Blog
Physician Assistant school personal statement

How to make your PA school personal statement SHINE

Consider a theme

A smart tactic for your statement is to consider a theme. It shouldn’t take up too many characters, and should be relevant to you. Generally you should bring it up in the intro, you can touch on it once or twice amongst the body, and recap in the conclusion. This will help make you unique and memorable. 

Edit, edit, edit

This goes beyond just eliminating typos, and grammatical errors. Every character used should be purposeful and necessary. You want to pare down characters so every sentence is rich with information as quickly as possible. 

You want to eliminate any “fluff”. For instance, you want to avoid saying two adjectives to describe something ex. “…this position made me knowledgeable and prepared”. It reads stronger to use just the one best word. You also want to make sure your message is clear within each paragraph and within the statement as a whole.

Writing about “PA stuff”

As someone who has edited many statements, you would be surprised how long it takes for many applicants to even mention the word “PA”. The prompt is “why do you want to be a PA” after all, so you want to get to the point as soon as possible. You should definitely mention it by the end of the introduction paragraph. You should also be tying points and examples back to this throughout your statement – pointing out why you want to be a PA and why you would be a good PA. 

Other notable points when mentioning PA: The first time you mention it, write it as “physician assistant (PA)”. Every time thereafter, just term it as “PA” to save on characters.

Touch on certain key points

You want your statement to be unique to you, however there are certain parts of the foundation that should be implemented in all effective statements. These good foundational things to mention include demonstrating that you know what a PA does, the interprofessional dynamic, how they compare to others in the medical field such as MDs, and why you prefer to be a PA. 

“Don’t just say “I like to care for people”, rather, provide an experience you sought out that showcases that as to illustrate these concepts for admissions.”

Use code “PATIPS20” to save 20% on your subscription to myPAbox

What makes you…you!

This is the “fingerprint” of your statement. What about you, personally or professionally, have you experienced? How did that contribute to you deciding to be a PA and why will you be an effective PA? You want to give quality descriptive experiences/reasons with concrete examples. Don’t just say “I like to care for people”, rather, provide an experience you sought out that showcases that as to illustrate these concepts for admissions. 

You want to add PA-related experiences, of course, and it would be wrong not to; but you should also add personal details of yourself that mean a lot to you –perhaps something about your culture as an example. These will all contribute to making you and your statement more well-rounded and stand out to admissions.

Here are 5 more tips on how to get accepted to PA school 

Other Blog Post

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top