Having you recently heard about CASPA’s new Covid-19 essay? The weeks leading up to the 2020-2021 CASPA cycle have been challenging for physician assistant school applicants. They have been faced with many adversities, such as finishing important pre-requisite courses online, having shadowing and volunteering opportunities canceled and being laid off from their jobs that have been providing them with valuable patient care experience. Unlike any other application cycle, this upcoming cycle has fallen during a worldwide pandemic. CASPA will open on April 30th and is addressing the concerns of applicants surrounding the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CASPA is offering the option for applicants to submit an essay addressing how the recent events of the coronavirus have impacted their journey to applying to PA school. This essay is in addition to the personal statement essay all CASPA applicants complete. The essay will have a 2,500-character limit. On the CASPA website, the personal statement section is described as “where you can write a brief statement expressing why you are interested in being a Physician Assistant.” The section for the COVID-19 essay is defined as a section “to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your pathway to becoming a Physician Assistant. The questions listed in the application can help you get started, but you do not need to limit your responses to only these considerations.”
From this information, it is assumed that CASPA will have a list of questions that applicants can respond to pertaining to their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This section of CASPA can allow applicants to provide an explanations about short-comings or concerns about their application due to the pandemic. Many programs are directly addressing this optional essay on their websites. For example, Methodist University’s website states that “The COVID-19 Essay is an opportunity for applicants to disclose any hardships (financial, health, education, family, etc.) that may have been faced during this time. If a COVID-19 Essay is not submitted, the program will not hold it against the applicant.”
More about the covid-19 impact essay
Although this essay is encouraging applicants to express concerns and hardships that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic, this section should not include excuses. If there are parts of your application that are lacking and not a direct result of the impacts of COVID-19, do not discuss them. For example, you can include your concerns about choosing to Pass/Fail a class due to the transition to online courses this semester, shadowing opportunities you lost over the past few weeks, or the cancelation of a spring break volunteer mission trip you had planned. Do not include instances that are not directly related to the past few weeks, such as a poor grade received last semester, excuses for being significantly far off from the recommended/required patient care experience hours or having zero shadowing hours. Programs will not be lenient on requirements that could have been completed before the pandemic.
This optional essay should only be completed if it is relevant to you and your application. Do not repeat anything you have already stated in your CASPA personal statement essay. Use this opportunity if you have something significant you feel you need to share with admissions committees. You can also use this space to express any good you have done in response to COVID-19, such as collecting food to donate to your local hospital, volunteering to grocery shop for your elderly neighbors, or participating in making masks for clinics in need. If this essay applies to you, use it as an opportunity to show your perseverance throughout this difficult, unprecedented time and your continued dedication to pursuing PA school.
