Undergraduate education:

BSc. Honours Specialization in Kinesiology & Minor in Medical Sciences

Overall GPA: cGPA 3.61

Total HCE hours: ~1500 hours

Total PCE hours: ~1200 hours

Shadowing hours: 40 hours (Shadowing PA)

Other volunteer hours: 1500 hours (Habitat for Humanity Mission Trips, USC – Ethnocultural Support Services, Air Cadets, Burlington Green, etc.)

LORs: 3 (Professor, Varsity Tennis Coach, Physiotherapist I worked with as a Kinesiologist)

How many times did you apply?: 1

Age: 23

Gender: Female

How many programs did you apply to?

2 in Ontario: University of Toronto and McMaster University

1 in Manitoba: University of Manitoba (Total 3 in Canada)

7 in USA: Augsburg College, Hofstra University, Rutgers University, Northeastern University, Pace University, Le Moyne College, Pacific University of Oregon

How many programs did you interview with and what were the outcomes?

3 interviews and 3 offers

Where will you be attending?

Currently a first year PA Student at the University of Toronto (Canada)

Any red flags on your application?

My biochemistry mark was below what is considered “competitive” for prerequisites to apply to University of Manitoba

Did not have a competitive number of healthcare hours to apply to the States (some universities required at least 2000 hours to be considered “competitive”)

Anything you found surprising about interviews?

It is possible to over-prepare for interviews and come across “scripted”—after my first interview, I had to step back a bit to find the perfect balance between preparing adequately but also going with the flow during the interview, so it’s more natural.

Were there any helpful resources (books, websites, apps) you used to get through prerequisite courses, the application or interview process?

Doing Right

MMI for the Mind

Kira Talent (for McMaster Supplemental App)

Practicing interview questions with friends/family (over skype/in-person) and asking for feedback.

Any other advice for other pre-PA students?

Make sure you do your research thoroughly for any school you want to apply to and for the PA profession (especially considering it’s a growing profession in Canada)

Take time to reflect on your healthcare experiences and try to come up with the skills/lessons you learned from each experience so that you can utilize them to write your personal statement, answer essay questions or apply it to a scenario during interviews. To do this, I used an excel spreadsheet with the following columns: experience, hours, reference, skills learning, examples.

If you can, try to shadow a PA in order to observe what they do in a clinical setting (and in different specialties if possible), to confirm it is the right career for you

Where can we find you? (website, instagram, etc)