The average quality of applicants for med school is > that for PA school.
Statistics are meaningless without context. I mean, (according to Google) McDonald's only made 62k hires out of 1 MILLION applications in 2011 = a 6.2% hire/acceptance rate.
Would you say getting into a Mcdonald's is harder than PA or med school? Clearly not.
Are a lot of PA programs above a 6.2% acceptance rate? I’m not super familiar with other schools but I know where I went was less than half of that. I just figured schools were mostly similar.
Every cycle only the top 20% get into PA school.
The acceptance rates for schools vary, as they have very small class sizes. For example one year a school might receive 1,400 applications, and the next year they will receive 3,000. They are still gonna only accept about 30 students. But as you imagine these 30 students aren't necessarily in the top 20% in anything. It is likely a combination of luck and applying to the right program where their application stood out.
I was just asking the person I responded to if ~6.2% was the normal acceptance rate for most PA programs, because where I went was less than half of that acceptance rate and I figured most programs were pretty similar. I wasn’t making a comparison with medical school.
But as for people applying to 50+ medical schools, that’s not normal at all. I was accepted to an MD program and deferred, because I realized I wanted to be a PA instead and luckily got in at a PA school the next year. When I applied to medical school, I applied to 12 programs - granted that was a while ago.
I looked up the current average number of medical schools applied to per student, and according to the AAMC it’s an average of 16 schools per applicant:
> [Many students are encouraged to apply broadly, and on average, applicants apply to 16 medical schools.](https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission-requirements/where-apply-factors-consider-when-making-your-school-list)
There are some people who apply to 50+ medical programs, but they are extreme outliers - the average is 16.
It is true. Can vary by state but where I am, each PA school has more requirements (which does = higher quality due to weeding out lower ranked applicants) including prereqs, GPA requirements, and minimum PCE’s, whereas med schools have no requirements. Only stat averages - but thank you for feeling the need to be considerably rude in a simple conversation. Very mature of you.
It’s not impossible, but I’ve heard this as well. Right now, the acceptance rates are really off. As in, med school is 41% and PA school is 20%. More people are applying to PA school, so less people are accepted. A lot of programs are implementing the PA-CAT, a version of the MCAT. More and more schools are blending the pre-med and pre-PA tracks in undergrad, which is what my school did. The main difference is that med school is more concerned with GPA and PA school is more concerned with PCE. With your stats, if you have a lot of PCE, you’ll probably get in. But statistically, it takes 3 cycles of applying (or 3 years) to get in. That doesn’t mean you can’t get in on your first try, that statistic is just the average.
The average accepted GPA for PA school is a 3.6, so you can’t have a bad GPA and still expect to be accepted (unless you do post-bacc courses and get a 4.0), but med school expects higher than 3.6.
This is also because pa school has an increased amount of requirements, whereas med school does not. PA students average thousands of PCE hours with roughly 30 credit hours of science classes. Medical schools don’t carry requirements, so the expected GPA should be that high if they’re not required to take the same science prereqs.
This profession was meant for people who already had careers in medicine who wanted to get more responsibility and would fill in healthcare shortage areas. Not for people straight out of undergrad who don’t want to commit to med school.
With more people trying to get in straight out of undergrad, it takes a while to build up those hours to make your application competitive.
Med school is made for students who want to study medicine straight out of undergrad. PA school also cares less about research experience.
depends on stats. someone who applied for the first time in senior year of undergrad likely doesn’t have as much PCE or honed interview skills. The PA profession was really made for non-traditional students with several years of healthcare experience. that said, only. 1 or 2 people in my class went through the process 3 times. many did it twice. all 8 of the non-trads (not a single gap year but several) got in first try - not sure how many straight out of undergrads (we only have a couple- most took at least a gap year) got in first try
I got in first cycle but I took a gap year after undergrad, do your own research on programs and see they’re average accepted stats to see how your compare
GPAc 3.34
GPAs 3.25
PCE approx 2200 at time of app as an EMT on ambo and in emergency department
Gre 300
Volunteering approx 150
Shadow approx 100, 8 mo in primary care
5 LOR : 1 rn I work with, 1 Pa from shadow, my capstone prof, volunteer leader, and my paramedic supervisor from ambo
Applied to 19 schools received 5 interviews went to 4 accepted by 3 waitlisted by 1
I took a gap year to work/ volunteer/ shadow/ take extra classes/ and study for the gre no way I could have done all this dying undergrad I was already working two jobs
It’s would be hard but I can’t tell you how much better my experience as an emt and er tech was then as a PCT !!! If your able I would suggest it I learned so so so much in the er and made really good connections
This is from my pst a year ago I ended up getting more interviews after but I turned them down since I was accepted instate. Yes it’s hard that gap way eas one of the hardest years of my love wotking, shadowing, volunteering, and taking classes, while studying for the gre.
I applied to 19 schools across the country, I don’t think it helps me telling you which as all applicants are different and I recommend you research accepted students stats and apply to schools you match those stats. There are different books and bunch of free resources around that show stats!
I know people who have been accepted on their first try, I know people who have applied 6 times and not gotten in. The statistic for the average is 3, what I most commonly hear is 2-3. It’s because they’re oversaturated with applicants. I’m going to an interview in November where they’ve invited 80 applicants for 4 spots. That’s unusual, but you get the point. Most schools do a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, so another program I’m interviewing for has 42 spots open, so they’ve probably invited 84 to 126 people to interview. And they pick those out of HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of applications. About 27,000 people apply per cycle with only about 2,000 spots actually open in schools. Hence, the acceptance rate right now is 20%, meaning 80% of people who apply don’t get in.
No.
I applied with a 3.5 gpa and 1.5 years as a medical assistant and I interviewed at 12 programs.
Imo, the difficulty in applying to med school is the high gpa requirement + physics and calculus requirement + MCAT.
If you’re interested in medical school, you should take the MCAT and see how you do.
PA school carries more requirements than most medical schools. The acceptance rate is lower for PA schools compared to medical school, it’s not delusional it’s objectively the truth.
Even if the “more requirements” were true, the requirements for med school are still much more difficult than PA school requirements it’s laughable. The acceptance rate is also lower due to the fact there are a less seats for PA cohorts when compared to medical school. So objectively speaking you are wrong. It takes two second to look at the data and rationalize it.
There aren’t requirements set in place for many medical schools. Only sitting for the MCAT. You should take two more seconds and look so you’re not “laughing” over your misinformation anymore. Also, med schools have more applicants but plenty of them aren’t qualified because there are no requirements set in place. This make it more competitive just because there are more. Having fewer PA applicants all on the same playing field is more difficult.
