole team look good.
During my gastroenterology elective, I was chief student and team leader, making sure that every task had been done properly. I excel in leadership roles and can multitask successfully. I also have great experience in research publications. I worked as a research assistant at University of ________ in the Neurology Department and have published four articles in the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting 2014.
As a contributor on a multidisciplinary team of health care providers, I pledge to strengthen my clinical skill set, broaden my knowledge base, and help my patients achieve an optimum state of health. Having clinical knowledge, communication skills, the ability and experience to multitask and lead the team, as well as dedication toward my profession, I do believe that I would be an excellent Physician Assistant candidate. I offer my passion for the Physician Assistant profession, my strong work ethic, my dedication and perseverance, my current skills and knowledge, and my unbending commitment to never give up.
