Rejected from PA School: Embrace, Reflect, Persist!
Having your application rejected from PA School can be emotionally difficult
Sometimes, the path you travel to your dream career is not straight, and it has curves and hills along the way.
Don’t ever compare your path to someone else because it will create self-doubt, fear, and a pessimistic mindset, which will not help you forge through this stressful path.
Right now, as you’re reading this, you may be on your 2nd or 3rd cycle of applications, and that is okay. Not everyone makes it on their 1st cycle!
Does that mean you are not good enough for PA school? NO!
Does that mean you aren’t meant to be a PA? NO!
Does that mean you give up? HELL NO!
This implies you must self-reflect, figure out where you went wrong, and make the corrections.
So, how do you self-reflect and make actionable changes:
- Sit down and re-look at your application.
- Have someone read your essay that is not in the medical field.
- Ask for help.
- Take a break from the process and do something you enjoy.
- Don’t take no for an answer – “A no is a maybe, and maybe is almost a yes.”
Remember, a rejection is not a dead end but a detour.
In my bio, I explain how I decided to go to PA school and why I went to PA school. For a detailed version.
The abbreviated version is that I wanted a medical career as a doctor. Keep in mind that during that time, I had yet to learn what a PA was or had ever heard of one.
I took the MCAT 3 times, improving my score each time. Still, on the 3rd time I took the MCAT, I just missed the passing rate for my ethnicity (AND YES, they have a scoring system based on the average for each race).
I was debating if I wanted to attempt writing a letter to take a 4th time or give up.
But somehow, by divine intervention, my best friend told me there was another way to still practice medicine and do what a doctor does, and you guessed it was PA School.
At this point, I thought why not shadow the PA she put me in contact with to see if I would even want to be a PA. After one day, I was totally hooked, and I was like, I can do this.
After speaking to my PA mentor and my best friend and researching the information, I thought this was the perfect path for me to get to my dream of taking care of patients and still having autonomy without going broke to do it.
Even though I went to the CUNY PA program, I still had loans (undergrad and PA school). Don’t get me wrong, the cost of PA School is tremendously more expensive now, but you have to invest in yourself.
I didn’t want student loans, but I knew what my goal was to become a PA, and if I had to make sacrifices, I was going to.
I worked before going to PA school to save money to pay for applications and to sustain myself in PA school. I shadowed after work while working a full-time job.
I applied for the 1st cycle and got into PACE but had to turn it down due to my family responsibilities and whether I could sustain myself financially. I didn’t apply to CUNY on my 1st cycle either because there were extra steps I had to take. I didn’t feel like doing all of that.
When I decided to apply again, which was next year, I applied to CUNY and a few other schools, and I was accepted to CUNY. I was mentally ready to start and financially prepared.
As hard as the CUNY program was, I was thankful to have graduated from it and met a lot of excellent PAs along the way.
My PA journey was not straight at all and was definitely curvy and hilly at times. Still, I am proud of myself for pushing through that rigorous emotional, mental, and sleep-deprived program.
Would I ever do it again? NO.
But am I glad I did it? ABSOLUTELY.
My PA career has granted me so much in life that I thank GOD for every day because I have been blessed to care for my family and myself while caring for others and their families.
So please don’t give up. Keep going; you’ve got a cheerleader in me.
If you need help, click the link to contact me and schedule a call.
