How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement: Admissions directors and faculty share their expectations for your PA school essay and we teach you how to write it
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You’ve finally finished your personal statement and it’s perfect! There’s just one thing to consider before hitting the “send” button — will it meet the admission team’s expectations?
How will you know? CASPA guidelines are vague — “Write a brief statement expressing your motivation or desire to become a physician assistant.” School websites aren’t generally more helpful.
Do they want to hear that you’ve dreamed of becoming a PA since you were five and loved your toy stethoscope? Are they interested in your volunteer work at a homeless shelter? Will it help that you’ve been a science nerd since 9th grade Biology? How should you tell your story? Should it read like a textbook, a novel or something in between?
The fact is there hasn’t been much guidance. Until now.
Admissions directors and faculty from PA programs across the country have shared their thoughts on personal statements — what they hope to see, what they wish they’d never see, and tips to make an essay shine.
When compiling this book, we realized that access to insider information is just the first step to writing a winning personal statement. That’s why we teach you everything you need to know about essay writing, from form to finesse, with step-by-step tips and examples.
This is your all-in-one guide to writing the ideal personal statement for Physician Assistant programs anywhere in the country.
Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication date : September 10, 2015
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 90 pages
ISBN-10 : 1517303753
ISBN-13 : 978-1517303754
Item Weight : 4.7 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.21 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #1,273,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #194 in Physician Assistants #1,949 in Medical Reference (Books) #12,035 in Education Theory (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 125 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers say
Customers find the book provides excellent tips for writing personal statements, with one mentioning how it helped with essay structure. They appreciate the book’s tone, with one customer noting it gets straight to the point. The readability receives positive feedback, with one customer describing it as a fantastic read.
9 reviews for How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement: Admissions directors and faculty share their expectations for your PA school essay and we teach you how to write it
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Original price was: €20.€17Current price is: €17.
HerroGoodbye –
Four chapters and 90 pages. This book gets straight to the point.
Fantastic read. If you’re applying to PA school, you’ve most likely taken a writing course or two as an undergrad, written countless papers for other classes, and faced the dreaded GRE’s writing portion. You know how to write.But when faced with the personal narrative prompt “write a brief statement expressing your motivation or desire to become a physician assistant.”, where do you even begin? And how do you carry that momentum forward into a compelling story that will grant you the invitation for an interview?This book helped me drastically in what was expected in a PA narrative. It covers the things you should do and the mistakes you should avoid. Before reading this book, I felt quite confident in my personal statement. Upon finishing the 90 pages, I realized my essay was great, but not for PA school. I had made several mistakes mentioned in this book, such as focusing too much on certain experiences, and writing excessively about them, instead of focusing on what I have to offer schools.Although this is the only book that I have purchased on writing a personal statement, I would not hesitate to recommend this for others to read.
Evie M. –
Excellent
Great book, very concise and to the point. This book gives you pointers in what cliches to avoid in your essay from several different admissions committee members. It tells you exactly how you should format and write your essay. It helped jog my memory on what to include and what to exclude. It even provides original essays and what it took to get to their final form (after revising).This book, along with their paid essay review service (from thepalife.com), gave me an excellent opportunity to greatly improve my essay from what it originally had been. This book is definitely recommended to those who are needing to write a PA personal statement (for returning or new applicants).
S –
Informative and to the point
Great book to for getting started. Helped with essay structure and good overarching themes. Wish it had a few more PA essay examples. Good overall!
Mackenzie –
information from PAs and schools on what they want
The first time I applied I did not get any responses. The second time I applied I used this book to format my personal statement (and chose to take the GRE even though it wasn’t required. Highly recomend.. or the PACAT) and nothing else changed on my application. I was accepted into multiple schools and am now attending my top choice. My GRE was good, but not even required for the school I am attending. I genuinly believe this book made that big of a difference in giving me more impact on my application.
June Thai –
Informative
This book really pinpoints what PA programs are looking for. It highlights the do’s and don’t’s of what to write and puts you in the right direction. They also take the time to acknowledge your greatest fear which is fear itself. I have been following Stephen Pasquini since I became interested in a PA profession. So it is no surprise to me that this book is gold.
Bridget Elizabeth Stauffer –
This book had excellent tips for writing your personal statement
This book had excellent tips for writing your personal statement, as well as examples of personal statements before and after revision. I have had two interviews and two acceptances so far!
Lina –
It mostly just has random quotes of things so-and-so admissions member liked or didn’t like in an essay
It’s okay. It’s not exactly what I was hoping for as a personal statement essay guides. It mostly just has random quotes of things so-and-so admissions member liked or didn’t like in an essay. It’s not that this information isn’t helpful, but most of it was intuitive. The stuff that wasn’t drawing upon my own common sense was somewhat biased; just because the admissions member x from y school liked this thing in an essay, doesn’t mean all the others will too. The information is helpful, but I wouldn’t buy it again. If you’re really looking for help with essays I’d look into some of Andrew J. Rodican’s work.
Gramma D –
very helpful
very helpful! Gave the viewpoint needed to organize and finish the personal statement
Lori Sara Gauthier –
Haven’t heard back from any schools yet but was v helpful in guiding me how to write my statement! I don’t regret buying it — application resources are sometimes … I waste or hardly necessary but I would recommend this book for anyone applying especially if you are the only one doing it in your immediate community!