When it comes to deciding when to apply to PA school, it depends on when you will finish your prerequisite and fulfill all requirements. If you are currently in undergrad, there are a few different routes you can take! Also, it depends on whether or not you will be taking time off after graduating undergrad or “taking a gap year.” Taking time after graduating college to gain more patient care hours, take outstanding prerequisites, and to further research programs to apply to is very common! Regardless of when you decide to apply, take time prior to fully understand the PA school application process, so that when it comes time to apply, you are not hit with any surprises!
If you are set on pursing the PA profession early on in your undergraduate career, you may consider applying to PA school in the spring of your junior year of college. The logistics around applying this early can be a little confusing though! You must be applying to programs that allow your degree to be in progress, since you still have senior year to complete, and programs that allow prerequisites to be pending, if you will be finishing them up during the remainder of your time in college. You also must consider the start dates for the programs you will apply to. The PA schools you are applying to must begin after you have graduated undergrad. For example, if you are currently a rising junior in college and plan to apply next cycle in 2021, you must apply to programs that either start in the summer session or fall session of 2022. This will assure that your degree will be completed and officially earned, otherwise, you would be overlapping your senior semester with the first semester of PA school, which is not possible!
Here is a basic guideline on which cycle you should apply to PA school depending on the year you would like to begin:
If you would like to start PA school in 2021, apply this current cycle, 2020-2021
If you would like to start PA school in 2022, apply during the 2021-2022 cycle
If you would like to start PA school in 2023, apply during the 2022-2023 cycle
If you would like to start PA school in 2024, apply during the 2023-2024 cycle
And so on!
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If you do not want to enter PA school immediately upon graduating college, you may consider taking a gap year. This decision depends on where you are at in your own individual pre-PA journey! Gap year(s) are time taken off between undergrad and graduate school. They are great for pre-PA students who need extra time to gain patient care hours, shadow more PAs, finish up their personal statement, and maybe take extra classes to raise their GPA. Taking a gap year can take some of the pressure off of the process. Personally, this is how I felt!
Whether you need to take a gap year, or you choose to take one, extra time to polish and perfect your application can never be a bad thing! During this time, you can also save up for all the expenses that come with applying to PA programs. Many PA program supplemental questions included, “Please explain any gaps of greater than one year on your current resume.” This is a great time to explain what you did in the time you took off and how you have grown. I do not suggest taking time off and not working, not volunteering, and basically doing nothing to make your application more competitive. This will not look good to PA admissions committees. You should have something positive to show for the year(s) you took off!
Personally, I originally wanted to apply during the 2018-2019 cycle, so that I would hopefully go right into PA school upon graduating undergrad. After much stress, crying during meetings at my university’s career services center, and not feeling ready, I decided to take a “gap year.” I waited until spring of my senior year to apply to PA programs. This meant I could be in PA school earliest January 2020 and latest fall 2020. Turns out, I was accepted into a program that started in January. So, my planned “gap year” turned into a “gap 6-months.” Just in case I did not get any acceptances that cycle, I spent the months following college graduation gaining more patient care experience hours, shadowing another PA, volunteering at an animal shelter, and developing a plan to increase my success the following cycle. I wanted to put myself in a better position as a PA school applicant for the 2020-2021 cycle if it had to come to that!
Overall, there is no right or wrong answer on when you should apply to PA school. There is always room for improvement on your PA school application, but at some point, you must just go for it and apply. The timeline of your application process all depends on your unique journey!
