PA School Admission Counseling and Mentoring

11/12/2025

PA school Interviews are in full swing and you may even have one or more scheduled.
If you are looking to improve your interview performance and get chosen by the program of your choice, we can help. Our experienced team of faculty can prepare candidates for all types of interview formats by practicing “Mock Interviews.” Whether it is traditional style, Multiple-Mini interviews, or a hybrid, we can prepare you well.
We are offering a one-time, basic interview prep and mock interview for $750. If interested, please go onto our website and sign up for a “Free Consultation” and mention the Mock Interview special… paschoolconsult.com
Whether we collaborate with you or not, good luck on your interview!
Michael Smith, PA-C

05/20/2025

I was recently discussing with a client how the competition to get into a PA program has become so fierce. As a faculty member, I can tell you stories of having to read hundreds of applications and interviewing dozens of applicants only to have a number of accepted students forego their deposits and go to another program.

Perhaps what is fueling this is the perception that the competition is so fierce. For example, if I really want to go to PA Program A, but will settle for B through E, then I am applying to 5 different programs. Obviously, I can only attend one. Further, if someone else really wants to go to Program D, but will settle for A, then it appears that I am competing against this person. Multiply this by a hundred and you can see how there is a false impression that there are 200 applicants for Program A.

I know applicants who had applied to 10 different programs. Perhaps a better way would be for applicants to save their time and money and apply to only those programs that they would indeed go to. Of course, CASPA and the individual programs won’t advise this as they are making money off the fierce competition.
If you are interested in ways to make your journey into a PA Program more efficient and affordable, please go onto my website, paschoolconsult.com and sign up for a free consultation. Perhaps working with PA School Admission Consulting & Mentoring is the right fit for you.

05/07/2025

University applicants often hear conflicting advice which can stress them unnecessarily. I was recently asked about a social media post from a college advisor who advised that in order to avoid having an Admissions Committee think that your essay was written by AI, that you should NOT have the essay edited by anyone else. The advisor asserted that typos, grammatical errors, and other “mistakes” revealed to her that the writer was indeed the applicant.
Now while I do agree that certain styles, words, or phrases tell me immediately that the essay was written by AI, I would definitely advise you to have your essay reviewed and edited by someone else. Grammatical errors and typos don’t reassure me that the writing is genuine, they tell me that the writer does not pay attention to detail. As PAs and all medical providers need to pay attention to detail, dropped words or an incorrect use of “to” or “too”, would make me less inclined to move your application through.
Have someone you trust review your application package as a whole. That person can see typos that your eye is not picking up because you have read the essay too often. In addition, our brain fills in words when we read and your editor may notice something you stopped seeing. I have asked my daughter in law, a teacher, to review my book chapters and she had been a great help in finding omissions or errors.
Or you can visit my website at paschoolconsult.com and request a free consultation and start working with me. I have been reading PA school admission and supplemental essays for 10 years and can help you maximize your ability to get into the PA Program of your choice.

05/04/2025

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04/16/2025

The CASPA (Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistant) Application cycle for 2025 opens next Thursday on 4/24/25. If you know someone considering applying to PA school, I would be so grateful if you could mention my service to them. After working 10 years in PA education, and interviewing hundreds of candidates, I know I can help them improve their application package.
Anyone can sign up for a free initial consultation and a PA school applicant who signs up will get a 15% Professional Colleague discount if they mention they were referred by one of my LinkedIn colleagues.
The website is: paschoolconsult.com/
Thank you!
Mike

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