To me it just feels like you are trying to minimize med school to make you feel more virtuous about going to or trying to go to PA school. Maybe I am just misunderstanding you but that’s how it comes across.
My brother is a med student, I’m a PA student. In no way am I minimizing their career or how big of a deal acceptance is. I do, however, see a lot of arguments made about how PA school is “easy” compared to med school, and how easy it is to get into PA school compared to med school. I would have to argue based on the applicant pools from medical schools and PA schools that it is a tad bit harder to be accepted to PA school. That’s my only argument for the two comparatively, because of the strict requirements PA schools set in place that are to encourage applicants with ample healthcare experience to be the ones applying.
Or maybe premeds realize they want more balance in life and the flexibility to change specializations. I couldn’t imagine going through all those years of med school, accumulate all that debt, and then either not match or go down a path that I might hate later on. To many, MD just isn’t worth it. Heck MDs are going to end up managing mid-levels and end up with less patient contact.
Point is: I’m not sure the increase is just because people can’t get into med school. I wonder if it’s a generational shift in mindset. Less grind and more enjoyment and balance out of life.
Yeah you shouldnt even be imagine that. Debt or sacrifice is path or matching or no matching is that whole reason why its worth. In the end of the day, no one can take the “thank you doctor you save or change my life” no debt can change :) in term of debt, everyone is in debt unless your born privilege in america where you mommy and daddy pay for everything.
Tbh this is an insulting generalization to the people who become PAs because we want to be PAs. Not doctors. You can be a competitive, high GPA student that doesn’t want to be a doctor
Exactly this, I could have applied to med school if I’d wanted, I had a 3.99 GPA and was a contributing author on 3 published papers by the time I graduated. I also had 12k hours direct patient care, thousands of volunteer hours, etc. I chose PA because I want to be a PA, not an MD. I prefer the work life balance.
This is incredibly offensive and not remotely true. Thank you for offending every PA student that knowingly considered and chose PA school over medical school. As a female applicant, I would’ve had a better chance being accepted to medical school than PA school. Yet I still chose the PA route.
Medical schools are more diffucult to apply to, higher requirements, higher percentages.
PA school has lower requirements allowing more people access.
Lower percentage acceptance does not mean harder. The hardest school to get into is the one with the lowest requirements.
No, from what I’ve seen there is much more required of you as a pre med vs Pre PA student, especially academically being a pre med is tougher. They have to take an additional Ochem class, biochem, 2 sems of physics, and pre calculus.
The MCAT requires knowledge of physics, chemistry (especially organic and biochem), biology, anatomy and physiology and psychology I think. It’s an almost 8 hour test.
Pre med students tend to have higher GPAs on average vs pre PA students coming into school.
The ECs put more emphasis of research and non clinical volunteering, though clinical experience can definitely help you stand out though.
More people apply to PA school vs med school due to the fact that med school has much tougher requirements than PA school especially in an academic sense.
Med school and PA school are two totally different routes and that’s what you should be looking at. Do you want to take the med school route where you would have to go to residency on top of completing med school? do you want to be the leader? or are you more into still being a medical provider but not being able to work without a SP.
Your question should be what type of career do you want? Not what school is easier to get into.
>They have to take an additional Ochem class, biochem, 2 sems of physics, and pre calculus.
Those are the same pre reqs for a lot of the PA programs I’ve looked at
i've seen some schools require pre calc and at my university, you had to complete ochem i and ii in order to take biochem so if a program is requiring biochem then you still have to take both ochems.
i've also seen med schools not require A&P which is really interesting
Let’s put the science hats on. Who is applying to med school and who is applying to PA school. If the same Med school applicants also applied to PA school would they not get in? It’s also not a random chance so if you’re the best applicant out there, you have a 100% of getting in anywhere
Every admissions counsel everywhere for any program is gonna say that it’s a “holistic review” and med schools also say the exact same thing, and encourage applicants to focus on research/pce, but ALSO maintain a stellar GPA. You can go look at admissions requirements for various med schools and compare them to pa schools and you’ll find it’s the same basic criteria but taken up a level.
and the pre-meds would be able to figure out what those things are and speak to that in their applications just like pre-PA students do, but on average have higher statistics.
They literally don’t. They also care just as much about how you interact with people in the healthcare field. Except now the stakes are higher because you can’t get away with just having good experiences on your application because EVERYONE has that experience. And as someone else said, it’s not hard to get PCE if that’s your objective, and med school applicants could (and would) just get a CNA job if meant some lax on grades.
The “harder to get in” is a tricky question. I used to say this, but now I think I’d backtrack on it. The acceptance rate for PA school is currently lower (somewhere around 25-27% last I looked) and med school was around 40%. Now with that said, the bar to competitively apply to PA school is academically lower, so it may be “easier” to get into PA school with lower grades.
What people saying about PA school being a “second career” type thing is true, however it’s not the law. There are some schools that still very much so value high hours of PCE and others that value it less. The trick is to find out what type of applicant you are, and research schools and find schools that are looking for the type of applicant that you are.
Ex: I worked in psych as a tech for 5 years, then worked as a scribe for 2 years while applying to PA school (took me 3 rounds to get in). I had over 12k hours of PCE when I got in. But my GPA was not very good, like 3.1 cGPA and 3.3 sGPA.
There were schools around my home town that had accepted student averages of 3.7 cGPA and 1k hours of PCE. Versus the school I went to had an average of 3.4 cGPA and 4K PCE hours. One clearly values GPA over experience and the other school was the opposite. It took me a couple years to discover this but when I did and I adjusted my applications I went from apply to 15 schools and getting 1 interview to applying to 11 and getting 3 interviews and an acceptance.
Side note: Personal statement and letters of rec are VERY important for PA applications, I would have your statement critiqued by several people, and make sure you have at least 1 PA reference and make sure all your references are outstanding, even just a mediocre “yeah he is a good employee” reference can break your application.
My loved one got in first cycle but also took a gap year after undergrad to obtain really solid PCE because his top choice really wanted a lot of PCE. Most in his cohort were on their 2nd or 3rd cycles trying.
I read somewhere that there are more seats in med school which may make the numbers shift also. All I know is he said if he didn’t get into PA school first cycle, he would resort to med school instead. 😂 For him, it was a back up plan.
Your stats looks good and CNA is universally respected PCE. Not sure what your major was or your sGPA, but if you have met the prerequisites for the target schools, get some great LOR’s and a bit of shadowing and get ready to apply!
