So, you’ve decided PA school is the right place for you to be. That’s great news! But I bet you’re also wondering about the PA school application timeline. For instance, you may have questions like, “When do you apply to PA school?” or “When are PA school interviews?” There is so much to keep track of, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all!
To take some uncertainty out of the process, we’re going to answer common questions about the PA school application timeline. After all, the more informed you are, the more confident you’ll feel in your journey to becoming a PA. Let’s get started!
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How far in advance should I start working on my PA school application?
It depends. Most programs have requirements related to volunteering, patient care experience (PCE), and completion of prerequisite courses. Those things may require a couple of years to complete! So in a sense, you start working on your application long before you apply.
When does the PA school application open?
All PA school applications are submitted through the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA), which opens in April.
When do you apply to PA school?
The short answer is as soon as you can! Generally speaking, if you have the PCE hours, volunteer hours, and prerequisite classes complete, then starting your application 3-4 months in advance is a good rule of thumb.
Since it may take a few weeks to gather all the necessary forms and information you need for your application, try to have your ducks in a row as soon as possible. It’s good to have everything ready to go so you can apply right when CASPA opens in April.
It’s always a good idea to apply early!
The benefit of applying early is that many PA programs have a rolling admissions process. This means they look at applications as they are submitted and offer interviews to candidates they think will be a good fit for their program. Once they interview and offer positions to prospective students, their cohort is filled and they no longer look at applications. If your application is in early, you have a better chance of scoring an interview!
What do you need for your PA school application?
To make sure your CASPA application is ready to go when the system opens in April, there are three sections of it we want to give you a heads-up on.
Supporting Information
The first is the section on supporting information. This part of the application is the one you’ll probably spend the most time on. Supporting information is where you’re going to input things like your PCE, volunteer hours, other work experience, any licenses, certifications, or memberships you have, achievements you’d like to mention, and your personal essay.
It’d be good to have these things ready so you can easily input all of them into CASPA as soon as it opens in April.
Program Materials
The second part of the CASPA application you need to be aware of is program materials. This is where you’ll input any supplemental information that specific programs may request. Double check with the programs you’re interested in to see what they require. You can do this by clicking on the program you’re interested in on the CASPA Program Search feature on the website.
Academic History
Finally, for the academic history portion of the CASPA application you’ll need to upload official transcripts. CASPA also requires that you manually enter your coursework and grades into the application. Coursework that you input must match your transcript exactly. In this section, you’ll also provide your scores for any standardized tests you may have taken prior to applying to PA school.
The bottom line is, be sure you’re ready to fill out these parts of your CASPA application when the system opens in April, so you’ll be competitive for programs that have a rolling admissions process!
For a full list of PA school requirements, check out this other post on the Blueprint blog: PA School Requirements: The Ultimate Pre-PA Guide 💡
When is my PA school application due?
This part of the PA school application timeline is a bit less certain, as the due date will be different for each school. Some programs have a deadline as early as August of the application year, and some programs have deadlines that extend into the spring of the next year.
Check out the CASPA participating programs and eligibility page for more information about deadlines!
As mentioned above, some programs participate in a rolling admissions cycle, so getting your application in early is important. Ideally you want to submit your application by May or early June of the application cycle.
When are PA school interviews?
Congrats! You’ve submitted your CASPA application! Now comes the next step on the PA school application timeline, when you wait for programs to contact you for interviews. When will they do that?
There isn’t a specific answer to that question. For a PA program with rolling admissions, they may contact you within a few weeks of receiving your application. For other PA programs, they may contact you closer to their planned interview dates. Some programs may extend an interview invite and expect you to be there within just a couple of weeks. Other programs may give you a month or more notice before the interview.
Many PA school interviews occur in the fall, and some even extend into the winter or early spring of the next year. It depends on when the program is set to start. When you get to this part of the PA school application timeline, prepare for a lot of uncertainty!
It’s important to note that you’ll likely get a rejection notice from some of the programs you applied to. They may send an email or a letter telling you they won’t be offering you an interview, and that’s okay! There may be some programs that you’re just not a good fit for, while there are others where you’d fit in really well.
Also, remember that some programs don’t send rejection letters. They simply won’t contact you if they don’t want to extend an invite, so prepare for that as well.
When do I find out if I’ve been accepted?
This point on the PA school application timeline is also a bit difficult to pin down. Again, it depends! Some programs may extend an acceptance to their program within a couple of days of interviewing. Others may take a couple of weeks to make their decisions.
This also depends on how many interview sessions they have. Schools may prefer to interview all of their prospective candidates before deciding on any acceptances, while schools with rolling admissions will decide on students individually.
If you interview at a program, you should receive notice of either acceptance or rejection, so if you haven’t heard anything, it’s okay to contact the school to follow up.
When do PA programs typically start?
You probably know the answer to this one too: it depends! Every program has a different start date, so check out CASPA to see when each is set to start. When you click on your preferred program, all of the information about deadlines and start dates should pop up for you.
And that’s it! The short and sweet version of the PA school application timeline. Remember to get started early so that you’re ready to go by April. Good luck out there!
For even more (free!) resources to help you prepare for PA school, check out these other posts on the blog:
