When to submit your PA school applications: What you need to know
Commonly, there is chatter among the pre-PA world in regards to when applicants submitted their application. Sites like MyPAbox show you the deadline, and others like the PA Forum may have people posting that they have submitted. It is a misnomer that you need to submit as early as possible for all PA programs. Let me explain.
Admissions types
Some schools are rolling admissions, which means they will review and invite students to interview as applications roll in. In this case and only this case, it is advantageous to submit a little earlier if possible.
However, some schools (most schools) are a standard, regular admission type where once you submit, the application will not be reviewed until after the deadline with all of the rest of the submitted applications. In this case, it does not matter when you submit, so long as you have all parts of your application in and verified prior to the deadline. It being 2 months prior to the dealing will make no difference.
Resubmitting to the same school the same cycle
What, why would you do this? This is primarily if you have garnered additional experiences after you have submitted, but there is still time until the deadline for applications being due for that program.
I’ll give you a personal example. For me, I was lower on patient care hours. After I submitted, I still was actively working and acquiring more hours the 3 additional months up until the deadline. That is nearly 500 additional hours worked before the deadline that was not being considered in my application. So, prior to the deadline, I added those additional hours to my CASPA application, and resent it to that program. I also sent them an email about this update.
Suddenly, they now have more hours or experiences or whatever it is that you added to consider upon reviewing applications after the deadline. There are some programs that accept updates like these after the deadline, but for the most part it is fairly universal to be accepted prior to the deadline, so just something to keep in mind if you feel as if these additions would be helpful to you!
*Note – do not submit the app originally if you do not meet minimum requirements. You must meet minimum requirements before you submit the original first time. As highlighted in the 5 tips to get accepted to PA school blog.
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