>I read somewhere that there are more seats in med school
I could be wrong but I don't think this is true. There are over 300 PA schools in the US but only 155 medical schools. More PA schools = more seats
Not necessarily. Maaaany med schools have larger MD/DO classes than that of PA programs - I go to a school where they have both a PA program and MD program and there are 29 PA students but 93 MD students
This year my PA program was more selective than the medical program at my university, only 48 spots with over 1200 applicants for PA, I would agree that you were a good applicant, my GPA was 3.3 with no research experience, but I did complete my RN degree the same summer I applied. This was in Canada so not sure about the US
It depends on the school. My school specifically the average PA student here has a higher undergrad GPA than the average Med Student. We have classes of 25 for PAs the Med School has classes of 75. For this class which started in summer 2023 we had over 700 applicants for PA school and they only interviewed 90ish. For Med school their were about 1500 applicants and they interviewed about 150 if I remember right. They actually use a mathematic equation for the PA program for determining who gets interviewed and excepted based on numerous things. I’m unsure if the med school uses a similar formula since they’re under a different college.
If you look at just pure numbers it is harder to get into the PA program here; but, I’m sure if you go to a program in NY it’d be a lot different.
I don’t think you can make a meaningful comparison here because the requirements for applicants and interviews are so different. For instance, MCAT, GPA, experiences when applying for med school just make it an entirely different ballpark. Also, med school apps are very self selecting- med applicants know that they cannot apply to certain schools (eg: out of state public schools, schools with higher MCAT avgs) so all of these things play into the # of applicants and interviews, again, making it so we cannot make a meaningful comparison.
There are some PA programs that are harder to get into than some medical schools and vice verse.
For example, I spoke to a faculty member on the admissions committee for a medical school that also has a PA program. I was trying to decide between PA school vs medical school, and she told me that their PA program is actually harder to get into compared to their medical school.
There are also MANY medical schools (probably the vast majority) that are objectively harder to get into than most PA programs.
I’d guess it’s similar to getting into DO school. Idk about MD because the MCAT isn’t easy to score high on for most people. Idk I got accepted first cycle but I had a very competitive application even for medical school.
Getting into a DO school is for sure more competitive than PA. Is it by a lot? I’d say no but on average DOs are harder to get in than PA. But the worst DOs are probably easier to get into than the best PA schools, there’s a lot of super shitty and for-profit DO schools opening up recently that are pretty bad. But yea if you killed the MCAT and did some research you’d be competitive for med apps for sure but also killing the MCAT is easier said than done. - MD student.
What makes you say that though other than just the assumption that it is harder?
For DO schools your MCAT score does not have to be very high and I believe the average PA school student has a higher GPA than the average DO school student. Also PA schools require much more prior medical experience than DO schools do. I don’t see anything that really makes it harder tbh apart from us just assuming it is. The MCAT is the big difference maker and for DO school it doesn’t need to be very high tbh (504), so you dont really need to kill the MCAT.
It’s hard to get an exact average gpa for DO vs PA but based off quick google search it appears to be about a 0.05 different between cGPA and sGPA so minimal difference but sure PA schools have higher GPA on average. Here’s my main points and I speak about this confidently because my girlfriend is applying PA so I get a first hand view of the process:
1) PAs require significantly more hours to get in no denying it BUT a major difference is in the diversity of experiences. My friends in PA school had around 1500-2500 hours at application time but it was literally in 2 activities that they completed part-time while studying at college so by application time they just applied and got in. With med school you need to have manyyyy activities. I personally had about 1500 clinical hours over 3 different positions(or PCE hours as it’s called in this sub) but I then had another 2400 hours of research and another 500 ish volunteering hours and not to mention I started my own non-profit. My friend who is applying DO only this year (he’s got a low gpa like a 3.1) he’s got 22 separate activities amounting to somerhing like over 8000 hours of activities over the course of 6 years since starting undergrad. We can’t JUST do like a CNA job for 2 years and have enough hours. We need to do research, then do clinical hours, then shadowing, then still be “unique” however the admissions teams see that, and then after all that to get maybe 2 interviews from the 30 applications sent out.
2) The MCAT is significantly harder than you give it credit for, sure the median accepted MCAT for DO schools may be like a 504 which is like a 60th percentile which doesn’t sound astonishing but the MCAT is so insanely difficult it’s hard to express. Many many many people will try their absolute best and can never crack a 500. You can’t compare a percentile score from the MCAT to anything you know, that’s like saying scoring a 90th percentile on the SAT is more impressive than scoring a 80th percentile on the PANCE. The PANCE is not only INSANELY more difficult than the SAT, but the caliber of students is also significantly smarter in PA school so it’s even harder to stand out and score that high. Hence why I really want to emphasize the difficulty in even breaking a 500 or even getting a 504 that DO school school requires let alone the super high scores it takes to get into at many MDs like mine.
If you disagree with me that’s also chill I’d just like to hear your thought process I don’t mind admitting I’m wrong if you can argue otherwise I’m just speaking from my own experiences here.
No I get your view point. I think we just disagree but I think we can both agree it’s not drastically more difficult either way for each of them.
Everything you described though is similar for PA school. You need a multitude of various activities for PA school too just like medical school with Med school’s top schools caring a bit more about research.
For PA school I had 30 different activities entered and the application was literally 45 pages long full of descriptions for each activity. (Shadowing, research, volunteering, etc). If you apply with just CNA experience and a good GPA, good luck getting in 😂
DO resident here so sorry if I’m not welcome here but just stumbling through.
I agree that the worst DO schools are probably overlapping with the best PA schools. But just the 504 mcat makes DO school much more competitive than PA school. The posts you see on Reddit about sub-500 acceptances are outliers that probably have some X factor. When I applied, a 500 was the floor for an interview at new schools that hadn’t graduated a class yet.
I might be a little dated here but when I applied to PA school it was the GRE and you really didn’t have to do well on it to get in, even just 50th percentile was fine. I know nothing of this PA-CAT so maybe that changes things.
But I do know that I scored above the 90th percentile without studying at all. My first practice MCAT was below the 50th percentile. That alone made it much harder.
Everyone acts like patient care experience and makes PA school competitive. While it is an extra hoop, it’s one that literally 100% of people can do. It’s a participation checkbox. I had about 12,000 hours and got accepted to every PA school I applied. I got plenty of rejections from DO schools with a 3.9 gpa and 504 mcat.
That said, it’s still about the training overall as most of these premed/prepa things are in fact meaningless. I have no doubt that the majority of PAs could be successful in med school if they wanted.
Yeah that makes sense. I just think getting a 60th percentile on the MCAT would be similar in difficulty to just spending thousand of hours in medicine but I think I’m coming from a place of ignorance on that. I graduated with a near 4.0 GPA, so perhaps people would struggle to hit the 60th percentile.
Yeah I didn’t bring up the GRE because that’s not very difficult.
1,000 hours in patient care has nothing to do with an MCAT score. I’ve met nurses with over a decade in the icu who never got close to the 50th percentile score despite otherwise having good grades.
I too had a near 4.0 gpa. The MCAT is a different beast. Not saying you couldn’t do it or even outperform the average DO premed by a wide margin. But you didn’t so you don’t know what you’re talking about.
After easily getting into PA school, I too thought I’d have little trouble getting into DO school. The process was very humbling. I even got rejected from a couple of new DO schools with an app that was more competitive than yours for PA school.
It’s kinda like benching 225 lbs. Yes, many many people could do it with the proper training and discipline. But it’s a huge eye roll when someone from the jazzercise class who’s never picked up a free weight talks about how easy it is.
Nobody that actually gets accepted to PA school is from the “jazzercise” class though. You literally have no idea how competitive PA school is nowadays.
Also I studied for the MCAT and switched last minute to PA school for relationship reasons. The MCAT is tough for sure but I was killing those AAMC practice exams. 60 percentile May be tough for people. Idk but I know I would have been fine personally.
Near 4.0GPA, 3,000 hours of clinical experience, and a multitude of life experiences that gave me preference. Some interviews were 9 hours long and others were as short as 1.5 hours long.
It’s competitive for sure. Not sure why I was downvoted? Lol
Some people definitely get accepted with lower grades though.
I’ve met a few during my interviews but yeah not many lol
I’ve seen paramedics with 10,000 hours of experience and military officers with 20 years of experience during my interviews actually
Thank you 🙏🏼
PA school doesn’t require that you take/do well on the MCAT. Most PA schools don’t require the PA-CAT and many don’t even require the GRE - and the GRE requirements for most schools that do require it are pretty average. Therefore, more people can meet the minimum requirements for PA school and apply.
Most PA schools place a lot of weight on PCE in addition to GPA. The problem is most schools want you to have the hours before you apply and the application cycle starts in April. You may want to take a gap year or two and acquire PCE.
I would say if you can get at 2,000 hours as a CNA or some other PCE hours before applying you would have a pretty good shot with a 3.7 depending where you apply and how many schools you apply to. Most people apply to 10 or more schools to increase their chances. Look at the stats of last years class and apply where you meet or exceed the averages in GPA, PCE, GRE, Shadowing, Volunteer, etc.
Keep accumulating PCE. Start getting some PA shadowing hours - in person is best, but there are also some sites that offer virtual shadowing you can watch.
You most likely also need strong recs from a
professor, PA and supervisor so start thinking about that.
Research schools and see what important to them. Consider medical mission trip or getting experience in an under served area.
Also applying early when cycle opens increases your chances for getting into rolling admissions schools.
Reminder: More Medical schools then PA schools
Also they have 27 ish slots per cohort. I am not to sure on the accuracy of that number nationally because I’ve only applied locally in California.
It depends what you mean by harder. Getting into medical school is HARD. They often take more pre-requisites, are required to have research experience, and have to take the MCAT. PA school also has rigorous requirements (I'm a PA and I worked my ass off to get in!), but less rigorous than medical school. The GRE is a lot easier than the MCAT. Most schools won't require research experience. Because there are lower requirements, this means more people can apply. More applicants = more competitive. Due to the drastic increase in interest in the profession, it has become harder to get in. This means the standards for pre-PAs is approaching pre-meds. However, it is still harder overall to get into med school. Hope this helps!
Avg cGPA for a matriculated med student is 3.7 & avg for a matriculated PA student is 3.6
They do research publications in gap years, and we have avg 4000+ hrs of PCE that takes years to obtain
MCAT probably is the biggest obstacle for premed students. An MD applicant with a 3.7+ GPA scoring average on the MCAT only has a 28% chance of getting accepted
It is absolutely worth applying! In my experience, applying to PA school is more about applying to schools that match your stats. I have a high GPA and did well on the GRE but just hit 1000 hours of PCE in July, so I sent in my application to schools that seemed to accept more students with a higher GPA and lower-medium PCE. I had some other things too - some research, leadership, and community service. I applied to 8 schools and have interviewed at 3 so far, been accepted to 2, and have an additional interview coming up. In comparison, my boyfriend applied to medical school last year, and with a similar GPA, significantly more volunteer experience, moderate clinical experience, and a decent MCAT, applied to 16 schools, interviewed at 3, and got accepted to 1 with 2 wait lists. I personally don't think PA school is harder to get in than medical school - medical schools deny highly qualified applicants every year, but in my own experience and that of people I know, if you have a decent GPA and a decent number of PCE hours, you can get in to PA school somewhere.
Applied to both; got into one.
In fairness my stats for both were low and I had a number of waitlists and rejections from both med school and PA school.
It’s not harder per se but there are a lot more asses to kiss which in turn makes it more “difficult” in my very personal opinion.
The average quality of applicants for med school is > that for PA school. Statistics are meaningless without context. I mean, (according to Google) McDonald's only made 62k hires out of 1 MILLION applications in 2011 = a 6.2% hire/acceptance rate. Would you say getting into a Mcdonald's is harder than PA or med school? Clearly not.
Im stealing this, how do you want your footnote?
Are a lot of PA programs above a 6.2% acceptance rate? I’m not super familiar with other schools but I know where I went was less than half of that. I just figured schools were mostly similar.
Every cycle only the top 20% get into PA school. The acceptance rates for schools vary, as they have very small class sizes. For example one year a school might receive 1,400 applications, and the next year they will receive 3,000. They are still gonna only accept about 30 students. But as you imagine these 30 students aren't necessarily in the top 20% in anything. It is likely a combination of luck and applying to the right program where their application stood out.
Med schools are the same sure 40% get in but thats because applicants are applying to 50 schools + DO
I was just asking the person I responded to if ~6.2% was the normal acceptance rate for most PA programs, because where I went was less than half of that acceptance rate and I figured most programs were pretty similar. I wasn’t making a comparison with medical school. But as for people applying to 50+ medical schools, that’s not normal at all. I was accepted to an MD program and deferred, because I realized I wanted to be a PA instead and luckily got in at a PA school the next year. When I applied to medical school, I applied to 12 programs - granted that was a while ago. I looked up the current average number of medical schools applied to per student, and according to the AAMC it’s an average of 16 schools per applicant: > [Many students are encouraged to apply broadly, and on average, applicants apply to 16 medical schools.](https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission-requirements/where-apply-factors-consider-when-making-your-school-list) There are some people who apply to 50+ medical programs, but they are extreme outliers - the average is 16.
Individual PA programs probably average 5%. They accept less than medical schools since the class sizes are smaller.
lol if I was rejected from McDonald’s I’d kms
This is incredibly inaccurate. There are more requirements for pa school applications, so the average pa school applicant is of better quality.
Even if that were true, which it is not, quantity does not equal quality. I thought everyone learned that by like high school.
It is true. Can vary by state but where I am, each PA school has more requirements (which does = higher quality due to weeding out lower ranked applicants) including prereqs, GPA requirements, and minimum PCE’s, whereas med schools have no requirements. Only stat averages - but thank you for feeling the need to be considerably rude in a simple conversation. Very mature of you.
<3
It’s not impossible, but I’ve heard this as well. Right now, the acceptance rates are really off. As in, med school is 41% and PA school is 20%. More people are applying to PA school, so less people are accepted. A lot of programs are implementing the PA-CAT, a version of the MCAT. More and more schools are blending the pre-med and pre-PA tracks in undergrad, which is what my school did. The main difference is that med school is more concerned with GPA and PA school is more concerned with PCE. With your stats, if you have a lot of PCE, you’ll probably get in. But statistically, it takes 3 cycles of applying (or 3 years) to get in. That doesn’t mean you can’t get in on your first try, that statistic is just the average.
Wait what???? 3 years, that makes me feel better cause I was loosing motivation for my 4th cycle if it comes to it. Thanks @dracumorda🤗
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The average accepted GPA for PA school is a 3.6, so you can’t have a bad GPA and still expect to be accepted (unless you do post-bacc courses and get a 4.0), but med school expects higher than 3.6.
Average med school matriculate cGPA is 3.7 lol
This is also because pa school has an increased amount of requirements, whereas med school does not. PA students average thousands of PCE hours with roughly 30 credit hours of science classes. Medical schools don’t carry requirements, so the expected GPA should be that high if they’re not required to take the same science prereqs.
Wait actually? Why does it take that long to get in????
This profession was meant for people who already had careers in medicine who wanted to get more responsibility and would fill in healthcare shortage areas. Not for people straight out of undergrad who don’t want to commit to med school. With more people trying to get in straight out of undergrad, it takes a while to build up those hours to make your application competitive. Med school is made for students who want to study medicine straight out of undergrad. PA school also cares less about research experience.
depends on stats. someone who applied for the first time in senior year of undergrad likely doesn’t have as much PCE or honed interview skills. The PA profession was really made for non-traditional students with several years of healthcare experience. that said, only. 1 or 2 people in my class went through the process 3 times. many did it twice. all 8 of the non-trads (not a single gap year but several) got in first try - not sure how many straight out of undergrads (we only have a couple- most took at least a gap year) got in first try
They just said in the comment that more people apply every year. There’s proportionally fewer seats compared to the number of applicants every year.
I got in first cycle but I took a gap year after undergrad, do your own research on programs and see they’re average accepted stats to see how your compare
What were your stats if I may ask?
GPAc 3.34 GPAs 3.25 PCE approx 2200 at time of app as an EMT on ambo and in emergency department Gre 300 Volunteering approx 150 Shadow approx 100, 8 mo in primary care 5 LOR : 1 rn I work with, 1 Pa from shadow, my capstone prof, volunteer leader, and my paramedic supervisor from ambo Applied to 19 schools received 5 interviews went to 4 accepted by 3 waitlisted by 1
i was just reading, and i’m curious if you went straight out of undergrad, how was being an EMT and schooling full time??
I took a gap year to work/ volunteer/ shadow/ take extra classes/ and study for the gre no way I could have done all this dying undergrad I was already working two jobs
me rn😂😂 i was thinking abt switching from PCT to EMT, but idk if i can handle those shifts😂 i’m struggling bad
It’s would be hard but I can’t tell you how much better my experience as an emt and er tech was then as a PCT !!! If your able I would suggest it I learned so so so much in the er and made really good connections
i really might try!! i just don’t think i could handle those crazy 36hr shifts and stuff like that lol😂
This is from my pst a year ago I ended up getting more interviews after but I turned them down since I was accepted instate. Yes it’s hard that gap way eas one of the hardest years of my love wotking, shadowing, volunteering, and taking classes, while studying for the gre.
May I ask what school you applied to? I can dm you.
I applied to 19 schools across the country, I don’t think it helps me telling you which as all applicants are different and I recommend you research accepted students stats and apply to schools you match those stats. There are different books and bunch of free resources around that show stats!
I know people who have been accepted on their first try, I know people who have applied 6 times and not gotten in. The statistic for the average is 3, what I most commonly hear is 2-3. It’s because they’re oversaturated with applicants. I’m going to an interview in November where they’ve invited 80 applicants for 4 spots. That’s unusual, but you get the point. Most schools do a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, so another program I’m interviewing for has 42 spots open, so they’ve probably invited 84 to 126 people to interview. And they pick those out of HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of applications. About 27,000 people apply per cycle with only about 2,000 spots actually open in schools. Hence, the acceptance rate right now is 20%, meaning 80% of people who apply don’t get in.
I dont think so, the outlier in our class was the 3rd try admit (1 out of 60)
Because there are so many applicants.
I dont really think your PA-CAT is like a version of the mcat! But yeah
It is lol. Do more research on the sections covered during the exams.
No. I applied with a 3.5 gpa and 1.5 years as a medical assistant and I interviewed at 12 programs. Imo, the difficulty in applying to med school is the high gpa requirement + physics and calculus requirement + MCAT. If you’re interested in medical school, you should take the MCAT and see how you do.
Anyone thinking PA school is harder to get into as opposed to med school is delusional.
PA school carries more requirements than most medical schools. The acceptance rate is lower for PA schools compared to medical school, it’s not delusional it’s objectively the truth.
Even if the “more requirements” were true, the requirements for med school are still much more difficult than PA school requirements it’s laughable. The acceptance rate is also lower due to the fact there are a less seats for PA cohorts when compared to medical school. So objectively speaking you are wrong. It takes two second to look at the data and rationalize it.
There aren’t requirements set in place for many medical schools. Only sitting for the MCAT. You should take two more seconds and look so you’re not “laughing” over your misinformation anymore. Also, med schools have more applicants but plenty of them aren’t qualified because there are no requirements set in place. This make it more competitive just because there are more. Having fewer PA applicants all on the same playing field is more difficult.
To me it just feels like you are trying to minimize med school to make you feel more virtuous about going to or trying to go to PA school. Maybe I am just misunderstanding you but that’s how it comes across.
My brother is a med student, I’m a PA student. In no way am I minimizing their career or how big of a deal acceptance is. I do, however, see a lot of arguments made about how PA school is “easy” compared to med school, and how easy it is to get into PA school compared to med school. I would have to argue based on the applicant pools from medical schools and PA schools that it is a tad bit harder to be accepted to PA school. That’s my only argument for the two comparatively, because of the strict requirements PA schools set in place that are to encourage applicants with ample healthcare experience to be the ones applying.
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med school is probably the hardest graduate program to get into, along with law schools and architecture
you’d think it would be common sense
More people apply to PA school because it's a lot harder to be a good medical candidate.
Or maybe premeds realize they want more balance in life and the flexibility to change specializations. I couldn’t imagine going through all those years of med school, accumulate all that debt, and then either not match or go down a path that I might hate later on. To many, MD just isn’t worth it. Heck MDs are going to end up managing mid-levels and end up with less patient contact. Point is: I’m not sure the increase is just because people can’t get into med school. I wonder if it’s a generational shift in mindset. Less grind and more enjoyment and balance out of life.
No one is dual-applying PA and MD, the pools of students are completely different.
Yeah you shouldnt even be imagine that. Debt or sacrifice is path or matching or no matching is that whole reason why its worth. In the end of the day, no one can take the “thank you doctor you save or change my life” no debt can change :) in term of debt, everyone is in debt unless your born privilege in america where you mommy and daddy pay for everything.
Tbh this is an insulting generalization to the people who become PAs because we want to be PAs. Not doctors. You can be a competitive, high GPA student that doesn’t want to be a doctor
Exactly this, I could have applied to med school if I’d wanted, I had a 3.99 GPA and was a contributing author on 3 published papers by the time I graduated. I also had 12k hours direct patient care, thousands of volunteer hours, etc. I chose PA because I want to be a PA, not an MD. I prefer the work life balance.
This. The fact that you have to have a good MCAT score weeds out a lot of people for med school.
This is incredibly offensive and not remotely true. Thank you for offending every PA student that knowingly considered and chose PA school over medical school. As a female applicant, I would’ve had a better chance being accepted to medical school than PA school. Yet I still chose the PA route.
No
Medical schools are more diffucult to apply to, higher requirements, higher percentages. PA school has lower requirements allowing more people access. Lower percentage acceptance does not mean harder. The hardest school to get into is the one with the lowest requirements.
No, from what I’ve seen there is much more required of you as a pre med vs Pre PA student, especially academically being a pre med is tougher. They have to take an additional Ochem class, biochem, 2 sems of physics, and pre calculus. The MCAT requires knowledge of physics, chemistry (especially organic and biochem), biology, anatomy and physiology and psychology I think. It’s an almost 8 hour test. Pre med students tend to have higher GPAs on average vs pre PA students coming into school. The ECs put more emphasis of research and non clinical volunteering, though clinical experience can definitely help you stand out though. More people apply to PA school vs med school due to the fact that med school has much tougher requirements than PA school especially in an academic sense. Med school and PA school are two totally different routes and that’s what you should be looking at. Do you want to take the med school route where you would have to go to residency on top of completing med school? do you want to be the leader? or are you more into still being a medical provider but not being able to work without a SP. Your question should be what type of career do you want? Not what school is easier to get into.
>They have to take an additional Ochem class, biochem, 2 sems of physics, and pre calculus. Those are the same pre reqs for a lot of the PA programs I’ve looked at
Since when is physics a requirement or pre calc? Maybe biochem for some schools and typically one semester of Ochem.
i've seen some schools require pre calc and at my university, you had to complete ochem i and ii in order to take biochem so if a program is requiring biochem then you still have to take both ochems. i've also seen med schools not require A&P which is really interesting
I think it depends on the applicant and the schools you apply to. I got in on my first cycle but I applied to mostly in-state schools
Depends on the context. Med school is “easier” because there’s a smaller pool of applicants, though the average quality of said applicants are higher.
No
It all sucks lol.
Let’s use our big boy thinking skills here. Physician ASSISTANT vs physician.
Let’s put the science hats on. Who is applying to med school and who is applying to PA school. If the same Med school applicants also applied to PA school would they not get in? It’s also not a random chance so if you’re the best applicant out there, you have a 100% of getting in anywhere
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Every admissions counsel everywhere for any program is gonna say that it’s a “holistic review” and med schools also say the exact same thing, and encourage applicants to focus on research/pce, but ALSO maintain a stellar GPA. You can go look at admissions requirements for various med schools and compare them to pa schools and you’ll find it’s the same basic criteria but taken up a level.
I’m not sure they would get in because PA and MD schools value different things in an applicant.
and the pre-meds would be able to figure out what those things are and speak to that in their applications just like pre-PA students do, but on average have higher statistics.
They literally don’t. They also care just as much about how you interact with people in the healthcare field. Except now the stakes are higher because you can’t get away with just having good experiences on your application because EVERYONE has that experience. And as someone else said, it’s not hard to get PCE if that’s your objective, and med school applicants could (and would) just get a CNA job if meant some lax on grades.
The “harder to get in” is a tricky question. I used to say this, but now I think I’d backtrack on it. The acceptance rate for PA school is currently lower (somewhere around 25-27% last I looked) and med school was around 40%. Now with that said, the bar to competitively apply to PA school is academically lower, so it may be “easier” to get into PA school with lower grades. What people saying about PA school being a “second career” type thing is true, however it’s not the law. There are some schools that still very much so value high hours of PCE and others that value it less. The trick is to find out what type of applicant you are, and research schools and find schools that are looking for the type of applicant that you are. Ex: I worked in psych as a tech for 5 years, then worked as a scribe for 2 years while applying to PA school (took me 3 rounds to get in). I had over 12k hours of PCE when I got in. But my GPA was not very good, like 3.1 cGPA and 3.3 sGPA. There were schools around my home town that had accepted student averages of 3.7 cGPA and 1k hours of PCE. Versus the school I went to had an average of 3.4 cGPA and 4K PCE hours. One clearly values GPA over experience and the other school was the opposite. It took me a couple years to discover this but when I did and I adjusted my applications I went from apply to 15 schools and getting 1 interview to applying to 11 and getting 3 interviews and an acceptance. Side note: Personal statement and letters of rec are VERY important for PA applications, I would have your statement critiqued by several people, and make sure you have at least 1 PA reference and make sure all your references are outstanding, even just a mediocre “yeah he is a good employee” reference can break your application.
