One of the hardest parts of applying to PA school is after you press submit on CASPA. Yes, getting all your PA school pre-requisites is tough, putting together your CASPA application is time consuming, and making sure you are a strong candidate takes so much work! All of these are hurdles to jump, but one of the hardest parts of the whole PA application process is waiting to hear back from the PA schools you applied to! 

You never know when they are going to review your application…it could be the week after you submit, or months after you submit. All this to say, you need a massive amount of patience and perseverance to get through the waiting game.

However, we have some tips for you to help you get through this time warp! We get emails and DMs all the time about this topic and if you applied this cycle or plan to apply in the future, this applies to you and these tips will help you, because at some point, you will be waiting to hear back from the PA schools you applied to! 

Here are a few tips for surviving the torture of what sometimes seems like endless waiting to hear back from PA schools after you have submitted your CASPA application: 

1) Stay off the 🤬 PA forums! Nothing will drag you down or make you doubt yourself more than reading the PA forums. Don’t do it to yourself… everyone’s stats, experiences, life, journey…literally everything is different! In the whole scheme of the PA school application process, you can’t compare yourself to others because apples don’t equal apples. You have completely different experiences and a completely different path than all the other pre-PA applicants around you! Going onto the PA forums to see what’s happening for everyone else is a total rabbit hole, and you aren’t going to feel better about yourself afterwards. This will actually make the waiting a thousand times worse because you will start second guessing yourself as an applicant. So just don’t do it! 

 2) Keep making yourself a stronger applicant! Don’t just press submit, say I’ve checked the boxes, then move on…. No, you want to keep taking steps to be a more competitive candidate.  This is so important as a pre-PA because when you get your interview invites, PA schools will want to know what you’ve done since you pressed submit, especially if you submitted your application more than a few weeks ago. Spend your time shoring up any weaknesses in your application. Want a better GRE score? Awesome – study for it with your extra time! Need some more PA shadowing or PCE hours -great, get them! Did you make a C in an important pre-req? Okay, retake it and rock it out!! Take an honest look at where you may not be as strong and aim to improve these areas! Then, when you are at your PA school interview, you will be able to demonstrate just how dedicated you are, because when other applicants checked the boxes and moved on, YOU were putting in the work to be a better, stronger candidate! PA schools LOVE to see this! And if worse comes to worse and you don’t get PA school interview invites, then you will still be significantly stronger next cycle when you apply because you continued clearing the obstacles that stood in your way.

3) Lastly, spend time doing the things you love and with the people you love! Once you get accepted, it’s going to be a whirlwind, so take advantage of this time to breathe and show yourself some love for how far you’ve come! Pre-PAs are some of the most motivated and resilient people we have ever met, and we know how hard you work. So after you submit, take a deep breath and a pause. Go do the hobbies or activities that light you up, sleep in, spend extra time at lunch with your friends, go visit family you haven’t seen in forever… basically, take some time to rest your brain and recharge, so when you get accepted to PA school you have a full battery!! 

We know the waiting is so, so hard and we totally get it!! You have worked so hard to get to the point to apply to PA school, and you want to see the fruits of your labor!! You want to start your dream career, and you totally will! But while you waiting, use this advice, keep it in your back pocket, so you can lean into these things when you feel like the wait is dragging on.