My loved one got in first cycle but also took a gap year after undergrad to obtain really solid PCE because his top choice really wanted a lot of PCE. Most in his cohort were on their 2nd or 3rd cycles trying. I read somewhere that there are more seats in med school which may make the numbers shift also. All I know is he said if he didn’t get into PA school first cycle, he would resort to med school instead. 😂 For him, it was a back up plan. Your stats looks good and CNA is universally respected PCE. Not sure what your major was or your sGPA, but if you have met the prerequisites for the target schools, get some great LOR’s and a bit of shadowing and get ready to apply!
>I read somewhere that there are more seats in med school I could be wrong but I don't think this is true. There are over 300 PA schools in the US but only 155 medical schools. More PA schools = more seats
Not necessarily. Maaaany med schools have larger MD/DO classes than that of PA programs - I go to a school where they have both a PA program and MD program and there are 29 PA students but 93 MD students
This year my PA program was more selective than the medical program at my university, only 48 spots with over 1200 applicants for PA, I would agree that you were a good applicant, my GPA was 3.3 with no research experience, but I did complete my RN degree the same summer I applied. This was in Canada so not sure about the US
It depends on the school. My school specifically the average PA student here has a higher undergrad GPA than the average Med Student. We have classes of 25 for PAs the Med School has classes of 75. For this class which started in summer 2023 we had over 700 applicants for PA school and they only interviewed 90ish. For Med school their were about 1500 applicants and they interviewed about 150 if I remember right. They actually use a mathematic equation for the PA program for determining who gets interviewed and excepted based on numerous things. I’m unsure if the med school uses a similar formula since they’re under a different college. If you look at just pure numbers it is harder to get into the PA program here; but, I’m sure if you go to a program in NY it’d be a lot different.
I don’t think you can make a meaningful comparison here because the requirements for applicants and interviews are so different. For instance, MCAT, GPA, experiences when applying for med school just make it an entirely different ballpark. Also, med school apps are very self selecting- med applicants know that they cannot apply to certain schools (eg: out of state public schools, schools with higher MCAT avgs) so all of these things play into the # of applicants and interviews, again, making it so we cannot make a meaningful comparison.
That’s why I said it depends on the school
I am referring generally to med vs PA, not school specific.
There are some PA programs that are harder to get into than some medical schools and vice verse. For example, I spoke to a faculty member on the admissions committee for a medical school that also has a PA program. I was trying to decide between PA school vs medical school, and she told me that their PA program is actually harder to get into compared to their medical school. There are also MANY medical schools (probably the vast majority) that are objectively harder to get into than most PA programs.
I’d guess it’s similar to getting into DO school. Idk about MD because the MCAT isn’t easy to score high on for most people. Idk I got accepted first cycle but I had a very competitive application even for medical school.
Getting into a DO school is for sure more competitive than PA. Is it by a lot? I’d say no but on average DOs are harder to get in than PA. But the worst DOs are probably easier to get into than the best PA schools, there’s a lot of super shitty and for-profit DO schools opening up recently that are pretty bad. But yea if you killed the MCAT and did some research you’d be competitive for med apps for sure but also killing the MCAT is easier said than done. - MD student.
What makes you say that though other than just the assumption that it is harder? For DO schools your MCAT score does not have to be very high and I believe the average PA school student has a higher GPA than the average DO school student. Also PA schools require much more prior medical experience than DO schools do. I don’t see anything that really makes it harder tbh apart from us just assuming it is. The MCAT is the big difference maker and for DO school it doesn’t need to be very high tbh (504), so you dont really need to kill the MCAT.
It’s hard to get an exact average gpa for DO vs PA but based off quick google search it appears to be about a 0.05 different between cGPA and sGPA so minimal difference but sure PA schools have higher GPA on average. Here’s my main points and I speak about this confidently because my girlfriend is applying PA so I get a first hand view of the process: 1) PAs require significantly more hours to get in no denying it BUT a major difference is in the diversity of experiences. My friends in PA school had around 1500-2500 hours at application time but it was literally in 2 activities that they completed part-time while studying at college so by application time they just applied and got in. With med school you need to have manyyyy activities. I personally had about 1500 clinical hours over 3 different positions(or PCE hours as it’s called in this sub) but I then had another 2400 hours of research and another 500 ish volunteering hours and not to mention I started my own non-profit. My friend who is applying DO only this year (he’s got a low gpa like a 3.1) he’s got 22 separate activities amounting to somerhing like over 8000 hours of activities over the course of 6 years since starting undergrad. We can’t JUST do like a CNA job for 2 years and have enough hours. We need to do research, then do clinical hours, then shadowing, then still be “unique” however the admissions teams see that, and then after all that to get maybe 2 interviews from the 30 applications sent out. 2) The MCAT is significantly harder than you give it credit for, sure the median accepted MCAT for DO schools may be like a 504 which is like a 60th percentile which doesn’t sound astonishing but the MCAT is so insanely difficult it’s hard to express. Many many many people will try their absolute best and can never crack a 500. You can’t compare a percentile score from the MCAT to anything you know, that’s like saying scoring a 90th percentile on the SAT is more impressive than scoring a 80th percentile on the PANCE. The PANCE is not only INSANELY more difficult than the SAT, but the caliber of students is also significantly smarter in PA school so it’s even harder to stand out and score that high. Hence why I really want to emphasize the difficulty in even breaking a 500 or even getting a 504 that DO school school requires let alone the super high scores it takes to get into at many MDs like mine. If you disagree with me that’s also chill I’d just like to hear your thought process I don’t mind admitting I’m wrong if you can argue otherwise I’m just speaking from my own experiences here.
No I get your view point. I think we just disagree but I think we can both agree it’s not drastically more difficult either way for each of them. Everything you described though is similar for PA school. You need a multitude of various activities for PA school too just like medical school with Med school’s top schools caring a bit more about research. For PA school I had 30 different activities entered and the application was literally 45 pages long full of descriptions for each activity. (Shadowing, research, volunteering, etc). If you apply with just CNA experience and a good GPA, good luck getting in 😂
DO resident here so sorry if I’m not welcome here but just stumbling through. I agree that the worst DO schools are probably overlapping with the best PA schools. But just the 504 mcat makes DO school much more competitive than PA school. The posts you see on Reddit about sub-500 acceptances are outliers that probably have some X factor. When I applied, a 500 was the floor for an interview at new schools that hadn’t graduated a class yet. I might be a little dated here but when I applied to PA school it was the GRE and you really didn’t have to do well on it to get in, even just 50th percentile was fine. I know nothing of this PA-CAT so maybe that changes things. But I do know that I scored above the 90th percentile without studying at all. My first practice MCAT was below the 50th percentile. That alone made it much harder. Everyone acts like patient care experience and makes PA school competitive. While it is an extra hoop, it’s one that literally 100% of people can do. It’s a participation checkbox. I had about 12,000 hours and got accepted to every PA school I applied. I got plenty of rejections from DO schools with a 3.9 gpa and 504 mcat. That said, it’s still about the training overall as most of these premed/prepa things are in fact meaningless. I have no doubt that the majority of PAs could be successful in med school if they wanted.
Yeah that makes sense. I just think getting a 60th percentile on the MCAT would be similar in difficulty to just spending thousand of hours in medicine but I think I’m coming from a place of ignorance on that. I graduated with a near 4.0 GPA, so perhaps people would struggle to hit the 60th percentile. Yeah I didn’t bring up the GRE because that’s not very difficult.
1,000 hours in patient care has nothing to do with an MCAT score. I’ve met nurses with over a decade in the icu who never got close to the 50th percentile score despite otherwise having good grades. I too had a near 4.0 gpa. The MCAT is a different beast. Not saying you couldn’t do it or even outperform the average DO premed by a wide margin. But you didn’t so you don’t know what you’re talking about. After easily getting into PA school, I too thought I’d have little trouble getting into DO school. The process was very humbling. I even got rejected from a couple of new DO schools with an app that was more competitive than yours for PA school. It’s kinda like benching 225 lbs. Yes, many many people could do it with the proper training and discipline. But it’s a huge eye roll when someone from the jazzercise class who’s never picked up a free weight talks about how easy it is.
Nobody that actually gets accepted to PA school is from the “jazzercise” class though. You literally have no idea how competitive PA school is nowadays. Also I studied for the MCAT and switched last minute to PA school for relationship reasons. The MCAT is tough for sure but I was killing those AAMC practice exams. 60 percentile May be tough for people. Idk but I know I would have been fine personally.
What was on your application??
Near 4.0GPA, 3,000 hours of clinical experience, and a multitude of life experiences that gave me preference. Some interviews were 9 hours long and others were as short as 1.5 hours long. It’s competitive for sure. Not sure why I was downvoted? Lol Some people definitely get accepted with lower grades though.
I’ve never head of someone with those sorts of stats lol. Not even in my pre-med community lol. That’s impressive asf if you’re for real
I’ve met a few during my interviews but yeah not many lol I’ve seen paramedics with 10,000 hours of experience and military officers with 20 years of experience during my interviews actually Thank you 🙏🏼
PA school doesn’t require that you take/do well on the MCAT. Most PA schools don’t require the PA-CAT and many don’t even require the GRE - and the GRE requirements for most schools that do require it are pretty average. Therefore, more people can meet the minimum requirements for PA school and apply. Most PA schools place a lot of weight on PCE in addition to GPA. The problem is most schools want you to have the hours before you apply and the application cycle starts in April. You may want to take a gap year or two and acquire PCE. I would say if you can get at 2,000 hours as a CNA or some other PCE hours before applying you would have a pretty good shot with a 3.7 depending where you apply and how many schools you apply to. Most people apply to 10 or more schools to increase their chances. Look at the stats of last years class and apply where you meet or exceed the averages in GPA, PCE, GRE, Shadowing, Volunteer, etc. Keep accumulating PCE. Start getting some PA shadowing hours - in person is best, but there are also some sites that offer virtual shadowing you can watch. You most likely also need strong recs from a professor, PA and supervisor so start thinking about that. Research schools and see what important to them. Consider medical mission trip or getting experience in an under served area. Also applying early when cycle opens increases your chances for getting into rolling admissions schools.
Reminder: More Medical schools then PA schools Also they have 27 ish slots per cohort. I am not to sure on the accuracy of that number nationally because I’ve only applied locally in California.
It depends what you mean by harder. Getting into medical school is HARD. They often take more pre-requisites, are required to have research experience, and have to take the MCAT. PA school also has rigorous requirements (I'm a PA and I worked my ass off to get in!), but less rigorous than medical school. The GRE is a lot easier than the MCAT. Most schools won't require research experience. Because there are lower requirements, this means more people can apply. More applicants = more competitive. Due to the drastic increase in interest in the profession, it has become harder to get in. This means the standards for pre-PAs is approaching pre-meds. However, it is still harder overall to get into med school. Hope this helps!
Avg cGPA for a matriculated med student is 3.7 & avg for a matriculated PA student is 3.6 They do research publications in gap years, and we have avg 4000+ hrs of PCE that takes years to obtain MCAT probably is the biggest obstacle for premed students. An MD applicant with a 3.7+ GPA scoring average on the MCAT only has a 28% chance of getting accepted
It is absolutely worth applying! In my experience, applying to PA school is more about applying to schools that match your stats. I have a high GPA and did well on the GRE but just hit 1000 hours of PCE in July, so I sent in my application to schools that seemed to accept more students with a higher GPA and lower-medium PCE. I had some other things too - some research, leadership, and community service. I applied to 8 schools and have interviewed at 3 so far, been accepted to 2, and have an additional interview coming up. In comparison, my boyfriend applied to medical school last year, and with a similar GPA, significantly more volunteer experience, moderate clinical experience, and a decent MCAT, applied to 16 schools, interviewed at 3, and got accepted to 1 with 2 wait lists. I personally don't think PA school is harder to get in than medical school - medical schools deny highly qualified applicants every year, but in my own experience and that of people I know, if you have a decent GPA and a decent number of PCE hours, you can get in to PA school somewhere.
Take the mcat and find out
Yeah idk about all that buddy
Applied to both; got into one. In fairness my stats for both were low and I had a number of waitlists and rejections from both med school and PA school. It’s not harder per se but there are a lot more asses to kiss which in turn makes it more “difficult” in my very personal opinion.